USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume III, Pt. 2 > Part 16
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BACKUS, BRADY ELECTUS, Rector of the Church of the Holy Apostles, New York City, since 1876, was born in 1839 at Troy, N. Y., the son of the late Professor Augustus Backus and Martha Cordelia, daughter of Judge Benning Mann, of Hartford, Conn. He is lineally descended from William Backus, of Norwich, England, who settled at Saybrook, Conn., and subsequently, in 1659, became a founder of Norwich, Conn., and also from Sir John Peters, of Exeter, England, in 1509. His grandfather, Electus M. Backus, was a Revolutionary · soldier, Lieutenant-Colonel in the United States Army, and com- mander of the American forces at Sackett's Harbor during the War of 1812, being killed while defending it against the British in 1813. Ilis father was Professor of Music in the Emma Willard Seminary, subsequently pursuing a business career at Grand Rapids, Mich. Dr. Backus was bred to the law, and practiced in Grand Rapids until 1866, when he entered Trinity College. He was graduated in 1870, as he was from the General Theological Seminary of this city in 1873. The
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same year he was appointed assistant minister of St. Peter's, New York; in 1874 became rector of Christ Church, Cooperstown, N. Y., and in 1876 entered upon his present charge. He has received the degree of D.D., and is a member of Trinity College Alumni, the New England Society, the Society of Mayflower Descendants, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Sons of the Revolution, and the Society of the War of 1812. He married, in 1875, Annie Taylor, and has a daughter and a son, Electus T. Backus.
POTTER, HENRY CODMAN, seventh Protestant Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of New York, is a nephew of the sixth Bishop, the late Dr. Horatio Potter. He was born in Schenectady, N. Y., May 25, 1835, attended the Philadelphia Academy, and in 1857 was gradu- ated from the Theological Seminary of Virginia. He was at once made a deacon, and, on October 15, 1858, was ordained a priest. He was in charge of Christ Church, at Greensburg, Pa., from the time of his graduation until May, 1859. During the next seven years he was Rector of St. John's, at Troy, N. Y. For two years following he was Assistant Rector of Trinity Church, Boston. In May, 1868, he became Rector of Grace Church, New York, so remaining for the sixteen years following. In 1863 he was elected President of Kenyon College. From 1866 to 1883 he was Secretary of the House HENRY C. POTTER. of Bishops. In 1873 he was elected Bishop of Iowa, but declined the office. In 1883 he was elected Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of New York, and in Janu- ary, 1884, he resigned as Rector of Grace Church. The duties of Bishop practically devolved upon him while he was Assistant. After the death of his uncle, January 2, 1887, he was elected Bishop of the Diocese. Union College conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts in 1863, and that of Doctor of Divinity in 1865. From Trinity College he received the degree of Doctor of Laws in 1881, and that of Doctor of Divinity in 1883.
RYLANCE, JOSEPHI II., since 1871 Rector of St. Mark's Church, New York City, was born in Ireland, June 16, 1826; was graduated from King's College, London; for two years was curate of a parish in a London suburb; for five years Rector of an English Protestant Epis- copal Church in Paris, and came to the United States in 1865, bearing letters of sympathy from Queen Victoria to Congress on the death of
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Abraham Lincoln. Prior to his call to St. Mark's in 1871, he had been called successively to St. Paul's Church, Cleveland, and St. James's Church, Chicago.
DUFFIELD, HOWARD, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of New York City since 1891, was graduated from Princeton College and Princeton Theological Seminary, and for many years was pastor of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, of Detroit, Mich., prior to his call to his present charge. Dr. Duffield attracted attention by a remarkably brilliant patriotic address delivered at a banquet of the Republican Club of the City of New York, in March, 1898, at the height of the excitement occasioned by the destruction of the United States battleship Maine in Havana Harbor, and the reports of terrible suffer- ing in Cuba through Spanish cruelty.
