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 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9
1822. 16 April.
82
1822 to 1848.
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
the congregation in the cause of foreign missions. This object was engaging the attention of Chris- tians throughout the country as never before ; and in connection with the extensive revivals of relig- ion that visited the churches at this period, a mis- sionary spirit manifested itself. Bedford Church partook largely of this spirit; and to the zeal and the unwearied efforts of Mr. Green to produce and to cherish it, this fact is greatly due. Missionary prayer-meetings were held with frequency in dif- ferent parts of the parish. A "Ladies' Missionary Society," which still exists, was formed in the second year of Mr. Green's pastorate. The con- tributions of the people for the enterprise of mis- sions were large and generous. For many years, Bedford Church ranked foremost in this region among the supporters of that cause. Mr. Green's own interest in the work led him, not only to ac- quaint himself with its progress, but also to culti- vate a warm personal friendship for many who en- gaged in its promotion. His home and pulpit were always open to them ; and many a returned mis- sionary visited Bedford, quickening the zeal of pastor and people by fresh accounts from the har- vest field. In yet another way he accomplished much for this important cause. The parsonage offered a home to more than one young man who was seeking with straitened means to gain an edu- cation at the Academy near by. Among the stu- dents who thus came under the care and influence of the earnest pastor, was Joseph Owen, a native
83
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
of this place, who went from Bedford in 1832 to Princeton, and after completing his studies at the college and the seminary, engaged in the service of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. Dr. Owen was one of the ablest and most devoted of our missionaries in Northern India. He finished his course after thirty years of fruitful labour, dying at Edinburgh in Scotland, on the fourth day of December, 1870, at the age of fifty-six. I am told that he has been heard to say, that if he was of any use in the world, he had reason to thank Mr. Green for it.
It was during this pastorate-in 1829-that the Presbytery, taking its name from this town, the Presbytery of Bedford, was formed. Though Pres- byterian from the beginning, your church had passed under the watch and care of several differ- ent ecclesiastical bodies. In the old colony times, before the framing of the Saybrook Platform, the Ministers of Fairfield County had the over- sight of the little flock in the remote bounds of Stamford. After the year 1708, the Association of Fairfield County assumed this duty. Under William Tennant's ministry, the church was con- nected with the Presbytery of Philadelphia. Dur- ing Robert Sturgeon's pastorate, its relations were with the Presbytery of New York; and during Samuel Sacket's ministry, with the Presbytery of Long Island. But in 1762, a Presbytery was formed, designed to include all the Ministers and churches in this region, and to be known by the
1822 to 1848.
84
1822 to 1848.
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
name of Dutchess County Presbytery. Bedford Church came under the care of this new body, and so continued until transferred in 1795 to Hudson Presbytery ; from whose jurisdiction it passed in 1819 under that of the Presbytery of North River. Through all the changes it remained Presbyterian. Meanwhile, nearly every other church within these bounds had fallen away from a strictly Presby- terial connection. The Associated Presbytery of Westchester, an organization Congregational rather than Presbyterian, had drawn from the Presbytery of Dutchess County every flock under its care save Bedford, South Salem, Patterson and South East. Bedford, the eldest of these churches, and the strongest, was now the standard-bearer of ortho- doxy. Jacob Green, from the time of his coming here, devoted himself to the work of recovering and rebuilding the decayed and almost extinct churches of Westchester and Putnam Counties. These churches were now to be gathered under one ecclesiastical control; and with great pro- priety the new organization was called, in honour of the foremost and the staunchest representative of Presbyterian doctrine and order in this region, the Presbytery of Bedford.
