USA > New York > Cayuga County > History of Cayuga County, New York > Part 16
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The facilities of the seminary were, however, steadily enlarging. Dr. Huntington raised the funds for an additional chair in Biblical study, and in 1865 the Rev. James Edward Pierce began work in the Old Testament department, at first as instructor, and after- ward as professor of the Hebrew language and literature. He was twenty-six years old, a graduate of Middlebury and of Auburn. It was an admirable choice, but death claimed him after only five years of service. I was the successor of Professor Pierce, beginning my work in 1871, at the age of thirty-three years, and serving thirty-seven years, until my resignation in 1908.
When the time for the semi-centennial of the seminary ap-
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proached, its friends were cherishing large hopes. Measures were then in progress for reuniting what had for thirty-three years been the Old School and New School Presbyterian churches. It was believed that this would enlarge the constituency of Auburn. The reunion was to be celebrated by raising a fund of five million dollars for endowing institutions, and it was hoped that Auburn would profit by this. As a foretaste of the coming prosperity Mr. William E. Dodge and Colonel Edwin B. Morgan agreed to erect an adequate library building for the seminary. The exercises by which the semi-centennial was celebrated were the most protracted and impos- ing in the history of the seminary. They included the laying of the cornerstone of the new building, a dinner for four hundred guests, and four or five gatherings with addresses by a large number of dis- tinguished men. The Old School presbyteries of Central and West- ern New York promptly accepted an invitation to elect delegates to the board of commissioners, and so did the presbyteries of what had been the Synod of Albany.
The hopes raised by this condition of things were not at once realized. Some of Auburn's new friends, particularly in the Eastern presbyteries, proved efficient; but to balance this, certain earlier friends felt called upon to signalize their loyalty to the reunion by showing cordiality to Princeton and Allegheny. In the raising of the five million dollar fund Auburn was not utterly left out, but the net result was to divert money from Auburn to other objects that were more conspicuously advocated. In its relations to the enlarged church, Auburn was much in the position of a small town which has bonded itself to build a railway connecting it with a large city; with the effect that the new railway facilitates the removal of trade from the small town rather than to it.
Thus it happened that when the governing boards met in May, 1872, they found themselves confronted with a serious problem. Unless the endowment could be increased the seminary could not be continued in operation. Very earnestly they set themselves
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about the solution of the problem. Meanwhile Colonel Morgan was also studying the situation. He felt an interest in the seminary, and was willing to build here a monument for his son Alonzo D. Morgan, either in the form of a building or in that of an endowment ; but as a condition of this he desired to make sure that the affairs of the seminary should be managed on a worthy scale, and with some reasonable expectation of permanency. His representatives made frequent visits to Auburn. In some of these visits they sought the assistance of the professor who was then superintendent of the buildings. They brought an architect to study the buildings and the site. They decided that it was necessary to erect a new dormi- tory building, and ultimately to remove the old one, and that noth- ing less than the erecting of such a building and the doubling of the invested endowment would serve the need then present. Then Mr. Morgan made several informal offers that were intended to chal- lenge the interest of the friends of Auburn. At last he made to the governing boards a formal alternative offer, which they accepted. Either the seminary was to be removed to Aurora, in which case he promised a site and an additional endowment of $400,000, or else $300,000 must be raised within sixty days, one third of it to be used in erecting a new dormitory in Auburn. In case this was done Colonel Morgan promised to give one fourth of the $300,000.
So Morgan Hall was built, and was first occupied by students in the autumn of 1875. At the same time the invested endowment was so enlarged as to render the salaries of the professors less inadequate.
In 1873 the Rev. Dr. Herrick Johnson succeeded Dr. Condit as professor of sacred rhetoric and pastoral theology. He brought to the work a high reputation, and served in it with distinction till his removal to McCormick Seminary in 1880.
In 1876 the Rev. Dr. Ransom Bethune Welch followed Dr. Hall in the chair of theology. He was a graduate of Union College and Auburn Seminary, and had been for ten years professor in Union
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College. He served acceptably in Auburn till his death in 1891. The Welch Memorial building is his posthumous gift to the seminary.
In 1880 the Rev. Dr. Anson Judd Upson became Dr. Johnson's successor in the chair of sacred rhetoric and pastoral theology. He had served twenty-one years as an especially honored professor in Hamilton College, and then ten years as pastor in Albany. For a long term he was Chancellor of the University of the State of New York. After ten years in Auburn his health failed, but he remained on the roll twelve years longer as professor emeritus.
