History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 174

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I > Part 174

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This new edifice stood a little east of the present Episcopal Church. It was constructed of stone; was

forty feet in length and thirty in breadth, and per- fectly plain within and without. The first pastor of the new Episcopal Church was the Rev. Daniel Boudet, who was ordained by the Bishop of London, a minister of the English Church and came to this country in 1686. He died in 1722. During an inter- val of two years, between his death and the appoint- ment of his successor, services were performed by the Rev. John Bartow, who seems to have had a pretty wide field for his labors, as he says in a letter still ex- tant, that lie preached " in four towns; East Chester, Westchester, Yonkers and New Rochelle; the last eight miles, Yonkers six miles and East Chester four miles from home ;" and " does other occasional of- fices." The horse of this rector, one would think, must have had a lively time and fairly earned his living, as there were then (1722) very few public con- veyances (if any) between these four towns. For his extra services to the New Rochelle Church during these two years, Mr. Bartow received from the En- glish Missionary Society the sum of ten pounds, the purchasing power of which, however, was more than double and perhaps three or four times what the same sum would be at the present time.

Mr. Boudet was succeeded, in 1724, by the Rev. Pierre Stouppe, also a native of France, and ordained in 1723 by the Bishop of London. The conflict be- tween the two branches of the church-the French Huguenot and the Episcopal-was maintained with great severity during his pastorate, as appears from a letter of his to the Secretary of the English Mission- ary Society, dated 1725, in which he complains bit- terly and laments mournfully over the unhealed schism.

He was followed upon his death, in 1760, by the Rev. Mr. Houdin, another Freuchman by birth, who was bred a Franciscan friar. Mr. Houdin died in 1776. The Rev. Theodotius Bartow was called to the church in 1790, they having been witlı- out a minister for fourteen years, during the troubles connected with the War of the Revolution. He con- tinued to serve the church until 1819-nearly thirty years-but in June of that year resigned his charge.

The list of ministers and rectors of the Episcopal Church in New Rochelle is as follows :

Rev. David De Bonrepas, D. D 1689

Rev. Daniel Bondet, A.MI 1695

Rev. Pierre Stouppe, A. MI 1724

Rev. Michael Hondin, A.M 1761

Rev. Theodotius Bartow 1790

Rev. Ravand Kearny, A. JI

1819

Rev. Lewis P. Bayard, A. M

1821

Rev. Lawson Carter, A.M 1827

Rev. Thomas Winthrop, Cirt. D.D 1839

Rev. Richard I'mstead Morgan, D. D. 1849

lev. John H. Watson 1874

Rev. Chas F. Canedy, A. MI

1876

(Present incumbent.]

It appears from the records that those of the French Huguenots who were unwilling to conform to . the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England,

1 Contents unpublished manuscript.

º See Bolton.

3 The views of those who conformed were presented in Bolton's His- tory, vol. i. p. 630.

4 Badean's Pen and Ink Sketch.

694

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

continned their connection with the old French Church, in New York City, and received their pas- tors, when they had any, as missionary bishops from that body. This relation existed from the year of the separation (1709), until 1764, as is proved by the records, and probably much longer. But in February 1808, a new church was incorporated, composed partly of the members of this ancient French Hu- gnenot body, and partly of Presbyterians, but still with the title " The French Church in New Roch- elle." Matson Smith, John Reid, Thomas Carpen- ter, Robert Givan, Gideon Coggeshall and James Somerville being trustees. On the 30th of May, 1812, it became a Presbyterian church in name as well as in fact, and was received into the care of the Pres- bytery of New York. The first pastor of the French Church after the separation was the Rev. Jean Brumand de Mouli- nars. The first pastor of the New Presbyterian Church was Rev. Isaac Lewis, Jr., 1815, who was succeeded in turn by the following :

Rev. Elijah D. Wells 1823 Rev. J. D. Wickham 1825

Rev. George Stebbins 1828

Rev. John Mason 1835

Rev. Gorman D. Abbot 1837 Rev. P. Snyder 1841 Rev. Henry Martyn Scudder 1844 Rev. Chas. Hawley 1845

Rev. Charles E. Lindsley 1849 Rev. James HI. Taylor . . 1859

Rev. Erskine N. White

1862

Rev. David Ilopkins . . . . 1869

Rev. Edward R. Burkhalter 1870

Rev. Anthony R. Macoubley 1877

Rev. R. Randall Hoes . . . 1878 Rev. William B. Walles (present incumbent).

