Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 109

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360

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Rev. JOHN ESCHMANN, born in Zurich, Switzerland, 1817: grad. City Gymnasium, 1835; Zurich Theol. Sem., Switzer- land, 1839; located New York, 1845; and East New York, 1869; was itinerant missionary in North-west; author of pub. sermons, cateeliism and several translations.

The First Moravian Church of Brooklyn was organized in 1854, by some members of the Moravian Church in New York city, who had become residents of Brooklyn. Iu that year a frame building was ereeted on Jay street, near Myrtle avenue. and consecrated September 10th. Sept. mber 24, 1868, it was destroyed by fire, and the present brick church structure, with a parsonage, was at onee ereeted on its site, at an expense of $24,000. It was dedicated Oct. 10th, 1869. It has 400 sittings.

The Pastors of this church have been: Revs. Joseph Rum- mer, 1834-'S, Edward Kluge, 1859-'60; Edwin E. Reinke, part of 1860; IIerman Brickenstein, 1861-'4; Isaae Prince, 1-65; Edward Ronthaler, 1865-'73; Charles B. Schultz, 1574-7: Charles Rieksecker, 1878; Win. Henry Rice, 1879-'80; and the present Pastor, Edward S. Wolle, 1880.

The Church of the Blessed Hope .- This society was org. in 1879. The members liad belonged to other Advent churches: but they organized this society in accordance with views which they had come to hold, different, in some respects, from those of other adventists. Their place of worship is a chapel in Cumberland street. Rev. J. B. Cook has been the Pastor from the organization of the society.

Rev. GEORGE R. KRAMER, born in Baltimore, 1839; educated Diekinson Seminary, Pa; located in Augusta, Ga .; Staunton, Va .; Wilmington, Del .; built Independent Church in latter place; came to Brooklyn, 1882; author of pub. sermons and poems.

Life and Advent Church was organized about 1879. 1 % place of worship has been Brooklyn Institute, on Washington street. It has had no settled Pastor, but has maintained regu- lar worship. The pulpit has been supplied by Revs. F. D Burbank, W. N. Pile, Brown and others. There are in Brook- lyn several small societies of Adventists termed "Brethren," who maintain worship in accordance with their views.

Union Chapel was first established as Columbia Union Mis- sion in 1848, in a hall on the corner of Smith and Butler streets. In 1852, it was removed to a small hall in Union street, and during the warm part of the year, services were held in a tent on a vacant lot. In 1854, the mission was burned out, and, during two years, services were held in Hamilton avenue, in a room furnished by Anson Blake, Esp.

Thence it was removed to Columbia street, near Summit, where services are still held. It is non-sectarian in its char acter, and during its long existence it has accomplished auch good. From the organization of the mission till 1881, n period of more than thirty years, it has been under the pastoral charge of Rev. Josiah West. He and his wife have given a large portion of their lives to this self-denying work. Th mission is now known by the name of Union Chapel.

HISTORY

OF THE

SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK

BROOKLYN.

T HE development of the Sunday-school, as an institution for teaching the Heaven-revealed truths of the Bible, has occupied for both hemispheres but a little more than a hundred years; sixty-six of these years have received the thoughts and the activity of the gentleman whose portrait is on the opposite page.

The Sunday-school in a New England country town, in 1816, had strength enough to tempt the lad of eleven years to engage in its ever-increasing work; and as age matured judgment and strengthened reflection, this institution per- meated his life with its influence, and caused him to devote the whole of his time, talents and substance, in later years, to the Sunday-school cause.

While it is no part of the design of these volumes to write history, much less biography, beyond the events that have acted and reacted upon our city life and development, society and character, so subtle are these influences, and so inter- twined that it is impossible to set forth either without tracing them to some extent from their source to their issue. This alone justifies a narration here of such examples as are capable of imitation by any and every layman who would mingle his higher obligations with the every-day transac- tions of his life.

The individual who directs his efforts to the promotion of the liigher interests of his race is the only person who occu- pies a normal position in society. It is the glory of the Sunday-school system, as it is of the Gospel method, to mul- iply moral teachers; nay, to virtually resolve the community nto two classes-teachers and taught. Lessons are drawn lirectly from the only text-book which contains motives of sufficient power to restrain the passions or affect the will.

