Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 56

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823-
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman
Number of Pages: 1094

USA > New York > Jefferson County > Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894 > Part 56

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much honor to himself and with universal satisfaction to his constituents.

He is a gentleman of even temperament, and possesses a genial disposition and a kind- ness of heart which have made him one of the most popular and best-known residents of Jefferson county.

It will be matter of surprise if he is not re-

nominated, for his administration of the office has been unusually economical and popular. He is the people's man, gentle in manner, without a particle of gall in his disposition- a gentleman who has many friends, because he is always friendly. [As this History is passing through the press, Mr. Pierce is again nominated].

SOME WATERTOWN PREACHERS.

DURING the author's residence in Water- town, from 1833 to 1861, he heard many able preachers of all the denominations. Some of these he knew well in Watertown-one of them later upon a much broader theatre, and under the full glare of popularity in a great city. It is natural that the author should select such as he knew for special mention, for he can write best of those he knew best. To each of those named below, he owes fealty and great personal obligation, for some of them were the instructors of his children, and they were all of them the heralds of that blessed Gospel which is the hope of the world

REV. JOHN PEDDIE.

IN the spring of 1865, John Peddie was engaged to temporarily supply the vacant pulpit of the Watertown Baptist Church. He was then completing the last year of his preparatory studies for the ministry.

His first sermon made a marked impression. Few were prepared for such an incisive, spiritual and eloquent discourse from a theo- logical student. Many who heard him at once came to the conclusion that he had been sent by the Divine Spirit. As the weeks of his engagement passed, it became the settled opinion of the church and congregation that he ought to be called as pastor. The attend- ance increased, and at the evening services it was soon necessary to place chairs in the aisles to accommodate the large congrega- tions. In the prayer meetings, also, a deep interest developed under the inspiring minis- trations of our young and zealous brother. He was modest and unassuming, and in the pulpit and prayer meetings his whole soul seemed aglow in the service of Christ. He early won the hearts of the young people of the congregation, and this circle of good influ- ence drew many to hear his impassioned ser- mons. He was earnest in the offer of sacrifice of praise to God continually. Soon after he came here, the town was shocked by the news of the assassination of President Lincoln. The part he bore in the memorial services in Washington Hall, in honor of the memory of the martyred President, is recalled with vivid distinctness. He was chosen to fill a prominent place in the programme, and the building was crowded. The audience seemed surcharged with deep feeling. Every one present was as sincere a mourner as though some blood relative had been suddenly stricken down.

The truth is that the deep emotion welling up in his patriotic heart, at first almost over- came his self-control, but after a few senten- ces he went on in a way that moved the great assemblage to tears. The silence was almost painful, relieved only by occasional sobs as the silver-voiced preacher read the Scripture selections. So deep was the impression upon the audience by his reading of God's word, that the subsequent oration delivered by a distinguished judge, failed to secure the attention it really deserved. From that day Mr. Peddie was secure in his position as a man of great popularity in Watertown. Before his return to his theological studies, at the close of his vacation, the church had felt its duty made clear to extend to him a call to become its pastor.

At a council called by the Baptist Church in Watertown, for the purpose of ordaining Bro. John Peddie to the Gospel ministry, in response to the invitation extended, delegates from nine churches in the Black River Bap- tist Association were present and took their seats. The candidate was called upon to re- late his Christian experience, which he did in a very clear and concise manner.

After his ordination he settled down to a severe course of preparation for his accepted calling. As a pastor, he soon endeared him- self to both church and congregation, by his full consecration to his calling, and his genial intercourse with the people. The three years of his pastorate in Watertown were not made conspicuous by any remark- able events, but the growth of the church was steady and healthful. He did good work, and left the church in excellent condition, spiritu- ally and financially. In the pulpit he was of commanding presence. He was a handsome man, of medium height, with an athletic and symmetrical body. The trace of Scotch accent in his speech gave a charm to his eloquent words, and the intense emotional feeling displayed in his beautiful sentences, uttered with unusual pathos, went to the heart like a strain of music.

From the first he discarded notes in the pulpit. His sermons and addresses were laboriously written, and often they were re- written, and then, by reading them over once or twice, he would deliver them word for word without hesitation. He was a hard worker, and a consecrated and devoted searcher after the truth of the Word, in all his preparation for his ministerial duties. His soul was cast in a large mould. From the

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REV. JOHN PEDDIE.

first he was an earnest preacher. He carried the commands of his Lord and Master at full speed.

