USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Jamestown > History of the First Baptist Church of Jamestown, New York : 1827-1915 : organized as a branch church December 25th 1827 : organized as an independent body May 24th, 1832 > Part 2
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He was engaged in Bible agency for twelve years, and assisted in revising some of the books of the New Testament, a feature of which was the translation of the Greek word "Baptiso" into English. He died July 1, 1876, at Troy, N. Y., where he is buried in Oakwood Cemetery. He married Harriet Billings of Saratoga, N. Y., and
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to them were born seven children, Augustus N., David B., Charles B., Franklin L., Mary, wife of Dr. Henry Hall of Jamestown; Harriet, wife of Dr. Edward S. Coburn of Troy, N. Y., and Emma S. Bernard of New Haven, Conn. Mrs. Bernard is said to have been a woman of rare personal and social gifts. After her husband's death she re- sided at Busti, where she died January 8, 1890.
Rev. Bernard while pastor at Jamestown took strong ground against Free Masonry in common with nearly all clergymen of that day of all de- nominations, on account of the Morgan affair, which stirred the country politically as well as re- ligiously. His pastorate was too short in James- town for large results, and the energies of the church were taken up largely with its building en- terprise. He is said, however, to have been an earnest, eloquent and powerful preacher, and his work at Busti fully warranted that description.
From the very beginning, the church received some financial assistance from the New York State Convention, which continued its aid for several years. Aid was also rendered by the Convention in the labors of Elder Martin Coleman, who was sent out as a missionary to Western New York, and whose labors in Jamestown resulted in a re- vival and many additions to the church.
Other supplies during the year that intervened between the first and second pastorates, were Elder Boardman, Elder Kenyon and Elder Sawyer.
The second pastor was Rev. Rufus Peet who be-
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RUFUS PEET Second Pastor
gan his pastorate in 1834 and continued for two and one-half years. He was regarded as an able preacher and the first part of his ministry was per- fectly satisfactory. Later, however, differences arose which increased in intensity, until a council of sister churches was called to aid pastor and people in settling their differences, with the result that the council decided only partially in favor of each, and its recommendations were therefore sat- isfactory to neither and was never followed. Read- ing the charges and counter-charges as set forth in the minutes of the church, at this distant day, one is unable to discover anything inconsistent with honesty of purpose in the conduct of either party. Deacon John Breed stated many years later that the "church subsequently took the view that the pastor's mind was unbalanced." A view which could have hardly been the correct one at that time. Eventually all differences seem to have been forgotten and Mr. Peet came to be highly regarded by the church.
Rufus Peet was born February 22, 1797, at Canı- bridge, Washington County, N. Y., to Silas Peet and Hannah Leach Peet, his Scotch-Irish parents. When he was nine years old the family moved to Edmeston, N. Y., where he both attended and taught school, and where in 1826 he met and mar- ried Miss Cornelia Steadman, also a school teacher. The young couple purchased a farm at Farmers- ville, N. Y., which they worked and where Mr. Peet also preached sometimes in the school houses in the
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vicinity. Feeling the need of further study he at- tended Hamilton Theological Seminary for one year, and then took a pastorate at Howard, Stuben County, from which place he came to Jamestown. His third pastorate was at Versailes, Cattaraugus County, after which he was engaged largely in evangelistic work and resided at Farmersville. Six children were born to them, two sons and four daughters. The two younger daughters attended Oberlin College and one married Rev. Henry Cow- ley who became a missionary to the Indians and settled in Spokane, Wash., being the third white family to settle there.
Mr. Peet was a man of unbounded hospitality, and his wife and daughters were often sorely taxed to provide for his numerous guests. Mrs. Peet was able to, and did manufacture much of the family clothing from the raw flax and wool to the finished garment. On one occasion she had care- fully selected the finest wool for her husband a pulpit suit, and had manufactured it into a fine piece of black cloth, and was about to proceed with her task, when a poor preacher shabbily dressed, happened along, and Mr. Peet rushed into the house, seized the precious cloth and gave it to the brother in need. When he found his wife in tears over it he said, "Why, he needed it more than I do." "But, Rufus," said she, "what will you wear to preach in ?" Mr. Peet was an abolitionist and pro- hibitionist away back in the 1830's, far in advance of his time. Fearless, uncompromising and keen
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ASAHEL CHAPIN Third Pastor
witted, he was said to have been a preacher of great power.