Charles OG Licaled.

The first church edifice erected by the Presbyter- ians was built of wood, in the year 1815. In 1860 it was removed, to make room for a new building. It was fitted for nse as a parsonage, and presented to the trustees for that purpose by the late Albert Smith, M.D., of New Rochelle. The new church, built in 1860-61, is constructed of stone, and occupies nearly the same position as the old one. Its cost when completed was about seventeen thousand dollars. The church edifice of the Episcopalians (one of the finest structures of the kind in the county), is also of stone, and was built under the supervision of the celebrated architect, Upjohn. It stands a few rods to the west of the shop once occupied by the quaint old stone edifice built for their worship by the Huguenots in the year 1710, and which, if it had been allowed to

remain would now be one of the greatest curiosities in the country. If anything had to be removed it shoukl have been the road, and not the venerable old church of their forcfathers. Upon the subject of this ancient edifice one of the descendants of those who built and worshiped in it, has the following feeling remarks :

" The Second French Protestant Church edifice in New Rochelle was erected in 1710-11. It was situated a little to the eastward of the former church, on Hu- gnenot Street (called in Queen Anne's charter The High Street), and just in front of the residence of the late Doctor Peter Moulton. Its ground dimensions were thirty by forty feet. The roof was in the form of a square pyramid. The body of the structure was of rough, unhewn stone, and pierced by arched windows. The entrance, which was on the south side, was also an arched door-way. It has been conjectured that its ex- ternal shape was modeled after the famous Hugue- not Temple of La Ro- chelle, in France. The interior arrangements were equally primitive and unadorned, -plain, unpainted, nncushioned, high-backed pews! An elevated box pulpit, built against the face of the wall opposite to the door- way. Thic desk was sur- rounded by a plain rail- ing, which formed the chancel or altar, and fur- nished with a small com- munion table made of wood of the wild cherry (which survived the old church for many years and which I have seen). From its peculiar shape, this church was popularly known and is still remembered by some of our okdl- est inhabitants as 'The Old Stone Jug.' Alas, that this venerable relic of antiquity should now have to be numbered among the things that were! The changes incident to the lapse of years, and the van- dalism of progress, or rather, shall I say, the progress of vandalism ? have so completely annihilated every vestige of the ancient structure, that even its exact situation, like that of its predecessor, cannot be defi- nitely determined, but is more or less a matter of con- jecture. And why, we ask, could not the grasping, all-absorbing spirit of change and novelty which characterizes the age have spared to ns this one, humble monument of the past, to build which, it is

695

NEW ROCHELLE.

said, that the men carried stones in their hands, and the women mortar in their aprons? If for no other reason, it should have been suffered to remain that it inight guard the sleeping dust of two of its earliest and most faithful pastors, Rev. Daniel Boudet and Pierre Stouppe, whose remains, together with those of the wife of the latter, were deposited beneath its floor. O irony of Time and Fate! While the emblazoned images of these two good men, arrayed in full clerical costumes, are displayed in glowing colors upon the chancel windows of the present Gothic edifice, their bodies moulder beneath the stones and dust of the public highway, once by law and usage the burial- place of suicides !" 1

The Methodist house of worship on Banks Street is a neat and commodious structure. The organiza- tion is the second of that name in the town, the first being at Upper New Rochelle. The Baptist Taber- nacle, at the corner of Main Street and Locust Ave- nue, is sufficient for the requirements of the growing congregation at present, but there is ample room upon the grounds for its enlargement whenever that may be found to be desirable. The Roman Catholics have a capacious house of worship of wood, and by far the largest congregation in the town, on Centre Street. Besides these, there are a German Lutheran and a Geriuan Methodist Church, making in all eight Protestant Churches and one Roman Catholic. At the present time (1884) all of these churches are fur- nished with pastors, and are in a flourishing condition, with a membership of nearly or quite one thousand.

