History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 17

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898,
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1286

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everything down to thirteen thousand five hundred dollars. During the spring of 1875, in the darkest of times, the congregation took up this debt and swept it all away. In 1884 the first parsonage, now 43 S. Broadway, already referred to as lost to the church in 1852, was recovered by purchase, and on the 9th of November of the same year a'new chapel in Ludlow Street, about half a mile south of the church, having

It began with a debt of seven thousand six hundred and fifty dollars, solid and floating, of which one thousand six hundred and fifty dollars was paid at : been just completed, was presented to the church and once. In the summer of 1868 the new lecture-room dedicated to the service of God. This building is now used for a Sabbath-school of the church, and will doubtless result in due time in the development was built and other improvements were made. In the same and the next year the church was heavily

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

of a Second Reformed Church for the city. All these changes and purchases, together with the running expenses of the church, have involved the giving of a great deal of money. The total amount contri- buted within this church down to April 1, 1886, was $167,100.73, and of this the amount given to benevo- lent objects was $27.821.90, or about one-sixth of the whole. The debt on the church's property just now is $3,800 on its parsonage. The new chapel, now more than a year old, has still upon it a mortgage of 83,000. Such is a concise history of the temporal matters of this church, since December 10, 1865. The property of the church, as a whole, is very val- uable. Its house of worship and adjoining parsouage staud not far from the business centre of the place. The property is all in the best of order. The house of worship is too small for the church's mission in Yonkers. This is the only defeet in the temporalities of this congregation. Some of its people have the matter very much at heart, and relief may come at no distant day.

Many precious seasons of revival have been en- joyed by this church during the present pastorate, notably that of 1874, when forty-two were added on profession, and that of 1878, when the additions on profession were fifty-four. In general, however, the ingathering, while marked by steadiness, has been more slow. The total number of additions sinee December 10, 1865, has been five hundred and forty- eight, of whom three hundred and thirty have entered by profession. The number now on the roll, exelu- sive of certain persons set aside because their where- abouts is not known, is three hundred and forty- seven.

The church rents its pews, but receives its income mostly through weekly envelopes, a plan which adapts itself admirably to its people.

Its schedule of services and its whole working force and order, as to meetings, societies, etc., are always lying before the publie in a printed circular, and need not be given here.

The first elders were Lemnel W. Wells and Duncan Macfarlane, and the first deacons were Frederick Nodine and Ralph Shipman. The present elders are William G. Sekeman, James Stewart, Joseph H. Pal- mer, Hyatt L. Garrison, George Stewart and John Pagan, and the present deacons are Joseph Peene, James P. Cumming, Virgil Myers, Walter A. Drink- water, James Kellock and Christian F. Tietjen.

The church has two Sunday-schools, one held in the morning in the church-building, the other in the afternoon in the Ludlow Street chapel. The aggre- gate of scholars in both is two hundred and seventy- four. The superintendent of the church-school is Mr. Christian F. Tietjen, and the superintendent of the chapel-school is Mr. George Stewart.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC .- The history of these churches, as well as that of their schools already given, is furnished by Mr. Thomas C. Cornell.

The earliest religious services of the Roman Cath- olie Church in Yonkers were held among the Catlı- olie laborers upon the Croton Aqueduct in 1836-39, by the Rev. James Cummiskey of St. Joseph's Church, New York, a church built by him about 1834. Father Cummiskey exercised his office among the laborers on the work from New York to Sing Sing, saying Mass in whatever private room or rude build- ing he could obtain. In Yonkers, during the build- ing of the arches over the Saw-Mill River, a laborers' settlement existed for several years among the trees on the bluff, near where Summit Street now crosses the aqueduct, and in this vicinity Father Cummiskey occupied a small building on Sundays 'as a chapel. It was the first Roman Catholic Chapel in Yonkers. Several Roman Catholic families remained after the completion of the aqueduct, but Father Cummiskey did not return after 1840, nor had he any successor till the beginning of work on the Hudson River Railroad in the latter part of 1847.

