USA > New York > Monroe County > Rochester > Centennial annals of St. Luke's Church, Rochester, N.Y., 1817-1917 > Part 3
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The charge of the parish was then committed temporarily to the Rev. T. F. Wardwell, who offici-
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ated from Aug. 29, till the close of the year, when the Rev. Henry W. Lee of Springfield, Mass., who had been called to the Rectorship, October 18, entered upon his duties January 2, 1848. He was instituted by Bishop DeLancey Feb. 16, 1848. In his onerous pastoral labors in the parish, he was successively assisted by the Revs. Edw. Meyer, Geo. H. McKnight, Bethel Judd, D. D., W. H. Barris, Geo. N. Cheney, Geo. W. Watson and Theodore A. Hopkins; funds for that purpose being provided in part by the Ladies' Missionary Society. Services were frequently held in the suburbs of the city, and in the town of Brighton.
During the year 1848, the sum of $4,000 was subscribed to liquidate a standing indebtedness of the corporation. The debt was accordingly can- celed upon payment of the amount pledged, and report thereof made to the Vestry Aug. 5, 1850.
A proposition to introduce gas into the Church was negatived June 4, 1849; which improvement was not effected till Dec. 24, 1853.
A committee appointed to circulate a subscrip- tion to provide a chime of bells and a new organ, consisting of Messrs. Kidd, Pitkin, Churchill, Dewey and Whittlesey, reported July 1, 1850, that they had secured $3,600; whereupon contracts were authorized to be made with A. Meneely, of Troy, for the chimes, and with Appleton & Warren for the new organ.
At the first Commencement of the University of Rochester, June 9, 1851, the honorary degree of
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Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon the Rev. Mr. Lee.
In April, 1854, on the retirement of Mr. and Mrs. D. M. Dewey from the choir, the Vestry ex- pressed their cordial thanks for their faithful and valuable services, rendered gratuitously for upwards of sixteen years. A similar resolution, accompanied by a valuable testimonial, had been voted by the Vestry in December, 1845. Besides Mrs. Dewey, her sisters, Mrs. J. M. Winslow and Mrs. Albert Walker, had previously rendered efficient and ac- ceptable services in the choir for many years. The resignation of Dr. Lee, after a ministry of seven years, occasioned by his election to the Episcopate of Iowa, was presented Oct. 9, 1854, and accepted with " unmingled feelings of regret and with grate- ful appreciation of the many qualities which have rendered his ministry so important to the prosperity of our parish, and which have endeared him to the people of his charge."
His Consecration as Bishop of Iowa took place in St. Luke's, on the 18th of Oct., 1854, Bishop J. H. Hopkins presiding, and Bishop Manton East- burn preaching the sermon, Bishops McCoskry, DeLancey, Burgess and Whitehouse uniting in the imposition of hands. His first episcopal act was the Confirmation of a class of thirty-five, in his own Church, on the 24th of December.
The Vestry meanwhile had called to the Rector- ship the Rev. Benjamin Watson, of Zion Church, Newport, R. I., who accepted the same and entered
THE RIGHT REVEREND HENRY WASHINGTON LEE, D.D., LL.D.
Jan. 1. 1848-Jan. 1. 1855.
THE REVEREND BENJAMIN WATSON, D.D.
April 29, 1855-Aug. 7, 1859.
THE REVEREND R. BETHELL CLAXTON, D.D. Dec. 1, 1859-Sept. 24. 1865.
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upon his duties April 29, 1855, the services during the interim having been maintained by the Rev. T. A. Hopkins, assistant minister at the close of the last rectorate.
An annual report of the Sunday School, dated Dec. 31, 1855, and signed by Jos. A. Eastman, Supt., is of interest as showing the flourishing condition of the school at this period. It numbered 332 scholars and 45 teachers, and gave for missions $80.35. The congregation had contributed $70 toward replenishing the library.
The necessity of a fourth Episcopal Church, which had been increasingly felt, resulted in the organization of a new parish in the southeast quar- ter of the city. The first official act of the new Rector was to officiate, April 29, in Palmer's Hall, at the primary service of the new congregation, mainly composed of parishioners of St. Luke's. The meeting to organize pursuant to legal notice was held in the same place May 7, 1855, at which Silas O. Smith and David Hoyt were elected Wardens; and Dellon M. Dewey, A. J. Brackett, D. B. Beach, J. M. Winslow, John Fairbanks, Edward M. Smith, Delos Wentworth and Chas. R. Babbitt, Vestry- men. The original number of communicants was thirty-one. Rev. Henry A. Neely was elected the first Rector, and the first Christ Church was built upon the site of the present edifice.
