USA > New York > Schenectady County > History of the County of Schenectady, N. Y., from 1662 to 1886... > Part 22
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"Two years after, Mr. Barclay left Albany, where he was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Miln, and he by other missionaries, till 1746. These gentlemen doubtless often crossed the pine plains to minister to the few churchmen here, though I do not find on our records any mention of their visits or acts. The Dutch pulpit became regularly occupied by its own pastors, and the English people, who were the feebler of the two, seem to have been brought under its predominating influ- ence, instead of vice versa, as Mr. Barclay so fondly anticipated.
"In 1748 the Rev. John Ogilvie came to Albany as rector of St. Peter's. And the same year arrived in Schenectady a layman, Mr. John W. Brown, whose memory is appropriately pre- served by a tablet on the walls of the church. He is said to have come from London, and was only twenty-one years old at the time of his arrival here. From him probably it received its name, St. George being the patron saint of his native country.
"The earliest baptism, by an Episcopal min- ister, on the parish register, is that of a daughter of Mr. Brown, in 1754, by the Rev. Mr. Ogilvie, who performed the same office for another child of Mr. Brown in 1859. It also records the baptism of three other children of Mr. Brown by Dutch ministers-the Revs. Thomas Frelinghise and B. Vrooman.
"That year-1759-the erection of the church edifice seems to have been undertaken; for under date of that year the parish books still preserve,
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among other items of disbursement, to 'Richard Oldrick and Horseford, for digging the foundation of the church, {4 3s. 9d.' Amounts for drawing timber, and work of the like kind, are mentioned from that date onward. The woodwork was done under the superintendence of Mr. Samuel Fuller, who also became the builder of Johnson Hall. He was master of the king's artificers, and came to this vicinity from Needham, Massachusetts, with Aber- crombie's army. To obtain the necessary assist- ance for fulfilling his part of the work on the church, he went back, in 1762, to Needham, and engaged several carpenters; and besides having their regular wages while here, they were to be al- lowed a specified sum for the seven days it would take them to come from Needham, and also for the same number of days for their return. It was several years before the building was completed for occupancy and use, though as early as 1767 we find sums collected for pew rents among the treas- urer's papers. These papers also show the names of persons who subscribed for the erection of the church, with their respective amounts.
" At that time lived in the Mohawk Valley Sir William Johnson. He was a major-general in the British service, and general superintendent of Indian affairs in North America. The English church had in him a warm friend. He not only contributed liberally himself to the erection of this building, but also obtained subscriptions from his friends in various parts of the colonies-at one time {61 Ios. from the Governors of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and other distinguished gentle- men, while attending a treaty of peace at Fort Stanwix. Sir William was also of great service to the church here, in procuring for it missionaries from the Venerable Society in England, which seems to have consulted him in most of-its ap- pointments to this region of country. Through his co-operation the wardens obtained from the Governor of the colony a charter for their church in 1766, and Sir William was requested to act as one of the trustees. He was a frequent worshiper in these walls, and tradition says that his pew, which was on the south side, was distinguished by a canopy. The church, as it then was, according to a ground plan of it in one of the old books, had two doors-one on the west end, and the other on the south side (the arch of which still remains), with a communion table against the east wall in the mid- dle, and directly in front of it two desks for reading and preaching; and only a part of the church was finished with pews.
"During those years the building was used more or less by the Presbyterians, who had none of their own. A curious statement exists on this point, said to have been found among the papers of a Mr. Alexander Kelly, a member of that body. He says: 'Betwext 1760 and 1770, the Episcopalians and presbyterians agreed & build a Church Betwext them, The Former to goe in at the west Door the Later at the South Door when the Church was Finesht John Brown Belonig to the English Church went to New York & get it Con- secrated under the Bishop unknown to the presby-
terians, The presbyterians highly ofended at this John Duncan, James Wilson, James Shuter, An- drew & Hugh Michel, Andrew McFarland & Wm. White & Alexander Merser purchest a lot From a Gentelm in New York Colected money in varies places To Build a Church. The Dutch Inhabi- tants Seing How they were Served advanct very Liberal in money Boards plank Nails Hinges & paint The Church was built about the year 1770.'
