USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume II > Part 50
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It seems proper at this stage to take up the history of some of the earlier church organizations of Staten Island, as the more prominent and historic denominations gained a firm foothold before the Revolu- tion. It will not hurt the order of our narrative to look both back- ward and forward from that period to gain a useful idea of ecclesi- astical development within the borough, without attempting to enter npon a detailed account of all the church enterprises that have fa- vored the island. Walloons, refugees from Spanish persecution in the French-speaking provinces of Belgium, were the earliest settlers on Staten Island. They did not stay long. When the English rule was well established, and the Indians were no longer a terror, other French-speaking people came. of the Protestant faith. These were the Huguenots, driven from France by the bigotry of Louis XIV., who annoyed his Protestant subjects beyond endurance, even before that final extinction of their hopes and liberties-the Revocation of the Ediet of Nantes in 1685. Long before that date, therefore, great num- bers of these people, the cream of the French nation, had come to New York, and many of them settled on Staten Island. As we learn from the Labadists, the Dutch and French greatly desired, but had no religions organization of their own. Yet there were stated services
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provided for them since 1660. In that year Rev. Samuel Drisius, one of the pastors of the Church-in-the-fort on Manhattan, came over regu- larly once a month and preached in French for the Huguenots and in Dutch for the others. Selyns, of Brooklyn, also gave his services to both occasionally. It is said that in 1680 the scattered people had at last erected two houses of worship at points convenient for them to gather. One of these was at Fresh Kills, in Westfield township, to which church came as pastor in 1697 the Rev. David Bonrepos, who remained till 1717, when the infirmities of age compelled him to give up his charge. The other French church in 1680 was at Stony Brook. on the road to Perth Amboy, not far from Oude Dorp. Here the preaching was not exclusively French, for Dutch ministers are found in charge of it. Among others, we read in the records of many bap- tisms by the Rev. Guillaume (William, or Gilliam) Bertholf, who was pastor of the churches of Aquaquanonk (Passaic) and Hackensack, in New Jersey, from 1694 to 1724, and whose descendants to the present generation are still serving in the Gospel. A new era in church life opened when, in 1717, after Domine Bonrepos ceased his labors, the Dutch and French united their forces, and abandoning both Fresh Kills and Stony Brook, built a church at the more central point of Richmond Court House. At the same time they called a minister, the Rev. Cornelius van Santvoord, who settled in 1718, and remained till 1742. Meantime a church had sprung up on the north shore, later Port Richmond, Governor Hunter giving a grant of land for a building in 1714. It was of the regulation style-hexagonal, with a roof run- ning to a point. No connection seems to have been established with the church at Richmond, so that they were without a regular pastor. being supplied by the ministers of Long Island. But in 1750 a colle- giate arrangement was effected with the church at Bergen. N. J .. whereupon pastors were called, the first proving unworthy, but the second serving from 1757 clear through the Revolutionary days. until 1789, when he broke down in mind. By this time the collegiate connection had been severed, and Port Richmond started upon its in- dependent existence. As it is still in flourishing condition, a few words giving a bare outline of its history will not be out of place. One or two short pastorates intervened from 1790 to 1802, with three years of vacancy, when in the latter year the Rev. Peter I. Van Pelt. a native of the island, was called. He served till 1835, when the Rev. James Brownlee began a pastorate lasting more than fifty years. In 1884 the present pastor, the Rev. Alfred H. Demarest, became his associate, and a few years later he left the field clear for his youthful efforts. We have only adduced this personal record because of its unique showing, and, without invidious distinction, need not on that account enter into such minute details in other cases. The enterprise at Richmond languished after 1742; but in 1808. by the efforts of Dr. Van Pelt. of the Port Church, a new building was erected there, and
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both churches were served by him and Dr. Brownlee until 1854, when the Richmond organization became independent. It had a succession of pastors for some years, but is now extinct. Through the generosity of that distinguished resident of Staten Island, Governor and Vice- President Daniel D. Tompkins, who gave two lots for it, a Dutch Re- formed Church was erected at Tompkinsville in 1820. Dr. Van Pelt. of the Port Church, took this also in charge, but in 1823 it became a distinct body. In 1866 the congregation built a new church on Brighton Heights, where it stands to-day a conspicuous object as one approaches the island. The old Huguenot churches have dwindled down to the Reformed Church of Huguenot, practically extinct, and the Reformed Church of Kreischerville, which has lately picked up some new energy. And thus we close the chapter of Dutch churches, except to add that the oldest and most vigorons of them all, at Port Richmond, treated herself to a more modern structure in 1845, which indeed has quite an antiquated look now, but we hope she will wisely glory in the older fashion rather than remove another old landmark in the interest of mere novelty.
