USA > New York > Dutchess County > Hyde Park > Historical notes of Saint James Parish, Hyde Park-on-Hudson, New York, in commemoration of the belated centenary anniversary of the consecration of the first parish church, October 10, 1811 > Part 3
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The Rev. Authon T. Gesner, Professor of Ethics and Apolo- getics in the Berkeley Divinity School, is his brother.
*See plate facing page 72.
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Historical Notes of
THE REVEREND AMOS TURNER ASHTON, D.D. 1891-1911
Dr. Ashton was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on May 3, 1849. He was the son of Job and Abby Stacy (Turner) Ashton. On his mother's side he was descended from one of the earliest New England families; Hugh Stacy, her great- great-grandfather, having settled in the colony of Plymouth, in the year 1622.
The public schools of Providence, and Brown University, supplied the classical education, which was to bear the fruit of a faithful ministry of thirty-six years. Dr. Ashton was graduated from Brown in the class of 1872, and the next year entered the General Theological Seminary in New York. He was ordained Deacon in 1875 and Priest in Advent of the same year by Bishop Horatio Potter.
On June 30, 1875, he married Amelia Huntington Sill, younger daughter of Rev. Ferderick and Margaret (Cocks) Sill, of New York City, and entered upon the duties of his first cure: S. Thomas Church, Amenia Union, New York. Two daughters were born to him at Amenia, Margaret Abby, and Leonora Sill.
In 1878 Mr. Ashton accepted the rectorship of Trinity Church, West Haverstraw New York; and in addition to his parochial duties, assumed the missionary charge of the neigh- boring village of Haverstraw, and the mountain missions of Rockland County.
Two sons were born at West Haverstraw, Mortimer Stacy, the present rector of Zion Church, Morris, New York; and Frederick Turner, the present rector of S. Pauls Church, Salem, New York.
After a service of thirteen years, devoted to these labors, he was elected rector of S. James Church, Hyde Park, N. Y., and continued in this parish until the day of his death.
He was appointed Archdeacon of Duchess by Bishop Henry C. Potter in 1901, and under his direction an active mis- sionary work was carried on in the central and eastern sections of the county.
AMOS TURNER ASHTON.
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S. James Church
In 1903 Brown University awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity with these prophetic words: "Amos Turner Ashton, a 'Workman that needeth not to be ashamed.' " (2 Tim. 2:15.) Prophetic, because as a country missionary at Amenia and West Haverstraw, as rector of his two parishes, as Archdeacon and as a clerical member of the Standing Committee of the Dioceses of New York, to which body he was elected in 1904, and on which he served until his death, he proved himself a 'Faithful dispenser of the Word of GOD, and of His Holy Sacraments."
Dr. Ashton was a keen classical scholar, his chief pleasure, apart from the discharge of his official duties, being historical research. He was a recognized authority on Church History and Canon Law.
Too keen an observer of the complexity of human nature to be concerned with the partisan feelings which from time to time are asserted by the various schools of thought in the Church, Dr. Ashton manifested in his public and private life that: "In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." And this breadth of sympathy for all mankind was the basis of his success in the private counsel of a Shepherd of Souls, as well as in the weightier deliberations of a Church Dignitary.
On Christmas Day, 1910, Dr. Ashton celebrated the Holy Communion in S. James Chapel, Hyde Park. This was the last public service at which he officiated. For many months he had suffered from an affection of the heart which finally ended his ministry of thirty-six years.
In perfect consciousness, he entered into life eternal, on January 10, 1911.
THE REVEREND EDWARD PEARSONS NEWTON* 1912-
The Rev. Edward Pearsons Newton, son of the Rev. Ben- jamin Ball and Adeline (Prichard) Newton, was born in Saint Albans, Vermont, August 28, 1859. The family moving to Brooklyn, New York, he was educated in Holy Trinity Parish
*See plate facing page 70.
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Historical Notes of
School, and Saint Johns School, Manlius, New York, graduat- ing from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, in the class of 1881. Having some doubts as to his vocation to the minis- try he taught for two years, entering Berkeley Divinity School, Middletown, Connecticut, in 1883. He was ordained Deacon by the Rt. Rev. John Williams, D.D., on June 2, 1886, and Priest by the Rt. Rev. John Franklin Spalding, D.D., in Den- ver, Colorado, on December 18, of the same year. He was rector of Holy Trinity Church, Pueblo, Colorado, from 1886 until May, 1902, when he became Senior Curate of Calvary Church, New York, under the Rev. J. Lewis Parks, D.D., which post he resigned in November, 1907, having offered himself to the Rt. Rev. Peter Trimble Rowe, D.D., for missionary service in Alaska. He was stationed in Valdez, on Prince William Sound, having charge as well of the Church's missions in Cor- dova, Seward and Katalla, which duties he resigned in August, 1911. He was elected rector of Saint James Church, Hyde Park, January 8, 1912. On February 8, 1912, in Calvary Church, New York, he was married to Miss Carolina Burton Hart, only daughter of Dr. Charles Alfred and Virginia (Bur- ton) Hart, and came into residence February 16, 1912.