Our Church was then drifting toward the great catastrophe of the year 1837-the division of the one body into the sections known as Old School and New School. Mr. Green's sympathies were all with the Old School party. If Samuel Sacket, a hundred years before, took sides with the " ex-
85
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
treme left," the progressives, the men of new views and new measures, Jacob Green may certainly be classed with the extreme right-the eminently conservative, in doctrine and in practice. " He was known," says one well qualified to speak of him and for him, " as strictly orthodox in his views and perfectly reliable as to his knowledge of church order and discipline. And in those days, when the whole Church "-meaning the Old School body- " was wide awake, in guarding against New School and Hopkinsian errors, he was much consulted, much trusted, and sometimes blamed ; and as New Haven divinity was much to be guarded against, I used to think that many were glad to have him placed, as a sort of sentinel of the Church, on the borders of Connecticut." In process of time, how- ever, as the angry passions and the harsh judg- ments of the period of controversy were moderat- ing, some became restless under a preaching that lost nothing of its polemic character. It was in view of the manifestation of this uneasiness, that Mr. Green resigned his charge. The pastoral relation was dissolved by the Presbytery. It had lasted twenty-six years-longer than any other pastorate in the history of this people.
Mr. Green possessed, and retained to the last, the thorough respect and confidence of this entire community. He was an able and earnest preacher of the Gospel of the Son of God. He was a man of strong faith, pure intentions, and a diligent and blameless life. Fully persuaded in his own mind,
1822 to 1848.
1848. 25 January.
86
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
he was not greatly disturbed or easily moved by the differing opinions of others. He was a pattern of punctuality and regularity in his habits. He en- joyed unbroken health until the short illness which closed his life. In his excellent wife, who is still living, he had a faithful and efficient coadjutor: and it is from this aged lady that I have learned the particulars with which I close this notice of your old pastor. Mr. Green removed from Bed- ford to Sing Sing, having received an appointment to the office of chaplain in the State prison. He died on the twenty-fifth day of October, 1851, from typhus fever, taken while visiting a sick per- son. Two or three days before his death, he called his wife to his bedside, and said to her, "You know that I am not superstitious ; but I have had such wonderful views, that I felt that I must tell you." Then raising his eyes as if looking toward some distant scene, he proceeded to say, " Oh, such brightness! it is wonderful! wonderful !" These words he repeated several times, with solemn energy; and then closing his eyes, and letting his hands drop, he said, in a natural, con- versational tone, but with great solemnity : " Bow, and tremble, and adore."
Mr. Green's successor was DAVID INGLIS, a young man, twenty-four years of age. He was the son of a well-known and highly esteemed Minister in the south of Scotland, where for more than thirty years the father was pastor of a United Pres- byterian congregation. David from his boyhood
1822 to 1848.
87
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
cherished the hope of entering the holy ministry. He pursued his studies at the University of Edin- burgh, and was licensed to preach when in his twen- tieth year. Very soon afterwards he came to Amer- ica, whither, while yet a student, he had looked as the desired field of his life's labours. He travelled for a short time in the West ; and then after supply- ing a church on Washington Heights, New York, for a few months, he was ordained and installed as pastor of this congregation. Dr. Ormiston, in a notice of him, observes with truth, "His brief ministry of four years " in Bedford " was as grate- ful to himself as it was delightful to his people, and the memory of the youthful Scottish preacher, so fervid and so faithful, is still fresh and fragrant in that neighbourhood." He was a man, says one of his friends in this place, most cordial in manner and expression. "His kindly greeting and hearty grasp of the hand, his fluent and cheerful conver- sation, put every one at his ease in his presence. But though so genial and sometimes mirthful in his intercourse with friends, in the pulpit he was intensely earnest and impressive. His preaching was in demonstration of the spirit and of power. It might be said truly of him, if of any man, Christ and His cross was all his theme. Seldom if ever did he close his sermon without a pressing exhor- tation to the unconverted to come to Christ and be saved. Multitudes far and near were attracted to his preaching: the church was filled Sabbath after Sabbath with attentive listeners ; numbers
.1848. 25 October.
88
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
were brought into the fold, of such as will be stars in his crown of rejoicing in the great day."
1852. June.
Of the subsequent career of this devoted servant of God, I shall only remind you briefly. Called from this church to the pastorate of a congrega- tion in Montreal, he had scarcely commenced his labours there, when an overwhelming affliction desolated his home. In one short week his wife and three little children were taken from him. His health seriously affected by grief under this great loss, he was led to accept a call to another field of labour. For seventeen years he was the busy and successful pastor of a church in Hamil- ton, Canada. In 1871 he was chosen to the chair of Systematic Theology in Knox College, Toronto, but in the following year he resigned that position to become pastor of the Church on the Heights, in Brooklyn. In the midst of the work he loved, and in the prime of his powers, he was stricken down, and died after a brief illness, on the fifteenth day of December, 1877.