The St. Andrew's Church at Rich- mond was the mother of all the Episcopal churches on the island. In 1704 only one-third of the popu- lation was as yet English. But the Dutch and French on Staten Island presented a delightful con- trast to their brethren in the faith elsewhere. When the Rev. Eneas GOV. DONGAN'S HUNTING LODGE. Mckenzie came to Richmond (in 1706) as the missionary of the London Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (which meant, of course, the Church of England Gospel), his introdnetion of a form of religion different from their own was not in the least resented. He was at once accorded the use of the French Church, and occupied it for seven years steadily until St. An- drew's Church was erected. The Dutch were at first inclined to op- pose the movement. But Mr. MeKenzie, with fine tact, sent to Lon- don for a supply of Common Prayer-books in Dutch. When these arrived the people of that nation were greatly pleased with the sery- ices, and an exodus from the Dutch Reformed to the English church was initiated here as on Manhattan Island, which has filled pews and chancels and Bishop's benches with the most solid kind of Dutch names np to this day. We are not surprised, therefore, to read in a letter written in 1748, and addressed to the Synods of Holland that " on Staten Island within the last twenty years the Dutch Church has lost one-half its people." Two causes assigned were death and
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removal; but removal must have been the main cause, and that not domiciliary, but ecclesiastical, for it is added " they mixed with the English, who have an Episcopal Church," and " the Church is in dan- ger of extinction." Of course the latter was too gloomy a view of the situation, for the Dutch Church is by no means extinct vet; but it shows how Mr. Mckenzie's policy worked. His labors were placed at a much greater advantage when he had secured a church of his own. In 1711 a building site and burial ground were donated to the church at the head of Fresh Kills by a pious couple. Two years later the Dutch nabob and councilor, Adolphus Philipse, together with Ebenezer Wilson, who was Mayor of New York from 1707 to 1710. gave a piece of ground of one hundred and fifty acres to the English society. This was sold, the proceeds enabling them to buy another piece of ground for a glebe, and in that same year (1713), upon the site of the present St. Andrew's Church at Richmond, a plain stone structure was reared. Queen Anne forthwith gave the church a char- ter, and also donated a quantity of prayer-books, a pulpit cover, a silver communion service, and a bell. In 1718 two hundred acres at the northeast end of the island were bequeathed to the church, which are still in its possession. The proceeds of this were to go toward the maintenance of the minister. Besides, the inhabitants of the county of whatever faith were taxed to support the Episcopal minister. We shall note now some of the most lengthy pastorates. Mr. McKenzie seems to have remained with the people of St. Andrew's till 1733. In 1747, after a few shorter incumbencies, the Rev. Richard Charlton became rector, and served until his death thirty-two years later, in 1779. His daughter Magdalen married Thomas Dongan, the eldest son of Walter, the nephew, and one of the heirs of the Governor. It was their son. JJohn Charlton Dongan, who was the last to hold any of the original Dongan manor property. After another interval of brief services, the Rev. Richard Channing Moore became rector in 1788, who remained until 1808. He was elected Bishop of Virginia in 1814. While Dr. Moore was rector, Trinity Chapel was built on the north side in 1802, which has since developed into the Church of the Ascension. The immediate successor in the rectorate was the Rev. David Moore, son of the former incumbent, who served for forty- eight years, or from 1808 to 1856. The beautiful and costly edifice of St. John's Church, prominent to every one's view as he sails past Clifton, and presenting a pleasing picture on closer inspection, had its origin in a much humbler structure of wood erected in 1843, on a site opposite that of the present church. It was also an offshoot from the mother church of St. Andrew's. In 1869 the present elegant building was begun, and it was consecrated in 1871.