Unfortunately, all human experience has shown how diffi- bult is the task of influencing the adult mind in a way con- rary to cherished wrong opinions, and of changing long- fixed evil habits of thought or action. It is obvious, there- ore, that the Gospel teachings must be brought to bear upon lie minds and hearts of the young, before evil has gained supremacy there. The steel must be forged while it is plas- ic, the streamlet must be turned before it has become the iver. Whether the first attempts to gather in the children or Sabbath instruction, a hundred years ago, were inspired nore by pity for their neglected condition or by a desire to do good for the Master's sake, the result exceeded even the hopes of the pioneers.

Not speaking of the schools of the catechumens, Luther's, Knox's, Borromeo's or Haecker's, none of which were Sun- lay-schools in the modern sense, the first organization in

which the teaching was done by the lay element was founded by Robert Raikes in 1780, at Gloucester, England, where he at first placed twenty children under the care of Mrs. King, for Sunday instruction, in her cottage in Catherine street.

The progress of the Sunday-school system, from that small beginning to this present time, when fifteen millions of scholars are under religious instruction on the Lord's day, has been truly marvelous. The advance that has taken place from the "shilling-a-day teachers," employed by Raikes, to this period, at which something near two millions of volun- tary teachers are engaged in Sunday-school instruction, is the most wonderful movement of the nineteenth century. Its origin was humble; it owes its success neither to lavish expenditure, love of display, or the patronage of the great. It is the result of Christian devotion consecrating the Sab- bath to the religious education of the young. Its greatest glory is that it is voluntary; free and Scriptural. Starting in Gloucester, England, it has been carried to every quarter of the civilized globe, itself being the greatest of civilizing agencies and the means best adapted to that universal dif- fusion of Christianity which is to usher in its ultimate triumph. It has brought about the unprecedented recogni- tion of the influence and importance of childhood that characterizes this century. Robert Raikes and his com- peers, mindful of the command-" Feed my lambs"-began to pay attention to the wants of children; true religion in- creased; the world grew more spiritual as the Sunday-school work took holl of the people's time, thought and energies; until after a single century, Pastor, adults and children meet to study the Word of God, binding by one topic and one text the nations of the world in the international lessons.

The Sunday-school germ soon extended to America, where schools are said to have been established by Bishop Asbury, in Virginia, in 1786; by Bishop White, in Philadelphia, in 1791; by Katy Ferguson, a colored woman, in New York, in 1793; and by Mrs. Graham, in 1801, who had seen the schools in England, and on returning, taught poor children in her own house in New York.

About 1809 the churches in America assumed charge of the schools and made the instruction more exclusively religious. Since 1848 special attention has been given to planting and sustaining Mission schools.

Brooklyn Sunday-School Union Society. A meeting wa : held March 27, 1816, to organize a society in the village of Brooklyn, similar to the Sunday-School Union Society in New York, whose object was to give gratuitous religous in- struction to children on the Sabbatlı day, and to unite

1092

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

Christians in this benevolent undertaking. As a result of this meeting, the Brooklyn Sunday-School Union Society was formed, adopted a constitution April 8th, and subsequently a code of rules, issued by Joshua Sands, President ; Andrew Mercein and Abraham Remsen, Vice-Presidents; Thomas Sands, Treasurer ; Rev. John Ireland, Secretary ; William Cornwell, Robert Bache, David Anderson, Jonathan G. Pray, Joseph Harris, Robert Snow, and Alexander Young, Directors. In July, 1821, circulars were issued, inviting the people to join the Brooklyn Sabbath Union for the promotion of Sunday-schools, offering instruction to all without price; great attention was promised to the " manners and morals of scholars." The first celebration of the Union was held in 1829, at the Sands Street Methodist Episcopal Church. In IS38, Messrs. Charles Clark, R. J. Thorn, I. P'eet, and some others of different denominations, arranged to hold a Monthly Teachers' Concert for Prayer, Reporting and Conference, which was sustained for many years. Cyrus: P. Smith was President of their organization, Jno. N. Wyckott, Jno. Dike- man, Vice-Presidents, and Wm. E. Whitney, Treasurer.