"Mr. Kelly's representation of the case must be as faulty as his orthography. To prove this, it is enough to state two facts-one, that there was no bishop in this country till 1784, thirty years after this alleged transaction; and the other, that the church was never ' consecrated' till nearly one hundred years later by Bishop Potter, in 1859.
"As connected with this part of the ecclesiastical history of Schenectady, we take the liberty of quot- ing from a note on the subject, received by the Rector from the Rev. Dr. Darling : 'One of the oldest members of my church (Presbyterian), when I came here, informed me that the south door was walled up after the Presbyterian exodus, "and the Lord put a curse on the mortar so that it would not stick ;" though, as she had no pro- phetic credentials, you may prefer to account for it in some other way.'
"It was to matters of this kind that Dr. Darling's predecessor, the venerable Dr. Backus, probably referred in his historical sermon, preached in 1879, when he said : 'Ritualism and evangeli- cism long contended here for the mastery.' One of the champions in that contest was this same Mr. Kelly-Sandy Kelly, generally called-who, when a pitch-pipe was introduced into the Presbyterian worship, rushed down the aisle, and out of the door, crying . Awa' with your box o' whistles !' What would he have said and done had his evan- gelic ears been shocked by the noble organ which now vies with that of St. George's in improving the ritual of God's house ?
"While the church was being built, the Rev. Thomas Brown, who succeeded Mr. Ogilvie at St. Peter's, Albany, and after him the Rev. Harry Monroe, seemed to have ministered now and then to the church people here, baptizing their children and burying their dead, until the arrival of Mr. William Andrews. This gentleman had been for some time catechist among the Mohawk Indians. He was a native of Great Britain. He returned home in 1770, when he was ordained by the Bishop of London, and appointed missionary at Sche- nectady. He may be considered the first resident minister, or rector, of St. George's. Mr. Andrews opened a grammar school here in 1771 ; but the labor attendant on this and his parish broke down his health, and he relinquished the mission in 1773, and went to Virginia.
"Mr. Andrews was soon succeeded by the Rev. John Doty, a native of Westchester, and an alum- nus of King's (now Columbia) College. It was now the eve of the Revolution. Like many of his brethren, Mr. Doty suffered between a sense of duty and the pressure of the times. He was ar-
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rested and kept in ward for awhile. On being released, he left for Canada ; and divine service was suspended in the church during the remainder of the war.
" When the independence of the States was estab- lished and peace declared, in 1782, the few members which Mr. Doty had been forced to abandon were al- most entirely scattered. The church edifice had be- come dilapidated, the windows were broken out, and desolation reigned within and around. Soon after, in 1790, the parish was admitted into union with the Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which had become duly organized. But it was some time before it could enjoy the services of a settled clergyman, depending upon those of Albany and other neighboring towns.
"In 1798 the Rev. Robert G. Wetmore became rector, in connection with Christ's Church, Duanes- borough ; and from that day its affairs moved on in uninterrupted order and with increasing success. At the first election of the corporation, Charles Martin and John Kane were chosen wardens. In a register book, then begun, there is a rude pen- and-ink sketch, by Mr. Wetmore's own hand, of the church as it then was-a little, oblong stone structure, fifty-six feet long (about half its present length) by thirty-six feet wide, with three windows on each side (the old south door being walled up), and in front a small wooden steeple, crowned by a low bell tower, with a cross upon it. It contained thirty-six pews (about one-third of its present num- ber), and no gallery, except across the west end, which was reached by a stairway within the church in the northwest corner. The pulpit, with a long flight of stairs, was against the east wall in the center, with a reading desk in front, and a clerk's pew in front of that, and the altar, with rails, on the north side-an arrangement similar to that still existing in the old church at Duanes- borough.
"Mr. Wetmore resigned in 1801, and some years elapsed before his place was regularly sup- plied. Meanwhile the services of neighboring clergy were occasionally obtained, and several im- provements made in the church edifice. At a meeting of the vestry in 1804, 'Charles Martin and John W. Brown represented to the board the ne- cessity of taking down the steeple, on account of its being in a decayed situation, and proposed to obtain by subscription a sum adequate to the erect- ing a new steeple.' Messrs. David Tomlinson and Wm. Corlett were appointed the committee, and the result was the wooden tower (which was taken down twelve years ago) and the beautiful belfry and spire which crowned it and which were deemed worthy of preservation.