The Institution of the Rev. Mr. Watson, by Bishop DeLancey, took place on Thursday, Feb. 14, 1856.
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During the first year of his ministry, the church edifice was thoroughly repaired within and without, at an expense of over $5,000. The subscription to defray this improvement being some $1,500 short of that amount, the Vestry saw fit to mortgage the church. It was at this time that the present stained glass was inserted in the windows, the interior fres- coed and the tower remodeled. Largely increased expense was also incurred for music. An ineffectual effort was made in April, 1859, to procure a rec- tory, but the realization of its importance bore fruit a few years later.
The Rev. Mr. Watson, finding the climate un- congenial, and having been called to the Church of the Atonement, Philadelphia, presented his resignation, which was regretfully accepted July 23, 1859, to take effect the 7th of the following month, when he delivered his farewell discourse; it being recorded that " during his term of four years and three months' service as our Rector, he has, by his ability, fidelity and exemplary Christian deportment in the discharge of his arduous duties, won the respect, confidence and affection of his whole con- gregation." His assistants were the Revs. Robt. W. Lewis and Chas E. Cheney. The services dur- ing the interim were supplied by the Rev. W. B. Otis, from Aug. 7 to Oct. 2, 1859.
The Rev. R. Bethell Claxton, D. D., of St. Paul's Church, Cleveland, O., was called to the Rectorship, Oct. 1, 1859, and entered upon his duties on the 1st of the following December. On
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the 20th of February ensuing, he was instituted by Bishop DeLancey, Bishop H. W. Lee preaching the sermon.
Steps were efficiently taken by the Vestry to secure a rectory, and a negotiation to obtain prop- erty on Fitzhugh street was terminated by an authorization to purchase, Aug. 25, 1860, at the price of $7,000, of which $4,000 was paid in cash.
The patriotic spirit of the congregation mani- fested itself, April 29, 1861, in a resolution of the Vestry to procure the National colors and erect a flag-staff on the church, and also to present a Prayer-Book to every volunteer from the City of Rochester, who would accept it. The flag was raised on the tower of the church on the 4th of May; on which occasion addresses were made to a large concourse of people by the Rector, Hon. Alfred Ely and Roswell Hart, Esq.
The plan of building a Mission Chapel was at several meetings urged by the Rector upon the Vestry without eliciting from that body any satis- factory encouragement ; but convinced of the neces- sity of such provision for those at a distance from the church, he persevered in his design and succeed- ed in founding the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, in the eleventh ward,-a part of the city at that time destitute of all religious privileges. The means to accomplish this result were provided by the Sunday School, the Ladies' Missionary Society and a few willing helpers. The corner-stone of a neat edifice of brick, 28 x 52, with a porch 8 feet square, upon
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a lot 54 x 150, was laid, by the Rector, Sept. 23, 1863; and on the 31st of July in the next year, he had the happiness of opening the chapel for Divine Service. The total cost of the building was up- wards of $3,000.
As early as June, 1861, the Rev. Dr. Claxton addressed a communication to the Vestry, proposing the establishment of "an Asylum for orphans and destitute children, to be under the especial care of our Church in Rochester." The Vestry declined to assume responsibility in the matter; but the nucleus of a fund to establish such an institution was formed by the collections at the joint-service of the several parishes on successive Maundy Thursdays, begin- ning in 1861, and seven years later the Church Home was organized.
Plans and elevations for a new church edifice were presented to the Vestry by Mr. William Churchill, Feb. 24, 1864, and a committee was ap- pointed to " ascertain if money can be raised for the erection of a new church," and " to present to pew-owners a request to surrender their pews in the church." This committee subsequently reported that they "had not succeeded in inducing pew- holders to surrender their pews or to submit to new annuities."
In the failure of the project to build a new church, it was decided, April 11, 1864, to erect a very much needed Sunday School building, and Messrs. Bronson, Brewster and Hawley were ap- pointed to act in the matter. The contract for the
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work, however, was not formally authorized until April 24, 1865, when $2,700 had been collected for the purpose, nor finally completed till April, 1866, at a total cost for building and furniture of $6,000.