St. Mary's Church on St. Mary St. Bishop Hughes opened St. John's College at Fordham in 1841, under the Rev. John McCloskey-afterwards Cardinal-as its first President. In 1846 he transferred the College to the Jesuits who have since conducted it. The Bishop had so few priests that he was glad to give to the Jesuits of the College the charge of Westchester County, and the Rev. John Ryan, S. J., was charged with the Mission of Yonkers. Work was begun on the Rail Road in September 1847, and in October Father Ryan said his first Mass in Yonkers in the principal room of a dwelling-house near where Nep- perhan Avenue now crosses the Nepperhan River, and subsequently continued his work in a vacant store room in the adjacent dye factory of Samuel Morgan. The dwelling-house and the dye factory were long ago burned. In the summer of 1848 Father Ryan hired at three dollars a week the upper story of the first three story brick building in Yonk- ers, then just ereeted by Mr. Ethan Flagg. The house little changed, still stands at the corner of Pa- lisade Avenue (then Factory St.) and New Main (then Mechanie) Street. In the autumn of 1848, Father Ryan ventured to begin the ereetion of a brick church, after a design of Mr. Patrick C. Keeley, an architect of eminenee. The lot, on what is now called St. Mary Street, was the gift of Hon. Wm. W. Wood- worth, and Father Ryan's Building Committee were Wm. W. Woodworth, Thomas C. Cornell and Hugh Donohue. The lot was $5 feet wide on the street by 130 feet deep. Four years later 50 feet were added to the width. The building, 40x70, was inclosed with bare brick walls, with no ceiling but the roof, and with the windows rudely boarded up. The first Mass was said in it on Christmas, 1848. The Church was dedicated " to the Blessed Virgin Mary conceived without sin," and hence is sometimes called St Mary's, and sometimes the "Church of the Immacu- late Conception." The church then erected now

YONKERS.

forms that part of the present church, which lies for- ward of the transepts. The enameled glass windows were substituted for the rough boards in the summer of 1849, and the spire as designed by Mr. Keeley, was erected with a contribution from Judge Woodworth iu the fall of the same year. But the church contin- ued without plaster or ceiling, and the only seats were rough board benches without backs. Father Ryan continued in charge, with occasional aid from Fathers Driscoll, Du Ranquet, Daubresse, Tissot and others of his colleagues at St. John's, and said Mass every Sunday and Holy Day, coming from his dutics at the college the preceding evening and return- ing on Sunday even- ing, till 1850, when he was made the first president of the Col- lege of St. Francis Xavier, then just opened in Fifteenth Street, New York. He was succeeded in the charge of Yonk- ers by Rev. Hippolyte Bienvenue, S. J., and subsequently by Rev. Louis Jouin, S. J.

In May 1854, the Rev. Eugene Maguire was put in charge of the church, and remained till February, 1856. During his time St. Mary's Cemetery was first opened in the Sprain Valley, on land given by Mr. John Murtha. In 1855 the State eensus reported the usual attendauce of the Roman Catholic Church of Yonkers at eight hundred, which would indicate a Roman Catholic population of from twelve to sixteen hundred. The same census makes the population of the village 4170.

The Rev. Edward Lynch succeeded Father; Maguire in February 1856. He greatly developed the parish schools, placed the girls under the Sisters of Charity in 1857, built a large school-house in 1860, putting the boys under the Christian Brothers, and iu 1863 enlarged the church by adding transepts, chancel and vestry, and increasing the seating capacity from four hundred and twenty to one thou- sand, at which it still remains. In 1859 the parish work had so increased that Father Lynch had his first assistant priest, the Rev. S. A. Mullady, previously of the So- ciety of Jesus, who was succeeded in 1861 by Father Biretta, an Italiau Franciscan, later by the Rev. Pat- rick Brady, then by Rev. T. Byrne and in October, 1864, by Rev. Wm. H. Oram. Father Lynch died while in charge of St. Mary's parish, on the 5th of May 1865, and

In the summer of 1851 the Rev. Thomas S. Preston, then re- cently ordained, but later the Right Rev. Monsignor Preston- a prelate of the Papal household -- wasmade the first resident pas- tor of Yonkers. The church still remained as Father Rvan left it, with rough, un- plastered brick walls, aud open above to the roof. Father Preston immediately finished the church and put in RIGHT REV. MONSIGNOR THOS. S. PRESTON, LL.D. pews making four hundred and twenty seats, of which not more than half | in the tenth year of his very successful pastorate. a dozen sittings remained unrented. He also put in an The Rev. Charles T. Slevin succeeded Father Lynch in May, 1865. He put up the handsome mar- ble altar in 1866, and added the three large paintings in the altar recess at a cost of about two thousand dollars. In 1868 he made the first addition to the pastoral residence, fifteen years after it was first built, and the following year added to it the front building. Father Slevin took pains to have good church music, and was the first to have a paid choir. Ile put in a organ, and a choir under Professor Wm. F. Muller. In 1852 he bought the school-house property on the north side ofSt. Mary Street, and opened the first parish school. Iu 1853 he built a small parochial residence. Iu October 1853, Archbishop Hughes recalled Father Preston to New York, making him secretary and subse- quently chancellor of the diocese, and he was tempor- arily succeeded in Yonkers by the Rev. John McMahon.