In 1868 Mr. Peddie was married to Miss M. H. Wilson, of Watertown; she was a member of the Methodist Church. On March 22, 1868, Miss Wilson was immersed and became a member of the Watertown Baptist Church. The marriage took place a short time before his removal to Albany, but it met with the hearty approval and best wishes of a large circle of devoted friends. It was with deep regret that the people received the announce- ment of his call to Albany, but with Chris- tian courtesy the wider field of labor was recognized. His subsequent career has

always been to members of his first pastorate a subject of the deepest interest. It was in Watertown that he commenced his ministry. Here he was ordained and here he married his wife. It is not too much to claim, there- fore, that to the Watertown Baptist Church he owed much for the early inspirations that gave him equipment for his useful life in his later pastorate. And surely no young minis- ter was

ever more fortunate in being surrounded by a loving and devoted church than was Mr. Peddie. "He came at our united and earnest call, and left us only because we

were too small a church to keep one so gifted and called of God, from a larger field of usefulness," were the words of our venerable Deacon Harbottle, in recalling the first ap- pearance and subsequent labors of our friend and brother, and former pastor. And after a moment's thought came the good Deacon's summing up of his work here : " He was a faithful servant of the Lord Jesus Christ."

A. D. S.

REV. PETER SNYDER.

In the summer of 1848, Rev. Peter Snyder came to Watertown as pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church (now the Stone Street Church), but then situated on the corner of Factory and Mechanic streets.

A small, slight man of boyish face and energetic movements, whose conspicuous spectacles and whose frequent use of his staff with the staghorn handle, showed that his eyesight was defective-a quick smile for everyone he met; a rich voice, a hearty laugh, a sympathy that never failed to find common ground with every interlocutor, and to make every child his friend. Such was the new minister, and such were the evident qualifications which Mr. Snyder brought to

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the up-building of a poor and struggling church. But it was not long before the community also knew that his mind was one of the most vigorous in their midst, his heart the most all-embracing, his slight shoulders strong to bear the burdens of a church and of a town. For more than fifteen years he con tinued the beloved pastor of the church, living on a scanty salary, and refusing calls to wealthier churches for fear of dealing a death blow to his own, the existence of which was threatened by the growth of the town away from its once central position. During this decade and a half, when his ordinary church duties implied, for the most part, three preaching services on the Sabbath and two week-day meetings, besides innumer- able funerals, weddings and pastoral calls, Mr. Snyder never declined a duty toward the community at large; and while he had no desire to be a political leader, he recognized his responsibilities as a citizen, and believed that the true pastor is the pastor of all the weak. When it was the cause of the drunk- ard or of the slave that was at stake, he found the rostrum as sacred as the pulpit; and few could go away from his addresses uninflu- enced. For this small man, erect and straight as an arrow, with a chest broadened by constant exercise, and a voice that filled large halls or groves with no apparent exer- tion, met his audience with a smile and a bright look through his large spectacles, stated his subject honestly and distinctly, and kept the unflagging attention of his auditors while he advanced clear-cut arguments, and clinched them well with telling illustrations. He could never resist the call of the children, and besides giving his own congregation a children's sermon once in two months- sermons which, from their simple directness and charming anecdotes, were often declared by the adults to be the best of the year-he was constantly called upon to address picnics and conventions, where his juvenile audiences listened spell-bound, or gave hearty answers to his suggestive questions. The young men of the town also seemed to him to need a leader in their intellectual life, and the clubs he organized for the study of logic or mental science, started in right-thinking some young men who have since been leaders in their generation. His exposition of "Pilgrims' Progress" and the "Holy War," were a rich inspiration to those who lined the parsonage dining room on winter evenings, and read by the light of "burning fluid " lamps. And his classes in the Jefferson County Institute, by which he earned the tuition of his chil- dren, and in which he dealt with a wide range of subjects. were counted among the richest treats of the academic courses. His friendly intercourse with the other pastors of the town, and indeed of the whole region, belonged to the same spirit of brotherhood in the Kingdom, and there were few of any de- nomination with whom he did not cffect fre- quent exchange of pulpits, and hold consul- tation in the ministers' meetings.