The inadequacy of the income of the Church to meet its current expenses without continual re- sort to special subscriptions, pressed so heavily upon the Vestry that in the Spring of 1864, they called a meeting of the congregation and presented as the root of the difficulty their inability legally to fix such annuities upon the pews as would be sufficient to defray the expenses of the Church, and earnestly requesting the pew-owners to relinquish their leases, which limited the amount which each could be re- quired to pay; but strenuous effort on the part of the Vestry failed to secure the surrender of the vested rights.
A plan, however, was subsequently devised, to which all the pew-holders except two assented, by which the Vestry were to extinguish the rights of such lessees as would not surrender their pews for a term of years by the payment of a consideration ; and the Church was ordered to be mortgaged for $6,000 to procure the necessary funds, after paying the existing mortgage debt of $1,200 and advances by the Treasurer, amounting to $1,700. Application was also ordered to be made to the Legislature for the passage of an act authorizing the Vestry to assess upon pews and sittings the current expenses of the corporation.
The laborious duty of securing the surrender of
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27 leases and the extinguishment by purchase of 14 others devolved upon Mr. T. C. Montgomery, to whom the church is under lasting obligations in this matter, as well as for another most important service in perfecting what was supposed to be an absolute title to the church property through re- leases secured by him from the heirs of Rochester, Fitzhugh and Carroll.
The Rev. Arthur Cleveland Coxe, D. D., having been consecrated assistant Bishop of the Diocese, Jan. 4, 1865, visited the parish on the 15th, and received a most cordial welcome from pastor and people. It having been proposed to invite him to make Rochester his residence, the Vestry appointed a committee to confer with committees from the other parishes in the city on the subject. As the result of such conference, steps were taken to pro- vide by general subscription a home for Bishop Coxe in this city, but he ultimately decided it to be for the best interests of the Diocese that he should reside in Buffalo.
The Rev. Dr. Claxton having been appointed " Professor of Pulpit Eloquence and Pastoral Care " in the Philadelphia Divinity School, presented his resignation to take effect Oct. 1, 1865; in accepting which the Vestry "bear willing testimony to the fidelity with which he ministered in holy things, the purity of his doctrines, the earnestness and ability of his pulpit appeals, the untiring industry and self- denying zeal which has marked the discharge of his parochial duties and the uniform interest and
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affection with which he has watched over the flock."
Upon the nomination of the retiring Rector, the Rev. Wm. J. Clark was placed in charge of the parish from Oct. 1, 1865, which engagement ter- minated April 18, 1866.
The Rev. Henry C. Potter, D. D., of St. John's Church, Troy, was invited, Nov. 8, 1865, to accept the rectorship, but though earnestly urged on the occasion of a personal visitation to the parish to accept the charge, he after careful deliberation de- clined the call.
A joint committee of three from the Vestry and three from the congregation on the subject of secur- ing a Rector, recommended, April 9, 1866, that an engagement be made with the Rev. Henry Anstice, officiating at St. Barnabas' Church, Irvington, to take pastoral charge of the parish for one year ; and a special committee consisting of N. T. Roch- ester, T. C. Montgomery and Aaron Erickson was appointed to extend the invitation. At a subsequent meeting the committee reported "that they could not make any arrangement with the Rev. Henry Anstice to take temporary charge of this parish." A call to the Rectorship at a salary of $2,000, witlı the use of the Rectory and $800 for an assistant was thereupon extended April 23, 1866, and accept- ed, to take effect on the 13th of the following month.
At the first meeting of the Vestry with the new Rector, he was requested to take the keys of the Chapel of the Good Shepherd and to make such
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disposition thereof as he with the concurrence of the Vestry may from time to time think advisable, and in accordance with a subsequent resolution he received and accepted the title to the property from the Rev. Dr. Claxton, the Vestry having been un- willing to assume the legal responsibility incident thereto.