ARCHIBALD ROGERS.
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S. James Church
THE FIRST VESTRYMEN
SAMUEL BARD - Wardens.
MORGAN LEWIS
JOHN JOHNSTON
NATHANIEL PENDLETON
WILLIAM BROOME
WILLIAM BARD
CHRISTOPHER HUGHES, 2d
JAMES DUANE LIVINGSTON
TITUS DUTTON
WILLIAM ALEXANDER DUER
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Historical Notes of
SAMUEL BARD, M.D.
Senior Warden 1812-1821
The earliest Bard colonists settled in Delaware. Samuel, the son of Doctor John and Susanne (Valleau) Bard, was born in Philadelphia, April 1, 1742. The family removed to New York City when Samuel was four years old.
His mother was a descendant of Peter Fauconnier, a French refugee, who was Receiver General and Treasurer to Lord Cornbury (Edward Hyde), Queen Anne's favorite cousin, when he was Royal Governor. Fauconnier received from his patron several grants of land, one of which, styled in his honor "Hyde Park", ultimately fell by inheritance to Mrs. Bard, the claims of other heirs having been settled by cash payments. Hyde Park was originally the name of this country estate (now owned by Mr. Frederick W. Vanderbilt), and the Bards were at first annoyed when it was applied to the local inn and to the village.
Samuel was educated in the schools of New York City, and pursued the study of medicine under the guidance of his father. He sailed for London in November, 1761, where he enjoyed some practical hospital experience under eminent men of the time, and went to Edinburgh in September, 1762, taking a three years' course in medicine and receiving his diploma on September 6, 1765. He was married in Christ Church, Phila- delphia, on May 14, 1770, to his cousin, Mary Bard, a daughter of Peter and Marie (de Normandie) Bard. In the Edin- burgh University there were quite a number of American stu- dents in medicine. They often discussed the need for Medical Colleges in the new land. Those from Philadelphia were first successful in a move in this direction, but within a year of his return to New York, Doctor Bard had so stirred the medical profession in the city that the first Medical School was organ- ized and united to Kings College (now Columbia University), and he was given the Professorship of "The Practice of Physic".
When the first degrees were conferred in 1769, to Doctor Bard was assigned the honorable task of addressing the stu-
SAMUEL BARD.
After a portrait painted by Samuel Waldo, owned by the New York Hospital. Through the courtesy of the Board of Directors.
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S. James Church
"dents. In his discourse upon "The Duties of a Physician", he took occasion to enforce the necessity for a public hospital in New York City. The suggestion was welcomed.
The Governor, trustees of the College, and others subscribed to a fund at once, which later received more general donations. A site for the New York Hospital was bought, and a building erected, which burned before it was used. This blow, to- gether with the political dissensions of the time, delayed fur- ther work until 1791. When the hospital was finally opened Doctor Bard became the first Attending Physician, visiting its wards daily until his retirement from active practise in 1798.
In 1813 when a separation took place between Columbia College and its Medical School, upon the remodelling of the latter, Doctor Bard became the President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which position he held until his death.
A man of Doctor Bard's character and activity could not re- tire from the active practise of his profession to a life of idle ease. The picture of his life at Hyde Park presented by his biographer is a charming one. He was an early riser, and he regularly devoted a part of his early morning to religious read- ing and reflection, by which, as he himself expressed it, he en- deavored to "set his mind to a right edge for the business of the day".
The morning was devoted to reading and study, guiding the studies of his family, and to the care of the estate, which he greatly improved and beautified, importing and planting trees which are greatly admired today. The strength and charm of the personality of this remarkable man is evidenced by the way in which relatives and friends were drawn to make their coun- try homes in Hyde Park, and the social life of those days, from all accounts, must have been most delightful.
A friend in writing to him shortly after the consecration of the Church says: "God has been pleased, my dear friend, to afford you the ability, and to give you the heart, to make great ex- ertions in his service, and has shown you His favor in permit- ting you to accomplish a work of so much present usefulness, and of such future promise. I trust that the same dispensa-
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Historical Notes of
tions in which your children partake with you, will be contin- ued to their descendants; and that if the inhabitants of a better world be spectators of the employments of this, you may be privileged to behold your descendants from generation to gen- eration offering up the sacrifice of humble and contrite hearts in that house which God has enabled you to erect for His wor- ship and service."