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

new organ in 1872, which still remains. His first as- St. Mary's Church is incorporated under the ‘gen- eral law, the trustees being Archbishop Corrigan, Right Rev. Monsignor William Quin, V.G., Rev. Charles R. Corley (all er-officio), Mr. John Wallace and Mr. Francis O'Neill. sistant priest was Rev. Albert A. Lings, who came in 1867 and remained till 1871, when he was charged with the organization of the new parish of St. Joseph. He was succeeded as assistant at St. Mary's by Rev. Bernard Goodwin, and in February, 1872, by Rev. J. The history and statistics of St. Mary's parish school have been given already. Byron, who remained until June, 1874. In 1873, Father Slevin obtained leave of absence on account St. Joseph's Church, on Ashburton and St. Joseph _Ire- nues .- The parish of St. Joseph was set off from St. Mary'sin May, 1871. The division line has not been offi- cially defined with accuracy, but is assumed to follow Yonkers Avenue from the Bronx to the Croton aque- duct ; thence by the aqueduct to the arches crossing the Saw-Mill River, and down the river, leaving the glen to Garden Street, on the upland, within the parish ; thence by Garden Street to Locust Hill Avenue, of ill-health, and was in Europe from February to October, the Rev. Edward McKenna occupying his place while he was away. In June, 1874, Father Byron was succeeded as assistant by Rev. Eugene McKenna, who remained till May, 1875, when he was followed for a short time by Rev. J. W. Hays. But before this, in October, 1874, the Rev. Andrew O'Reilley came to take the place of assistant pastor, which he yet fills, after a service of twelve years. ! and thence to the Hudson River. Rev. Albert A.

Father Slevin was in fail-1 ing health for severa years, and, while still hold ing the charge of pastor of St. Mary's, died among his kindred in North Easton, Mass., on the 18th of July, 1878.

Rev. Charles R. Corley was sent to supply Father Slevin's place in June, 1877, and still remains in charge of the parish, with Rev. Andrew O'Reilley as assistant ; and since 1884, Rev. James FF. McLaugh- lin has been an assistant also. Father Corley has given great attention to the parish schools, and they have been very suc- cessful. In 1885 he built an addition to the school building, erected by Father Lynch in 1860, more than doubling its capacity, at a cost of twenty thou- sand dollars. The church had been for some time ont of debt, and it is not believed that any permanent debt will be created by this addition to the school-house.

REV. CHARLES R. CORLEY.

Father Corley estimates the membership of St. Mary's at between four and five thousand. At each of the four Masses every Sunday the church is filled, making a total attendanec of about three thousand. At the Mission given in the church by the Paulist Fathers in September, 1885, the communicants were ! the parochial residence. thirty-eight hundred. The marriages and baptisms for the past four years have been as follows :

Year.

Baptisma.

Marriages,

1882

162

1883

152

1×84

168

1SS5

197

4.5

Lings, at that time assist- ant at St. Mary's, was made the first pastor, a charge which he still holds, and the Rev. An- thony Molloy has been his assistant since No- vember, 1876. The Rev. Father Shadler was an occasional assistant be- fore Father Molloy, and the Rev. Michael Mont- gomery was assistant during Father Lings' ab- sence in Europe, Egypt and Palestine in 1881. A third priest, the Rev. J. J. Coffey has been added in 1886; and one of the priests from St. Joseph's says Mass every Sunday morning among the laborers on the New Aqueduct.

The Sunday and Sat- urday evening services were first opened in the assembly-room of Public School No. 6 early in July, 1871, the church paying fifteen dollars a week rent. That same month Father Lings bought for seventeen thousand dollars the present church lot, one hundred and fifteen feet front on Ash- burton Avenue and two hundred and seventeen feet deep along Oak Hill (now St. Joseph) Avenue, with an old dwelling-house on the premises, which was made In September he laid the corner-stone of a brick building, forty-five by eighty-two feet, two stories high, with basement and attic, placed on the north part of the Oak Hill Ave- nue front and designed for a school-house, but with the lower part temporarily fitted up for a church, with a seating capacity of nearly six hundred. The first Mass was said in the new building on the 8th of De-

YONKERS.

cember, 1871, although this building was not finished until the following spring. A parish school was opened in the upper story in the autumn of 1872. The ereeting and furnishing of the new building cost about twenty thousand dollars. In 1877, the old dwelling-house being no longer fit for use, a new brick residence for the clergy was built on the east side of the Ashburton Avenue front, leaving the corner of the two avenues for a future church build- ing, to be erected in due time.