In 1884 the Rev. James Stevenson Riggs, a graduate of Prince- ton College and of Auburn Seminary, came into the faculty, at the age of thirty-one years, as adjunct professor of Biblical Greek. In 1887 he became professor of Biblical Greek, though that chair was never endowed. He succeeded, on the retirement of Dr. Hunting- ton, to the chair of Biblical criticism, which had been since 1865 the New Testament chair of the seminary. He is still at the head of that department.
In 1887 the Rev. Dr. Timothy Grenville Darling became professor of sacred rhetoric and pastoral theology. He was then forty-four years old, a graduate of Williams College, an alumnus of the Princeton and the New York Union theological seminaries, a pastor of many years' standing. After three years he was trans- ferred, on the death of Professor Welch, to the chair of theology, which he filled till his death in 1906.
For the years 1890-1891 Professor Darling continued to lecture on pastoral theology, while for several months the department of homiletics was in charge of the Rev. Dr. Alonzo H. Quint, a well- known leader among the Congregationalists of New England, whose temporary service is remembered with delight by those who were associated with him.
The year 1890 was an important year in the history of the semi- nary. From the time when Morgan Hall was built the seminary
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classes had met in rooms in the old building, the building being otherwise unoccupied. It was a case of growing discomforts. Dr. Welch, not being physically robust, was doubtless more sensitive to this than were his colleagues. In his will he gave proof of his loyalty to the seminary and to his associates by leaving a generous amount for the construction of a suitable building for class-rooms. While waiting for the realization of this benefit, another idea came to the front. Dr. Huntington in his advancing years had gradually laid down the task of caretaker for the administration of the semi- nary, and the responsibilities of that kind now devolved upon the younger men in the faculty. The suggestion was made that pos- sibly, if a president's chair were endowed, Dr. Darling's friend, Dr. Booth, might be persuaded to accept the presidency of Auburn. Members of the governing boards fell in with the suggestion. In a short time $50,000 was pledged. Dr. Booth was elected, and promptly and peremptorily declined to consider the matter, and the subscription was suffered to lapse. Subsequent events proved, however, that the attempt had not been unwise nor fruitless.
In 1891 the Rev. Arthur Stephen Hoyt, a graduate of Hamilton and of Auburn, at that time forty years old, was chosen professor of sacred rhetoric and pastoral theology. He had been for some years professor in Hamilton, and had previously served as pastor in Illinois. He is a native of Cayuga County, and passed his boyhood in Auburn. He is still the occupant of the chair.
Meanwhile the friends of the seminary were studying the problem raised by the will of Professor Welch-that of a new building for class-room purposes. An adequate chapel was also among the urgent needs of the seminary. It came to be held that a composite building uniting the facilities for class work and for chapel uses was, all things considered, the best. Miss Willard and Miss Caroline Willard, the daughters of those staunch benefactors, Dr. Sylvester Willard and his wife Mrs. Jane Frances Case Willard, were willing to erect the chapel. Mr. Henry A. Morgan, characteristically,
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without solicitation and with the stipulation that his name should not be mentioned in the matter, supplemented the gift of Professor Welch to whatever amount might be needed for the class-room part of the building. The cornerstone of the Welch-Willard build- ing was laid in October, 1892, in the presence of a large gathering, including the members of the Inter-Seminary Missionary Convention which was then in session in Auburn.
Other good fortune was in store for the seminary. Under medical advice it was decided that the Rev. Dr. Henry Matthias Booth must change from the lifelong pastorate to which he was so devotedly attached, and must take up some different form of work. Auburn was not slow to seize upon its opportunity. The lapsed subscription for endowing a president's chair was revived, and in 1893 Dr. Booth became the first president of Auburn Seminary. He was then fifty years old, a graduate of Williams College and of the New York Union Seminary, and for twenty-four years pastor of the church at Englewood, N. J.
The same year Professors Hopkins and Huntington became emeritus professors, each at the age of eighty years. Dr. Hunting- ton was succeeded by Dr. Riggs, and the commissioners elected the Rev. Dr. Theodore Weld Hopkins to succeed the retiring Professor Hopkins. The new Professor Hopkins was then fifty-two years of age, a man who had gained distinction as a scholar and author. He remained but two years.