THE BEECHWOOD CEMETERY .- For many years the town of New Rochelle had felt the need of some better place for the burial of the dead, the growing population having uo other facilities for this purpose than the private or denominational burying-grounds afforded. On the 30th of January, 1854, the Beech- wood Cemetery was incorporated upou land owned by the late Dr. Albert Smith, of New Rochelle. It was chiefly by Dr. Smith's energy aud liberality that this new burial-place was opened to the public, he having contributed largely both of time and money to this object. The position is convenient and well adapted to the purpose designed, and it is now the principal place of interment, both for the town and the vicinity.

EDUCATION .- For a long time after the settlement of the town the facilities for education, owing to the peculiar circumstances, were exceedingly limited. The clergy, as usual, were the principal teachers. " Our French ancestors," says the Rev. L. J. Coutant, in his valuable historical reminiscences of Huguenot New Rochelle, " who settled this town, and gave it the name which it now bears, about cighty-nine years before the Revolutionary War, received their educa- tion in the French language, and, consequently, dur- ing the greater part of the period above named

(eighty-nine years), the rising generation was edu- cated in French. The writer's grandmother received her education in that tongue, and used to read her French Bible and prayer-book. They were not desti- tute of good scholars, who understood both French and English, and could converse fluently in both lan- guages. The education of their children in those times devolved chiefly upon the pastors of the French Protestant Church. David Bonrepas, their first min- ister, gave instruction to the young people in letters and religion."

Daniel Bondet was an excellent scholar and edu- cator; his library it is said, consisted of over four hundred volumes, which for those times was large. Pierre Stouppe, his successor in the pastorate of the French Church, was a well educated inan, and for many years kept a day and boarding-school for in- struction both in French and English. It is no trifling comment on his ability as a competent teacher, that the Hon. John Jay, subsequently Ameri- can minister to the court of France, and of Hugue- not descent, and General Schuyler, of Revolutionary fame, were among his pupils. Indeed, the general knowl- edge of letters, in so far at least as reading and writing are concerned, may be inferred from the fact that among a list of sixty names subscribed to a petition to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in connection with the Church of England in 1743, only five individuals signed by making a cross. But alas, for poor human nature ! All the devotion of these people to their religion, and such learning as they could command, did not prevent them from perpetrat- ing an act of barbarism. In 1776 they burned to death a negro by the sentence of three of the magis- trates of the town, for the crime of murder. The re- volting details are given in Coutant's " Reminis- cences," with a minuteness and particularity that are sickening. Mr. Bolton, in his history, says: " In a portion of the Guion property once owned by the late George Case, Esq., nearly opposite the old Eels mansion, on North Street, the remains of a large bed of char- coal were discovered a few years since, marking the site of this summary execution." 2

" Tradition 3 reveals to us the existence of two school-houses in the town of New Rochelle, used as such probably before the Revolution and during the closing years of the 18th Century. One was situated in the neighborhood of the old tollgate, and the other on North Street, opposite the resi- dence of Mr. Simeon Lester, and just in front of a high clump of rocks, which at this place divided the road into two parts, running around the rock on both sides, leaving a triangular space between them, and on this gore of land the school-house was built."

The school-house in District No. 2 was on North Street, at the junction of this strect with the road

1 Coutant's Manuscript.

Bolton, vol. i. p. 671.

3 Coutant's, " Reminiscences."

696

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

from New Rochelle to East Chester. That in District No. 3 was at Cooper's Corners, on the east side of North Street. The interior of these primitive school- houses (1795-1796) is thus described by Mr. Cou- tant :- "The inside of these houses was of the crud- est aud cheapest finish. As to the outside, they were small, nnpainted shanties, usually located on some surplus angle of the streets, or rocky land, unfit for cultivation, thus economizing ground, and mak- ing these barren spots, where no vegetation could grow, produce the precious fruits of education. The houses were ceiled rouud with nnpainted boards, shrunken from their grooves; consequently no venti- lators were needed ! Their 'fixtures ' were extremely rude and simple, consisting for the most part of pine boards uailed up to the sides and ends of the room for desks, with sometimes a shelf underneath, on which to keep books and slates. They were furnished with seats of long oaken slabs, with legs driven into auger holes at each end, and all of the fixtures and furniture were curiously notched and carved into many fan- tastic forms and grotesque images by the busy jack- knives of the mischievous tyros. The school-room was sometimes warmed by a fire in an open fire-place; but mostly by a small cast-iron stove, set upon a pile of bricks in the middle of the room."

