Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 91

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

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Societies, have received largely of their bounties through all these years.

Aside from the engrossing cares of his large parish, and the parochial and financial duties which have occu- pied him there, he has, from his first coming to Brook- lyn, been prominently connected with the missionary work of the church, as a member of the Domestic Com- mittce of the Board of Missions; he is, likewise, a trus- tce of St. Stephen's College, and of the General Theo- logical Seminary of New York; a member of the Excen- tive Committee of the Protestant Episcopal Freedmen's Commission; a director of the Society for the Increase of the Ministry; a member of the Excentive Committee of the Sunday-school Union and Church Book Society; a director of the Long Island IIistorical Society; Presi- dent of the Homes for the Aged and Orphan on the Church Charity Foundation, and Vice-President of the Kings County Convocation for Church Extension. He has also been a frequent contributor to the American Quarterly Church Review, and has reviewed with great ability in its pages, "Sir James Stephens' Lectures on the History of France," "Cousin's History of Modern Philosophy," "The Character and Writings of Cole- ridge," "The Poems of George Herbert," and "Miss Beecher's Bible and the People." IIe has also published numerons occasional discourses and addresses.

In 1866, Dr. Littlejohn laid before the parish his pur- pose to complete the Church of the Holy Trinity with a spire. The site of the church (on the Heights) is cle- vated about 64 feet above the surface of the bay. He proposed to build a spire of stone from the summit of the tower already erected, to a height, including the metal cross with which it should terminate, of 284 feet from the ground. He was successful in raising the sum necessary for its completion ($55,000). This spire is the most conspicuous object which greets the eye of the voyager as he comes up the lower bay, and is, by al- most a hundred fect, higher than any other spire in cither New York or Brooklyn. On the 19th of Decem- ber, 1867, commemorative services were held in the Church of the Holy Trinity on the occasion of the com- pletion of this great work. In connection with this ser- vicc, it was stated that the contributions of the parish to benevolent purposes (including, of course, the church debt and the spire), during Dr. Littlejohn's rectorship (of somewhat less than eight years), had been $260,000, and that there had been in that time 680 communicants added to the church.

At the General Convention of 1869, the formation of three new dioceses in New York was authorized, and they were organized in the autumn of that year. Dr. Littlejohn was elected Bishop by two of these, that of Central New York, and that of Long Island; but chose the latter, as that with which he was best ae- quainted, and in which he could be most useful. His ordination and consccration to this office took place on the 27th of January, 1866.

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

In the fifteen years of his Episeopate, Bishop Little- john has admitted to the Communion of the Church in Confirmation, nearly 20,000 persons; has ordained to the Diaconate and Priesthood about 100 elergymen: has consecrated a large number of churches, and has established three Diocesan schools of high grade, over all which he maintains an active supervision. Under his administration as President ex-officio of the Church Charity Foundation, St. John's Hospital has been built at a cost of $120,000, and other departments of the foundation have been greatly enlarged, and all of them strengthened by substantial additions to the per- manent endowments. In 1872, Bishop Littlejohn was appointed Bishop in Charge of all Protestant Episcopal Churches on the Continent of Europe. This appoint- ment he has held ever since, thus adding to his work in the Diocese of Long Island, a considerable jurisdiction abroad: the latter requiring an official visitation every two or three years. In 1878, he attended the Lambeth Conferences, held in Lambeth Palace, London. One lumidred bishops, from all parts of the world, were present, and the sessions were under the Presidency of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

In 1879-1880, lie delivered a series of lectures to the clergy, subsequently published in a volume entitled

" Conciones ad Clerum," which has now reached its third edition. In November, 1880, he delivered before the University of Cambridge, England, a series of dis- courses on " Individualism," published immediately after at the University Press. In acknowledgment of this service, the University conferred upon him the de- gree of LL. D. During the spring of 1884, the Bishop delivered a course of leetures at the General Theologi- eal Seminary of New York, on " the Christian Ministry at the Close of the Nineteenth Century." These lec- tures are now in the press. Besides these, the Bishop has, during the last 25 years, contributed many elabor- ate artieles to reviews and periodicals, and published many addresses and charges delivered to the elergy at the Annual Conventions of his Dioeese. IIe has, for many years, acted as Chairman of the Domestie Com- mittee of the Board of Missions of the P. E. Church, having charge of Home Missions in all parts of the country.