HOFFMAN, EUGENE AUGUSTUS, has been Dean of the General Theological Seminary of the City of New York, the most notable in- stitution of its kind of the Protest- ant Episcopal Church of America, since 1879. Not merely has he drawn no salary during this period, but he has himself endowed the of- fice of Dean, and is allowing the interest to accrue for the benefit of the Seminary. By himself and his family three professorships in the Seminary have been endowed, while its memorial chapel of the Good Shepherd was erected by the Dean's mother in memory of his father, the late Samuel Verplanck Hoffman. Through his efforts, in fact, over one million dollars have been secured to the institution, while the large block, known as Chelsea Square, upon which stood EUGENE AUGUSTUS HOFFMAN. two old stone houses when he be- came Dean, " has been more than half covered by a magnificent pile of buildings." He has also been a liberal contributor and able executive officer to church charities and various institutions. He is a member of the Board of Managers of the Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Clergymen's Retiring Fund Society, the Society for Promoting Religion and Learning in the State of New York, the Corporation for the Relief of Widows and Orphans of Clergymen, Trin- ity School, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. He is also Chair- man of the Building Committee of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
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During many consecutive years he has represented the Diocese of New York in the General Convention. He is a member of the commission appointed for the Revision of the Constitution and Canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Rutgers College in 1863, by Racine College in 1882, by the General Theological Seminary in 1885, and by Columbia College in 1886. The degree of Doctor of Common Law was bestowed upon him in 1890 by King's College University, Windsor, Nova Scotia. The degree of Doctor of Laws was given him by the University of the South in 1891 and by Trinity University, Toronto, in 1893. He has published " The Eucharistic Week," " The Legal Use of Church Bells," and " The System of Free Churches," besides sermons, ad- dresses, and magazine articles. He is a member of the Century, Rid- I. a. Hoffman ing, and City clubs, the Archeologi- cal Society of New York, the Ameri- can Geographical Society, the New York Historical Society, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, the American Institute of Christian Philosophy, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the American Museum of Natural History. He was born in New York City, March 21, 1829, and descends from the old New York families of Hoffman, De Witte, De Crispel, Benson, Verplanck, Beekman, Storm, and others. The late Rev. Dr. Charles Frederick Hoffman, Rector of All Angels, New York City, was his younger brother. Ilis mother was the daughter of Garrit Storm, well known as a New York merchant. His father, the late Samuel Verplanck Hoffman, was bred a lawyer, but later became head of the celebrated drygoods commis- sion house of Hoffman & Waldo, of New York City. He was a director in important business corporations, prominent in church work and a member of the Union League Club. Dr. Hoffman is lineally descended from Marten Hoffman, a wealthy resident of New Amsterdam as early as 1660; from his son, Captain Nicholas Hoffman; from the latter's son, Colonel Martinus Hoffman. while the son of the last-mentioned. Captain Harmanus Hoffman, was the Dean's grandfather by his wife, Catherine, daughter of Philip Verplanck and Effie Beekman. Dr. Hoffinan was himself married in 1852 to Mary C., daughter of the late Peter Zabriskie Elmendorf. Of their four children, the son, Samuel Verplanck Hoffman, is Astronomical Fellow in Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, while the three daughters are the wives, respectively, of Rev. John Harry Watson, Rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Hart- ford, Conn .; Rev. Thomas White Nickerson, Jr., Rector of St. Paul's Church, Paterson, N. J., and Charles Ludovic Hackstaff. It remains to speak of Dr. Hoffman's earlier career. He attended the Columbia College Grammar School, in 1847 was graduated from Rutgers Col- lege, in 1848 was graduated from Harvard, and in 1851 was gradu- ated from the General Theological Seminary. He was ordained dea:
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con by Bishop Doane, of New Jersey, in 1851, and during the next two years did mission work in connection with Grace Church Parish, Elizabeth, N. J. From 1853 to 1863 he was Rector of Christ Church, Elizabeth, and erected a stone church building, a parish schoolhouse, and a rectory, and established a classical school for boys, and a girls' school. He made his church free, organized the parish of Milburn, erected the church of St. Stephen, brought about the erection of a church building at Woodbridge, where he revived the parish, and freed St. James's, Hackettstown, from debt. Urged by Bishop Oden- heimer to become Rector of St. Mary's, Burlington, N. J., within a year he lifted its debt of $23,000, and raised funds for a peal of bells . and an endowment for bell-ringers. During this time he became a trustee of Burlington College and St. Mary's Hall, and was Secretary of the Diocesan Convention and Secretary of the Standing Committee. During the five years following 1864 he was Rector of Grace Church, Brooklyn. The erection of Long Island into a separate diocese oc- curred at this time, and he became President of its Standing Commit- tee, and was prominently mentioned for the first Bishop. He be- came one of the trustees of the Church Charity Foundation. He was Rector of St. Mark's, Philadelphia. during the ten years from 1869 to 1879, and displayed his wonted energy.