Dr. Inglis was "a man of high natural endow- ments ; a scholar of varied and extensive attain- ments ; a Christian of strong convictions and pro- found experience ; a preacher of eminent ability and great acceptance ; a pastor of rare wisdom and tender sympathy; a theologian of decided views and large charity; a citizen of generous spirit and unswerving loyalty ; a friend of unwaver- ing steadfastness and loving forbearance." No- where, I am assured, will these felicitous words of
89
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
Dr. Ormiston find a readier response than in the hearts of the people of this his first charge.
Soon after the close of this pastorate a second Presbyterian Church was organized within the limits of this town, at Mount Kisco, where a thriv- ing village had sprung up, on the line of the Har- lem Railroad. Seventeen members of this church * were dismissed to form the new colony; and a house of worship was erected in the course of the same year. The enterprise has long since proved to be one of assured success ; and to-day the daughter is not far behind the mother church in strength and activity. The Ministers of Mount Kisco Church have been: The Rev. Andrew Shiland, who was installed 14 June, 1854, and resigned in April, 1870; the Rev. John Hancock, installed 16 Oct., 1870, resigned I Sept., 1876; the Rev. John H. Frazee, installed 20th June, 1877, resigned Ist Nov., 1879; and the Rev. James W. Johnston, present incumbent, installed 29th June, 1880.
Your next pastor was DAVID C. LYON, installed on the first day of December, 1852, and released from office in May, 1857. With the exception of this brief term of four years and a half, Mr. Lyon's ministerial life has been spent in the West, and chiefly in connection with the work of Home Mis-
* These were Whiting Raymond, Lucretia Raymond, Holly Benedict, Deborah Benedict, Edward Banks, Clarissa Banks, Ed- ward Banks, jr., Samuel Knapp, Elizabeth Knapp, Phœbe Haight, Jesse Barrett, Margaret A. Barrett, Nancy Lounsbery, Emeline Benedict, Elizabeth Merritt, Mary A. Sarles, Jeremiah Banks.
1852. 15 June.
90
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
sions. Coming to you fresh from that work, to which he afterwards returned, he was while here the earnest advocate of the cause he loved ; losing no opportunity to press its claims, and the claims of other benevolent objects as well, upon the sympathy and liberality of God's people. He was also a devoted pastor, and an able Minister of the Word. For many years the Synodical Missionary of the Synod of Minnesota, Mr. Lyon has been one of the most laborious and useful servants of the church, and Bedford may well cherish the memory of his sojourn here.
The roll of your Ministers, preceding the present pastor, closes with the name of PETER BADEAU HEROY. He was of Huguenot descent, and was born on the sixteenth day of July, 1815, in the neighbourhood of Red Mills, or Mahopac Falls, in Putnam County in this State. His ancestors, driven by persecution to England, from their home on the island of Ré, near Rochelle, in France, found their way across the ocean, about the middle of the last century, to New Rochelle in this county, and a little while before the Revolu- tion removed to the place then known as Red Mills. Mr. Heroy pursued his academic studies at La Fayette College, and obtained his prepara- tion for the ministry at Princeton Seminary. Be- fore his settlement here, he had been settled in Delhi, Delaware County, and in Highlands, Orange County, New York. His ministry here lasted for twenty-one years. He was installed pastor of this
1852 to 1857.
91
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
church on the twenty-ninth day of October, 1857, and continued in office until his death, on the six- teenth day of October, 1878. The Synod of New York, in session at the time of his decease, gave expression to the high esteem and cordial affection in which he was held by its members. His un- affected piety, his zeal for the purity of the church, his deep concern for the salvation of souls, his fidelity as a preacher of the Gospel, his kindliness and gentleness toward all men, and especially his warm sympathy for the suffering and the troubled, justly endeared him to this people. The grief of an affectionate flock for a Minister whom they trusted and loved, is yet fresh, and is felt amid the festivities of this celebration.