Another denomination whose history on the island reaches back to times before the Revolution, is the Presbyterian. When the people of Stony Brook united with those of Fresh Kills to build a more cen-
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tral church for French and Dutch at Richmond, in 1717, a Presby- terian Church was organized and occupied the building at Stony Brook. A deed covering the transaction mentions James Rezean and Samuel Broome as elders, showing French and English elements combined, and describes the lot as sixty-five feet by fifty-five. In the letter to the Dutch Synods of 1748, already cited, the complaint as to the depletion of the Dutch Church embraces also the removal of their people to the " Presbyterian meeting." Later developments of these early beginnings are the well-known churches at Stapleton, organized in 1856, and the Calvary Presbyterian, at West New Brighton, organ- ized in 1872, largely from members of the Port Richmond Reformed. In this connection it may be well to remind the reader of what we briefly mentioned in our previous volume (p. 157). On Tuesday, No- vember 3, 1740, the great Whitfield visited Staten Island, on his way to Newark and the South. Though a minister of the Established Church, he was welcomed only by those of the Presbyterian persua- sion, and, accompanied by one or more of these brethren from New York. he came to this island. Standing upon a wagon in the open road. not far from the landing place, he addressed a gathering of from three to four hundred people. His journal records his satisfaction with this service, for " the Lord came among them." After the ser- mon he rode away on horseback toward the Elizabethport Ferry. and that same day reached Newark.
The first Methodist sermon preached on Staten Island was that by Francis Asbury, in November, 1771. The services were held at the house of one Peter Van Pelt, who must have been an ancestor of the later Dutch Reformed Domine, Peter I. Van Pelt. Asbury had then been but twelve days in the country. No society was organized, how- ever, until May. 1787, and they soon built a plain church, rough in exterior, rudely furnished within, at Woodrow. in Westfield, on the site of the present edifice, erected in 1842. In 1822 a second Methodist Church was organized, and in 1823 a building erected at Richmond Valley. a few rods southeast of the present railway station. In 1842 the denomination had obtained sufficient strength at Tottenville to erect a church there, called the " Bethel " Church, followed by St. Paul's in 1860. In 1802 the Methodists had spread into Northfield. and built a church at New Springville, which for thirty years supplied the needs of the people of their persuasion in the towns of Northfield and Castleton. But in 1838 a society was organized and church built at Mariner's Harbor, and another at Graniteville; and so from time to time were realized the subsequent developments evincing the flourish- ing condition of the denomination which are familiar to later genera- tions. We can not refrain from mentioning one remarkable circum- stance connected with the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church on the island. In his declining years there came to worship in the original church at Woodrow, where now is to be found his grave, the
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Rev. Henry Boehm, born June 8, 1775, died December 28, 1876. Of these hundred years of life, seventy-six were given to the active min- istry of the Gospel. No wonder that he was everywhere loved and revered by the affectionate title " Father Boehm." Even earlier than the Methodists were the Moravians. The first preacher of that order who visited Staten Island was David Bruce, who came here in 1742. In 1747 there were three churches of that faith in America-at New York City, at Bethlehem, Pa., and at Egbertville, near New Dorp, on Staten Island. At that time the membership consisted of but few. Jacobus Vanderbilt and Vettje, his wife, being the most prominent, unconscious of the prominence of a totally different character which should at a later day attach to their name through the remarkable career of their descendant, Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Steamboat and
ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, STATEN ISLAND.