Mrs. Peet died in 1851, and soon after Mr. Peet suffered a sun stroke which rendered him at times irrational. He died in 1876, aged seventy-nine years, and is buried at Farmersville, N. Y.
In April, 1837, Rev. Asahel Chapin became the third pastor of the church. He was a man of pleasing address, well cultured, a spiritual preacher, and be- loved by all who knew him. He labored with the church nearly seven years and it was so strength- ened alike in numbers and christian graces that, for the first time it gave promise of being a permanent organization. There were frequent additions to the membership, but in September, 1841, a great revival was started and prosecuted by two evan- gelists, Reverends Weaver and Simmons, during which one hundred and three persons were bap- tized. Although the pastor was absent at the time, on a visit in Massachusetts, his four years of previous gospel preaching had doubtless prepared the people for the final decision. He remained pastor two years after the revival, and the total baptisms during his term of service was 154, and the total additions were 270. His pastorate was unequalled in the number of additions to the church until that of William Look. He terminated his pastorate about January 1, 1844 and returned to his native town of Holyoke, to the deep regret and sorrow of the Jamestown church.
In October, 1838, while in Jamestown, he buried
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his first wife, Ruth, a woman of rare piety, and about a year and a half later married Catharine Southland for his second wife, a member of his church, who also proved a most excellent helper to him in his ministry.
Mr. Chapin aided in the organization of the Har- mony Baptist Association in 1839, and secured the second meeting for Jamestown in 1840. During his pastorate in 1839, the old system of renting pews was adopted, only to be exchanged the next year for a system of "equalizing" or assessing members to raise funds for expenses, which was continued for many years.
Asahel Chapin was born at Holyoke, Mass., July 20, 1804. After graduating from Amherst College he was recommended for the position of president of Horton Academy, now Acadia College, Nova Scotia, and was elected. Reaching the field of his labors he was shocked to learn that the president was also expected to preach, which Mr. Chapin re- luctantly did. This seems to have determined him in the choice of a profession, and he returned to Massachusetts and took a course in theology at Newton Theological Seminary. His first pastor- ate was at Ashtabula, Ohio, where he probably was ordained, and after a year or two there he became assistant pastor to Rev. Dr. Tincker at Buffalo. He married Ruth Kirby Fisk in Granville, Ohio, and soon after took his bride to Jamestown and after about seven years' service took his family to Holyoke while he supplied a church in Hartford,
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Conn. His health failing he retired for about two years, after which he became pastor at Tariffville, Conn., then of the First Church of Holyoke, and soon after the Second Church of the same place. He next accepted an appointment by the Home Missionary Society and was sent to Galena, Il1., where he labored for four years and succeeded in erecting a brick church and leaving a vigorous so- ciety there. In 1855 he became pastor at Vinton, Iowa, where he organized a church and also served several churches in the region around about. In 1862 he was called to the pastorate of the Baptist church at Dubuque, Iowa, where he remained about eight years and again returned to Vinton for about two years. He then settled on a small farm near Sterling, Kan., but his activity in religious matters relegated farming to second place and soon the scattered Christians gathered around him and he organized a country church there. His wife died while at Sterling after which he retired from active service and lived with his daughter, Mrs. Ruth Chapin Stearns at Freeport, Ill., where he died October 3, 1892, at the age of eighty-eight years.
His children were Mrs. Stearns, daughter of his first wife; Judson Southland Chapin, son of his sec- ond wife, a soldier of the Civil War, both born in Jamestown; Asahel, Jr., of McGregor, Iowa; Ed- ward S., who was educated at West Point, and served over thirty years as an officer of the regular army, and William F., who resides at Dubuque,
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Iowa. Rev. Judson Chapin, a grandson of Asahel, is a minister residing at Boulder, Colo.
During Mr. Chapin's pastorate Deacon William Acocks, one of the constituent members, severed his connection with the church. The story of his life is interesting. His mother was born in Boston in 1746 and married Joseph Lewis there, after which they moved to Charlestown where they were living at the time the battle of Bunker Hill was fought. Mr. Lewis fought with the Continental Army and was killed in that battle, and Mrs. Lewis fled for her life to the central part of the state where her husband's people lived. The home at Charles- town with all its contents was destroyed by the British and she never returned to the place.
