Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 237

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452

USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations > Part 237

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Particularly unfortunate has it been for Schenec- tady that the flames of 1690 spared almost nothing of her early records ; with the exception of a few leaves of the deacons' account book, all is a blank.

In 1790, and for some years later, there was great scarcity of small change. To meet this in- convenience, many individuals, corporations and churches issued "shin-plasters " for one penny and upward.

On the 6th of September, 1790, the deacons an- nounced to the consistory that in consequence of the scarcity of copper money the weekly collections in the church had fallen off nearly one-half, and therefore inquired whether there was no way of remedying the loss. The Reverend Consistory, having considered the matter, came to the unani- mous conclusion to issue "shin-plasters."

The consistory immediately had printed £100 in one, two, three and six penny notes. They were issued by the deacons, and the money re- ceived for them was held for their redemption.

PASTORS FROM 1740 TO 1885.

During the four years succeeding Dominie Erichzon the church was without a settled pastor, but was occasionally visited by the ministers of Albany, although they made efforts to secure a pastor from Holland. They finally succeeded in securing Dominie Cornelis Van Santvoord, of Staten Island, who was born in Leyden, and began his ministry in Schenectady, August, 1740.

Dominie Van Santvoord was a man of good natural parts and fine culture. He preached not only in his native tongue, but also in French and English. Under his ministry the church enjoyed a good degree of prosperity. His sudden demise at the early age of 55 years was a sad loss to the town.

HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF SCHENECTADY.

For nearly three years after the church was again destitute of a pastor.

The sixth minister of the church was Dominie Barent Vrooman, the first native of the Province ever called to this sacred office. His great-grand- father was one of the pioneer settlers, and, together with his son, was killed in 1690, in the sacking of the village by the French.

He was born in 1725, and began his studies for the ministry under Do. Van Santvoord and fin- ished them under Do. Frelinghuysen, of Albany. In 1751 he went to Holland and studied at the University of Utrecht and obtained ordination. He was inducted into the sacred office as pastor of the congregations of New Paltz, Shawangunk and Wall- kil, his parish embracing more than two hundred square miles. Although called to Schenectady September 18, 1753, he did not arrive there until November 1, 1754.

The expense and trouble of calling a minister one hundred years ago is very imperfectly understood by those of the present day. All candidates in theology were obliged to spend more or less time at a university in the Fatherland, and after ordina- tion they returned at the expense of the church calling them. In case of a subsequent removal, it was customary for the church making the call to pay a portion of this expense. The call of Do. Vrooman cost the church in Schenectady $563. For thirty years he remained pastor of the church, though for four years preceding his death he was unable to preach but occasionally, and married 386 couples, baptized 3, 521 children, and received 453 into church membership. He is said to have been a man of much heart, familiar and social, and popular with his people.

Dominie Romeyn was the seventh minister, and the last of that long line of ministers who had, from the days of Thesschenmaecker, conducted the entire service of the church in the Dutch lan- guage. His active spirit infused new influence into the church and community ; an influence that is felt to this time in the educational institutions of the city. He was born in Hackensack, N. J. ; graduated from Princeton College, 1765 ; ordained May 14, 1766; and on the first Sabbath of November, 1784, was installed pastor of this church.

Among his first labors in Schenectady was an attempt to improve the schools and establish an academy and seminary. The result was a charter for Union College, which institution he lived to see commence its prosperous career under the manage- ment of Doctors John Blair Smith, Jonathan Ed- wards and Jonathan Maxey.

His health began failing in 1801, and about the middle of 1802 he became permanently incapaci- tated for the full performance of his ministerial duties and relinquished all claims upon the church, accepting instead a salary of $520, and was to preach one sermon on the Sabbath in Dutch.

In 1797 the General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church elected him one of its Professors of Theology, the duties of which he discharged with honor to himself and benefit to others till the close of his life. He was twice honored with the offer

of President of Queen's (now Rutgers) College, and received from her the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

During his ministry the church was seriously disturbed on the subject of English preaching, as there was preaching in English in the Episcopal and Presbyterian churches, and fears were enter- tained that members of the Dutch congregation would be enticed away from their own church. Various compromises were made by which there was preaching in both English and Dutch at differ- ent stated times. The agitation began in 1794, and was carried on with more or less intensity for some years. Dominie Romeyn died on the 16th of April, 1804, and with his death ended stated Dutch preaching in the church of Schenectady.