Ile is an oflieial visitor of Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y. : Trustee of St. Stephen's College, Annandale, N. Y. ; also a Trustee of Columbia College, in the city of New York, and ex-oflicio, a Trustee of the General Theological Seminary in New York.

REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCHES.

March 1st, 1874, the services of the Reformed Episcopal Church were inaugurated in Brooklyn by Rev. W. H. Reid; Bishop Geo. David Cummins, D. D., preaching the sermon. Since that time Mr. Reid has organized three churches in the city, all of which are in a flourishing condition.

The Church of the Atonement (R. E.) was organized on the 19th of September, 1875, with 160 members. Its first place of worship was a hall over the Kings Co. Bank, corner of Broadway and Fourth sts., E. D. In 1878-'9, the society erected a elmurch building of brick, with Nova Scotia stone triinmings, and in the Romanesque style, on the corner of Keap st. and Marcy ave.

Rev. W. H. Reid was the first Rector, followed by the Rev. Yelverton Peyton Morgan; and, in 1877, by Rev. Y. P. Hunt- | Gates ave, and Irving place.

ington. On April 16, 1882, the present Pastor, Rev. William Henry Barnes, was installed as Rector. A large and success- ful Sunday-school is attached to the church.

The Church of the Redemption (R. E.) was organized at Greenpoint in 1876, by Rev. Mr. Reid. The congregation hired a church buikling in Java st., from a Reformed (Dutch) church. Rev. F. E. Dager became rector. The society are preparing to build a house of worship.

The Church of the Reconciliation (R. E.) was organized by Rev. W. H. Reid, the present Rector, December 16, 1577. Its first place of worship was the old South Brooklyn church, corner of Clinton and Amity sts. In February. 1881. the congregation removed to a church edifice, on the corner of

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

Friends' Meeting House .- The Orthodox Friends in Brooklyn have their place of worship on the north- east corner of Lafayette and Washington aves. Their " meeting honse " is a plain three-story brick building, 46 feet in width by 77 feet in length, fronting on

Lafayette avenue. It was built in 1868, the ground, 100 feet square, having been purchased two years before.

The main room of the first story is used by the " Bible School," and will seat 250. The main room ou

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ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATIONS.

econd floor is used for the meetings for worship. This oom, including the gallery, will seat 350, and the par- or on the third floor, 100.

The Brooklyn meeting is one of several constituting New York Monthly Meeting," to which this property nd that used by those meetings belong.

The Society of Friends had its origin in England, between 1644 and 1664, through the preaching of George Fox and his coadjutors. While the funda- nental principles of Christian faith are held by them n common with all evangelical denominations, they

entertain certain distinguishing views. They believe the practice of war to be inconsistent with the prin- ciples of the gospel, and that Christ enjoined against all oaths. They do not observe the outward ordinances -water-baptism, and the partaking of bread and wine-believing the one baptism and the true com- munion of the gospel dispensation to be spiritual. They believe that the Head of the Church bestows spiritual gifts freely, without distinction of sex, and that such gifts should be freely exercised. Many of their ministers are women.

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES.

Independent Congregational Church .- On the 18th of Sept., 1785, an "Independent Meeting House " was erected, and a congregation regularly incorporated with the following officers: John Matlock, Pastor, and George Wall, Assistant; John Carpenter, Treas .; George Powers, Sec .; William Benton, Robert Steath, Barnard Cordman, John Emery, and William Hinson, Trustees. Their place of worship stood on what was the old Episcopal burying ground in Fulton st. Its members disagreed among themselves, and the build- ing finally came into the possession of some Episco- palians worshiping in Brooklyn under the care of Rev. Geo. Wright, and it was consecrated by Bishop Provost. Such was the untimely end of what may be called the first Congregational Church of Brooklyn.

The Church of the Pilgrims (Henry street, corner of Remsen) was organized December 22d, 1844, with 71 members. Arrangements for this had been in progress during some months. The corner-stone of the church was laid July 2, 1844; its completion was retarded by unforeseen circumstances, but it was dedicated May 12th, 1846. Its cost, first estimated at $25,000, reached $65,000.

In June, 1846, Rev. Richard S. Storrs, Jr., received a call to the pastorate, and was installed in the fol- lowing November. All indebtedness was removed from the church in 1848, and a basis for permanent prosperity secured. In 1869, an addition was made to the building, increasing the capacity of the audi- ence-room to 1,300; and making ample arrange- ments for Sunday-school, committee rooms, etc.