A man who was prime mover in the establishment of three institutions, a medical school, a hospital, and a parish church, needs no eulogium. His works do follow him and speak his praise.
He died at Hyde Park, May 24, 1821, within twenty-four hours of the death of his wife on May 23, which had been a desire long cherished, and their bodies rest in the same grave in the churchyard. On May 28, Sarah (de Normandie) Barton died, aged eighty-eight.
MORGAN LEWIS
Junior Warden 1812-1827. Senior Warden 1897-1836
Morgan Lewis was born in New York on October 16, 1754, being the second son of Francis Lewis, a signer of the Declara- tion of Independence, and of Elizabeth Annesley. He owed his early education to his mother, later being placed at a gram- mar school in Elizabethtown, whence he entered Princeton College. There his favorite companion was James Madison. Lewis graduated from Princeton with honor in 1773.
He had chosen the Church as his profession, but complied with the wishes of his father in adopting law, and was about to commence his legal studies in London when the War of the Rev- olution began. In 1775 Lewis joined as a volunteer the Ameri- can forces before Boston.
In August of the same year Lewis took command, with the title of Major, of a company of volunteers. Almost immediate- ly he was ordered to prevent the "Asia", an English vessel, from interfering with a small party of citizens who at night- fall were removing military equipments from the Arsenal on the Battery. "This task he accomplished successfully.
In June, 1776, Major Lewis, with the rank of Colonel, ac-
MORGAN LEWIS.
From a portrait by Trumbull, in the New York City Hall.
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S. James Church
companied General Gates as chief of staff when the latter took command of the army in Canada. In August, 1777, when the battle of Ticonderoga was fought, Colonel Lewis was stationed on the heights with a few mounted men to act as messengers to report to General Gates the movements of the enemy. So well did he accomplish this that the next day the enemy were invited to stack their arms on the plains, and were led out through a double line of American troops.
At the close of the Revolution, Lewis, as colonel of a regiment, had the honor of escorting General Washington at his first inauguration as President.
When the war was ended Colonel Lewis took up the study and practise of law, and represented Duchess County, to which he had removed, in the Assembly. In 1791 he was ap- pointed Attorney-General of State. In 1792 he was raised to the bench of the Supreme Court, and the next year he became Chief Justice, and finally, Governor of the state of New York in 1801.
In the War of 1812 Lewis was made, first, Brigadier, and then Major-General. At the conclusion of this war he retired to private life. In 1779 he had married Gertrude, daughter of Robert Livingston, and sister of Robert R. and Edward Living- ston, who were successively ministers to the Court of France.
For many years he presided over the Historical Society and the Order of the Cincinnati. He died in 1844 in his ninetieth year, and his body rests in the churchyard.
1:52821
JUDGE JOHN JOHNSTON
Vestryman 1812. Junior Warden 1829-1836. Senior Warden 1836-1850
Judge John Johnston was born June 13, 1762. He was a descendant of Dr. John Johnston, who was Mayor of the City of New York in 1712. He married on May 26, 1792, Susannah, eldest child of Dr. Samuel and Mary Bard. About 1798 Judge Johnston, together with his friends, Dr. Samuel Bard, and General Morgan Lewis, settled at Hyde Park. For a
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Historical Notes of
time Judge Johnston was a vestryman and clerk of Christ Church, Poughkeepsie, until he joined with others in found- ing Saint James Church, Hyde Park. For some years he was Supervisor of the town. On June 5, 1807, he was made Presiding Judge of the court of Common Pleas of Duchess County, and on February 4, 1820, he became clerk of the county. He died August 29, 1850.
NATHANIEL PENDLETON Vestryman 1812
Nathaniel Pendleton, son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Clayton) Pendleton was born in Culpeper County, Virginia, 1756.
His brother Edmund Pendleton was famous as a patriot in the days prior to the Revolution, presiding over the Virginia convention, and himself drew up the instructions for the dele- gates to the colonial convention wherein they were bidden to propose that the convention declare "the United States free and independent states, absolved from all allegiance or de- pendence upon the crown or parliament of Great Britain." Nathaniel studied law, and in 1796 opened law offices in New York City, and there married Susannah, a sister of Dr. Samuel Bard. Washington suggested his name for Secretary of State, but the suggestion was opposed by Alexander Hamilton, who feared that he was "somewhat tainted with the prejudices of Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison." Later he became a close personal friend to Hamilton and was his second in the famous duel, Hamilton dying in his arms. He was a delegate to the convention of 1787, which framed the Constitution of the United States, though being absent on the last day of its ses- sions, he failed to sign the document. He attained eminence at the bar in New York. In consequence of the strong affections of the Bard family, he, too, naturally made Hyde Park his country home, and became Judge of Duchess County. Some of his descendants of the fifth generation are still resident here, and it is the burial place of the family. He died in Hyde Park October 20, 1821.
