USA > New York > Westchester County > Bedford > History of Bedford Church : discourse delivered at the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Presbyterian Church of Bedford, Westchester Co., New York, March 22d, 1881 > Part 5
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* The Elders from Bedford Church, who appeared in Presby- tery from 1770 to 1778, were Joshua Ambler, Jacob Smith, Eben- ezer Miller, John Lawrence, and Stephen Cle.k. Of these, the first was the most- frequently present. May 9th, 1770, " Mr Am- bler, being an Elder in the Church at Bedford, yet living much nearer to Poundridge, his Circumstances being somewhat Critical, and he in Doubt where to join, begs the Advice of the Presbytery ; who having consider'd the Matter, advise him, upon the whole, to continue where he is."
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HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
when the church and parsonage, together with nearly the whole village of Bedford, were burned by Tarleton's troops, on the night of the second of July, 1779.
In October, 1782, Bedford was reported as " des- titute." For some months prior to the meeting of the Presbytery in October, 1783, Mr. Mills had been preaching to the congregation in " Fredericksburg North Society," now Patterson, Putnam County, New York. This congregation now requested the Presbytery to " set him over them in the work of the Gospel Ministry." The request was opposed by Jacob Smith, " Elder in the church at Bedford, from which Place Mr Mills was Driven by the distressing Circumstances into which they were cast by ye late war, and from which Church and Congregation he has been compelled to be absent ye main part of ye Time for years past; " urging "that Presbytery would not Liberate Mr Mills from his Pastoral Re- lation to ye Church in Bedford till they may have opportunity to represent their Case and signify their mind with respect to Mr. Mills's return to them." The Presbytery was greatly embarrassed by these conflicting applications. Three adjourned meet- ings were held before a decision could be reached. At one of these meetings, the people of Bedford were represented by a committee, consisting of James Raymond, Joseph Holmes, and Moses St. John. Finally, at a meeting held on the seventeenth of March, 1784, the Presbytery conclude that " they do not find reasons to advise Mr Mills to return
I779 to 1784.
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HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
F
1789.
to Bedford." The pastoral relation, however, continued for two years longer, until the installa- tion of his successor. He remained at Fredericks- burg until 1789, when, his views upon the subject of infant baptism having been changed, he left the Presbyterian Church and avowed himself a Baptist .*
* The change appears to have occurred in the course of the win- ter of 1788-9. The Presbytery learned, May 6, 1789, that Mr. Mills had " joined the denomination of the Anabaptists since our last session " (16 Oct., 1788). His connection with the Presbytery was severed 14 Oct., 1789. I have been favoured by the Rev. Samuel J. Mills, of Nevada, Iowa-a grandson of Samuel Mills- with some interesting particulars regarding his grandfather, and his descendants. " I have learned from my father, deceased in 1844, that my grandfather became much exercised on the subject. of baptism ; shut himself up for six weeks in his study ; and then at great personal sacrifice announced to his people his change of views, which severed his connection with the church and the Pres- bytery. It was the greatest trial of his life." He removed, about the year 1797, to " the Genesee country," and settled "in the vicinity of the Wadsworths, at what was then Williamsburg, mid- way between Mount Morris and Geneseo." He had four sons : Alexander, Lewis Frederick, Philo, and William A. He died near Geneseo, Livingston County, New York, in 1813 (not 1815, as stated in the Yale College Catalogue). "His memory was long cherished " in that locality, for his worth and devoted piety. His
widow, a second wife, was a sister of Colonel David Humphreys, one of Washington's aides-de-camp ; and after her husband's death, returned to Connecticut. Samuel Mills' youngest son, William A. (born in Bedford, 27 May, 1777), was a man of great enterprise, prominent among the early settlers of Livingston County, and an active member of the Presbyterian Church. A sketch of his life is published in the History of the Early Settlers of that County. His son, Samuel J. Mills, was graduated at Yale College in 1837, was admitted to the bar in Albany, 1841, but engaged in business for some years, and finally devoted himself to the Ministry, and was licensed in 1859 to preach the Gospel.
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HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
Up to this time, he had been an active member of the Presbytery, and the records of that body confirm the impression received from traditional accounts, that he was an able and a devoted Min- ister of the Gospel.