Mr. Snyder's preaching was eminently in-

structive and upbuilding. He used to say that if he understood a subject himself he seldom failed to make it plain to another; and so his first object was to understand God's word, and then, by every charm of freshness, variety and illustration, to win for it an entrance into the lives of his auditors. His eloquence was that of conviction and of intense earnestness. Clear and decided in his own views, he still held them always in abey- ance to new light, and was the first to wel- come advanced truths in science and theol- ogy. Seldom doctrinal in his sermons, he preached both for his people's immediate needs and for their spiritual education; and by his frequent "courses" of sermons on individual books of the Bible, on Old Testa- ment histories, or on the life of Christ, he strove to make them as familiar with God's Word as the classical student is with his Homer.

In conversation, Mr. Snyder was the life of every company, not only by his own contri- butions of incidents and anecdotes, but by drawing out those with whom he talked, and opening the way for them to give their best ideas and fullest information; and on what- ever level the chat began it was sure before long to reach some breezy height, from which all went away the better. He counted a good hearty laugh as a means of grace, and when he threw back his head at the end of one of his good stories and set the example, it was good to be there and join in the happy conclusion. A friend loves to tell of a tea- party where a group of lawyers and business men were hopelessly groping about for social small-talk until Mr. Snyder came in, when, behold, in five minutes' time they were all engaged in an animated conversation, which had in some way been turned to the unusual theme of Heaven. It was such a familiar theme with him-his Father's house-that there was no cant in his frequent allusions to it. Another friend tells us how he said to him only a few months before his death: "Brother H -- , I have been thinking lately that I must begin to cultivate strenuously the grace of patience, for perhaps in the other world the Master may want to send me on errands that will require that quality, and I should be ashamed not to be ready and pre- pared."

To those who loved and trusted Peter Snyder-and such were all who knew him-it will be of interest to know that he was born of excellent German lineage, in Schoharie, N. Y., in 1814 He was affiicted with cata- ract from his birth, and the operations on his eyes in his boyhood were only partially suc- cessful, leaving his sight so defective that he was never able to recognize his friends by sight, though his ear was quick to distinguish them by the tones of the voice. He was never able to put his sermons into writing, nor to use any notes in the pulpit. His edu- cation at Williams and Union colleges, and Princeton and Union Theological seminaries, was carried on in great physical weakness, from which he afterwards recovered by the

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NAV YSTSN SNYDER

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terian Church at Carthage, N. Y., and in Congregational churches in Middletown, Ct., and Burlington, Vt.

REV. W. S. TITUS, A. M.,

WAS born in Victory, Cayuga county, N. Y., June 23, 1820. Converted at 17, he went to Hamilton Literary and Theological Semi- nary, where he remained till the last term of the freshman year, excelling in the studies of Latin and Greek. His means failing, he went to Virginia, where he taught an academy one year, and thence to Georgia, where he taught in Newburn Academy 6 months, and in the spring of 1843 he came North, teaching a select school in Fleming, Cayuga county. In the autumn he became pastor of two small baptist churches in Tioga county. In the winter of 1844 he taught a large district school in Candor, and, during a great revival there, he left the Baptist Church and became a Methodist. In July, 1845, he was received as a probationer in the Oneida Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and station- ed at Berkshire, Tioga county. At the end of a year he entered the junior year at Union College, where he graduated in 1848; then he entered the. junior year at Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York, where he graduated in 1850. By teaching classes in New York, and by missionary labors on the Delaware and Hudson canals during vacations, he earned his money, and was mainly a self- supporting student.

He entered the New Jersey Conference of the M. E. Church in 1850, and was stationed at Bergen; the next year as junior preacher at New Brunswick ; the third year he was a pro- fessor in Pennington Seminary, teaching Greek, Hebrew, etc. Thence he came to Falley Seminary, at Fulton, N. Y., where he taught two terms in Latin, Greek and Hebrew.