As before noted, these earlier schools were largely missions, to which business men gave of their time and means; while delicate ladies did not hesitate to explore lanes and tenement houses in search of new members for the schools. "Thou- sands of dollars were expended for clothing and food for destitute children. Thanksgiving day was celebrated with the zeal of which only the poor and hungry were capable. It was not unusual to see a mission-school boy leave such an entertainment with a lot of apples inside his shirt, belting his body just above the waist-band, while caps were often util- ized for secreting cake, candy, and even pumpkin pies; for home consumption." Some of these schools still exist, while many have gone into permanent church organizations, such as the Prince Street Mission of 1832, from which came in 1847 the church which is now the Brooklyn Tabernacle; the South Brooklyn Mission of 1840, out of which grew the South Presbyterian Church; the Navy Mission of 1844, now merged into Mayflower Mission; the Bethel Mission of 1841, now in a commodious building on Hicks st., near Fulton; the Warren Street Mission, begun in Freeman's Hall, Amity st., 1847, now the Pilgrim Chapel ; the City Park Chapel, organized as a mission in 1841; the Border Mission, now Olivet Chapel ; the Throop Avenue Presbyterian Mission; the Rochester Avenue Mission, now the Church of the Mediator; besides many others that might be named. (

The Sunday-School Union was reorganized in 1854 upon a different basis, and took substantially its present form. It was divided into committees, thus :- Albert Woodruff, Chair- man, Congregational: John R. Morris, Secretary, Presby- terian ; J. M. B. Bogert, Joseph H. Fick, Ellis S. Potter, Reformed ; Thomas R. Harvey, E. Marx, Moravian ; A. D. Matthews, John C. Smith, R. S. Slocum, Protestant Epis- ropat ; Peter Balen, Geo. W. Bleecker, J. V. Harriott, Bap- tist ; A. A. Smith, J. W. Judson, F. A. Fisher, Chas. Clark, C. C. Mudge, R. M. Hubbard, Presbyterian ; Silas Daven- port, Sidney Sanderson, HI. N. Holt, Congregationat ; Samuel Carter, Win. Edsall, Wm. H. Brown, Methodist.

The presiding officers have been as follows : Albert Wood- rif. 11'6; I. A. Lambert, 1856; Andrew A. Smith, 1857 *67; S. L. Parsons, 1867-'8; James McGee, 1869; A. B. Cas- well, 1970-'1; Israel Barker, 1872-7; Benjamin Baylis, 1878 '42; George A. Bell, 1883-4. The present officers are: George A. Bell, Pres .: Silas M. Giddings, Vice-Pres .; Edwin Ives, Cor. Sec .; John R. Morris, Rec. Sec .; James R. Lott, Treas .; R. IT. Underhill, Counsel. Monthly meetings have been held, at which reports of the work of the Union are Liven.

Systematic Visitation. - This important work of the Union was carried into effect for several years, begin- ning in 1854, and with excellent results, under the direc- tion of Mr. Albert Woodruff, Chairman of the Missionary Committee. The city was divided into districts and assigned to the different churches, so that cach visitor had the super- vision of eight or ten families, and every family had the help of a sympathetic friend. Many neglected children were gathered into Sunday-school, and the word of God carried to those who did not attend church services; the Christian activity of the churches was greatly quickered and re- warded, and a wonderful outpouring of the Spirit followed. The work was so practical, so well adapted to engage and reward Christian labor, to reach those who need to have the gospel brought to them, that its equal has not yet been found. We look in vain to a Bureau of Relief, to ingenious methods of avoiding imposition, to outside associations of any kind, however wisely and benevolently designed to take the place of the body of Christ in bringing about the salvation of any community. Of late years, however, systematic visitation has given place to the work of the Board of City Missions and its missionaries. ~

An interesting feature of the Sunday-School Union has been its anniversary celebration and parade. The first was held Tuesday, June 26th, 1838, when nineteen schools took part; George Hall, the first Mayor of Brooklyn, was chairman of the committee on arrangements. At the May parade of 1883, sixty thousand children were in line, from 172 schools. In the spring of 1864 the Union was incorporated, and by special act of the Legislature, in 1871, it was authorized to erect and maintain a public building for its uses. It is pro- posed to unite with the Young Men's Christian Association in erecting an edifice suitable for the accommodation of both.

The Union is conducted by a board of thirty-six managers divided into ten standing committees of six each, which Have their separate special work for the year. The value of the chapels and buildings, used ahnost exchisively for the schools connected with the Union, is many hundred thous- and dollars. The libraries at last report numbered $6.219 volumes, and cost not less than $50,000, while the money an- nually contributed for benevolent purposes reaches a large amount. The Sunday-school scholars of Brooklyn are as One in seven of the population, in New York as one in eleven.