The Navy and Warren Street Missions were largely aided by this church. The last was removed, in 1878, to cor. Henry and Degraw sts., where an elegant chapel, now known as the Pilgrim Chapel, in the Italian Gothic style, was erected, costing $35,000, and occupied for worship Dec. 16, 1878. Its school is emphatically a model in organization and equipments numbering more than 1,000.

In June, 1847, nine members of this church united with others in the formation of Plymouth Church.

The church has been peculiarly fortunate in retain- ing Rev. Dr. Storrs as its Pastor, during all its exis- tence thus far.

CHURCH OF THE PILGRIMS, HENRY STREET, COR. REMSEN.

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

REV. RICHARD SALTER STORRS, D. D., LL. D. Pastor of the Church of the Pilgrims.

The doctrine of Heredity, as a factor in the evolution of Intelleet, and as largely controlling the choice of a man's profession or occupation, finds a signal example in the ances- try of this eloquent divine, who, in his own person, repre- sents the fourth generation of an unbroken line of Congre- gational ministers. His father, the late Rev. Richard S. Storrs, of Braintree, Mass., was for more than half a century the honored and beloved Pastor of the Congregational Church of that town. His grandfather, also the Rev. Richard S. Storrs, was for nearly forty years the Pastor of the Congregational Church at Long Meadow, Mass. His great-grandfather, the Rev. John Storrs, was for many years Pastor of the Congre- gational Church at Southold, L. L., and afterward returned to his native place, Mansfield, Conn., where he died.

In the maternal line of his father's ancestry, Dr. Storrs also derives from the Rev. Richard Mather, the first Pastor of the Dorchester (Mass.) Church; and is connected with the Williams and Edwards families, both eminent in the minis- terial annals of New England.

Dr. Storrs, therefore, may well claim that his vocation is a hereditary diaden.

RICHARD SALTER STORRS was born in Braintree, Mass., in 1821. The Adams family were neighbors of his parents, and with the Quincys and John Hancock, helped to render the historic township a somewhat famous locality. Young Storrs' preliminary education, aside from that which he re- ceived from his father's tuition, was obtained (1834-'5) in the then quite celebrated Academy at Monson, Mass. Thence he went to Amherst College, where he graduated in 1839, at the nge of eighteen, and the youngest member of his class. His first choice for a profession was the law; and, with that pur- pose, he studied for some months in the office of the eloquent Rufus Choate. But home associations, ancestral bias, and his own deepening religious convictions, finally turned him into the paths of theological study; and, in 1841, he entered Andover Theological Seminary. Compelled, after a time, by ill health, to suspend his studies, he accepted a tutorship in Williston Seminary, at East Hampton, Mass .; but subse- quently resumed his course at Andover. In 1845, he gradu- ated from the Seminary, and was ordained Pastor over a Congregational Church in Brooklme, Mass., where he re- mained for a year. Meanwhile, in 1845, he married Miss Mary Elwell Jenks, of Andover.

In November, 1846, at the age of twenty-five years, he came to Brooklyn, and was installed as Pastor of the Church of the Pilgrims, the pioneer church of that denomination in this city. And in this congregation his whole great life-work has been accomplished. Though often urged to accept other important charges, he has preferred to remain in this city, in the steady performance of his duties towards the people of his early choice. His congregation, as is well known, has for many years been numerous, wealthy, strongly attached to its Pastor, and accustomed to devise liberal things. Com- prising a membership of marked intellectual ability, high so- cial influence and financial strength, it has-both by its in- ni e nupulses, and by the direction which its Pastor has given it-developed the characteristic of systematic benevolence to a degree not often attained by congregations. Its influence npon the growth of Congregationalism, of Missions, of Free-

dom, and of every good word and work, has ever been de- cided and unquestioned.