HOFFMAN, CHARLES FREDERICK, Rector and founder of All Angels Protestant Episcopal Parish, New York City, was born in White Street, New York, November 18, 1830, and died in the same city, March 4, 1897. He was the second son of the late Samuel Ver- planck Hoffman, the prominent New York merchant, his elder brother being Rev. Dr. Eugene Augustus Hoffman, Dean of the General Theo- logical Seminary of New York City. Dr. Charles F. Hoffman attended Rutgers College, in 1851 was graduated from Trinity College, and pre- pared for the Protestant Episcopal ministry at the General Theo- logical Seminary in New York. Ordained a deacon by Bishop G. W. Doane, of New Jersey, he was for two years stationed at Morristown, in that State, in charge of a number of small chapels in the surround- ing villages. He then became curate of St. Mary's Church, Burling- ton, N. J., of which parish Bishop Doane was Rector, as well as head of the diocese. Upon the death of Bishop Doane. two years later, he became Rector of the parish of St. Philip's, at Garrisons, N. Y., where he remained for fourteen years. In 1873 he accepted the charge of the little mission chapel of All Angels, at that time in West Central Park, and made of it one of the largest and most popular Protestant Epis- copal parishes in the City of New York. The present church edifice, at the corner of Eighty-first Street and West End Avenne, was largely built at the expense of his private fortune, as a memorial to his par- ents. It was erected in 1890. He was also a liberal benefactor beyond the limits of his own parish. To St: Stephen's College, Annan-
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dale, N. Y., he gave the Hoffman Library Building and its contents. He erected the new dormitory for the University of the South, at Sewanee, Tenn. He founded the Church Association for the Pro- moting of the Interests of Church Schools, Colleges, and Seminaries --- an organization which has already saved a number of institutions threatened with extinction, added to the equipment of others, and founded scholarship. He was a trustee of St. Stephen's College, An- nandale, and of the General Theological Seminary of this city. At the time of his death he was Vice Chancellor of Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y.,-a position held at one time by the late Hon. William E. Gladstone. He published " Notes on the Angels," " Days and Nights with Jesus," " The Prin- ciple of the Incarnation," " Books: A. Library Lecture," " A Ramble at Sewanee," and " The Artists' and Authors' Prayer Book." He left incomplete a magnumopus illustration of the Bible. The de- grees of D.D., D.C.L., and LL.D. were conferred upon him. Abont 1854 he was married to Eleanor Louise Vail, of New Brunswick. N. J., who survives him, with their daughter, Mrs. Jacob Van Vechten Olcott, of New York City, and two sons-Charles Frederick Hoffman, Jr., and William Mitchell Vail Hoffman-both of whom are en- engaged in real estate business in CHARLES FREDERICK HOFFMAN. New York. Charles Frederick Hoffman, Jr., is a director and Secretary of the Real Estate Exchange and Auction Rooms, and a director of the Fruit Auction Company. The ancestral antecedents will be found given in the notice of Dean Eugene Augustus Hoffman.