It is indeed not a little remarkable that during this early period in the history of our land, when our Church was in its infancy, and when the num- ber of trained and faithful men in the service of the Gospel was very small, Bedford should have been favoured with the ministrations of such de- voted and gifted Ministers of the Word as Morgan, Tennent, Sacket, Ball, and Mills. The humble " meeting-house," the site of which, at the foot of Bates' Hill, was chosen this day two hundred years ago; and the second house of worship, which, some time in the early part of the last century, took its place, resounded with voices as earnest and eloquent and loyal to the truth as were heard in the land. The waves of the great tide of religious life came sweeping again and again over this peo- ple, in the days of the Great Awakening. Here Tennent preached in his power-Tennent, the friend and the peer of Whitefield, the founder of the Log College, and the father of those "four gracious sons," of whom Whitefield wrote, and who were destined to shine as lights amid the darkness and destitution of the age. And it is reasonable to believe that the teachings and the lives of these able and godly men must have exerted a powerful and an abiding influence upon this community.
1789.
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HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
We have but scanty accounts of the state of re- ligion here during the period immediately preced- ing the Revolution. In the disturbed condition of the country, there was doubtless much to im- pede the usefulness of the ministry, and to draw the attention of the people away from sacred truths and duties. Tradition, however, testifies to the fact, that religion pure and undefiled was illus- trated here by many a consistent Christian charac- ter, and that the doctrines of grace, so earnestly proclaimed from the pulpit, were cherished in the hearts of your forefathers, and bore fruit in hum- ble, blameless and useful lives, whose record is on high.
Bedford, during the greater part of the seven years' war of the Revolution, was protected by the proximity of the American forces, and suffered less from incursions of the British troops than did the places west and south of this, in the region known as the Neutral Ground. It was, however, exposed at all times, but especially in the earlier years of the war, to the depredations of the ma- rauding cow boys : and more than once, the fly- ing visits of the enemy brought fire and slaughter to the homes of its people. Upon one of these occasions, the meeting house and nearly every dwelling in the village were burned .* It is sup- posed that the records of the church, preserved in the minister's house, were destroyed in this con- flagration.
1779. 2 July.
* Magazine of American History, vol. III., p. 685 (Nov., 1879).
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HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
Soon after the close of the war, the congrega- tion undertook to rebuild their sanctuary. A site was chosen, on the hill overlooking the village, about twenty rods west of the spot where the former house of worship had stood. The ground was given by Captain Lewis McDonald. * The
* To all Christian People to whom these Presents shall come Greeting know ye that I Lewis McDonald formerly of Bedford in Westchester County State of New York but Now a Resident of Long Island for certain Causes me thereunto moving and out of love and affection for the Encouragement of Virtue and the Propi- gation of the Gospel Do hereby Bequeath and give unto the Presby- terian Society of Bedford in the County and State above said and to their Heirs and Successors forever as long as they shall Remain a Society and as long as they shall stand in Want of a House of Publick Worship or a spot of Ground to Erect a House of Worship thereon ONE half acre of Land situate lying and being in the Township of Bedford in the County and State aforesaid Bounded (as follows Lying on an Eminence above the spot of Ground where the former Meeting House stood) Easterly by the Road that Runs from the Town of Cantito Westerly Northerly and Southerly by my own Land which land was a purchase of John Elliott Reference being had to the Original Conveyance to have and to hold the Above Bequeathed and Given spot of Land with all and singular the Rights and Privileges thereunto Belonging to the above men- tioned Society to their Heirs and Successors agreeable to the above Mentioned Terms and Conditions and also I the said Lewis Mc- Donald do for myself my Heirs and Assigns Covenant with the said Society their Heirs and Successors that at and until the En- sealing of these Presents I am well seised of the Premises as a Good Indefeasable Estate in fee Simple and have Good Rights to Dispose of the same in manner and form above written and the same is free from all Incumberances Whatsoever and furthermore I the said Lewis McDonald do by these Presents bind myself my Heirs to Warrant and Defend to the above Covenanted Premises to the said Society their Heirs and Successors Against all Claims
1783.
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HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
1783.