A plan for general city mission work having been projected by Mr. George R. Clark and the Rev. Dr. Van Ingen under the name of " The St. Matthew's Church Mission," and it having been intimated to the Vestry that the said Mission was desirous of purchasing the Good Shepherd Chapel in order to unify the work of Church extension in the city under one management, it was resolved " with a view to promote harmony of feeling and action between the several clergy and parishes of Rochester and as an expression of interest in the newly inaugurated joint mission work," to enter
into a contract to convey the property to trustees for the use of the said mission. The " St. Mat- thew's Mission " accordingly conducted services in the chapel as well as at other points in the city by its missionaries, the Rev. R. M. Duff, Dean, and the Rev. E. S. Wilson, assisted by Mr. S. D. Boorom and D. H. Lovejoy, M. D., candidates for Orders. Upon the dissolution of that organization, however, in June, 1867, the chapel reverted to St. Luke's and the services were continued therein by the Rector and his assistants. The other points at which ser- vices had been sustained by this joint missionary
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effort were the school-house near Deep Hollow, which was committed to the care of Trinity Church ; the Oregon St. Mission, which was assigned to Grace Church, and Hope Chapel, which was com- mitted to Christ Church, and developed by the care of its Rector and some zealous laymen into St. Clement's in July, 1871, which was reorganized as St. Andrew's Feb. 7, 1879.
The Vestry having had under consideration the advisability of thoroughly remodeling and refitting the interior of the church, and placing the whole 'edifice in the best possible condition, requested the Rector to call a meeting of the congregation to express their views upon the subject. At this meeting, held July 16, 1866, plans and estimates were presented and discussed, and on motion of Mr. Aaron Erickson, it was resolved, " That the congregation do advise the Vestry to make the improvements proposed, and at the same time to make provision for paying off the entire church debt upon the basis of property in the pews." Steps were, accordingly, at once taken to carry out the recommendations of the congregation, and Messrs. Bronson, Brewster and Perkins, with the Rector as chairman, were appointed the building committee, and the same members of the Vestry, together with Mr. Erickson, and Hon. E. D. Smith, were desig- nated a committee to solicit subscriptions,-the labors of which latter work, devolved almost entire- ly upon Judge E. D. Smith and Mr. G. H. Perkins.
The last service in the old church, prior to its
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occupation by the workmen, was held Oct. 7, 1866; from which time the congregation worshipped stat- edly on Sunday afternoons in the First Presbyterian Church, opposite, which had been kindly tendered for that purpose by the Christian courtesy of its Trustees. A Wednesday evening service with lec- tures on the Prayer Book was also held in our Sunday School building, and the sessions of the Sunday School were not interrupted.
The Rev. M. R. St. J. Dillon-Lee entered upon his duties as the first assistant to the Rector, Sept. 2, 1866. With his co-operation weekly cottage services were maintained throughout the Winter in the Eighth Ward, and a Sunday afternoon service established in the following Spring in a building rented for that purpose. The whole southwestern section of the city was divided into districts, and lady visitors assigned to each with a view to organ- ized personal ministries of divers sorts to the people there resident.
The committee of the Vestry which had been appointed in April to act with similar committees from the other three parishes for the purpose of purchasing a lot in Mt. Hope Cemetery for the interment of "persons attached to the Episcopal Church for whose burial no other appropriate place should be provided," reported Jan. 31, 1867, that they had purchased jointly such a lot for $324, of which $106 was to be paid by St. Luke's.
The work of repair was meanwhile slowly pro- gressing in the church building. It had been found
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necessary to make excavations, build foundations for the pillars, put in new timbers and flooring and make unplanned alterations and improvements to such an extent that the work was protracted into the short days of Winter and the expense very ma- terially increased. Before the remodeling of the edifice there was no middle aisle and no entrance through the tower; the pews had doors as high as the backs of the seats; there were square pews in the gallery, and the building was heated with stoves. Steam-heating apparatus was now introduced throughout the church and Sunday School building, and the organ was renovated and its power in- creased by the addition of several stops. On the 10th of March, 1867, the church was reopened for Divine Service by the Bishop of the Diocese, and on the 14th inst. in the presence of all the city clergy, the formal Institution of the Rector took place ; Dr. T. C. Pitkin of Buffalo, a former Rector, and Dr. Abner Jackson of Geneva, acting as attend- ing presbyters, Bishop Coxe preaching the sermon and performing the ceremony, and William Pitkin, Esq., presenting the keys of the church,-an office he had discharged at the Institution of each preced- ing Rector ; all of them except the first having been formally instituted into the Rectorship.