ABBOTT, LYMAN, successor of Henry Ward Beecher as pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church, Brooklyn, is also well known as an editor and author. One of the sons of Professor Jacob Abbott, the voluminous author of the famous " Rollo Books," and other series for the young, he was born in Roxbury, Mass., December 18, 1835, was grad- uated from the University of the City of New York in 1853, studied law, was admitted to the New York bar, and for a short time was the part- ner of his distinguished brothers, Benjamin Vaughan and Austin Abbott, after which he studied theology. Pastor of a Congregational Church at Terre Haute, Ind .. from 1860 to 1865, during the next three years he was Secretary at New York City of the American Union
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Commission, in the interest of the freedmen. He was also pastor for a time of the New England Church of New York City, resigning in 1869 to devote himself to literary work. He had previously been joint author with his two brothers of the novels, "Cone-Cut Corners " (1855) and " Matthew Caraby " (1858). He now edited a depart- ment of Harper's Magasine, as well as the Illustrated Christian Weekly. He subsequently became joint editor with Henry Ward Beecher of. the Christian Union, and from Mr. Beecher's retirement to the present time has been its editor-in-chief. He resigned the pastorate of Ply- mouth Congregational Church in 1898. He delivered a series of ser- monic lectures on " The Bible as Literature," in which he supported the Driver-Briggs variation of the Kuenen-Wellhausen school of high- er criticism of the Bible.
CONCANEN, RICHARD LUKE, first Roman Catholic Bishop of New York, was consecrated at Rome, Italy, April 24, 180S (the State of New York and Eastern New Jersey having been erected into a dio- cese, with New York City as the Episcopal See, on April S of that year), but failed to reach New York on account of the military condi- tions in Europe, and died at Naples, June 19, 1810.
KOHLMANN, ANTHONY, Jesuit, held the office of Vicar-General and Administrator of the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York, on account of the inability of the first Bishop, Richard Luke Concanen (whom see), to reach New York City. With his associate, Fenwick. another Jesuit, Kohlmann founded the New York Literary Institute, the first Catholic school of importance in the city, located at Fifth Avenue and Fiftieth Street, a portion of the present site of St. Pat- rick's Cathedral.
JOQUES. ISAAC, a Jesuit, ransomed from captivity among the Iroquois, and given passage to France by the city of New Amster- dam in 1643. is said to have been the first Catholic priest who set foot in New York City. " He found in the city," says the chronicler. "only two Catholics-a Portuguese woman and a transient Irishman from Maryland-whose confessions he heard."
HARVEY, THOMAS, a Jesuit, who accompanied Dongan, the Catholic Governor, to New York City in 1683, was the first Catholic priest having a charge in the city, a Catholic chapel near Bowling Green. and a Latin school about where Trinity Church now stands being then established. When Leisler assumed the government he fled to Maryland, but subsequently returned.
MCGLYNN, EDWARD, Catholic priest, of New York City, is distin- guished for his eloquent advocacy of the system of political economy
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of the late Henry George. Pastor of St. Stephen's Church at the time, Dr. McGlynn espoused the candidacy of George as Mayor of New York City in 1884, and, refusing to desist at the command of Archbishop Corrigan, was suspended as a priest. Not appearing before the Pope at Rome when summoned, he was excommunicated; but soon after the arrival in this country of the Papal Delegate, Archbishop Satolli, by this dignitary he was restored to his priestly functions, in December, 1892. While he was under the ban of the church, thousands of his parishioners and other sympathizers openly identified themselves with Dr. McGlynn, willing to share his ecclesiastical exile. These formed the nucleus of the large congregation whom the clergyman, as Presi- dent of the Anti-Poverty Society of this city, addressed each Sunday night at Cooper Union for many years. He is now in charge of a parish in Newburg.