Near the close of the war she married her second husband, William Acocks, an Englishman belong- ing to a large Yorkshire family, where he had been drafted into the British army, and with which he was captured at the Battle of Saratoga. He, how- ever, determined to make America his home, and after his marriage lived in Pittsfield, Mass., where Deacon Acocks was born October 25, 1782. When a lad of about fourteen he and his father came over into New York State where they had taken up a tract of land, and commenced to clear it when the father was killed by a falling tree. Young William with the aid of the neighbors, buried his father and returned to Pittsfield.
In due time he married Phoebe Baker and learned the blacksmith's trade, which he followed
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the remainder of his life. Soon after marriage he moved to Hancock, Mass., and joined the Baptist Church there, which soon after made him a deacon. In 1830, he and his family boarded a canal boat at Troy, came to Buffalo, then by steamer to Bar- celona, by stage to Mayville and by steamer on Chautauqua Lake to Fluvanna, where he arrived May 8, 1830. He soon joined the Baptists in Jamestown, whither he and his family went to church on Sundays, by row boat from his home, down the outlet to Jones' Landing, and then fin- ished the remainder of the journey, about two miles, on foot. On the organization of the church he became one of its first deacons.
In October, 1839, he moved to the town of Har- mony, near Stow, and joined the North Harmony Baptist Church, which then worshipped in the Rice School House. In 1856 he again moved, this time to Compton, Kane County, Ill., where he died August 10, 1859, and where he is buried in the Canada Corners Cemetery.
Several of his descendants became members of the church in after years, one of whom, George F. Hale, a great grandson, also served it as deacon.
From the early part of 1844 to the middle of 1845 the church was without a pastor, during a part of which time it was supplied by Elder Simon Davis, and also by Elder I. C. Stoddard of Busti, who on many occasions rendered valuable services to the church.
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Rev. Alfred Handy served the church as its fourth pastor from June 1, 1845, to about July I, 1847, a little more than two years. A great re- vival had taken place during the latter part of the preceding pastorate, followed as was usual by a reaction, and to add to the difficulty, that memor- able religious sect known as the "Millerites," had obtained a firm hold upon a portion of the church membership. Rev. Handy and the church made a commendable effort to hold the disaffected, but to no purpose. Some twenty members left the church and worshipped by themselves until the day set for the final catastrophe came and went, after which they gradually resumed their original places.
Alfred Handy was born at Brookfield, Madison County, N. Y., January 7, 1807, and spent his boy- hood days at Fredonia, N. Y., where his father, Rev. Joy Handy was pastor of the Baptist Church. He studied law for a short time and then entered Hamilton Seminary with his brother, Rev. Jairus Handy, and studied for the ministry. He was bap- tized into the fellowship of the First Baptist Church of Buffalo in August, 1832, and was or- dained October 23, 1833. May 28, 1834, he mar- ried Rhoda A. Hull at Buffalo. His ministry be- gan with the pastorate of the church at Sardinia, N. Y., May 1, 1833, for three years, and continued at Holly, N. Y., for four years, at Chittenango, N. Y., one year, at Batavia three months, at War- ren, Pa., two and one-half years, from which place he came to Jamestown for two and one-half years,
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ALFRED HANDY Fourth Pastor "A good son of a good father"
then at Randolph one year, Black Rock one year, at Holly a second time two years. He was then employed by the Baptist Home Missionary Society and sent to Michigan in June, 1852, where he labored at Pontiac one year, at Flint, where he organized a church, two years, at Paw Paw, where he organized another church, four years, at Bay City and Mason where he also organized churches. He died at the latter place September 3, 1862, after a few days' illness, a result no doubt of sorrow over the loss of his two boys, one at the Battle of Fair Oaks, Va., May 31, 1862, and the other at home the day after.
Mrs. Handy lived to be ninety years old and died at Passadena, Cal., in April, 1906, leaving a son, W. J. Handy and other children. Mrs. Harriet Daniels of Fredonia was a niece of Alfred Handy.
In casting about for another pastor, the church finally extended a call to Elder William Look, then pastor at Sinclairville, but for some reason he did not accept, and Elder Stoddard of Busti again sup- plied the church for several months.
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CHAPTER III.
Rev. Levant Rathbun's Pastorate .- First Parsonage .- Rev. William Look's Pastorate .- Second Church Edifice .- Z. M. Palmer .- Rev. Alfred Wells' Pastorate .- Rev. Arnold Kingsbury's Pastorate .- Slavery and the Civil War .- Bap- tist Soldiers (1848-1864).