In the spring of 1855, having recently mar- ried Miss Sarah E. Newman, he was stationed at Ogdensburg; then at Canton, and thence he came to State Street Methodist Church, Watertown; thence to Camden, Weedsport, Mexico, Geddes and Lowville-filling fourteen stations. His health entirely failed at the end of a successful series of meetings at Union Square, N. Y. He was laid aside for two years, and then for eight years. He preached the Gospel until, in 1890, after 39 years of itinerant service, having had extensive re- vivals and mnuch hard work, he removed per- manently to Syracuse. He experienced a re- markable baptism of the Holy Ghost in August, 1867, upon a sick bed in Wolcott, while not consciously praying for it, and it fell on his wife at the same instant in the room above. The cause of this seemed to be the fact that at an hour, twenty miles east, the throngs of worshippers at the Hannibal camp-meeting, in its closing services had been called on to join in prayer for " the dying minister." That hour and baptism can never be forgotten until he and his are lost in won- drous love and praise in Heaven.

His literary degree was conferred by Union College. He possesses great simplicity of character, supposing it about as easy to step up as it was to step down, in the grade of the churches he served. During his pastorate he saw many conversions, and built up the church, in all its interests, with untiring efficiency. He preached with power and eloquence at camp meetings and elsewhere, and was ever a man of great faith, believing it honor enough to preach the Gospel any- where, in popular appointments or in poor ones.

He was accepted by the Foreign Board of Missions in 1850, and expected to sail soon to Fouchow, China, but Providence interposed. In his retirement at Syracuse, he has labored with remarkable wisdom and well appreciated success for the Syracuse University.

He weilded a ready pen, and his articles for the press showed much research. He was an attractive speaker, and his sermons, even to old age, were accepted in the best pulpits of his own or other denominations. He was loving, genial and true, not specially gifted in conversation, but joyful in social life; de. preciated himself, honored his brethren, loved all, and seems determined to be a ceaseless worker till the call of the Master to go up higher.

RUSSEL A. OLIN,

FOR a long time rector of Trinity Church, Watertown, and a distinguished preacher of the Episcopal Church, was born in Potsdam, St. Lawrence county, January 22, 1839. When only 15, he taught a large school, and at 19 entered Brown University, Rhode Island, where he remained two years. He then taught mathematics in Burlington (N.J.) College for two years. In 1862 he enlisted in the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry, being dis- charged in 1863 for disability. He entered Hobart College in 1863, graduating in 1865, as the valedictorian of his class He was head master at Devereaux College, Suspension Bridge, two years; was ordained deacon of the Episcopal Church, taking priest's orders in 1869. July 1, 1868, he assumed charge of St. James Church, in Clinton, N. Y. In 1871 took charge of St. John's school at Manlius, N. Y., and in 1873 became rector of the Church of the Messiah, at Glen's Falls, N. Y. In 1881 he was rector of Trinity Church, Watertown, in which position he was greatly respected for his pulpit ability and his genial- ity. He was a man easily approached, and of great usefulness in his church. Dying in 1893, he left a memory peculiarly sweet. He married Lucy Pond Gilbert, daughter of Gen, J. S. Gilbert, of Louisiana, and they had five children.

REV. JEDEDIAH WINSLOW

BECAME first generally known to the people of Watertown as a teacher in the Black River Literary and Religious Institute. The writer does not know whether or not he was at that

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time an ordained clergyman, in the Church of England, but he soon became widely known as such in Jefferson county. Perhaps he was best beloved by those soldiers who served with him in the Union army, for he was chap- lain of the 20th N. Y. Cavalry, from April, 1864, to September, 1865, during the great

civil war. No service was too great for him to perform for a brother soldier, and he often went far out of his way to attend funerals of men who had seen service. He could not be called a great preacher, though his attain- ments in that respect were respectable; but in cheerfulness, in facility of approach, in straight-forwardness and simplicity of manner, and in tender regard for others, he was the peer of any man who ever lived.

He was born March 20, 1819, in Rutland, Jefferson county, N. Y. He pursued his col- legiate studies in Watertown and Canton academies, and under private teachers, and was ordained deacon by Bishop DeLancey, in Trinity Church, Geneva, N. Y., December 20, 1857, and priest, in Trinity Church, Buffalo, August 19, 1862. He was a school commis- sioner for Jefferson county, from 1859 to 1864; principal of Antwerp Academy from September, 1866, to September, 1868; and re- ceived the degree of A.M. from Hobart Col-