MR. ALBERT WOODRUFF'S interest in Sunday-schools was early awakened. When he came from his Massachusetts home to New York City, in 1827, to begin his long and prosperons career as a merchant, he also entered into the Sunday-school work. First, he became Superintendent of the Sunday school in Dr. Spring's Church, in Beekman st., then of the one in Public School No. 1, Centre st., near the present site of the Hall of Records. It is worthy of note, that in this school were first heard some of the popular Sunday-school songs that have since sung themselves around the world. little hymn-book was published containing the words and music of "I want to be an Angel," "There is a Happy Land." " I think when I read that sweet story of old," and " We won't give up the Bible." Then crossing the river he was superintendent in the Church of the Pilgrims; then of Mar ners' Church School in Main st .; of the one in Granada Hall; then Warren St. Mission; several of these schools wer organized by him. Mr. Woodruff was diligent in Imusines; and his firm, which was first E. P'. & A. Woodruff, and then Woodruff & Robinson, became one of the foremnot in their line. Mr. Woodruff had thus come into prominene as a Sunday-school worker; he was connected with the Nee York Sabbath-School Union; was a long time Vie Presi dent of the American Sunday-School Union, and was the

1093

SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK IN BROOKLYN.

first President of the Brooklyn Sabbath-school Union, as else- where stated; but for the past twenty years, he is best known by his work in connection with the

Foreign Sunday-School Association .- In 1856, Mr. Wood- ruff laid aside the cares of business for a time, and, with his family, made a pleasure tour in Europe; expecting, at the same time, to observe the moral condition of the people among whom he traveled, and to sow good seed by the way. In Paris, he remarked the universal desecration of the Sabbath, both by the government in carrying on public works, and the people in their pursuit of business and pleasure. Knowing the futility of any appeal to adults, he felt it a duty, as well as a privilege, to introduce into pleasure-loving France the Sunday-school methods that had proved so powerful for good in England and America. There were but few Protestant Sunday-schools in all France, and they imperfectly organized, notwithstanding the fact that eighty years had elapsed since such schools had been opened across the channel. Mr. Woodruff procured from America a supply of our Sunday-school music, children's papers, and Sunday-school books adapted for use in France ; and, during his stay of six months, had the pleasure of seeing six schools in active operation as the result of his efforts, and, which was even better, the attention of French Protestants awakened to the wondrous possibilities of the Sunday-school system. Their gratitude to Mr. Woodruff took the form of a public farewell meeting, just previous to his return to America.

In 1861, he again visited Europe, for the purpose of estab- lishing Sunday-schools, remaining more than two years, ex- tending his travels through several countries, and establish- ing schools wherever practicable.

Italy was then ripe for the new movement, because of her emancipation from the temporal power of the Pope, and the progress of civil and religious liberty, but there was not a Protestant Sunday-school within her borders, and Sabbath instruction by lay teachers was unknown. Mr. Woodruff established the first Sunday-school in Naples, in connection with a little Scotch assembly, whose Pastor, Mr. Buscarlet, said: "Your Sabbath-school is just what I want. I have been praying to the Lord these eight or ten weeks past, that He would show me how to set my people at work, and here I have the answer." At the first meeting, the American mode of conducting Sunday-schools was described through an interpreter, and a number of young men and women signified their willingness to become teachers. A school was formed, which soon increased to eighty pupils, mostly boys ; for, at that day, few women or girls could be persuaded to attend a Protestant meeting of any kind. Afterwards, an association of young people commenced a systematic visitation from house to house, and gathered together another school. In Florence, the Italian patriot, Gavazzi, was preaching the Gospel in his own hired house. He kindly acted as inter- preter to the meeting that was called ; and, from his knowl- edge of the schools in England and America, assisted mate- rially in organizing a school.

Anti-Protestant bigots afterwards prevented the securing of a suitable place for holding meetings; and, during Gavaz- zi's absence, the congregation and Sunday-school were scat- tered. Another school that was opened in Florence was in connection with a day-school. The teacher, Damiano Bolognini acted as interpreter in presenting the Sunday- school idea to the people; became the Superintendent of the school, and afterwards editor of the Youth's Journal, called the Scuola della Dominica, or "Sunday-school," a little weekly slieet, for whose publication Mr. Woodruff provided, that soon attained a large circulation, and was of material assistance in extending the new work.