The teachers were stern and severe in their methods of teaching, using the ferrule and birchen rod with great frequency and freedom. In those days flagel- lation was thought to be a fundamental part of educa- tion. Most of these teachers were imported from England and Ireland. They had left their own country in search of a wider field for the exercise of their great powers for stimulating the minds of their pupils by external applications. They found it here in America, and in carrying out their peculiar incth- ods they only followed the customs of their native land. But their path was not always a flowery one. The application of force to the inculcation of learning was sometimes attended with disastrous results to themselves. From this severity of discipline very unpleasant affrays took place between the teacher and his scholars, ending occasionally in the expulsion of the teacher from the school-room. As to qualifi- cations, "If the teacher could make a good quill pen, and write with facility a ueat and fair hand, and solve the sums and repeat the tables in Daboll's arithmetic, he was considered a competent teacher, and received a certificate entitling the school taught by him to receive its proportion of the public money." The reading-books were "The New Testament," "The Sequel," "The American Preceptor," and " The Child's Instructor" for larger and more advanced scholars, and a few primers for small children. The scarcity of books rendered it necessary that the teachers of these primitive schools should be well versed in all the English branches which they had to teach. But grammar and geography were at that time not com- monly taught in the public schools. These ancient

school-houses, schools aud teachers were the pioneers of the extensive and wonderful common-school system of the days in which we live. They were but the stepping-stones, so to speak, of those magnificent temples of science and learning which have since sprung up in almost every part of our favored land. As to those primitive structures in New Rochelle, they have vanished even from the recollection of most of the inhabitants.

Every vestige of the two old Huguenot school- houses is swept away, and they live only in tradition. The only teacher who taught school in either house, within the recollection of the writer, was Andrew Dean, Esq., some of whose descendants are still liv- ing in New Rochelle.1 In the year 1857 three school- houses were built (nnder the act of 1795), dividing the town into as many districts. The first was on the coruer of a lane leading to the old French burying- ground. It was on Huguenot Street, nearly in front of the present Episcopal Church. It was quite a stately school-house for those times, being about eighteen by thirty-two feet ou the ground and two stories high. Its pre-eminence iu size and other con- siderations procured for it the name of " Academy." This school had quite a wide-spread reputation as a place of learning ; and some who received the rudi- ments of education here have subsequently obtained celebrity as professional men. Bishop De Laucey, whose parents resided at Mamaroneck, came down to this school. Daily the boy bishop might be seen, to the great wonderment of the other scholars, jogging along on horseback with his dinner-basket dangling at his elbow, to take his place among his fellow-stu- dents in the High School, at that time taught by a Mr. Fox. Some time between 1825 aud 1827 this old hive of learning gave place to the school in Me- chanics Strect, which, in 1856-57, was exchanged for the building on Trinity Street, to which David Mil- ler, one of the teachers of the former school, be- queathed by will the sum of cighteen hundred dollars, which was invested in an addition to the Trinity Strect brick school-house.

PRESENT EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES .- It is only within the last few years that any decided advance has been made in the public schools of this town at all commensurate with the requirements of the age and the wants of the people. The accidental burning (March 30, 1882) of the school-honse on Trinity Street, built 1856-57, has led to the erection of a very superior building upon its site. This building was planned by the school board and erected under the supervision of Messrs. D. & J. Jardine, architects. The grounds are abont three acres. Before entering upon the work, members of the board examined every school-honse noted for superior advantages within their reach, their aim being to combine and concentrate the best elements from all in the building

1Coutant's " Reminiscences."

F.M.G.

"CORNELL HOMESTEAD." RESIDENCE OF R. C. CORNELL, NEW ROCHELLE, N. Y.

697

NEW ROCHELLE.

which they intended should be a model school-house in every respect. In this they have largely succeeded. The building is H-shaped, eighty-four feet front, one hundred and fifty feet deep. There are thirteen class-rooms, one library-room, one board-room, one principal's room, one assembly-room, fifty-four by ninety-three, with accommodations for about eight hundred pupils. There is an above-ground cellar, divided into play-rooms for wet weather, furnace, coal and store-rooms.