1795.
church was probably erected in the autumn of the year 1783 .* A number of years, however, elapsed, before the people were in a condition to complete it. A stranger who visited the place in 1795, has left us a graphic description of its forlorn appear- ance. " Bedford had been a frontier town during the Revolutionary war, and had suffered from the depredations of both parties. Houses scattered here and there, many of them in a decayed state, led me to apprehend that the situation could not be very eligible to me or my family. The church, built of wood, and unstained by a single brush of paint, presented an appearance of desolation ex- ceedingly affecting. If I had been surprised, at a passing glance, at the exterior of the building, I was much more so on beholding its interior, where was neither plaster, pew, nor gallery. The Minis- ter indeed was accommodated with a pulpit, while
and Demands Whatsoever In Testimony and Confirmation of which I have hereunto set my hand and Seal this Sixth Day of August in the year of our LORD Christ one Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty and three and in the Seventh year of our Independence
LEWIS MCDONALD L. S.
In Presence of
STEPHEN CORNWELL MARY CORNWELL
(Town Records of Bedford.)
* The deed of gift, from Lewis McDonald to the Presbyterian Society of Bedford, is dated the sixth day of August, 1783. The Town Records show that the town meeting in May, 1784, was held in the "meeting house," which must therefore have been erected between these dates.
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HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
his hearers sat on slabs, supported by two legs at each end, and two in the middle." *
But the sanctuary, in its forlorn condition, was only a type of the pervading desolation. Every- where the traces of the long, weary, exhausting struggle were to be seen. Its most disastrous effects appeared, here as elsewhere, in the moral and religious state of the population. Religious worship interrupted for years, education neg- lected, families broken up, young men called away to the exposure and suffering of military service, and to the demoralizing associations of camp life ; all the hardening and depressing influences of war experienced for so long a time :- it is not surprising to find that the work of recuperation in the church, as in society at large, was slow and difficult.
At Bedford, however, this work was undertaken with a promptness and an energy which proved that the interest of the community in its own religious welfare had not died out. The congregation, shortly after the declaration of peace, became in- corporated, under the law of the State of New York. The name and style of the ecclesiastical corporation was, The Presbyterian Church and Congregation of Bedford, to be governed in Dis- cipline and Worship according to the Directory of the now established Church of Scotland. The first trustees elected were Zebadiah Mills, Israel Lyon, and Joseph Owen.
* The Blatchford Memorial, New York, 1871, pp. 22, 25.
1795.
1785.
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HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
The next year, a Minister was called. JOHN DAVENPORT* came of a long line of eminent New England Ministers. His father was the famous James Davenport, one of the most erratic of the " New Light " preachers, the friend of Whitefield, Davies, and the Tennents. John was born on the eleventh day of August, 1752, in Philippi-now Carmel, Putnam County, New York-where his father was settled for a time.+
1785. 18 May.
The Presbytery of Dutchess County met in Bed- ford, at the request of the congregation, "with a view to the Instalment of the Reverend John Davenport." Solomon Mead, of Salem, at whose ordination, thirty-four years before, the father of the candidate had been present, preached the sermon,
Born in Philippi, or Carmel, N. Y., II Aug., 1752. Gradu- ated at the College of New Jersey in 1769. Ordained by Suffolk Presbytery in 1775. Stated Supply at Southold, L. I., for two years. Settled in Bedford, 18 May, 1786. Resigned 4 May, 1791. Dismissed, 18 Sept., 1793, to the Presbytery of Long Island. Set- tled, 12 Aug., 1795, in Deerfield, N. J., where he remained for ten years. He afterwards laboured as home missionary in Western New York, and died in Lysander, N. Y., 13 July, 1821, aged sixty- nine years.
+ Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, vol. III., p. 89. Dr. Sprague puts Philippi in New Jersey. That the place designated was no other than Philippi in Dutchess County, New York (now Carmel, Putnam Co., N. Y.), is shown by the records of the neigh- bouring church of South Salem, Westchester Co., from which it ap- pears that James Davenport was present at the ordination of Solo- mon Mead, the first pastor of that congregation, 19 May, 1752, and " gave a word of exhortation." I find no evidence that there was any place in New Jersey named Philippi.
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HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
on Hebrews, twelfth chapter and first verse. The pastoral relation which still subsisted in name be- tween this church and the Rev. Samuel Mills was now at length dissolved. And the Presbytery then proceeded to install Mr. Davenport as pastor of Bedford Church.