CONNOLLY, JOHN, Prior of St. Clement's Dominican Convent at Rome, Italy, was appointed by Pius VII. in 1814, the Second Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York, was consecrated at Rome on November 6 of that year, and arrived in New York City on December 21, remaining Bishop of New York until his death in this city, February 6, 1825. Having at first but four priests under him in a diocese including the State of New York and a part of New Jer- sey, he did missionary work him- self, founding, among others, the Catholic churches at Utica and Rochester, N. Y. He introduced the Sisters of Charity into New York City, and placed under them JOHN CONNOLLY. the orphan asylum which he had founded in 1817, and incorporated He was active during the vel- He was born in Drogheda, Ire-
as the New York Benevolent Society. low fever plague of 1822 and 1823. land, in 1750, and educated in Belgium.
POWER, JOHN. Roman Catholic priest, was Vicar-General under Bishop John Connolly, and during nearly two years, from the death of the latter, February 6. 1825, until the appointment of his successor. Bishop Du Bois, was Administrator of the Diocese of New York.
PRESTON, THOMAS S., Assistant Minister of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, New York City, prior to 1849, in that year entered the Roman
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Catholic communion. He subsequently became Pastor of St. Aun's Catholic Church, New York City; was Chancellor and Vicar-General under both Cardinal McCloskey and Archbishop Corrigan, and was made Monsignor.
DU BOIS, JOHN, succeeded John Connolly as Roman Catholic Bishop of New York in 1826. He had been the founder of Mount St. Mary's College, Emmetsburg, Md., and had assisted Madame Seton in founding the Sisters of Charity. He dedicated a number of churches and established a diocesan seminary at Nyack, N. Y., which was sub- sequently destroyed by fire. He died December 15, 1842.
HUGHES, JOHN, the first Archbishop of New York, was born in Annaloghan, County Tyrone, Ireland, June 24, 1797, the son of Pat- rick Hughes and Margaret McKenna. About 1816 the family emi- grated to Chambersburg, Md., and the future Archbishop was edu- cated at Mount St. Mary's College, at Emmets- burg, Md. He was ordained priest in 1826, the following year became Pastor of St. Mary's Church, at Emmetsburg, and subsequently was assigned to St. Joseph's, at Philadelphia. He organized the Catholic Tract Society and St. John's Orphan Asylum at Philadelphia. He was also active in founding a theological seminary. He had controversies with Dr. Delancey and Rev. John Breckinridge. In 1837 he was appointed Coadjutor-Bishop to Bishop Dubois, of New York. Two years later he succeeded the latter. He reorganized the + John Alp of NS. lay trustee system of New York, founded the Church Debt Association, in 1840 founded St. John's College at Ford- ham, subsequently turning it over to the Jesuits; engaged in the public school controversy, in 1841 introduced at New York the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, and in 1846 the Sisters of Charity. He also engaged in controversy over " Know-Nothingism." He secured the erection of the dioceses of Albany and Buffalo by a subdivision of his diocese, while in 1849-50 his diocese was erected into an archdiocese, he being made its first Archbishop. He opposed the revolutionary movements in Europe in 1852. and was antagonistic to Kossuth on the occasion of the latter's visit to this country. He erected the Church of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, and in 1858 laid the cornerstone of St. Patrick's Cathedral. In 1859 he sent a present of $50.000 to Pope Pius IN., collected in his archdiocese. In 1861 he visited Europe at Lincoln's request. A little later he founded the theological seminary of his denomination at Troy, N. Y. He died in New York City. Janu- ary 3. 1864.
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MCCLOSKEY, JOHN, was appointed Coadjutor to Bishop Hughes in 1844, and on May 6, 1864, succeeded him as Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. He placed the Catholic Pro- tectory on a firm foundation, and carried St. Patrick's Cathedral to completion. Many churches were erected under his administration, many institutions organized, and many new Catholic orders intro- duced in the city. On April 27, 1875, he was made Cardinal, New York thus becoming the Sce of the first
JOHN MCCLOSKEY.
ever, before he arrived. 18S5.