In this, the Church of the Pilgrims but reflects the wide sympathies, the catholicity of spirit and the judicious labors of its Pastor. For the past thirty-eight years he has repre- sented a broad and unsectarian Christianity, and has been to many of the oldest families on the Heights the Pastor, the moral teacher and example of undeviating integrity, no man's enemy, but never swerving from the right line of duty to be any man's friend. Many, baptised by him in infancy, have been married by him in their days of love and gladness, and commended by him to God's mercy in the hour of deatlı. He has stood by the graves of those whose cradles were blessed by his ministry. Gray-headed men and women be- hold him still in the full strength of his manhood, who wel- comed him when a mere stripling to his now famous pulpit. One can hardly conceive of a church with such a name bay- ing any but a New England Pastor ; and Dr. Storrs is still a New England man to the backbone; although liis thoughts, like other men's, have been "widened with the process of the suns." He believes to this day in the ideal of the Puri- tans, a Commonwealth based on Christianity, not less than he believes in the distinctive principle of Congregationalism, that "any body of Christians, associated together, and statedly meeting for the worship of God and the administra- tion of Christian ordinances, constitutes a Christian church. is to be regarded as such, and is possessed of all the powers and privileges incident thereunto." Loving New England as the home of his fathers and the scene of his early life, while others traverse the seas and bring back the gods of other lands into the American Pantheon, Dr. Storrs spends his summer holidays on the Island, or in New Eng- land.

The record of the thirty-eight years, during which Dr. Storrs has filled the pulpit of this church, comprises the his- tory of Brooklyn; the growth of its churches, libraries, schools and hospitals; the transformation of nearly a whole county into a populous city; the connecting of this city with the great metropolis across the river, by a magnificent bridge; the passing away of an old era, and the grafting in of new life, through emigration from all lands; the ebb and flow of old and new enterprises; the inception and success- ful foundation of literary, artistic, scientific and religious centres-which all go to make up a great city. No man has more thoroughly inwoven his life with that of the commu- nity in which he dwells than Dr. Storrs; and the rounded periods of his golden eloquence have added the crowning grace to most of the events of civic importance which have signalized Brooklyn's growth.

Ile has been a Director of the Long Island Historical Society from its organization, and the Chairman of its Execu. tive Committee until his going to Europe in 1871. Upon his return, in 1873, he was elected its President, which office he still retains. He is also a Trustee of the Brooklyn Eye and Ear llospital.

llis oratorieal and public efforts, in spoken as well as writ- ten productions, are always remarkable. His words are felicitously chosen; his imagery grund in conception and without a flaw; his diction stately and polished, yet infused

Richard

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ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATIONS.

with energy and warmtlı. For a peculiar quality of sus- tained eloquence, which never for an instant forgets the dignity of his theme, he surpasses-in the opinion of the best judges-any living orator. Wherever the English lan- guage is spoken, his speeches are treasured as pearls of price, and his solid attainments in literature, as well as his broad sympathy with all that is best in the domains of Re- ligion, Art, Science and Thought, is recognized.

Dr. Storrs' contributions to literature-in the form of ser- mons, orations, lectures, etc., have been numerous and valua- ble ; though not, as yet, collected in permanent form .*

That his sympathies are not confined to the circle of his own denomination, nor even of Protestantism, is well at- tested by the fact that so great a Catholic theologian as Car- dinal Newman wrote to him a few years since, in connection with an address on Roman Catholicism, delivered before the Evangelical Alliance in New York, by Dr. Storrs, thanking him for his kindly spirit, his wish to be impartial, and to do generous justice to Catholics; and asking if he could wonder that so many, like himself, had taken refuge in Catholicism when he looked at the endless discords of Protestantism. No higher compliment could be paid to one of the foremost of Protestant controversialists, by the greatest living defender of Roman Catholicism, than such acknowledgment of his learning, candor and magnanimity.

No greater evidence of the appreciation and affection in which he is held by his people, and the community in which he dwells, could be found, than in the substantial testimonial presented to Dr. Storrs, on November 19, 1881, on the com- pletion of the thirty-fifth year of his pastorate. This was in the form of a certificate of deposit for $35,000 (being $1,000 for each successive year of his ministry among them), pre- sented to him by the members, and former members, of his flock. This magnificent gift was induced by no necessity in the circumstances of the revered recipient (who has always enjoyed an ample salary); but by a strong sense, on their part, of the obligations under which his parishioners felt to him, for his life-long services to them.