WILLIAM BARD. After a portrait owned by his granddaughter, Mrs. Charles A. Moran.
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S. James Church
WILLIAM BROOM
Vestryman 1812
William Broom (born in Bristol, England, Nov. 27, 1769), whose wife was Annike Crooke, widow of Colonel William Barber, lived at Bellefield, the present residence of Mr. Thomas Newbold. He was a merchant in New York City. Charles Crooke, the father of Mrs. Broom, owned eighteen hundred acres along the Hudson south of the village, and it was he who set out the trees, for a mile upon the public highway, which are so great an adornment of the road to Poughkeepsie, and so great a comfort to summer travelers.
A tradition in the Crooke family has it that the timbers for old Christ Church in Poughkeepsie were cut upon the Crooke place, and brought to town by his oxen, being a gift for the erection of the church in which he was deeply interested. William Broom and Ann (Crooke) Barber were married by the Rev. Philander Chase, later the famous pioneer Bishop, on July 8, 1801. Broom's eldest child Mary was the wife first of Edward P. Livingston and second of Judge Charles Ruggles. He left two sons Charles and John. He died in Albany, January 17, 1830, in his sixty-second year. The in- scription upon his wife's tombstone reads as follows. "Sacred to the memory of Ann Broom, daughter of Charles Crooke, born at Crum Elbow, April 14, 1765, died at Brookside, Pough- keepsie, April 27, 1856, in the 89th year of her age".
WILLIAM BARD
Vestryman 1812. Senior Warden 1822-1827. Junior War- den 1827-1820
William Bard, son of Dr. Samuel and Mary Bard was born in Philadelphia April 4, 1778. He was graduated from Columbia College in the class of 1798, and directly be- gan the study of law under Judge Maturin Livingston. On October 7, 1802, in Trinity Church, New York, he was married to Miss Catharine Cruger, daughter of Nicholas and Anna
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Historical Notes of
(de Nully) Cruger. Dr. Bard made over to him an estate, from a portion of Hyde Park, and his wife inheriting a large fortune from her grandmother, Madame de Nully of the Island of San Croix, W. I., they built a house and set up an establish- ment and named the place "de Nully". Upon the death of his father and mother William Bard took possession of the paternal home and there kept up the same extended hospitali- ties as did his father. Bishop Moore had officiated at William Bard's wedding, and his son, the Rev. Clement Moore, was very intimate in the family at Hyde Park, and he read to the chil- . dren his much beloved poem "The Night Before Christmas" from the manuscript before it ever was published. After the Revolution, the old families, long seated on domains on the Hudson began to be regarded with no friendly eye. Those of them who were members of the Cincinnati were looked upon as aristocrats not to be tolerated. William Bard saw that the day of his ancestors and their traditional life was passing. Again, a large family of children had grown up, and they pressed him to remove to the city. With "a heavy heart" he sold Hyde Park to Dr. David Hosack, and about 1826 removed to New York. He was pressed to take the presidency of Columbia College, but he knew he had not the dominating character for such leadership. His influence was great, but from example, and a singular perfection of the religious side of his nature. He was preeminently a scholar, Five o'clock every morning found him at his studies and reading. He founded the New York Life Insurance and Trust Co., and was its president. He was active in the benevolent doings of his day. He never began his business duties until he had attended Morning Prayer in Trinity Church. He died October 17, 1853, in his home at Staten Island and his body lies buried in a family vault in Saint Marks churchyard on the Bowery. It is evident from the dates above that the parish would not listen to his resig- nation as Senior Warden immediately upon his moving from Hyde Park.
JAMES DUANE LIVINGSTON.
After a miniature painted by Carlsen in 1809. Through the courtesy of the. family of the late Charles James Livingston.
WILLIAM ALEXANDER DUER. After a portrait by Henry Inman, in the possession of Columbia University, N.Y
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S. James Church
CHRISTOPHER HUGHES, 2d
Vestryman 1812
Christopher Hughes, 2d, was the son of Captain Christopher Hughes (b. Sept. 17, 1745; d. May 22, 1805), the first of the name in these parts. Captain Christopher was engaged in trading with the West Indies, and made New Haven his home port, where his son was born August 14, 1772. He married as his second wife Abigail Mulford of Staatsburgh, and made that town his home. There is a tradition that upon his settlement here he brought all his wealth in Continental paper money, that in some manner it was water soaked, that he and his mate hired a room in a home north of the church, in which to spread out and dry the bills. He bought land north of Staats- burgh.
