USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > Lives of the clergy of New York and Brooklyn: embracing two hundred biographies of eminent living men in all denominations. Also, the history of each sect and congregation, Pt. 1 > Part 15
USA > New York > New York City > Lives of the clergy of New York and Brooklyn: embracing two hundred biographies of eminent living men in all denominations. Also, the history of each sect and congregation, Pt. 1 > Part 15
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28
In personal intercourse Dr. Drowne is genial and highly com- panionable. He has excellent conversational powers, and uses them with much freedom, though never obtrusively. His sermons are well-written productions, sometimes studied and elaborated, but usually partaking more of the simple-worded or devotional exhor- tation. Ile has a voice of full compass, and altogether a pleasing and effective delivery.
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REV. CORNELIUS R. DUFFIE, D. D.,
RECTOR OF THE CHURCH OF ST. JOHN BAP- TIST, (EPISCOPAL.)
EV. DR. CORNELIUS R. DUFFIE was born in the city of New York, August 6th, 1821. His father was the late Rev. Cornelius R. Duffie, who took holy orders late in life, and was rector of St. Thomas' Church, formerly on the corner of Broadway and Houston street, having been a leading salt merchant. Dr. Duffie was graduated at Columbia College in 1841, and at the Episcopal General Theological Seminary, New York, in 1845. He was made a deacon in June, 1845, at Christ Church, Hartford, by Bishop Brownell, of Connecticut, and priest in 1848, in Trinity Church, New York, by Bishop Wittingham of Maryland. After being engaged for a short time in the parish of St. Paul's at Sing Sing, he became assistant minister in Trinity parish, New York, and thus remained about two years. In the spring of 1848 he organized his present parish of St. John Baptist, in the upper part of the city, with a few families. Preaching was held temporarily in a small chapel, and, ground having been donated, a free-stone church edifice was erected on the corner of Lexington avenue and Thirty-fifth street, at a cost of some forty-five thousand dollars. The church was consecrated December 2d, 1856. There are now one hundred and fifty communicants, and one hundred and thirty children in the Sunday School.
Dr. Duffie received his degree of D. D. from the University of New York in 1865. He was chosen chaplain of Columbia College in 1857, and still officiates daily at the College. His publications consist of various occasional sermons.
Dr. Duffie is about the medium height, equally proportioned, and is energetic and active in his movements. His head is of the ordinary cast of an intelligent man. His expression is amiable, and his man- ners are quiet and plain. He is a serious, reflective person, and at no time yields to any especial vivacity. In the domestic circle and
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in the society of children he shows a genial, cheerful disposition, but he is not a man with whom a very close intimacy is likely to be formed. This is not beeause he is naturally of a cold or repulsive nature, but simply because he seems thoroughly absorbed in his own thoughts and religious duties, and altogether indifferent to every- thing else. You see in all his eonduet that he is a deeply conscien- tious man. His simplest acts are subjects of reflection, and he does nothing until it has received the sanction of the inward monitor. His personal discipline in this respect is rigid in the extreme. He makes no compromises with conscience, but boldly marks out the line of honorable and Christian duty, and this his feet always tread. Hence those who know his eharaeter hold his counsel and example in the highest possible esteem.
Dr. Duffie's sermons are excellent religious and moral lessons. Nothing could be in better taste of its kind, or could it be delivered with more propriety and cireumspection as to time and place. He is a calm preacher; there is no emotion and no excitement, but much sincerity and devoutness. Dr. Duffie is a good and pious man. He has led a blameless life, and is a hard worker. His diligent services in his rectorship, and his excellent example as a man and a citizen are subjects of unqualified appreciation by all persons ac- quainted with his career.
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REV. JOSEPH T. DURYEA, D. D.,
PASTOR OF THE CLASSON AVENUE PRESBY- TERIAN CHURCHI. BROOKLYN.