In 1895 the Rev. Edward Waite Miller was made instructor in church history, and the following year he was elected professor. He is a graduate of Union College, and of Auburn in the class of 1891. As a student in Auburn he was instructor in Greek, and as a graduate student was assistant to Professor Hopkins in the year 1891-92. He is still in the chair of church history.
For some years before the inauguration of Dr. Booth the attend- ance at the seminary had averaged higher than in the preceding years, and various encouraging influences had set toward the semi-
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nary. The new régime began auspiciously. The president had prestige, and a host of friends. With the new building the Auburn plant would be one of the best in the country. The superiority of the Auburn plan of church control through the presbyteries was conspicuously illustrated by means of the struggles which some of the other seminaries were having with the General Assembly. In view of these and like considerations it is perhaps not surprising that the number of students rose at once to ninety-four, and that the average number during Dr. Booth's administration was about one hundred and ten, the maximum, in 1895-96, being a hundred and twenty-three.
Dr. Booth died suddenly March 18, 1899. His successor, elected the same year, and still holding the position, was the Rev. Dr. George Black Stewart. He was then forty-five years old, a graduate of Princeton College and of Auburn Seminary. He came to Auburn from a long pastorate in Harrisburg, Pa.
There were ninety-one students the first year of President Stewart's administration, seventy-two the second year, and an average of a little less than sixty for the remaining seven years. The sudden falling off in numbers in 1900 was not due to the change of presidents, but to causes which affected alike most of the theo- logical seminaries in the country.
The past nine years have been marked by rapid changes. The most important is the far-reaching change in the constitution of the seminary, made in 1906, and already mentioned in the earlier part of this paper.
In 1904 the seminary received from the Regents of the University of the State of New York the authority to confer the degree of bachelor of divinity, and that degree was conferred by the seminary for the first time at the Commencement of 1906.
There has been some increase in the endowment of the seminary, though a much larger increase in its rate of expenditure. Changes have been made in the seminary campus. It was newly arranged
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and planted in 1893, when the Welch-Willard building was com- pleted and the ground graded, and it has since then steadily in- creased in beauty by the process of natural growth. A handsome dwelling house for the president is now nearly completed. The seminary has acquired three lots, with dwellings, fronting on North street, which constitute a virtual enlargement of the cam- pus. One of these dwellings has been fitted up as the Silliman Club House, the cost being the gift of the Hon. Horace B. Silliman. In the early years of the seminary the students boarded in com- mons, in the basement of the seminary building. This was given up later, perhaps given up and resumed more than once. In the times of depreciated currency, after the Civil War, a boarding club was again organized, as a means of economy in living. It was in operation when Morgan Hall was built, and the basement of that structure included a commodious dining-room, with full conven- iences for housekeeping, but in a few years the club boarding plan was abandoned. The plan of the Silliman Club House differs from that of its predecessors in the fact of the house being outside the dormitory building, and in certain social features. The students and their friends have found it very delightful.
The faculty has been largely increased. In 1901 the Rev. Halsey Bidwell Stevenson was appointed librarian, and held the position till his death in 1907. His successor is the Rev. John Quincy Adams. In 1902 the work of the New Testament chair was divided, the Rev. Harry Lathrop Reed being made assistant professor. Beginning with 1904 Mr. Stevenson acted as assistant in the Old Testament department, his salary being paid from a special gift made for that purpose. In this work Professor Reed succeeds him for the year 1907-08. In 1904 the department of theology was divided, the Rev. Dr. Allen Macy Dulles becoming professor of theism and apologetics. The Rev. Dr. Herbert Alden Youtz has been elected Richards professor of Christian theology, to succeed Dr. Darling, his work to begin in the autumn of 1908. The Rev. Dr. William John
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Hinke has been temporarily appointed "Assistant Professor in Old Testament," his work, however, being exclusively in the depart- ments of practical theology and theology.
This brings the history of the seminary up to the present. Its permanent funds, as reported by the treasurer in 1907, amount to $761,462.73. It would take $300,000 to replace the campus and the seminary plant standing upon it. My colleagues in the faculty are men of character and intellectual ability and industry. Our publications within the current three years include nine volumes of some importance. In the eighty-seven years since the seminary was opened for students about two thousand men have studied in its classes. Nearly half of these are now living, the large majority of them being engaged, somewhere on the earth, in some form of the work of the Christian ministry.
PROTESTANT CHURCHES OF AUBURN.