For his son he bought a farm between S. James and Staats- burgh. Christopher, 2d, was married December 12, 1832, to Rachel Pawling, who died November 22, 1850, while he died May 30, 1856.
JAMES DUANE LIVINGSTON Vestryman 1812
James Duane Livingston, of "The Locusts", Staatsburgh-on- Hudson, N. Y., and a member of the first Vestry of S. James Church, Hyde Park, was born in the City of New York, on September 1, 1786. He was the youngest son of Robert "Cam- bridge" Livingston and Alice Swift, his wife, and a grandson of Robert Livingston, third (and last) Lord of the Manor of Livingston. He was graduated from Columbia College in the Class of 1804, studied law in the office of Peter Van Schaack, of Kinderhook with the son of Alexander Hamilton and other sons of prominent New York families, and was admitted to the Bar, by Chancellor Kent, in 1810. On October 9, 1809, he was married by Bp. White, of Pennsylvania, to his cousin, Sarah Swift, of Philadelphia, at the country residence of her father, Charles Swift, "Croyden Lodge", Bucks Co., Pa. Mr. Livingston made his home in Staatsburgh for about twenty-
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Historical Notes of
five years, and all but one of his ten children were born there. They are all (but one) buried with their parents, in S. James churchyard.
After the death of his wife, in 1835, Mr. Livingston decided to move to New York, and sold "The Locusts" to Robert Emmet, Esq. His own death followed shortly after, on June 25, 1837. He left but one son, the late Charles James Living- ston of New York, and daughters, Alice, who married Howard Tillotson, Esq .; Julia, wife of Hon. Charles A. Peabody; and Louisa, wife of Oliver H. Jones, Esq, of New York and Long .. Island. The others died unmarried, in early life.
WILLIAM ALEXANDER DUER Vestryman 1812
William Alexander Duer, son of William and Catherine (Alexander) Duer was born in Rhinebeck on September 8, 1780. He served as a midshipman under Decatur in 1798, and stu- died law in Philadelphia, and later in the office of Nathaniel Pendleton in New York, being admitted to the bar in 1802. He married Hannah Maria, daughter of William Denning, a merchant of New York on September 11, 1806, and soon after they removed to New Orleans, where he was in the law office of Edward Livingston, and familiarized himself with Spanish civil law. As his wife disliked living so far from her kin he re- turned to the north and settled in Rhinebeck, practising law until he was raised to the Supreme Bench of the State in 1822, when he removed to Albany. He was elected President of Columbia College, December 9, 1829, and thereupon resigned his judgeship. In 1843, owing to ill health, he resigned the presidency of Columbia and removed to Morristown, N. J. There, and in the neighborhood, he lived until his death which occurred in New York City, May 30, 1858, while he was visiting a married daughter. During his years of leisure he contribu- ted to various magazines many papers and sketches of old New York and its history, writing, also, at the request of Wash- ington Irving, recollections of Washington and his family with whom he was intimate while a boy,
TITUS DUTTON.
After a portrait. Through the courtesy of Mrs. S. P. Forman, of New York.
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S. James Church
Ile could remember secing General Washington at the time he gave his farewell address, though but nineteen at the time of Washington's death.
TITUS DUTTON
Vestryman 1812
Titus Dutton (son of Sir William Dutton of England) was born in Middletown, Conn., in 1747. He served through the Revolutionary War as Lieutenant of the Connecticut Conti- nental Line. He married Elizabeth Scott and had four children when they removed to Hyde Park in 1797. He learned the work of a carpenter and cabinetmaker, and some of the rush- bottom chairs that he made for his children, and which have been in daily use for a hundred years, are as strong and good as ever.
His oldest child Mary (Polly) married William Stoutenburgh and had eight children. Two of her boys went to California, two others were physicians. Two daughters died unmarried and Mary married Rev. Mr. Quinn. The descendants of at least one of her sons have reached the fourth generation of Stoutenburghs.
His third child Charles was thought to have been lost at sea.
The fourth child, Samuel Beldon Dutton, born July 18, 1795, married in S. James Church, Oct., 1820, Catherine Vander- burgh and had three children. The eldest of these, Charles Titus Dutton, ninety-one years old, and a great grandfather is living in Wilkinsburgh a suburb of Pittsburg, Pa.
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