The building is heated by steam from a fifty horse- power boiler. The system of ventilation is ; the " Gouge," and is working satisfactorily. There are five lines of hose, supplied with water from a tank in the top of the building, for the extinguishing of fires. The teachers are one principal, salary twenty-three hundred dollars ; twelve lady teachers at salaries from four hundred to seven hundred dollars.

There are in the town two other schools-one pri- mary. West New Rochelle; one school for colored pupils, in Harrisou Street-with one teacher for each school.

LIBRARY AND GYMNASIUM .- It is impossible to conclude this sketch without some notice of the lib- eral benefactions of one of our citizens, Mr. Adrian Iselin. for the public benefit ; more especially as this is, so far as I am aware, the only instance of the kind in the entire history of the town.1 Mr. Iselin has not only fitted up at his own expense a fine building, con- taining a reading-room, library and billiard-room for the instruction and amusement of the young people, but he has expended many thousands of dollars in the erection of a gymnasium for physical exercise. which, when complete, will be an ornament to the town, and ought greatly to promote the health and enjoyment of the inhabitants. This building is en- tirely unique, and has no rival, so far as I know, in this country; certainly not outside of the great cities.

I have been furnished by Mr. William Le Count, of New Rochelle, with an claborate description of the gymnasium, which is here given (in a form slightly condensed) from his manuscript :- " It is built of Calabar brick, and trimmed with blue stone and Philadelphia brick. The mason-work is of a superior quality. The arehcs over the windows and doors are a most attractive feature. Every brick exposed to view in thesc arches was specially chiseled and shaped on the premises, requiring a great amount of skill and labor to make this seemingly small part of the building. The roof is covered with red Akron tiles, which, on the main roof are flat, and on the towers and turrets corrugated, and ornamented with terra-cotta crestings and finials. The wood-work is of the best yellow and white pine and oak. The ex- treme length of the building is 114 feet; extreme

width, 56 feet. Every attention has been paid to drainage and ventilation. The entire outside surface, where it rests upon the ground, is covered with asphal- tum or damp-proof material, and the bottom of the excavation for the structure is covered with asphalt, laid upon a bed of cement concrete, and the whole covered with cement. The walls of the building are hollow, and every room is connected with ventilating tubes, which extend to the outside top of the walls. Two immense cisterns supply rain-water, which is passed through double filters before being used. Steam-heat is employed for warming and gas for lighting. The style of architecture is that of French military structures. The front corners are ornamented with two large towers, through one of which is the main entrance. In front of this entranee is a heavy balustrade of terra-cotta, surmounted by ornamental lamps. Over the main door is a panel of terra-cotta, containing a bas-relief representation of 'The Yonng Athletes.' There is a beautiful winding stair, of oak, which conducts from the base of one of the towers to the topmost story of the building. The floor of the entrance is laid in a Roman Mosaic of tiles, black, red and salmon color, three-quarters of an inch square. The gymnasium proper is a room forty by eighty feet, without a post or pillar resting upon the floor. Light bnt beautiful trusses, which are self-supporting, sus- tain the heavy roof. The floor is of the choicest ver- tical grain yellow pine; the walls of buff terra-cotta brick ; ceilings, trusses and window-work of white and yellow pine, finished in their native color; the windows of French plate; the doors of polished oak ; trimmings and gas-fixtures of solid bronze, and pol- ished brass, made expressly for this building. The running track, which is elevated about eight and a half feet above the floor of the main room, extends entirely around the building, and is suspended from the roof. Behind it (at one end) there is a gallery for the accommodation of visitors. Under the floor of the main room is the bowling alley, one hundred by twenty feet. It is on the south side, and is fitted with fonr alleys, in the most approved modern style. This room, although below the surface of the ground, is most admirable lighted by a row of windows in amber-colored cathedral glass, in circular form and set in lead. On the opposite side of the building are the dressing-rooms, fitted up with lockers and all suitable modern conveniences. Beyond these are the boiler and fuel-rooms. A handsome irou fence sur- rounds the building in front. The entire sidewalk is flagged and cnrbed in a style equal to that of any of the public buildings in the large cities. The gym- nasinm occupies a central positiou at the corner of two of the principal streets of the village. The in- tention of its founder is to have it a perfect gymna- sium. It will be furnished with everything required to make it so, and a competent professor will be ap- pointed to superintend and direct the exercises."

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 174

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1354

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354