BY SYLVESTER J. MATHEWS. ("The Antiquarian.")
One hundred years ago, 1808, Auburn was a village of near a thousand inhabitants, who were strangers to the sound of "the Sabbath bell." Although there were several religious societies meeting for divine service at irregular periods, as yet there had not been erected a church edifice in the place, but in 1811 an acre lot was cleared of the trees and conveyed to St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Church Society by Mr. William Bostwick, donor of the site, who was enabled with the assistance of a donation of $1,000 from Trinity Church, New York, and the warm co-operation of his fellow Episcopalians in the village, to erect a small, but strong and graceful wooden church, the first in Auburn and in fact the first within the precincts of what is now Cayuga County to erect a belfry from which came the pleasant tones of "the Sabbath bell," sum- moning the people to worship, and a gentle reminder that there should be one day in seven to think of something else besides "Business is Business. "
13
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To make a long and most interesting story short we will here below abbreviate:
1805, July 1-Parish incorporated.
1810, March 1-Gift of church lot to the parish by William Bostwick, Esq.
1812, August 22-Bishop Hobart consecrated the first parish church.
1828, November 28-Rectory purchased.
1830, September 2,-Last official act of Bishop Hobart.
1830, September 12-Bishop Hobart died in the rectory.
1831, August 7-First visit of Bishop Onderdonk.
1832, February 5-Church destroyed by fire immediately after extensive enlargement and repairs.
1833, August 8-New church consecrated by Bishop Onderdonk.
1838-Feast of All Saints, Diocese of Western New York estab- lished, and Bishop De Lancy elected in Trinity Church, Geneva. 1839, May 9-Ascension Day; special convention of diocese in St.
Peter's, Auburn. Consecrated and first official acts of Bishop De Lancy.
1843-Diocesan convention in St. Peter's Church.
1847-Diocesan convention in St. Peter's Church.
1848, March 19-Ordination of deacons, Bishop De Lancy the Bishop of Connecticut presenting candidates and preaching sermon.
1850-Extensive enlargement of church.
1864-Enlargement of rectory.
1865, January 8-First official act of Bishop Coxe.
1868, March-Church taken down and material used in construc- tion of present chapel.
1868, April 13-St. Peter's Chapel first used for worship.
1869, January 13-Bishop Huntington elected in St. Paul's Church, Syracuse.
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1869, April 8- Bishop Huntington consecrated in Emmanuel Church, Boston.
1869-Bishop Huntington's first visit to St. Peter's.
1870-Easter. New church used for worship.
1870-Church consecrated by Bishop Huntington. Bishop Coxe
present. Sermon by Rev. Dr. Morgan of St. Thomas' Church, New York.
1873, July-Tower and spire completed through munificence of General John H. Chedell.
1874-Diocesan convention.
1875, July 4-Chime of bells secured.
1876-Centennial year. Through the bequest of General John H. Chedell of ten thousand dollars, and the subscription of others, the final indebtedness arising from building the present church was discharged.
1879-Diocesan conference.
1883-Chancel enlarged, with robing room, and organ chamber.
1887-Easter. D. M. Osborne memorial organ presented.
1887, January 14-Diocesan convention.
1887-Gift of six silver plates from Honorable Justice Samuel Blatchford, Washington.
1888, November I and 4-Twenty-fifth anniversary of Doctor Brainard's rectorship.
1894-Parochial endowment begun.
1899-Extensive repairs and rebuilding of church tower, owing to careless workmanship, at a cost of seven thousand dollars.
List of rectors from the retirement of Rev. Mr. Phelps in 1812 to 1826 Rev. Mr. Phelps, Rev. William A. Clark, Rev. William McDonald, Rev. William H. Northorp, Rev. Lucius Smith, Rev. Samuel Sitgreaves. In 1826, Rev. Dr. Rudd assumed the rector- ship, and during his term the adjoining house and lot was purchased for a rectory and also the building of a new church to take the place of the old one destroyed by fire. Rev. Mr. Rudd retired from the
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rectorship in 1833 and was succeeded by Rev. William Lucas, who died in 1839. Rev. C. W. Hackley came next but remained only a short time and was succeeded by Rev. William Croswell, priest and poet, whose services lasted four years.
The next rector was Rev. Samuel Hanson Coxe Jr., he was followed by Rev. Walter Arault in 1847, and remaining until 1852.