I N the spring of 1848, Elder Levant Rathbun be- came the fifth pastor and entered upon his duties with characteristic energy. The church was divided on the question of the second coming of Christ, many having joined the "Millerites," and religion was at a low ebb. Some old debts were hanging over the church, and altogether it seemed to be the gloomiest period in the church history. Elder Rathbun appointed a day for fasting and prayer and soon had his flock on their knees before God. He found the church without a covenant and he immediately prepared one and had it adopted and saw to it that it was fairly well observed. His honest, straight-forward and fearless course was productive of results that could have been prophe- sied. Alienated brethren returned to their coven- ant relations, old debts were paid and the church was revived. During the four and one-half years of his pastorate, fifty-seven were baptized and forty-one were received by letter or were restored.
In 1849-50 the first parsonage, a very modest af- fair, was erected on the site still occupied for that purpose. That of course added somewhat to the financial burdens of the church but Elder Rathbun was equal to the occasion. He was getting a salary of $300 a year and the use of the parsonage. The church debt was about $250. He proposed to
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LEVANT RATHBUN Fifth Pastor "This is Elijah"
throw off fifty dollars of his salary, provided the church would immediately raise the balance of the debt and haul him a good pile of stove wood. And be it remembered that money was then scarce and hard to get, and stove wood was plenty.
Levant Rathbun's life and ministry was unique in the history of Chautauqua County. Born in Camden, Oneida County, N. Y., June 26, 1803, the son of a physician, he was left an orphan when a mere lad. At the age of seventeen he emigrated to Pine Grove, Pa., where he lived alone in his log cabin, cleared a farm and then took to himself and to his crude home, a bride from his native town, Laura Comstock by name, whom he married Janu- ary 20, 1826. In the summer of 1830 they were both converted and so strong were the convictions of young Rathbun, and he made such good use of his talents in Christian work that he was urged to enter the ministry. For some time, however, he declined on the ground of lack of suitable education and of means to acquire one. He was later per- suaded to recognize his "call" and it is said that he spent the following night on his knees, so great did he feel the weight of his responsibilities. He was ordained at Pine Grove, Pa., October 18, 1837, by a council presided over by Rev. Asahel Chapin, then pastor of the Jamestown church, and of which Dea- con John C. Breed of the same church was clerk. His first pastorate may have been at Pine Grove, but was probably at Ashville where he continued until 1840. He then served the church at Frews-
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burg in the same year, at Clymer 1841-3, West Portland 1844-5, where his first wife died and is buried. He was again married, Sarah A. Dunn be- ing the second wife, and went direct to the Ash- ville church for a second pastorate which he served 1846-7, then at Jamestown 1848-52, at Westfield 1853-4, at West Springfield and Dunkirk, at Clymer 1859-61, at North East 1862-4. He was then gen- eral missionary for the Harmony Association and served more especially the churches at Mayville, Ashville and North Harmony. In 1866 he was settled at Panama where he served as pastor until his death September 18, 1869.
His whole ministry of nearly thirty-three years was spent in the Harmony and Erie Association, now the Chautauqua County Baptist Association, except a short time spent at West Springfield.
His simple manner, his fearlessness and perse- verance, his bluff, forceful style and his steadfast faith, were sufficient to classify him as another Elijah. The question of salary was little con- sidered, but a churches' need argued mightily with him in deciding a "call." During his ministry he baptized over six hundred converts. His children were Darliska (Mrs. Judson Manley), Andrew, Byron, Theron and Milton by his first wife; Wilbur, Mrs. Laura Davis, Charles, James and William by his second wife, the last two dying in childhood. He was very fortunate in the choice of companions, both his wives having done all in their power to aid him by relieving him of care incident to the family,
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and the fact that he was able to bring up a large family of children on so small an income, and gave them a better preparation for life than he had, speaks volumes for the effective assistance they rendered.
Beginning with 1850, the practice of assessing the members of the church for current expenses was discontinued and the subscription method was substituted, and a few years later the coupons for weekly or monthly payments of subscriptions were introduced and have been used with satisfaction ever since.