A statement of the financial condition of the parish was laid before the congregation on Easter Monday, April 22, 1867, from which it appeared that there had been expended in repairing the church edifice about $19,000, and that the sums col-
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lected from subscriptions and sales of pews amount- ed to $18,770, with about $7,000 more due and unpaid. The debts of the Church, contracted before the repairs were commenced, were stated at $6,000 on the church building, $3,000 of purchase money on the Rectory, $2,400 in contracts for pur- chase of Exchange St. property in rear of Rectory, and $1,000 balance due and unpaid on the Sunday School building; thus showing the total debt of the corporation, before the improvements were be- gun, to have been $12,400. The hope which had been entertained, that the entire debt would be paid off at this time was therefore disappointed. A material reduction of it, however, was effected through the gradual collection of unpaid subscrip- tions, proceeds of sales of pews, and the operation of a sinking fund created by the very considerable excess of current income over expenses; so that before the meeting of the Convention in August, 1867, not only had the entire cost of the improve- ments been defrayed, but $3,200 had been paid upon the outstanding obligations, and the mortgage on the church was still further reduced by $1,000, within three years thereafter.
The parochial activity in City Mission work was at this time approaching its highest develop- ment. An additional Assistant Minister was needed to devote himself particularly to the work at the Good Shepherd Chapel; and provision having been made therefor, the Rev. Jacob Miller entered upon his duties in that field in July, 1867. In the Eighth
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Ward, the services were attended with deep interest, and the people of the district showed themselves in earnest for the erection of a chapel by subscribing $1,000 for that purpose. Service on Sunday after- noons and a Sunday School were maintained in the school-house on Lake Ave., near Deep Hollow, from July, 1867, when this enterprise which had been a legacy to him from St. Matthew's Church Mission, was committed by the Rector of Trinity to the Rector of St. Luke's. In the Ontario St. neighborhood, cottage services were well attended by the people in that locality, and the duty of chap- lain to the City Hospital was also discharged by one of our staff of clergy, Divine Service being held for one year on every Lord's Day afternoon.
Meanwhile, the Rev. Mr. Dillon-Lee having accepted a position as assistant minister in Christ Church, New Orleans, resigned after thirteen months of service and was followed by the Rev. David H. Lovejoy, M. D., Sept. 29,1867, who re- mained one year in the parish.
The 12th of March, 1868, marks the progress of the work at the Good Shepherd Chapel in the creation, by the Rector, of a quasi-Vestry, to relieve him of details and represent the needs and wishes of the people. The result of this arrangement was to rapidly develop the interest and self-sustaining power of the congregation, and pave the way for that ecclesiastical independence which was per- fected a year later.
The corner-stone of the new chapel on Frances
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St. was laid by the Rector in the absence of the Bishop, on the 23rd of July, 1868, addresses being delivered by the Revs. F. S. Rising of New York, and J. H. Waterbury of Le Roy. The completed building was formally opened for Divine Service Feb. 28, 1869. The total cost of the chapel was $10,000, which had been raised by subscriptions and five-cent collections, by the Sunday School, by a public lecture given by Bishop Lee, and from the proceeds of some lots on Penn St. given to the Rector for this purpose by the heirs of Asa Sprague. The chapel was thus described in the " Gospel Mes- senger ": "It is neatly and substantially built of brick, in Early English style, sixty feet by forty-two inside, slate-roofed, with four double lancet win- dows on each side and a window in front on either side of a central tower, which is eighty-two feet high. The inside walls are rough-finished, blocked and stained. The seats are neatly upholstered in crimson damask, having reversible backs for Sun- day School purposes, arranged in double rows on each side of a central aisle, with side aisles at the walls, and will accommodate three hundred per- sons." Jonathan Dent was the mason, Thomas Wil- liamson the carpenter, and Isaac Loomis the archi- tect, by whom the chapel was built.
On the 18th of Sept. 1868, the Bishop advanced to the priesthood the two assistants of the parish, the Revs. Jacob Miller and David H. Lovejoy, M. D., presented by the Rector; twenty clerical
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members of the Rochester Convocation being present.
The congregation of the Chapel of the Good Shepherd was organized by the Rev. Mr. Anstice, with the Bishop's approval, into a separate parish, March 29, 1869. John Greenwood and George Cummings were elected Wardens, and Thomas Thompson, Thomas Tamblingson, William Att- ridge, Jr., Robert G. Newman, Samuel Attridge, William Webb, Walter Williamson and Charles H. Finch were elected Vestrymen. The Rev. Jacob Miller, who had been ministering in the congrega- tion for twenty months as assistant to the Rev. Mr. Anstice, was, on nomination by the latter, elected the first Rector. Forty-one families and fifty-one communicants were transferred from St. Luke's to form the nucleus of the new parish. And thus the Good Shepherd took its place as the fourth daughter of St. Luke's among the city churches.
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