"The foundation of that tower was laid by a young man who had then just arrived in Sche- nectady, and who, though born and reared a New England Congregationalist, soon attached himself to this church, and afterward became most inti- mately identified with all its changes and improve- ments-David Hearsey.
"The next rector was the Rev. Cyrus Stebbins, who, having been a Methodist minister at Albany,
was ordained with special reference to this parish, by Bishop Moore. He was here from 1806 to 1819.
"For a year or two after Dr. Stebbins' resigna- tion the services were kept up, with much acceptance to the congregation, by Mr. Alonzo Potter, as lay reader, then tutor of Union Col- lege, and afterward the Bishop of Pennsylva- nia. A tablet to his memory has been placed by the trustees of the college on the walls of St. George's.
"In 1821 the Rev. Alexis P. Proal was called to the rectorship, and he continued in it till 1836. During those fifteen years several substantial addi- tions were made to the church property. A house, with lot, belonging to Ahasuerus Wendell, was bought for a rectory by the church's side on the north ; and more sittings being found necessary in the church, side galleries were erected, run- ning from the west to the east wall.
" Dr. Proal was succeeded by the Rev. Albert Smedes, during whose rectorship of three years a radical change was made in the church edifice. Increased accommodations being required, the ves- try debated whether to pull down the old building and erect a new one, or to enlarge. The latter course was adopted ; and so, in the spring and summer of 1838, two transepts, or wings, were added to the old nave. Under the pulpit was a hole, where the clergyman could go and change his surplice for a black gown between the service and the sermon. Thirty pews were gained on the lower floor, besides many others by continuing the galleries around the new transepts ; and the grace- ful arch over your heads was shut out of sight by a floor making the whole upper ceiling flat. An- other important event in the history of the parish during Dr. Smedes' rectorship was the purchase of the house next south of the church, called the Peek house, where the Sunday school met and the sexton lived. The garden was added to the burial ground."
The most efficient services rendered this church during its long history were by the Rev. William Payne, D. D., who was born at Portland, Middle- sex County, Conn., in 1815. He early attended the academy connected with Hobart's College, Geneva, and after a full course at Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., graduated from that institution in 1834. He next entered the General Theological Seminary at New York, and at the end of three years was ordained as an Episcopal clergyman and became rector of St. Michael's Church, Litch- field, Conn. Here he remained for six years, after which he became assistant professor of Latin in Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., remaining in this position for several years. In 1848 he was called to St. George's Church in this city, where he has remained for an uninterrupted period of thirty- five years, retiring from active ministerial work in 1883. In 1859 he received the degree of D. D. from Hobart College, Geneva.
The Rev. John Philips Brooks Pendleton, S. T. B., has just entered upon the duties of the rector- ship.
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THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
The early history of the Presbyterian Church in Schenectady is obscure. As late as 1756 there was no church in town except the Dutch. Before this date, however, settlers from England, Scotland and New England were drawn to this " frontier," by facilities offered for trading with the interior. Missionaries, chiefly for the Indians, had been sent into these parts by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, early in the eighteenth century. There was a chapel in the fort which was built in 1735, and was probably used by different denomi- nations for worship. Concerning the church build- ing in which the Presbyterians worshiped, now St. George's Episcopal Church, a tradition existed that Presbyterians subscribed to its erection with the understanding that it should be used in common by both denominations. Between 1760 and 1770 the Episcopalians and Presbyterians "agreed to build a church between them, The former to Goe in at the west door, the Later at the South Door. When the church was Finesht John Brown, be- longing to the English church, went to New York and got it consecrated under the Bishop unknown to the Presbyterians. The Presbyterians Highlie offended at this, purchest a lot, collected money in various places to Build a church. The Dutch inhabitants, seeing how they were served, advanst Liberal in money, Boards, planks, Nails, Hinges & paint. The church was built about the year 1770." (Kelley.)
It is not unlikely that such Presbyterian mission- aries as had penetrated to Albany had also visited this region, but there was no settled minister before 1770, though for some time prior to this date the Presbyterians worshiped statedly in a hired "meet- ing-house."