St. Joseph's Church was incorporated under the general law in 1876. The present trustees are Arch- bishop Corrigan, Vicar-General Quin and Father Lings, ex officio, and Mr. Michael Walsh and Mr. Thomas B. Caulfield, of the congregation.

Father Lings estimates his people at four thousand, and on Sundays the church is densely crowded at each of the four Masses. The corner-stone of the new St. Joseph's Church was laid by Archbishop Corrigan on the 16th of May, 1886, and the building is to be finished during the ycar. The length is 150 feet, the width 65 feet, and the height of the ceiling 65 feet from the floor. The pews will furnish 1,083 seats on the ground floor, and a spacious gallery at onc end, and besides accommodating the organ and choir, will make space for 400 sittings more, so that the church can easily seat 1,500 persons without using the aisles. The edifice is designed, in the Gothic style, of brick and stonc, and will be one of the finest churches in REV. ALBERT A. LINGS. Yonkers. When completed it will have cost $60,000. The architect is Mr. William | later the following were added : Mrs. Lucy Miller, wife Shickel, of New York, and the builders are Dennis Murphy and Antony Imhoff, of Yonkers.

The marriages and baptisms for the past four years have been as follows :

Year.

Baptisms.

Marriages.

1882

120

1883

148

1884

176

1885

162

In 1881 Father Lings bought the property adjoin- ing the school-house on the north, with a dwelling upon it, which he fitted up for the Sisters of Charity, at a cost of about seven thousand dollars. It has since been occupied by a community of seven Sis- ters, under Sister M. Stephen, who have charge of the Sunday-schools as well as the parish school of the church.

The number of pupils in attendance upon the parish school for the last four years has been as follows :

Year.

Boys.

Girls.

Total.

18×2

203

2×1

4×4

1883

227

300

527

1884

235

328

563

1885

268

359

627

THE BAPTIST- Warburton Avenue Baptist Church and Nepperhan Avenue Baptist Chapel .- The first prayer-meeting of Baptists in Yonkers was held Tuesday evening, March 5, 1847, in the house of Mr. Peter F. Peek. At this service there were present Mr. and Mrs. Peek, Mr. and Mrs. George Van Ness, Mr. and Mrs. B. F. Crane, Mr. and Mrs. Ferrin, Mrs. Chambers, Mrs. McGill aud Miss Strothers. The last-named lady lived in Yonkers but a few months. The first sermon preached in Yonkers by a Baptist clergyman to a Baptist audience was delivered by the celebrated Rev. John Dowling, D.D., of New York, in Mr. Peek's parlors, in August, 1847. His text was, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

At a meeting held May 14, 1849, at the residence of Mr. B. F. Crane, the Rev. D. Henry Miller offered a resolution that a Baptist Church be organized. It was adopted and seven per- sons enrolled themselves as members that evening, viz. : Peter F. Peck and Abbie J. Peek, his wife, B. F. Crane and Emeline Crane, his wife, George Van Ness, Elias Whipple and the Rev. D. Henry Miller. One week of Rev. D. Henry Miller, Mr. Miller's mother, A. C. Van Ness, Jonathan Odell and his wife, Mrs. Rosina Whipple, Miss A. Minnerly and Mrs. M. A. Cham- bers.

The Rev. D. Henry Miller was the first pastor of the church, and preached his first sermon to his peo- ple in Flagg's Hall, at the northeast corner of Palisade Avenue and New Main Street (then Factory and Mechanic Streets). The meetings continued to be held in that place till a church was built. On the 23d of May the new organization was formally recognized by a council of members and delegates from the neighboring churches.

The corner-stone of the church building was laid October 24, 1850, when the members numbered twenty-six. The edifice was finished and dedicated

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

in 1852. It stood on North Broadway, on the spot now occupied by the new Temperance Hall of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. It was of brick, fifty-two by sixty-thrce feet, with a square tower sixty feet high on the southeast corner. It contained a basement capable of seating about two hundred, and a main audience-room, which, with the end gallery, opposite the pulpit, could accommodate between three hundred and four hundred persons. The church was known for years as the Mount Olivet Baptist Church.