The Rev. Jacob Sickles was the eighth minister. He was born in Tappan in 1772; graduated at Columbia College in 1792; and was licensed by the Classis of New York in 1794. He was called as assistant minister of this church in October, 1795, being then a divinity student, at a salary of $500.

The Rev. John Hardenberg Meier was the ninth minister. He graduated at Columbia College in 1795, studied theology under Dr. Livingston, and was licensed by the Classis of New York in 1798, at the age of twenty-four years. He accepted a call as assistant minister to Dr. Romeyn, in 1802, at a salary of $662.50, with a house and grounds. The following May he was installed. In less than a year his venerable colleague was removed by death, and within two years thereafter the church was called to mourn his death also.

For two years after the death of Do. Meier, the pulpit was supplied temporarily by ministers from the neighboring churches. The church called Rev. John Brodhead Romeyn, son of the late pastor, at a salary of $1,000, withi house and fire- wood. For some reason the call was not accepted, and a call was made to Mr. Cornelius Borgardus, and he became the tenth minister of the church. He was licensed by the Classis of New York in 1808, and was ordained and installed pastor of this church the 27th of November the same year, being in the twenty-ninth year of his age. He remained with the church four years, and died December 15, 1812, aged thirty-two years.

The first application made for the use of the church for a Fourth of July celebration was June 24, 1811, when the consistory granted the request, "provided no instrumental music shall be used and nothing be said in the oration to wound the feelings of any political party."

The Rev. Jacob Van Vechten became the eleventh minister, and remained the longest of any of its pastors. He graduated from Union College in 1809, and was licensed by the Classis of New Brunswick in 1814, at the age of 28 years. He was inducted into the pastoral office in this church June 8, 1815. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Williams College, and at the time of his death was senior trustee of Union College, to which office he was elected in 1837. He resigned his pastorate here on the 6th of Marclı, 1849, after a service of more than 34

CITY OF SCHENECTADY .- ECCLESIASTICAL SOCIETIES.

years. He died in 1868 at the residence of his son-in-law, Prof. Huntington, in Auburn, N. Y.

The twelfth minister was Rev. Wm. J. R. Tay- lor, D. D. He was born in Schodac, Rennselaer County, N. Y., July 31, 1823; graduated at Rutgers College, 1841, and from the Theological Seminary at New Brunswick, N. J., in 1844, and was ordained the same year. His pastorate in Schenectady began in 1849 and terminated in

1852. During the last year of his ministry here the church "enjoyed a gracious revival of relig- ion." It was chiefly through his exertions that the Second Reformed Church of Schenectady was formed.

In 1853 the Rev. Julius H. Seelye, now Presi- dent of Amherst College, was settled over the church, it being his first charge. He was born in Bethel, Conn., September 14, 1824. He graduated

PDAY

PRESENT DUTCH CHURCH.

from Amherst College in 1849, and from Auburn Theological Seminary in 1852.

After a year of study at Halle he returned from Europe, and preached his first sermon at Schenec- tady May 22, 1853, and received a unanimous call as pastor of the church and was installed August 10, Dr. Hickok, Vice-President of Union College, preaching the sermon. He severed his connection with this church to accept the professor- ship of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Amherst College, having been its pastor for a little more than

five years. No communion service passed during his ministry here without the reception of some members to the church on a profession of faith, and the annual contributions for benevolent purposes more than doubled during his pastorate.

The Rev. Edward E. Seelye, D. D., was the fourteenth minister. He was born in Lansing- burgh, September 24, 1819; graduated from Union College in 1839, and from Princeton Seminary in 1843. He was installed over the church in Schenectady November 1, 1858. During his pas-

HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF SCHENECTADY.

torate here the church was destroyed by fire, and the present beautiful and costly edifice erected, the dedication sermon being preached by himself, August 6, 1863. He died while on his summer vacation, August 10, 1864, at Sandy Hill, the place of his former charge.