On the 12th October, 1769, a lot was purchased from Peter De Bois for {100, and work seems to have begun at once in earnest, as almost immedi- ately follows: "To 2 Gallons Westd Rum when cutting the timber for the church IIs .; " the next item being, "To cash paid to Phinn & Ellice for rum and sugar when rideing timber {4 9s. 4d .; and Aug., 1771, To tickets bought at New Castle Lot- tery £4 16s."
The site of the old meeting house cannot now be ascertained, nor can we learn concerning it more than that it was furnished with a bell. It was still in use 22d March, 1773.
. By the end of '73 the edifice seems to have been completed, and the bell in the new steeple, with its leaden ball adorned with " 6 bookes of gold leaf," no doubt called the congregation to a joyful service of dedication.
The church and lot are credited with an expendi- ture of about $1, 800. The carpenter's work was done by Samuel Fuller and John Hall. The church had a gallery, and on the ground floor, 21 wall and 22 " Boddy " pews, and the carpenters agreed " to do the work on the Pulpit In the Same man- ner as In the English Church only it is to Joyn the wall So as to have no piller for a Soport & to make the Clark's Seat."
Of the size and strength of the congregation there is no record until much later; but in 1768 they felt able to compete with their brethren in Al- bany; for a letter of Mr. Brown to Sir Wm. John- son at this time, in urging the necessity of securing Mr. Murray for St. George's, says: " We are the more Anxiously Solicitous on this Head as the Presbyterians are busee to get Mr. Bay among them "-this Mr. Bay being called about this time to the Presbyterian Church at Albany. The first minister who is known to have preached to the con- gregation statedly is the Rev. Alexander Miller.
Mr. Miller was a pupil of Rev. James Findley, a graduate of Princeton College, in 1764; a student of theology under Dr. Rodgers, of New York; was licensed 1767, and ordained by the Presbytery of New York 1770, the date of his settlement here.
He also preached at Currie's Bush and Remsen's Bush in connection with his charge here, and taught a very respectable grammar school during the Revolutionary War, "in which Governor Tichenor of Vermont and others, since celebrated, acted as assistants."
During the war the church seems to have suf- fered greatly. The congregation was in arrears for salary to Mr. Miller at the time his successor, Mr. John Young, was called, about the middle of 1787, and probably about six years after Mr. Miller closed his labors as pastor of the church.
Mr. Young was ordained June 14, 1788, and gave one-third of his time to Currie's Bush, or Princetown.
Tho congregation at this time, and for years later, was composed of elements which did not mix very kindly, formalism contending stubbornly against the growing evangelical spirit in the church, and Mr. Young was dismissed in consequence of the dissensions, non-payment of salary and ill health. The former pastor was still seeking payment of its indebtedness to him, and the church at Currie's Bush had applied to the Presbytery for two-thirds of Mr. Young's time, on the ground that the church in Schenectady was no longer able to sup- port him.
From 1791 to 1795, among those preaching here occasionally were Rev. Messrs. Baldwin, Chap- man, Coe, Cook, Davenport, Dod, Dun, Judd, McDonald, Pomeroy, Schenck, Thompson and Williams.
With the election of the Rev. John B. Smith to the presidency of the college, a brighter day dawned for the church. Dr. Smith did much to reorganize the church, ordaining four elders in 1795 or 1796, viz .: Alexander Kelly, John Taylor, Alexander Walmsley and John McAtyre.
On the 13th September, 1796, the Rev. Robert Smith, of Pennsylvania, a graduate of Princeton, was installed over the church, which at this time num- bered only 37 communicants. There were, how- ever, about 85 pew holders, and the income of the church from pews and subscriptions was a little over $700.
Mr. Smith remained until July, 1801, when, the severity of the climate having impaired his health, he sought refuge in Savannah, Ga., dying soon after
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his removal. His life was sacrificed to his zeal and affection for his people. Under his ministry the church received 51 additional members, The town- ship of Schenectady at this time contained about 3,500 inhabitants, 683 being electors and 381 slaves.
During the illness of Mr. Smith the Rev. Mr. Adair and Dr. Jonathan Edwards, Jr., second president of the college, frequently supplied the pulpit, and as collections for 1801 show an increase over previous records, and additions to the church are also recorded, the impetus given by Mr. Smith's pastorate would seem not to have been arrested.