American Cardinal. The Catholic Union and the Catholic Club were formed during this period. Upon the death of Pope Pius LX., in 1878, Car- dinal McCloskey was summoned to the conclave of cardinals at Rome. Pope Leo XIII. was elected, how- Cardinal McCloskey died October 10,
MACCRACKEN, HENRY MITCHELL, was born at Oxford, Ohio, September 28, 1840, his paternal great-grandfathers, of Scotch descent, being Revolutionary soldiers. Being graduated from Miami Univer- sity at the age of sixteen, he taught the classics, and was superintend- ent of a school. He studied theology two years at the United Presby- terian Seminary at Xenia, Ohio, and in 1863 was graduated at Prince- ton. For four years Pastor of the Westminster Church of Columbus, Ohio, he was one of the Committee of Three of the Ohio Synod, who founded the University of Wooster in 1866. In 1867 he was a delegate to the Free Church Association of Edinburgh and the Assembly at Dublin. Resigning his pastorate, he studied a winter at the universi- ties of Tübingen and Berlin. On his return he became Pastor of a Presbyterian church in Toledo, Ohio. He proposed the Presbyterian Ter-centenary celebration of 1872 in the General Assembly of 1870. In 1881 he became Chancellor of the Western University of Pennsyl- vania, as well as its Professor of Philosophy. He secured its removal from Pittsburg to Allegheny and its establishment on a better foun- dation in 1882. In 1884 he delivered the address at the Scotch-Irish Reunion at Belfast, Ireland, the same year becoming Professor of Phi- losophy in the University of the City of New York. He subsequently became executive officer of this institution, with the title of Vice-Chan- cellor, while, in 1891, he succeeded the late Dr. John Hall as its Chan- cellor. He was active in founding its School of Pedagogy, in forming
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its alliance with Union Theological Seminary in 1890, in the purchase of the new site, University Heights, in 1892; in the removal thither in 1894, in the erection of the system of college halls and the library, at a cost of $600,000; in the erection, for $700,000, of the new building . of eleven stories on the old site on Washington Square, as offices, coun- cil-room, and location for the Schools of Law and Pedagogy, and in the consolidation of the School of Medicine with the Bellevue Hospital Medical College. He holds the degrees of Doctor of Divinity and Doc- tor of Laws. In the General Assembly of 1890 he moved for a com- mittee to revise the Westminster Confession. He is Vice-President of the Society for the Prevention of Crime.
CORRIGAN, MICHAEL AUGUSTINE, Archbishop of New York since October 10, 1895. the date of the death of the late Cardinal McCloskey, had performed the active functions of his present position from September 26, 1880, when, under the title of Archbishop of Petra, he was made the Coadjutor of Cardinal McCloskey, with the right of succession to the archdiocese. Prior to this he had labored in Newark, N. J., in which city he was born, August 13, 1839. Graduated from Mount St. Mary's, Emmetsburg, Md., in 1859, he was one of the first students to enter the Ameri- can College at Rome, Italy, and was ordained a priest in that city, September 19, 1863, MICHAEL AUGUSTINE CORRIGAN. receiving the degree of Doctor of Divinity the following year in public competition. He was appointed Professor of Dogmatie Theology and Sacred Scripture in Seton Hall College, Orange, N. J .; became Presi- dent of that institution in 1868, administered the Diocese of Newark in the absence of Bishop Bayley in 1870, and, in March, 1873. was ap- pointed Bishop of Newark by Pius IX. It was the record made by him in this diocese in establishing Catholic institutions, erecting churches, and creating new parishes, as well as for his skill in adjust- ing ecclesiastical differences, which led to his assignment to the Diocese of New York.
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