A third Presbyterian Church was organized within the bounds of this town, during Mr. Heroy's pastorate, at Katonah, a station of the Harlem Railroad. The Reverend John H. Eastman, the first and present pastor of Katonah Church, was ordained and installed by the Presbytery of West- chester, on the eighth day of July, 1875.
Mr. Heroy's pastorate was illustrated by an event which would be memorable in the history of any congregation and community : the building of a house of worship, the free will offering of in- dividual piety and benevolence. Descended from that Ephraim Palmer, who was of Greenwich, in 1672, and was admitted an inhabitant of this town in January, 1702, the generous giver of this beau- tiful sanctuary was prompted by a natural love for
1857 to 1878.
T872. 17 November.
92
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
the home of his fathers and the place of his birth, as well as by a noble zeal for the honour of relig- ion. The formal presentation of this building to the Trustees of the congregation, on the day of the dedication, was accompanied with these words from the donor :
" CHRISTIAN BRETHREN : This house of wor- ship, now completed, has been erected for your use as the Presbyterian Church of the village of Bedford, Westchester County, New York; and my wife and myself desire formally to present it to you, with the following statement and conditions :
" We have had no desire, in this undertaking, to have our names inscribed in your place of worship, but have been actuated by gratitude to Almighty God for the blessings He has conferred upon us, and especially for His exceeding grace in giving us the hope of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ the Lord, our Saviour.
" We do not feel that we can make any recom- pence to God for His mercy, but, constrained by His love, we desire to honour and serve Him.
" Another motive influencing us has been our interest in this community, in the midst of which we have had our summer home for many years, and in this church as a Christian congregation with whom we have been privileged so often to worship.
" This, as you know, is the place of my birth and the home of my kindred, and with the services of this church my earliest religious impressions are associated.
1872. 15 August.
93
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
- " We desire to testify our sympathy, and to aid in the work of the Master here, of helping to main- tain His service, and in bringing souls to Christ.
" In the conception and prosecution of this en- terprise, my wife has been intimately associated with me-indeed, it has been with her a cherished wish for years ; and with this, as so much else of my life, she has been, under God, an inspiration of good.
" The best artists, workmen, and materials have been employed in the construction and furnishing of this building, and I do not know of anything which remains to be added to render it ready for use. I have used every exertion to make it suit- able and convenient for your purposes, religious and social, as a church and congregation.
" And now, in presenting to you this house of worship, we desire to submit the following condi- tions, upon which, we understand, our views are in harmony :
" Ist. The church is to be a free church, as this phrase is generally accepted ; the pews are to be free, so that all who choose to come to worship God here will feel at liberty to do so. The current expenses of the church and congregation to be met by subscription on the part of those interested in its maintenance, or by any plan of systematic con- tribution the congregation may deem proper to adopt.
" 2d. The congregation obligates itself to keep the property in good and necessary repair, and to preserve and perpetuate in it religious services.
1872.
94
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
1872.
" Your acceptance of the property will be under- stood as the acceptance also of the conditions be- fore expressed.
" Thankful for the ability to make the offering, we now, through this letter, make over to you, the Bedford Presbyterian Church and Society, all our interest and right in the building we have erected, praying also that the Master will mercifully accept and grant that in it His people may be comforted and strengthened, and many souls 'added to the church daily of such as shall be saved.'"
For eight years and more you have possessed and enjoyed this pleasant sanctuary, and the high purpose of the giver has been attained so far, in the comfort and convenience of the worshipping people, in the orderly ministration of Divine ser- vice, in the attraction of some, we may hope, not only to the courts of the Lord's house, but also to Him who is the glory of the house. And yet, on this occasion, and in this sacred building, I am tempted to say of our honoured friend,
" He builded better than he knew."
There was needed, against this day, completing two centuries since the order was given for the location of the first house of worship erected here, there was needed a monument, a suitable and an abiding memorial. Our friend has anticipated the need.
Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.
95
1872.