In March, 1802, three elders and seventy-three others petitioned Presbytery for the speedy install- ment of the Rev. William Clarkson; twenty peti- tioners, including two elders, however, pray that the installation may not take place. Mr. Clark- son's settlement was the signal for war among the discordant elements in the congregation, and shortly after such serious charges were preferred against him as that he did not "preach " but read sermons, " contrary to Luke 4 : 16-23, where our Lord preached, said preaching being without notes." Mr. Clarkson was also charged with say- ing, "We never had such preaching here before ; we had nothing but like the reading of an alma- nack," and the Presbytery failing to see the hein- ousness of Mr. Clarkson's homiletical shortcom- ings, a temporary secession of twenty-four families took place. Although considerable accessions to the church took place during Mr. Clarkson's brief pastorate, his opponents claimed that the commu- nicants had diminished one-third.
During this unhappy contention, in which Mr. Clarkson was rather the occasion than the cause of the quarrel, an election for elders had occurred, which seemed to intensify the strife, and in Sep- tember, 1803, Mr. Clarkson sought peace in de- parture. In the succeeding December the Rev. John B. Romeyn, a son of Dr. Romeyn of the Re- formed Dutch Church, and founder of Union Col- lege, was settled over the church, at a salary of $625. But the church was at strife, and in No- vember, 1804, Mr. Romeyn also left. The num- ber of communicants at this time could not have been much above a hundred; the highest rental for pews was but $35, and the support of the church and pastor in the midst of such difficulties was very doubtful and precarious. Mr. Nathaniel Todd, ordained December 11, 1805, was dismissed in the succeeding November, on the ground that the congregation were unable to support him.
For some time the church depended upon tem- porory supplies, but, as if still further to confuse and complicate matters, the ear of the congrega- tion was taken by an Irishman of the Methodist Church, a lay preacher, Mr. John Joyce. In spite of the peril of a threatened schism if Mr. Joyce were not settled over the church, Presbytery de- clined to intrust the church to his care, and de- clared it expedient for the session to resign, that new elders might in the interest of harmony be elected. The new session consisted of Messrs.
Kelly, Walmsley, Daniel Chandler and Prof. Henry Davis, afterward President of Middlebury, and still later of Hamilton College.
Notwithstanding its want of a pastor, and its in- ternal differences, the church does not seem to have lost any confidence in itself, for on the 3d of July, 1809, the corner-stone of a new edifice was laid, the old building on the site of the chapel be- ing taken down, and the congregation worshiping for a time in the college chapel.
We introduce here an impression of the old church seal, believing that it represents the form of the original church structure.
CHURCH
SCH
LADY
No doubt a large part of the strength and im- pulse of the new church movement came from the college. Dr. Nott, from his accession to the Presi- dency in 1804, had been a warm friend, and to his kindness, as well as that of Dr. McAuley and other members of the faculty, it was probably in large measure owing that the church came through its crisis with so little loss of strength.
Meantime, the Rev. Alexander Monteith had been called to the pastorate, and on August 29, 1809, he was settled over the church, remaining its pastor until his death, January 29, 1815. Dur- ing his ministry there was an increase in its collec- tions, the communion roll was enlarged by 62 additions, and the pastor's salary was advanced from $700 to $1,000.
Mr. Monteith's successor was the Rev. Hooper Cummings, whose eloquence covered not a few of his own sins and other men's sermons. Eccentric and unfortunate, to speak mildly, Mr. Cummings' brief pastorate, judged by statistics, was most successful. Installed 22d November, 1815, and dismissed 18th February, 1817, sixty-five persons were added to the communion roll, and work among the colored people prosecuted with vigor and success, Presby- tery having authorized Messrs. Wisner and Davis, then members of the church in Union College, to catechise and exhort among them.
During Mr. Cummings' ministry, however, old strifes broke out again, and it was not till the 8th of June, 1820, that another pastor could be secured, changes having occurred in the session, and some withdrawing from the church, which in the interval enjoyed the services of Drs. Nott and McAuley. In April, 1820, the famous Mr. Net- tleton preached, and the church seems to have en- joyed spiritual prosperity, not less than 120 being added to the church during the year. "Tokens" at the communion were still in use, not being dis- pensed with till March, 1821, when members of other Evangelical churches were welcomed to the Lord's table. The "Token " was intended to
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