The Rev. Dennis Wortman, D. D., became the successor of Dr. Seelye. He graduated from Amherst in 1857, and from New Brunswick Theological Seminary in 1860. Because of ill- health he resigned his charge here in 1870, greatly to the regret of a loving people. During his stay $11,000 of indebtedness on the church was paid, and the iron fence put around the church.

The Rev. Ashbel G. Vermilye, the sixteenth pastor of the church, was born in Princeton, N. J., in 1822; graduated from New York Univer- sity in 1840. He preached his first sermon in the church here August 6, 1871, the anniversary of the burning of the old and the dedication of the new edifice. His labors ceased by resignation, December, 1876.

The Rev. Wm. E. Griffis, the present pastor, was born in Philadelphia in 1843; entered Rutgers College in 1865. After graduation, in 1869, he traveled in Europe for a few months, entered the New Brunswick Theological Seminary for a year, and in December, 1870, went to Japan to engage in government educational service. Returning to this country in 1874, he spent two years in the Union Theological Seminary of New York. He received a unanimous call to the pastorate of this church, May 1, 1877, while yet a member of the senior class, and was ordained May 31, 1877. The degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by Union College in 1884.

He is the author of " The Tokio Guide," "The Yokohama Guide," " Map of Tokio, with Histori- cal Notes," "The Mikado's Empire," " Japanese Fairy World," "Corea, the Hermit Nation," " Corea, Without and Within," "Schenectady First Church Memorial " (with Prof. Pearson), and is now preparing a life of Arendt Van Curler, the founder of Schenectady.

CONCLUSION .- This church, with its vast estates and civil interests, must have had many valuable papers pertaining to the ancestry of the people and defining many historical facts which are now but conjectures. A committee "to examine the papers in the old box belonging to the Board, and to de- stroy all such papers as they may deem useless," was appointed in 1813, and they probably de- stroyed much history. It is said that the old rec- ords of Virginia were destroyed to cover up the sins of the destroyers' ancestors, and tradition has it that the consistory of this church in its business aspect was a close corporation for the benefit of its friends.

However this may be, this committee swept out of existence the original titles to much of the land, and, doubtless, obliterated the ancestral trace of many worthy as well as unworthy Dutch settlers whose descendants are numerous throughout the country.

ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH (EPISCOPAL).

This church was the natural outgrowth of the English occupation from 1664 to the Revolution. After the peace in 1754, at the close of the old French war, few troops were stationed here, and those of the inhabitants who desired to hear preach- ing in the English language, such as the English, Scotch and New Englanders, were forced to build a church for themselves. Paucity of numbers and of means delayed this for years, though the founda- tion was commenced in 1759.

The old church still stands-transepts have been added in same style of architecture. Unfortu- nately, the old sounding board has been removed from over the pulpit, but the general quaintness of the interior has been preserved.

"At an early period, the Rev. Thomas Barclay, missionary of the English church at Albany, vis- ited Schenectady, and, so far as can be ascertained, was the first Episcopal minister who held service in the place. Writing to London, to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, by which he had been sent over, he says, under date of 1710: ' At Schenectady I preach once a month, where there is a garrison of forty soldiers, besides about sixteen English and about one hun- dred Dutch families. They are all of them my constant hearers. I have this summer got an English school erected amongst them, and in a short time I hope their children will be fit for catechising.'

"Two years after, Mr. Barclay left Albany, where he was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Miln, and he by other missionaries, till 1746. These gentlemen doubtless often crossed the pine plains to minister to the few churchmen here, though I do not find on our records any mention of their visits or acts. The Dutch pulpit became regularly occupied by its own pastors, and the English people, who were the feebler of the two, seem to have been brought under its predominating influ- ence, instead of vice versa, as Mr. Barclay so fondly anticipated.

"In 1748 the Rev. John Ogilvie came to Albany as rector of St. Peter's. And the same year arrived in Schenectady a layman, Mr. John W. Brown, whose memory is appropriately pre- served by a tablet on the walls of the church. He is said to have come from London, and was only twenty-one years old at the time of his arrival here. From him probably it received its name, St. George being the patron saint of his native country.