Railroad King. Not till 1763 was a church erected, combining, as was the custom of these simple people, a parsonage under the same roof. The building is still standing. The present house of worship. more in accord with modern style, was built in 1845. To this church generous donations have come at various times from Commodore Vanderbilt and his son William H. At the death of the latter in 1885 he bequeathed the society the sun of $100,000-a gift which is as likely to prove hurtful as beneficial to an organization of this kind. It will now suffice to mention in regard to the other denominations that the Baptists began their existence on Staten Island in 1785; the first society was organized in that year, the services being held for many years in the open air, in private houses, or in schoolhouses. In 1809 the first church building was erected, standing at the crossing of the old Clove Road with the Richmond turnpike, in Southfield, or the
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present Middletown. It was the sole Baptist Church in the county until 1830, and a few graves still mark its site. The first Roman Catholic Church was organized on April 1, 1839, at New Brighton. A Unitarian Church was organized in 1851, at Stapleton; a Congrega- tionalist Society formed about the same time, combining with it later, the name assumed being the " Church of the Redeemer." For some reason it seemed to be impossible for the association to retain pastors, and the church deserves notice particularly because for many years George William Curtis conducted services on Sunday by reading pub- lished sermons, much to the delight of the attendants. The struggle for existence was finally given up, and the church, erected in 1868 on the corner of Clinton Avenue and Second Street, New Brighton, was let to a Baptist congregation in 1884.
From these occasional excursions into times near our own, to which the leadings of history drew us in tracing church enterprises begun before the Revolution, we must now withdraw the thought and inter- est back again to days and events which marked this sadder period in our country's existence. It must be confessed that Staten Island, like other parts of the Greater New York, Kings and Queens counties, was abundantly supplied with Loyalists, making its ocenpation by the British an easy task both before and after the Battle of Long Island and the capture of New York. On April 11, 1775, at an assembly of the people to consider the sending of delegates from Richmond County to the Provincial Congress, soon to meet in New York, the decision was almost unanimous against the measure. Nevertheless, the pa- triots managed to send a few of their number to the Congress. The same Colonel Heard who marched through Queens County with seven hundred men, to overawe the Tories, was sent across from his head- quarters at Woodbridge, N. J., conveniently near, therefore, to do a little work of that kind among the Loyalists on the island, although ostensibly he was under orders only to prevent the landing of Ilenry Clinton at his hasty preliminary visit early in 1776. Washington ut- tered in no equivocal way his opinion of the people there: " The treach- ery of those on Staten Island," he wrote, " who, after the fairest pro- fessions, have shown themselves our most inveterate enemies, have in- duced me to give directions that all persons of known enmity and donbtful character should be removed from those places." The ques- tion has been raised whether Washington himself honored the island by a personal visit. There seems to be no reasonable doubt of that. An item in his expense account book tells, under date, April 25, 1776, that he spent £16 10s. Od., for himself and party, " reconnoitering the several landing places on Staten Island." He could hardly have gone from point to point doing this in a boat or barge in full view of the Asia, or other British warships constantly in the bay, upon one of which Governor Tryon was maintaining a sort of floating government office. In apprehension of a British fleet with transports from Hali-
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fax or England, Washington wished to have an accurate acquaint- ance with the places where the forces of the enemy would be most likely to land, to see if positions could not be occupied in their neigh- borhood to prevent the landing. He must needs have traveled ou horseback, accompanied by a staff, and may have traversed more of the island than would be necessary to view the coasts.
As the spring wore away and the coming of the enemy became more imminent from day to day, Washington was compelled to thin ont his all too seanty forces in and about New York by covering as much as possible of the extensive lines of defense. He did not arrive at New York personally till April 14, 1776. But General Putnam arrived early in April, and on the 12th we find General Lord Stirling, with characteristic courtesy and consideration, addressing the Com- mittee of Safety on Staten Island, in regard to the projected occupa- tion of it by the American troops. He informed the committee that General Putnam had ordered him to proceed to the island with a brigade of soldiers. It would be necessary for him to quarter them, he said, in the farmhouses for the present. In order to render this as little irksome as possible, he desires the committee to notify the farm- ers, so they might in advance select and make ready the apartments they can most conveniently set aside for the purpose. He wanted them to be assured that he would make the stay of the troops as little burdensome and annoying as possible. To this end also he hoped the committee would make ready as many empty farmhouses, barns, or other unused buildings as they could find. Finally, Lord Stirling begged that they would use their influence so as to persuade the peo- ple " to consider the soldiers as their countrymen and fellow citizens employed in the defense of the liberties of their country." Surely no general sent to occupy a region practically devoted to the enemy was ever more tender of the feelings or considerate of the comforts of the inhabitants upon whom he and his army were to be billeted. Noblesse oblige, and Stirling's fame receives an additional luster from this gen- tleness, though its main glories rest upon his actions of a few months later on the exactly opposite shore of the bay. In addition to Stir- ling's brigade, three companies of the rifle battalion were stationed on Staten Island as a corps of observation, whose duty it was to lie in wait for boat's crews coming on shore from the men-of-war to take water, and thus do them as much damage as possible. Sharp skir- mishes occasionally occurred, and at one time the formidable frigate Asia was hailed by one of these rifle companies and ordered to " heave to."