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
This church, the gift of FRANCIS ASBURY PALMER and SUSANNA PALMER, his wife, is the fourth edifice occupied by the Presbyterian congre- gation of Bedford.". The first, erected about the year 1681, was situated, as we have seen, on the town common, at the foot of the hill known as Bates's hill. It was called the "Meeting-house," your Puritan forefathers choosing to reserve the word church, according to New Testament usage, for the body of believers, the spiritual church. The Meeting-House was used not only for the Sabbath and other re- ligious services, but also for the town assemblies ; though as early as the year 1702 we read of a Town House, in which the town meetings were held, and which being occupied in part at least as a dwell- ing, may have been a distinct building. In process of time, doubtless, it was enlarged, to accommodate the growing population of the town. The second house of worship, built probably in the early part of the last century, stood at the foot of the hill upon the summit of which the third church-lately abandoned for the present one-was erected after the Revolution. This edifice-the fourth-has
* The present pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Bedford, the Reverend JAMES HOWARD HOYT, is a native of Milton, Saratoga County, New York. He was graduated in 1873 at Union College, and in 1876 at Union Theological Seminary, New York. He was licensed by the Presbytery of New York, and ordained by the Classis of Westchester, 27 June, 1876, and at the same time was installed pastor of the Reformed Church at Greenburg, Westches- ter Co., N. Y. He was installed pastor of this Church, 17 Jan., 1880.
96
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
been placed upon a part of the ground laid out, it is believed, at the beginning of the settlement, for the use of the ministry .* Situated here in the centre of your beautiful village, on the broad street which public taste and enterprise have cared for so judiciously-may it stand until a third century shall end; and may the glory of this house be greater than of any of the former three !
· As we began, so let us close, devoutly acknowl- edging the goodness and wisdom of the Divine Pro- vidence, as viewed in the history of this commu- nity and of this people. Among the towns of our County, Bedford has been singularly favoured in many ways ; and first, in the composition of its orig- inal settlement: A recent English writer has called attention to the superior character of the founders of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, as differing from the earlier settlers in Maryland or Virginia, and even from those who ventured across the Atlantic in the Mayflower. They were men of substance ; most of them of the middle class in England, and they left its shores, not under pressure of want, or because tired of their country, but driven by un- bearable persecution to this wilderness ; men " who
* " 1694. The town by vote doth agree that as much land and medow as can be spaired and not predigous [prejudicial] to high- ways yt lyeth on the norwest side of whiping post broock shall be keept for a minestar and to be disposed to no man els but to a min- ister."-" Whipping Post Brook" is believed to be the stream run- ning in the rear of the present parsonage grounds.
97
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
were as truly and loyally English as any that ever heard the lark carol."* These were the men whose sons planted this town. And in tracing the his- tory of this town and church for two centuries, I have been led to think that the character given to this community by its founders, has been lasting ; that the institutions of morality and religion, that were ordered and settled by their endeavours upon the best and surest foundations, have continued through these succeeding generations ; and that hence peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, have so greatly flourished here.
I remark, secondly, that Bedford has been favour- ed in the preservation of its territory. Through early changes in the colonial government, through subsequent proprietary disputes, and through the more recent geographical arrangements by which, after the Revolution, our County was unwisely cut up into a number of petty townships, your town has remained intact, and still, after two centuries, lies four-square, very much as obtained by early pur- chases from the savages, and as described in its first charter from the government of Connecticut in 1697.
I mention as a third advantage the fact that Bed- ford has been exceptionally free, for these two centuries, from religious contentions. For the first hundred years, Presbyterianism occupied the
* Alfred Rimmer, in " Belgravia,"
6
98
HISTORY OF BEDFORD CHURCH.
ground almost exclusively .* And during the sec- ond hundred years, in which other Christian de- nominations have taken part in the common work, there has been a remarkable harmony between those of differing views and practices. For this harmony, I cannot but think you have been greatly indebted to the personal influence of that eminent man, whose name, second only to that of Wash- ington in our national history, is pleasantly asso- ciated with this spot ; coming, as he did, in the be- ginning of the present century to make the home of his honoured old age in Bedford. JOHN JAY was a devoted son of the Protestant Episcopal Church. But he was none the less a lover of true religion as represented in other branches of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. " Finding, on his removal to Bedford, no Episcopal church in the vicinity, he constantly attended," says his dis- tinguished son and biographer, "the one belong- ing to the Presbyterians ; nor did he scruple to
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.