lege in 1867. He was a missionary of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Jefferson county from 1857 to 1864, and organized the parishes at Carthage, Champion and Antwerp, in this county, and Gouverneur, in St. Law- rence county. Was rector of St. Paul's Church, Brownville, and of Christ Church, Sackets Harbor, from 1865 to 1871, rector of Trinity Church, Camden, N. Y., from April. 1871, until July, 1875; and from July, 1875, to 1880, was rector of St. Stephen's Church, New Hartford N. Y. For some time he was incapacitated from ministerial duties by the loss of his voice. Having recovered, he re- sumed his work, and took charge of St. Paul's Church, Antwerp, in which work he was en- gaged three years, when he was elected rector of Christ's Church, Antwerp, in which work he was engaged three years. when he was elected rector of Christ Church, Sackets Harbor, in which charge he continued until his death, which occurred in 1893. He was married by the Rev. Hiram Doane, in Rutland, N. Y., Sunday, August 27, 1847, to Jane Minerva, daughter of Horace and Pamela (Welch) Tyler, of that town. She died March 26, 1870, at Watertown, and is buried with their only son, Byron Tyler, in the family lot in Brookside cemetery.

WATERTOWN'S INDUSTRIES-CONTINUED.

C. I. VAN DOREN's sash and blind factory is located on Mill street, Beebee's Island. The present proprietor commenced business here in 1875, as a member of the firm of Graves & Van Doren. Mr. Graves withdrew in 1880, and Mr. Van Doren has since con- ducted the business alone. He employs from eight to ten men.

JAMES C. WILSON'S ornamental iron works are located at 29 Arsenal street; established in 1857 by W. D. Wilson; employ from four to six men.

H. K. DOOLITTLE's carriage shop, located in the rear of 132 Main street, was built by the proprietor in 1883. Mr. Doolittle came to this county from Saratoga county in 1857. He enlisted in Co. D, N. Y. H. artillery, and served one year.

WAITE BROTHERS (E. J. and W. A.), are proprietors of the old Mundy malthouse, at 110 Court street, which was built in 1857. The building was leased by the present pro- prietors in 1885, and they now manufacture here 40,000 bushels of malt annually. The same company also runs a malt-house at Adams, with a capacity of 100,000 bushels. E. J. Waite has charge of the Watertown house, and W. A., that of Adams.

GEORGE R. BEAN & Co , dealers in flour, feed, baled hay and straw, 7 and 121 Court and 8 Arsenal streets. Both members of this firm (Mr. C. D. Robbins being the Co.), were born and educated in Watertown. They are large dealers. Business established in 1885.

GEO. R. HANFORD, in the Flower block, is the largest dealer in musical instruments

and music in Watertown. He began as clerk in the Watertown Bank and Loan Company in 1857, and afterwards several months was clerk with John C. Sterling, when. in 1860, he purchased from A. H. Hall his interest in the book business, the firm becoming Little & Hanford. Then the firm was Hanford & Wood, subsequently changing to the present proprietor. His book business he sold in 1884. Mr. Hanford is now one of the oldest merchants of Watertown.

PEOPLE'S CLOTHING STORE. 54 Court street; Devendorf and Fuess block.

CAMPBELL & MOULTON, dealers in dry goods; 8 Court street.

J. LEBOVSKY, Star Clothing House; 28 Court street.

C. KLUMP, manufacturer of boots, shoes and rubbeis; 24 Court street.

ROBERTS & SONS, wholesale and retail dealers in groceries and provisions; 36 Court street.

IRA L. GREEN, jeweler; 24 Court street.

HUNTING & WEEKS, jobbers of plumbers' and tinners' supplies, 48 Court street.

H. E. CONGER & Co., wholesale grocers and druggists, Watertown, N. Y.

ZIMMERMAN & HARDIMAN, furniture and carpets; stores 40 and 42 Court street; facto- ries 5, 7, 9 and 11 Front street.

SAMUEL FELT & Co., wholesale and retail druggists; 12 Court street.

GEO. HAAS & SON, boots, shoes trunks and bags; 4 Court street.

S. GILLINGHAM, Atlantic Tea Store; Arsenal and Court streets.

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H. L. STIMSON, livery; 33 Arsenal street.

SPARKS & Co., cash grocers, dealers in staple and fancy groceries; 1 Devendorf & Fuess block, Court street.

S. L. GEORGE, watches and jewelry; 6 Court street.

GEO. MCCOMBER, wholesale grocer, fruit and commission merchant; 31 Court street.

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Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 56

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823- Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman Number of Pages: 1094

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823-
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman
Number of Pages: 1094