On June 29, 1776, the lookout stationed at the Narrows by Wash- ington sent information that he had sighted the approaching British fleet. On July 2-momentous day also at Philadelphia, when the Res- olution declaring themselves independent was passed by Congress- one hundred and thirty vessels of various descriptions, from heavy
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ships-of-line to transports and tenders, anchored in the Lower Bay off the Staten Island shore prepared to make a landing. There was noth- ing in the way of this. As it was impossible for Washington to mus- ter troops enough to prevent the enemy's occupation of the island, he had withdrawn all that had been stationed there. General lowe therefore landed his troops, the hills were soon covered with white tents, and military works were constructed at salient points to guard against surprise and to secure a permanent foothold. The headquar- ters were established at Richmond, being centrally located. After the troops were landed, the fleet, now re-enforced by the arrival of ships from England under Admiral Lord Howe, moved up through the Narrows, and lay in a line extending from the mouth of the Kill von Kull to the ferry at the Narrows. Two men-of-war were stationed opposite Perth Amboy to guard the entrances to the Staten Island Sound and the Raritan River. Still more troops came to ocenpy the island about the middle of July, when Clinton and Cornwallis re- turned from the South with their divisions, among which were eight thousand Hessians. It is estimated that there was now a force of abont twenty- four thousand troops on Staten Island.
The story of the Battle of Long Island has been told in a previous chapter. On August 22, Generals Howe, Clinton, Cornwallis, Perey, and Grant landed in Gravesend Bay, near THE BILLOP HOUSE. the Cortelyon Honse, with fif- teen thousand men, and three days later General Von (or De) Heis- ter went over with five thousand Hessians. The troops left behind on Staten Island were only such as were disabled by sickness or needed to hold the approaches. The fateful battle on the opposite island over, General Howe retained the body of his troops about him while he made his headquarters at Newtown. Meanwhile Washington had withdrawn his army from the possibility of capture, and was waiting on Manhattan Island to see what might be the enemy's next move. Obviously he should want to take New York, but no very great hurry was manifested. Indeed, the patriots were about to be entertained with another attempt at a peaceful solution of the situation. Admiral Lord Howe, recently arriving from England, was commissioned to hold ont offers of peace and pardon. We have seen how difficult it. was for him to communicate with Washington, neither " Mr." nor " and so forths " expediting the business. But General Sullivan had been taken prisoner at the late battle, and he, never burdened with
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over-much judgment, had been quite captivated with the possibility of ending the cruel war right there. Sullivan had gone before Congress. and urged that body to send a committee to meet Lord Howe to see whether some pacific and all around satisfactory arrangement could not be effected. It was almost as difficult to procure a meeting of such a committee with Lord Howe as to get a letter properly before Wash- ington. Howe would not recognize Congress to be the body that it was; Congress would not be regarded as anything else. How then regard its committee? Nevertheless, three members were appointed to confer with his Lordship-Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge. Apart from the nice technicalities involved, it was expedient that no one should be able to charge upon Congress afterward that everything had not been done that might reasonably procure a peaceful settlement. The day appointed for the meeting was September 11, four days before the capture of New York by Gen- eral Howe's forces. It was indeed a momentous occasion. If peace were possible, it might now even yet be attained. If it were impos- sible. the battle for independence must be fought to the bitter end. No one more sincerely desired peace than Lord Howe, an avowed friend of the colonies. No men could more safely be trusted to accept peace only on terms of honor and security for the colonies than the three eminent patriots and statesmen who were sent to treat with England's commissioner.
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