"The earliest baptism, by an Episcopal min- ister, on the parish register, is that of a daughter of Mr. Brown, in 1754, by the Rev. Mr. Ogilvie, who performed the same office for another child of Mr. Brown in 1859. It also records the baptism of three other children of Mr. Brown by Dutch ministers-the Revs. Thomas Frelinghise and B. Vrooman.

"That year-1759-the erection of the church edifice seems to have been undertaken; for under date of that year the parish books still preserve,

CITY OF SCHENECTADY .- ECCLESIASTICAL SOCIETIES.

among other items of disbursement, to 'Richard Oldrick and Horseford, for digging the foundation of the church, £4 3s. 9d.' Amounts for drawing timber, and work of the like kind, are mentioned from that date onward. The woodwork was done under the superintendence of Mr. Samuel Fuller, who also became the builder of Johnson Hall. He was master of the king's artificers, and came to this vicinity from Needham, Massachusetts, with Aber- crombie's army. To obtain the necessary assist- ance for fulfilling his part of the work on the church, he went back, in 1762, to Needham, and engaged several carpenters; and besides having their regular wages while here, they were to be al- lowed a specified sum for the seven days it would take them to come from Needham, and also for the same number of days for their return. It was several years before the building was completed for occupancy and use, though as early as 1767 we find sums collected for pew rents among the treas- urer's papers. These papers also show the names of persons who subscribed for the erection of the church, with their respective amounts.

" At that time lived in the Mohawk Valley Sir William Johnson. He was a major-general in the British service, and general superintendent of Indian affairs in North America. The English church had in him a warm friend. He not only contributed liberally himself to the erection of this building, but also obtained subscriptions from his friends in various parts of the colonies-at one time {61 Ios. from the Governors of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and other distinguished gentle- men, while attending a treaty of peace at Fort Stanwix. Sir William was also of great service to the church here, in procuring for it missionaries from the Venerable Society in England, which seems to have consulted him in most of its ap- pointments to this region of country. Through his co-operation the wardens obtained from the Governor of the colony a charter for their church in 1766, and Sir William was requested to act as one of the trustees. He was a frequent worshiper in these walls, and tradition says that his pew, which was on the south side, was distinguished by a canopy. The church, as it then was, according to a ground plan of it in one of the old books, had two doors-one on the west end, and the other on the south side (the arch of which still remains), with a communion table against the east wall in the mid- dle, and directly in front of it two desks for reading and preaching; and only a part of the church was finished with pews.

" During those years the building was used more or less by the Presbyterians, who had none of their own. A curious statement exists on this point, said to have been found among the papers of a Mr. Alexander Kelly, a member of that body. He says: 'Betwext 1760 and 1770, the Episcopalians and presbyterians agreed & build a Church Betwext them, The Former to goe in at the west Door the Later at the South Door when the Church was Finesht John Brown Belonig to the English Church went to New York & get it Con- secrated under the Bishop unknown to the presby-

terians, The presbyterians highly ofended at this John Duncan, James Wilson, James Shuter, An- drew & Hugh Michel, Andrew McFarland & Wm. White & Alexander Merser purchest a lot From a Gentelm in New York Colected money in varies places To Build a Church. The Dutch Inhabi- tants Seing How they were Served advanct very Liberal in money Boards plank Nails Hinges & paint The Church was built about the year 1770.'

"Mr. Kelly's representation of the case must be as faulty as his orthography. To prove this, it is enough to state two facts-one, that there was no bishop in this country till 1784, thirty years after this alleged transaction; and the other, that the church was never 'consecrated ' till nearly one hundred years later by Bishop Potter, in 1859.

"As connected with this part of the ecclesiastical history of Schenectady, we take the liberty of quot- ing from a note on the subject, received by the Rector from the Rev. Dr. Darling : 'One of the oldest members of my church (Presbyterian), when I came here, informed me that the south door was walled up after the Presbyterian exodus, "and the Lord put a curse on the mortar so that it would not stick ; " though, as she had no pro- phetic credentials, you may prefer to account for it in some other way.'