After the beginning thus made in Italy, Mr. Woodruff passed through Southern Germany to Munich. He found the German nation, so great in numbers, power, learning and genius, to be sadly wanting in spiritual life. In his attempts to establish a school in Munich, he met with the strongest opposition. One said: ' Such schools cannot be wanted i: Germany; our children hate the name of school, for they are compelled to go at the point of the bayonet all the week, and to the catechism on Sunday besides." At Heidelberg, Mr. Brockel- mann, the interpreter, exclaimed : "This Sunday-school is what we want to give religious life to Germany. This will cure Germany of its social, political and skeptical evils." So strongly was he impressed that le devoted himself wholly to the Sunday-school cause, acting as interpreter for Mr. Wood- ruff through the remainder of his travels in that country.

In Stuttgart, a German friend was requested to call to- gether some Christians, that they might learn the American method of conducting Sunday-schools. When he was asked why no ladies attended the meeting, he said in astonishment: " Is it contemplated to make women teachers of religion in Germany?" "Yes, certainly," was the reply. "In England and America they do more than half the teaching." "Butit would not be German to invite them," he answered, "and would not be permitted."

In Halle, the effort to establish a school was successfully made. Two hundred girls were soon under instruction. There was at the University of Halle, a theological student from New England, who had not lost sight of the children, but boldly putting his hand to the work, soon brought in a hundred boys to the same school. This union of the sexes, for educating the conscience under the restraint of religion, was quite a new thing in Germany.

In Berlin, the highest preacher in the realm gave a letter recommending Mr. Woodruff to his clergymen, some of whom called together their best membership, both men and women, to inquire of them whether lay-teaching and Sabbath-schools were a possibility in Germany. One lady of benevolent dis- position had invited the servant girls of the neighborhood to spend an hour each Sunday in social enjoyment, light work and reading. Among them was made the first attempt in Berlin to organize a Sunday-school. It failed, but the good woman caught the idea and spirit of the work, invited in her friends for teachers, and the youth as pupils, and still re- mains the successful superintendent of a large and flourishing school. Similar incidents occurred in various places.

Although Germany is the home of music, Ler religious songs, for adults and children alike, were in heavy chorals. Mr. Woodruff urged repeatedly that the Sunday-sel.ools must be enlivened by the introduction of the American soul- stirring melodies, but met the reply "that would not be Ger- man, and cannot be." " But," he insisted, "these melodies have stirred the whole religious world through the Sunday- schools." "No matter," was the answer, " they are only fit for our beer-shops; nay, it was thence you Americans and English imported them." "But," returned Mr. Woodruff, " we have baptized them; and your own Luther says: the devil must not have all of the best music." A visit to the great organist, Haupt, won from him the opinion that "religious worship by children was most appropriately performed in melodies," which he consented might be published in the children's paper, althoughi, as he said, "it will bring the musical wrath of Germany upon me." Marx, the great vocalist, approved the religious melodies like " There is a happy land." which was soon published in Die Sonntags- schule, with the tune also of " I want to be an angel;" and now the children throughout Germany, where there are to-day about 3,000 schools, 30,000 teachers, and 300,000 scliolars, are

1094

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

singing Sunday-school melodies. Money was needed for the support of the Sabbathi-school paper. "Could it be raised in Berhu ?" " No, not in all Germany," was the reply. " Ger- mans do not give mouey to such things." But a few days' effort, and the help of some Euglish architects, procured the necessary funds, aud to-day the paper is more than self-sus- taining. Mr. Woodruff remained longer in Germany than in any of the other European countries, because of the import- ance of the field. The geographical position of Germany, her politieal prominence aud infinenee, the extent and profound- ness of her literature, her increasing commerce and her insti- tutions generally. are all favorable for a restoration of those evangelical principles which once placed her in the frout rank of reformiug nations.

In Holland, a great deal of interest was felt upon the sub- ject. One lady had just published, at her own expense, a Sabbath-school hyni book, containing some twenty tunes, but not one of them had a note in it shorter than the semi- breve. A large and influential assemblage gathered iu Amsterdam and resolutions were passed, since pretty well kept. that Sabbath-schools should be introduced iuto every city and village in Ilolland. At Rotterdam, a Sabbath-school was established in the same room where the meeting was hekl. While these meetings were held iu the evenings, the days were pleasantly and profitably spent with groups of earnest individuals, anxious to learn all that could be known by description of these schools. A Sunday-school Union is now at work in Holland to give the system to the Netlier- lands, where the seeds of civil and religious liberty were germinated for the blessing of maukind.

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Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 109

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909. Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : Munsell Number of Pages: 1360

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360