A short time only intervened between the fifth and sixth pastorates. The latter, that of Elder Look began September 5, 1852, and continued six years and five months, until the spring of 1859. "His gifts in the administration of the word were ac- ceptable and appreciated by the large congregations to which he preached. His work was characterized by an eagerness to lead souls to Christ. Many re- vivals were in consequence enjoyed under his ministry, the most noted of which was that of 1857-8. That revival commenced in the basement of the Baptist Church and became general in all the evangelical churches of the town." John M. Grant, for thirty years a prominent and active member, and liberal contributor to the church and to Chris- tian work generally, was converted at that revival. The report of the church to the succeeding associa- tion, states that the ordinance of baptism was ad- ministered for thirteen successive Sundays. One
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hundred and twenty-nine were baptized in all, sur- passing the fruits of the revival of 1841 by twenty- nine. It is interesting to compare the pastorates of Elder Look with that of Elder Chapin. They were of nearly equal length, and during the latter part of each occurred a great revival. Elder Chapin's pastorate resulted in 154 baptisms and in 270 additions to the church all told, while the fruits of Elder Look's pastorate were 161 baptisms and 257 total additions.
Rev. William Look was born at Pittsfield, Mass., in 1819. Being the son of a physician he first studied medicine with his father, but becoming con- vinced that his life's work was to be in the ministry, he dropped medicine and after a brief preparation, entered upon his first pastorate at Meads Corners, Pa., where he married Mary Ann Kinney. He next served as pastor at Sinclairville, N. Y., and then labored as a sort of missionary pastor at Waupun, Wis., from which place he came to Jamestown. After resigning his Jamestown pastorate in 1859, he was pastor at Forestville, N. Y., for two years, and then at Meadville, Pa., and again at Forestville, then at Evans Center, N. Y., and at Bergen, same state, where he baptized Ransom Harvey, who afterwards became the fourteenth pastor of the Jamestown church. Elder Look then served at Springville, N. Y., after which he retired from pas- toral duties on account of feeble health, and settled at Forestville, N. Y., about the year 1876, supply- ing churches at nearby places, and died there Au-
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WILLIAM LOOK Sixth Pastor
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THE SECOND EDIFICE Dedicated, fall of 1857
gust 20, 1884. His wife also died at Forestville a few years later.
During Elder Look's pastorate in 1857, the first church building was sold to J. H. Clark and by him removed to the corner of East Second and Cross Streets and made into a shop which was destroyed by fire about ten years later. The second church edifice was completed the same year just in time for the great revival, due not a little to the activity and zeal of Elder Look. It cost about $3,000, and the furnishings about $500 additional. About $1,600 was expended on the structure in repairs and improvements in 1865, and subsequently a vestry and auxiliary Sunday School room was added on the west side at a cost of $1,000. The building stood for thirty-three years and was then torn down to give place for the present stone structure.
At this time the church lost one of its most use- ful and honored members, Elder Z. M. Palmer. He was born in Chatham, Columbia County, N. Y., May 16, 1776, and became a Christian at the age of twenty-nine. A few years later he moved to the frontier state of Indiana, and about the year 1821 was ordained deacon and then minister of the gos- pel in the Baptist Church of Dearborn County. There he labored with his hands supporting his family, and preaching the gospel at the same time. After a residence of nine years there, he came to Jamestown and joined the Jamestown branch of the Busti church. When the First Baptist Church of Jamestown was organized in 1832, he took a lead-
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ing part in the proceedings and became a constitu- ent member, and in a sense the father of the new church. He lived and labored with the church for nearly thirty years. Though he was never its pas- tor, he frequently occupied the pulpit, and because a pastor was often lacking, he was elected perma- nent moderator and presided at all business meet- ings of the society. In 1858 old age compelled his retirement and he removed to Panama, N. Y., to spend the evening twilight of his ripened years with his daughter, where he died December 21, 1860. In youth he was able to acquire only a meager edu- cation, but he possessed a good mind and seemed always specially anointed with the Spirit, and so fulfilled a good and successful ministry. Socially he was sincere, considerate and sympathetic, and within the sphere of his acquaintance he had no enemies. All were friends, and when old age had placed her honored crown upon him, they loved to call him "Father Palmer." Frank Palmer, who edited The Jamestown Journal for several years, and afterwards became Government Printer at Washington, was a son.
Rev. Alfred Wells of Attica, N. Y., was the seventh pastor. He was called May 29, 1859, to preach three months on trial, after which his pas- torate became permanent, lasting to August 17, 1862. Although the additions to the church were not numerous during his ministration of more than three years, no one ever listened to him without desiring to be better, and without being strength-
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