The Rev. E. H. Crissey came as rector in 1853, remaining until 1859. The Rev. Charles Platt came next in 1860, but his rectorship was brought to a speedy close by a call to a chaplaincy of a regiment during the war.
Rev. Joseph Peirson was next with a short rectorship of two years, ended by sudden death. Rev. Mr. Peirson was succeeded by the present rector, the Rev. John Brainard, D. D. In 1863 the rectory was remodeled and appears as at present.
In April, 1868, five years after the coming of Doctor Brainard, the picturesque, four-pinnacled-towered old church was torn down and the present substantial stone edifice erected.
Doctor Brainard is a man of marked ability and broad views and held in high esteem by the clergy of all denominations in the city; He is continually growing in the love of his parishioners and doing a noble work for the church which up to 1900 he had managed single-handed and alone in one of the largest and most influential parishes of his denomination, when after much importuning by his parishioners, he was prevailed upon to accept the services of a curate when he came in the person of that gifted young clergyman the Rev. Leonard J. Christler who after serving six years accepts a call to a field in the West, where he is looked upon as an embryo bishop. His successor is the Rev. Norton T. Houser, B. D., whose advent met with a most favorable reception.
ST. JOHN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
Up over the hill like a beautiful star in the East, the cynosure of all eyes, rises St. John's the fifty-year old offspring of old St. Peter's by the fostering care of which has been made possible the
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ERASTUS CASE
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building up of one of the leading architectural attractions of the city on that magnificent site donated by the late General Chedell in the 60's.
The organization of St. John's Church took place on Easter morning, April 13, 1868. After morning service for St. Peter's Church and the election there, the rector repaired to the school- house where the first Easter election was held and the name of St. John's parish selected, the Rev. John Brainard presiding. The services so well and happily begun, continued under the care of the rector of St. Peter's, with every token of promise and success. In October, 1868, Rev. James Stoddard was elected as its first rector followed by Rev. E. B. Tuttle, Rev. Charles B. Hale, D. D. ; 1871, Rev. W. H. Lord; 1878, Rev. Francis A. D. Launt; 1884, Rev. James B. Murray, D. D .; 1891, Rev. C. N. C. Brown; 1894, Rev. Lewis Post Franklin; 1901, Rev. Samuel Macpherson.
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
Rev. Asa Hillyer, pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Orange, N. J., in 1798 preached the first sermon ever delivered in what is now the City of Auburn. During the next three years there was occasional preaching by missionaries touring through this portion of the country on horseback, among them being Rev. Aaron Condit, Rev. Dr. Perrine, Rev. Seth Witherston, Rev. Jedediah Bushnell and Rev. Solomon King.
The first Congregational Church of Aurelius was organized with Rev. David Higgins as pastor September 7, 1801. He had four preaching stations, Hardenbergh's Corners, now Auburn; Half Acre · Grover Settlement, now Fleming and Cayuga, preaching at each place once in four Sabbaths.
September 17, 1810, a meeting was held at the Center House, which was located near the junction of Genesee and Market streets, and the First Congregational Society was organized, and in the following July the church was organized in the same place, under the direction of the Presbytery of Cayuga. Rev. David Higgins
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became its first pastor and continued in that relation until February 16, 1813, when he accepted a call from the church at Bath, N. Y. His successors were: Rev. Hezekiah Woodruff, who remained in office until 1816; Rev. Dirck C. Lansing, 1817 to 1829; Rev. Josiah Hopkins, 1830 to 1846; Rev. Henry A. Nelson, 1846 to 1856; Rev. Charles Hawley, 1857 to 1885; Rev. W. H. Hubbard, 1886, still pastor of the church.
During the ministry of Rev. H. N. Woodruff, a County Bible Society was organized under the auspices of the Presbytery of Cayuga, February 22, 1815.
In the spring of 1814 active measures were taken looking towards the erection of a church edifice. It was the same year that Auburn was incorporated, having a population of one thousand, about thirty shops and stores on Genesee street. John Hardenbergh gave the lot for the church, and the sum of eight thousand dollars was pledged. During the summer of 1815 the work of building was begun and the church was dedicated March 6, 1817, by Rev. D. C. Lansing. The total expense of the construction of this church was between sixteen and seventeen thousand dollars, and it continued to be used by the congregation until 1869 when the church was removed to the corner of Capitol and Franklin streets where it serves as the church building of the Calvary Presbyterian Church.
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