The most historically important event connected with the development of the congregation was the presentation to it, by Messrs. John B. Trevor and James B. Colgate, of its present splendid house of worship. Its corner-stone was laid April 11, 1868, and the completed building was dedicated June 20, 1869.

The account of the origin, erection and dedication of this church is given in a special history prepared and published by a committee appointed by the church -June 30th, 1869, and consisting of the Rev. A. J. F. Behrends, its pastor, Deacon Peter F. Peek, Bros. G. Hilton Scribner and James Randell, of the church, and Mr. Luther W. Frost, of the congregation. We give the substance of it here.

As early as 1863, at least, the building of a new house in a more favorable location was agitated among a few, but did not definitely engage attention until the regular church meeting, held October 2, 1867, when the following communication from Bros. Trevor and Colgate was read by the pastor :

" To THE MOUNT OLIVET BAPTIST CHURCH, YONKERS.

" Deur Brethren :- Feeling a deep interest in the advancement of the canse of Christ, and under obligations to him for many blessings, and as expressive of our love for him and for the church which he has pur- chased with his own blood, we propose to erect and give to yon a church edifire (according to the plaus herewith submitted), with the ground, being about 218 feet on Ashburton Aveune, and 204 feet, more or less. on Warburton Avoune, besiles an additional piece adjoining the east- erly side, 50 by 100 feet, free from all debt, on the following con- ditions :

"1. The Church, on entering into possession, is to be known as the " Warburton avenue Baptist Church,' instead of ' Mount Olivet Baptist, Church.'

"2. The Church is to relinquish to the undersigned all its rights titles, etc. (if it have any), to the eight lots on the northerly side of the Manor House property.

"3. The Church shall not encumber with debt, or sell the said prop- erty ; and it is distinctly agreed between ns that it is to be used as a Baptist place of worship for all time.

"4. The Church Is to use the said building and grounds for no other purpose than those of a religious character, all meetings of a political or secular character being forbidden to be hell on the premises.

"5. The Church is to raise the sum of ten thousand dollars in cash, which is to be spent In furnishing the new edifice, under the direction of the architect, E. L RoarBTs, Esq., and should there be uny surplus, it is to be spent toward paying for an organ to be used in said bullding.

"6. In case of any dispute arising hereafter as to what is a Baptist Church, It is to be settled by the creed of the present Church, in which its doctrines are fully set forth.

" Should the Church agree to accept the property on the above con- ditions, and Instruct its Trustees to receive the same, we agree to ileposit In the hands of F. A. Coc, Esq., of Yonkers, a deed to be held by him in trust, and to be surrendered to your Trustees on these conditions being fully complied with.

" Iloping the above propositions will meet with your approval, and be favored with the blessing of God, we are, dear brethreu,

" Very truly yours,

" JOHN B. TREVOR. " JAMES B. COLGATE."

This communication was referred to a committee, consisting of Bros. Edward Bright, P. F. Peek and Isaac G. Johnson, who submitted the following re- port, whose appended resolutions were unanimously and heartily adopted :

" The Committee, to whom was referred the communication of Bros. JOHN B. TREVOR aud JAMES B. COLONTE, is profoundly impressed with the generous and noble work they propose to do, and the reasouableness of all the conditions upon which the Church is to accept the gift. Such a church edifice as they intend to build at their own expense will be more than impressive, and delightful evidence of the estimation in which they hold their Christian and denominational convictions. It will also prove to be, as your Committee believes, an inestimable blessing to the community in which it is to be located, and to the cause of evangelical truth throughout the world. For it is to be from generation to geuera- tion, the spiritual home of a living church of Jesus Christ, and such a church is everywhere and always the best and most potent conservative force in the world.

" The Christian men and women here assembled should, therefore, accept this munificent gift of their brethren with fervent gratitude to God, aud with no other thought or purpose than to regard it as a perpet- nal argument for the existence of a living, united, and aggressive church within its walls,-a church that shall evermore holl to and hold forth the truth as it is in Christ Jesus; the truth as he, and those whom he personally instructed, held and illustrated it.

" The Counmittee recommend, therefore, the adoption of these reso- Intions :

" ' Resolved, That in the spirit of the sentiment herein expressed, and in the hope of the fullest realization of all the blessings herein intimated, this Church does hereby express its profound gratitude to God for the timely, munificent and noble gift proposed by Bros. Jons B. TREVOR and JAMES B. COLGATE.

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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. II, Part 17

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1286

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898,
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1286