In the few pertinent remarks with which Dr. Storrs re- ceived this touching expression of love, he said:

" A man stands pretty much on his own feet in this world, and you and I understand each other; we have always done that remarkably well, and I believe we do now. I un- derstand perfectly that you intend me to receive this as a means of utter quietness of mind, in time to come, concern- ing worldly affairs, as a fresh inspiration to the work which I have tried to do before, and which I shall try to do better and better as long as I live among you ; and in that spirit and with that feeling I accept it, certainly with heartfelt

gladness and gratitude. I will treasure it; I will try to use it aright; I will try to leave it to those who come after me, that they may also remember the church to which I have ministered so long. I am reminded as I stand in these rooms, which have sacred and tender memories connected with them, and as I look into the faces of some here present, faces which I have seen wet with tears and clouded with agony, that there is an impulse here from those whom we do not see but who are still tenderly beloved; I feel that there is a touch of celestial hands upon this gift. It comes to me con- secrated by most holy and tender memories of my ministry among you in the thirty-five years that have passed. I shall speak of it with you, by and by; I shall speak of it with you again when we reach that state where all earthly possessions have ceased to be of interest to us, but where the affections that we have cherished toward each other on earth shall be consummated and made immortal. It comes to me with surprise, when I think of it, that, with the single exception of a clergyman of the Episcopal church in the Eastern Dis- trict, I am the oldest settled pastor in Brooklyn to-day. And I think, with the single exception of Dr. Bellows in New York, there is none there whose pastoral term equals my own. I pray that the blessing of God may rest upon these clerical brethren present, upon the churches to which they minister, upon all the churches of our land, and upon the city of our common regard, which sweeps out so widely from year to year that it has grown in my ministry from 65,000 to 600,000 inhabitants; which never had so bright a future opening before it as it has, I think, at this very hour. I pray that God's blessing may abide upon it. I cannot lion- estly say that I wish I was again 25 years old, for that would be to blot out an immense amount of happiness, at home and in public, and of joyful work and service, and to cut me off from many of the most intimate and tenderest attaclı- ments of my life; but I can honestly say that if I were 25 years old again, and an opportunity were given me, there is no city in the country to which I would go so soon as to Brooklyn, and there is no church in the country to which I would go so soon as to. the Church of the Pilgrims. I pray that God's blessing may rest upon it, and upon the city, and upon you all, and upon all associated with us."

As a minister of Christ, as a citizen, and as a lover of his fellow-men, it may be truly said that Dr. Storrs, in his life- service in Brooklyn, has followed the injunction contained in the verse selected by him as the text (I Corinthians, iv., 2) of his first sermon to the church over which he still presides: " Moreover, it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful."

* Among those which have been published, we may especially men- tlon :- A Sermon, delivered before his own congregation, December, 1850, during the Fugitive Slave Law agitation, on The Obligation of Man to Obey the Civil Law, its Ground and Extent; an Address, at the Ainherst College Cominencement, 1852, on The True Success of Human Life; an Oratlon at the Senil-Centennial of Monson Academy, 1854, on The Relations of Commerce to Literature; a Discourse before the So- ciety for Promoting Collegiate Education, Providence, R. I., 1855, on Colleges as a Power in Civilization; Character in the Preacher, Theol. Seminary, Andover, 1856; an Oration on The Puritan Scheme of National Growth, before the N. Y. New Eng. Soc., 1857; Sermon, The Law of Growth in the Kingdom of God, Young Men's Chr. Assoc., 1858; "Things Which are Not"-the Instruments of Advancing God's Kingdom, before the Am. Bd. Com. Foreign Miss., 1861; The Preaching of Christ in Citics, before the Y. M. Chris. Assoc., 1864; Orations in Commemora- tion of President Lincoln, Brooklyn, June 1, 1865, and at the unveiling of the Lincoln Statue in Prospect Park, 1869; Discourse, The Aim of Christianity, for those who Acecpt it, Princeton Theol. Sem, 1867; Ser- mon before the Ancient and Hon. Artillery Co. of Boston, 1868; Dis- course, Unlon Theol. Sem., 1869, The Incarnation, and the System which Stands upon it; Address before the Evangelical Alliance, New York,

1873, on The Attractions of Romanism for Educated Protestants; Oration before the New York Historical Society, 1875, The Early American Spirit, and the Genesis of it; Oration, July 4, 1876, in New York city, The Declaration of Independence, and the Effect of it; Oration be- fore the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Harvard College, 1880, The Recogni- tion of the Supernatural in Letters and Life; John Wickliffe, and the First English Bible, New York Academy of Music, 1880. Nor must we overlook his brilliant address at the opening of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, May, 1883; or his addresses before the Long Island Hist. Society, on Libraries in Europe (without notes), and upon the Life and Services of Gen. O. M. Mitchell, neither of which have been published.

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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 91

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