Under Mr. Davenport's leadership, the Session * of this Church engaged vigorously in the work be- fore them-the exercise of discipline, and the en- deavour to promote piety and spirituality among the people. Measures were taken for the more frequent and regular administration of the Holy Communion. A monthly prayer meeting was in- stituted. Quarterly collections for the relief of the poor were appointed. "These regulations show," as Mr. Heroy has well observed, " that there were many here at that early day who loved the purity of the Church, and were anxious for its greater ef- ficiency for good in the world." They testify also to the zeal and faithfulness of the pastor-the first Minister of this people after the Revolution.
Mr. Davenport's pastorate ended on the fourth of May, 1791. His successor was ISAAC FOSTER, who remained only a short time. He had been pastor of the Congregational church in West Staf- ford, Connecticut, but having departed in his preaching from some of the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel, he was tried for heresy and deposed
* The Elders who represented Bedford Church in Presbytery during Mr. Davenport's ministry, were Jacob Smith, Moses St. John, and Eli Tyler.
I792. 22 March.
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HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
from the Ministry by Hartford North Association in 1781 .* The seeds of Universalism and infidel- ity which he sowed in that church produced, it is said, an abundant harvest. Bedford could not tol- erate his teachings ; he left after two years, and died in 1807.
1795.
Anticipating a fashion of our own times, this Church next called a Minister from across the water. This Minister was the excellent SAMUEL BLATCHFORD, then pastor of a Presbyterian Congre- gation in Topsham, Devonshire, England. I am strongly tempted to linger here, and speak to you freely of the life and character of this remarkable man. The materials for a full and graphic sketch are abundant, in the memorial volume prepared by one of his descendants, and in the extensive no- tices of him contained in Dr. Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit. But I forbear, inasmuch as Mr. Blatchford spent only six or eight months in Bedford, supplying this pulpit and that of Pound- ridge Church on alternate Sabbaths during the fall and winter of the year 1795 ; and I must proceed to notice the longer pastorates that came after. Mr. Blatchford was called from Bedford in April, 1796, to Greenfield, Connecticut, where he succeeded President Dwight ; thence after a year's service he went to Stratfield; and in 1804 he took charge of the Presbyterian churches of Lansingburg and Waterford, New York, and died 17th March, 1828.
* Contributions to the Eccl. History of Conn., p. 504.
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HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
He was followed by JOSIAH HENDERSON, a native of Bedford, Massachusetts, whose pastorate, though short, " left a favourable impression upon the church, and a good name among the people." Mr. Henderson went from this place to Virginia, and ministered for fourteen years to a congrega- tion in Culpepper County. He afterwards took charge of a church in Tisbury, on the island of Martha's Vineyard, where he is still remembered as "a ready, fluent speaker, and a man of rare pulpit gifts, whom the people thronged to hear." He was a physician, as well as a Minister of the Gospel ; and while settled in Tisbury, his “ medi- cal practice extended over the whole island." His last days were spent in Farmington, Maine .*
His successor was EBENEZER GRANT, a gradu- ate of Queen's, now Rutgers College. He was or- dained to the Gospel Ministry by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, on the nineteenth of Novem- ber, 1800, at Shrewsbury, New Jersey, and for the next four years supplied the church in that place, and several neighbouring congregations. Mr. Grant came to Bedford in 1804, at the age of thirty-one, and here laboured for seventeen years, fulfilling his course and resting from his work on the sixth day of September, 1821. He was universally be-
1798. 15 November to 1803. 3 November.
1804. 20 September.
* Communicated by Richard I .. Pease, Esq., of Edgartown, Mass. Mr. Henderson was married twice. He had several chil- dren, one of whom, Jophanus, became a physician. The Elders during Mr. Henderson's pastorate were Moses St. John, Justus Har- ris, Eli Tyler, Peter Fleming, Joseph Owen, and Stephen Benedict.
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HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
1821.
loved, and his removal, in the prime of life, and in the midst of a useful ministry, was greatly de- plored throughout this community. He was the first Minister since Thomas Denham, a century and a third before, who died while pastor of this church, and was buried among his people. " His remains lie," says Mr. Heroy, "beneath the green sward under the cliff, where the ground is terraced gradu- ally up to the overhanging rocks."