"It was to matters of this kind that Dr. Darling's predecessor, the venerable Dr. Backus, probably referred in his historical sermon, preached in 1879, when he said : 'Ritnalism and evangeli- cism long contended here for the mastery.' One of the champions in that contest was this same Mr. Kelly-Sandy Kelly, generally called-who, when a pitch-pipe was introduced into the Presbyterian worship, rushed down the aisle, and out of the door, crying 'Awa' with your box o' whistles !' What would he have said and done had his evan- gelic ears been shocked by the noble organ which now vies with that of St. George's in improving the ritual of God's house ?

" While the church was being built, the Rev. Thomas Brown, who succeeded Mr. Ogilvie at St. Peter's, Albany, and after him the Rev. Harry Monroe, seemed to have ministered now and then to the church people here, baptizing their children and burying their dead, until the arrival of Mr. William Andrews. This gentleman had been for some time catechist among the Mohawk Indians. He was a native of Great Britain. He returned home in 1770, when he was ordained by the Bishop of London, and appointed missionary at Sche- nectady. He may be considered the first resident minister, or rector, of St. George's. Mr. Andrews opened a grammar school here in 1771 ; but the labor attendant on this and his parish broke down his health, and he relinquished the mission in 1773, and went to Virginia.

"Mr. Andrews was soon succeeded by the Rev. John Doty, a native of Westchester, and an alum- nus of King's (now Columbia) College. It was now the eve of the Revolution. Like many of his brethren, Mr. Doty suffered between a sense of duty and the pressure of the times. He was ar-

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HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF SCHENECTADY.

rested and kept in ward for awhile. On being released, he left for Canada ; and divine service was suspended in the church during the remainder of the war.

" When the independence of the States was estab- lished and peace declared, in 1782, the few members which Mr. Doty had been forced to abandon were al- most entirely scattered. The church edifice had be- come dilapidated, the windows were broken out, and desolation reigned within and around. Soon after, in 1790, the parish was admitted into union with the Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which had become duly organized. But it was some time before it could enjoy the services of a settled clergyman, depending upon those of Albany and other neighboring towns.

"In 1798 the Rev. Robert G. Wetmore became rector, in connection with Christ's Church, Duanes- borough ; and from that day its affairs moved on in uninterrupted order and with increasing success. At the first election of the corporation, Charles Martin and John Kane were chosen wardens. In a register book, then begun, there is a rude pen- and-ink sketch, by Mr. Wetmore's own hand, of the church as it then was-a little, oblong stone structure, fifty-six feet long (about half its present length) by thirty-six feet wide, with three windows on each side (the old south door being walled up), and in front a small wooden steeple, crowned by a low bell tower, with a cross upon it. It contained thirty-six pews (about one-third of its present num- ber), and no gallery, except across the west end, which was reached by a stairway within the church in the northwest corner. The pulpit, with a long flight of stairs, was against the east wall in the center, with a reading desk in front, and a clerk's pew in front of that, and the altar, with rails, on the north side-an arrangement similar to that still existing in the old church at Duanes- borough.

" Mr. Wetmore resigned in 1801, and some years elapsed before his place was regularly sup- plied. Meanwhile the services of neighboring clergy were occasionally obtained, and several im- provements made in the church edifice. At a meeting of the vestry in 1804, 'Charles Martin and John W. Brown represented to the board the ne- cessity of taking down the steeple, on account of its being in a decayed situation, and proposed to obtain by subscription a sum adequate to the erect- ing a new steeple.' Messrs. David Tomlinson and Wm. Corlett were appointed the committee, and the result was the wooden tower (which was taken down twelve years ago) and the beautiful belfry and spire which crowned it and which were deemed worthy of preservation.

"The foundation of that tower was laid by a young man who had then just arrived in Sche- nectady, and who, though born and reared a New England Congregationalist, soon attached himself to this church, and afterward became most inti- mately identified with all its changes and improve- ments-David Hearsey.

"The next rector was the Rev. Cyrus Stebbins, who, having been a Methodist minister at Albany,

was ordained with special reference to this parish, by Bishop Moore. He was here from 1806 to 1819.

"For a year or two after Dr. Stebbins' resigna- tion the services were kept up, with much acceptance to the congregation, by Mr. Alonzo Potter, as lay reader, then tutor of Union Col- lege, and afterward the Bishop of Pennsylva- nia. A tablet to his memory has been placed by the trustees of the college on the walls of St. George's.

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Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 237

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1452

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452