It was during Mr. Grant's ministry, in the year 1807, that the Bedford Academy was founded. This institution, though not of a denominational character, owed its existence largely to the Pres- byterian Church of Bedford, whose pastor was the first president of the Board of Proprietors, and whose trustees gave the land upon which the building was erected .* Its first Principal was the Reverend Daniel Crocker, a Presbyterian clergy- man. Governor Jay was one of the original sub- scribers. Time will not permit me to mention even the more salient names in the long list of those who have been connected with your acad- emy as instructors, and the longer list of those who have pursued their studies within its walls- many of whom have attained distinction as profes-
* " January 19th, 1807. At a meeting of the Presbyterian Society of the Town of Bedford," it was voted that a lot be given, " fifty feet in front and one hundred feet in rear of the west corner of the parsonage meadow, fronting the green, and adjoining Coll. Holly's garden, for the express purpose of building an acad- emy thereon, and to be used for no other purpose whatever."
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HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
sional and business men .* The establishment of such a seat of learning, early in the present cen- tury-five years before the common school system of this State was adopted-testifies to the intelli- gence and public spirit of this community. Dr. Dwight, in 1813, made exception in favour of Bed- ford, and two other localities, when he says of Westchester County, " Neither Learning nor Re- ligion has within my knowledge flourished to any great extent among the inhabitants." +
We come now to a period in the history of the church, over which the recollections of not a few of those here present extend, a period the tradi- tions of which indeed are doubtless fresh and clear in the memories of all. And here the historian must descend from his vantage-ground, as one con- versant with things remote, beyond the ken of his hearers, to speak with modesty, in the presence of those more familiar than himself with the men and the times that are to pass under review. The sixty years that have elapsed since the death of Ebenezer Grant, in 1821, cover the pastorates of four Ministers of the Gospel, whose names you hold in deserved esteem and reverence :- Jacob Green, David Inglis, David C. Lyon, Peter B. Heroy.
The first of these was the grandson and the namesake of a very remarkable man. JACOB
* History of Bedford Academy, read at the Annual Closing Exercises, June 28, 1877, pp. 1-5.
+ Travels in New England, vol. III., p. 490.
1807.
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HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
GREEN, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Han- over, 'in Morris county, New Jersey, from 1745 till his death in 1790, was one of the most influen- tial Ministers of his day. A pronounced patriot, he did good service in his country's cause, from the outbreak of the Revolution. A valiant soldier of Christ, he was successful in winning many souls to his Master. Distressed in view of the religious destitutions of the land, he originated a plan for the speedier preparation of teachers and Ministers to supply those destitutions. The Associated Presbyteries, which accomplished a good work, though in an irregular way, in the closing years of the last century, and the beginning of the present one, grew out of this plan. It is a curious fact, that the grandson and namesake was destined to spend his best years in destroying and burying out of sight the system which his eminent grand- father had created. Jacob Green of Hanover had ten children. One of them was the celebrated Ashbel Green, eighth president of Princeton Col- lege. Another son, who remained in Hanover, and followed a farmer's life, was the father of your pastor, who was born in that place in the year 1790, a few weeks after his grandfather's death.
1790.
13 August.
Mr. Green pursued his studies for the ministry at Rutgers College and at the Theological Semi- nary in Princeton. He was a member of the first class graduated from that institution. After his licensure, he was sent by the Presbytery upon a
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HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
mission to the destitute places in the western parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania. On his return, he was appointed to supply a small church at Succa- sunna Plain, near Morristown. There he remained nearly five years. The congregation had existed for over seventy years, but had long been without a settled ministry. While Mr. Green was with them, they repaired the old church, which until then had had neither ceiling nor plastered walls ; and obtained new strength and vitality. At the urgent solicitation of some of his brethren, and particularly of the late Dr. Johnston, of Newburg, Mr. Green came to this region in the spring of 1822, intending to preach in the village of Fishkill. On his way to that place, he was induced to spend a Sabbath in Bedford, where the people were still in deep sorrow over the recent loss of their Minis- ter. He did so : fulfilled his appointment at Fish- kill; and, on his return, preached again in Bedford, when to his surprise a call was extended to him to become the pastor.
At the time of Mr. Green's coming, the church numbered one hundred and nine members. The elders were devout and good men, who longed to see a time of greater prosperity. A cordial wel- come was given to the new Minister ; and soon there were evidences of increased spiritual life among the people. For several years, not a com- munion season passed without some additions to the membership of the church. From the first, Mr. Green endeavoured to awaken the interest of 5
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