EV. DR. JOSEPH T. DURYEA was born at Jamaica, N. Y., Dec. 9th, 1834. He is of Huguenot descent, and his ancestors were of those who fled from European oppression to plant settlements in the New World. His carler studies were pursued at Union Hall, a celebrated academy of the village. He subsequently went to Princeton College, where he was graduated in 1856, and three years later closed his theological course at the seminary of the same institution. Being of a literary turn of mind, and a proficient in music, he early formed a plan of going to Chicago and starting a paper and opening a music and book-store. Three friends, however, without consultation with each other, strongly urged him to prepare for the ministry, which he at length concluded to do. He was licensed in the autumn of 1858, prior to his gradul- tion, by the Presbytery of Nassau. In 1859 he was ordained by the Presbytery of Troy, and installed as pastor of the Second Presbyte- rian Church, Troy, where he remained three years. During this period he was invited to prominent churches in New Orleans, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, and New York, but he could not be induced to leave his pleasant and highly successful field until . compelled to do so by his health giving way to the severity of the climate. He was thoroughly prostrated, for a considerable part of the winter, by a neuralgie affection, and it became evident that he must seek restoration elsewhere. In April, 1862, he accepted a call Has become one of the pastors of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church, New York, long before tendered. By a providential circum- stanee, his removal from Troy took place just preceding the great fire, which destroyed so much of the city, and, among other buildings,
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the Second Presbyterian church and the house in which Dr. Duryea had lived. Among other matters, in which he interested himself, was the work of the Christian Commission in the army. After going as a delegate into the field, he returned, and was chosen to address meetings in New York, Washington, and other- important points, held to give the public the benefit of the observations of those who had become familiar with the actual operations of the Commission. Dr. Duryea showed great zeal in all branches of the labor under- taken by him, and his addresses were characterized by much interest of statement and eloquence of appeal.
Several years since, Dr. Duryea accepted a call to the Classon Avenue Presbyterian church, Brooklyn. He has gathered a large and influential congregation, and he is regarded as one of the foremost of the many able ministers of that city.
In December, 1873, Dr. Duryea received a call to the Madison Square Presbyterian church, New York, to be the successor of the Rev. Dr. Wm. Adams, and was offered a salary of eight thousand dollars, with two thousand additional for house rent. Not only did his congregation in Brooklyn oppose his acceptance of this call, but a large public meeting was held, at which speeches were made by different clergymen, and resolutions adopted urgently soliciting him, in behalf of the entire Christian community, not to abandon the field in which he was then so efficiently laboring. Shortly before the close of the meeting, the following letter, giving the information that he had declined the call, was received and read :-
TO THE SESSION OF THE CLASSON AVENUE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH :-
DEAR BRETHREN-At our last meeting I informed you that I had received a call to the pastorate of the Madison Square Presbyterian church, New York, and although I had neither desire nor conviction of duty iuclining me to seek a separation from you, yet certain circumstances made it necessary that I should give this matter care- ful consideration. I have used all the means appointed by the Lord for the guidance of his ministers, and have concluded that it is my duty to remain where Providence has placed me. I have communicated my decision to the Madison Square church by a letter sent yesterday evening, to be delivered to-day.
I hope the Lord will manifest approval and bless us together as pastor and people.
Yours, most faithfully, JOSEPH T. DURYEA.
BROOKLYN, Dec. 16th, 1873.
Dr. Duryea is a handsome, intelligent appearing person, with a tall, erect, well-made figure. His features are as regular as if seulp- tured in marble by the hand of art; and while his glances fall soft 163
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and gentle as moonbeams, ever and anon they are wont to kindle and show the fires that burn within the aspiring, daring, hoping heart. The expression of the face is that of mingled amiability and thought- fulness. Serene and kind, it is also serious and reflective. His man- ners are unassuming, and, indeed, somewhat reserved, while showing no lack of confidence or culture. He talks well, with much cheer- fulness of disposition, a lively appreciation of genial and intelligent companionship, and great judgment and reflection regarding learned subjects. He is a fine singer, and performs on several instruments, and, as may be surmised, delights in discreet social enjoyments. At the same time, it can very well be seen that his impulses and all his desires are toned and kept entirely subordinate to the sacred mission to which he had devoted himself, and to the attainment of that con- spicuous scholarship to which he aspires.
The selection of Dr. Duryea to be one of the pastors of the Col- legiate Dutch Church was a marked compliment to his piety and talents. He was asked to fill the place once occupied by a Livingston, a Kuypers, a Knox, and a Brownlee, and to be the colleague of a De Witt, a Vermilye, and a Chambers. These were of the immortal dead and of the illustrious living of one of the most aneient and in- fluential church organizations of the United States, and he who was called to its service must come as all his forerunners had come, noted for personal virtues, tried in the faith of the Gospel, and eminent for theological attainments. To such a position Dr. Duryea was invited, and under such circumstances he entered the pulpits of the Collegiate Church. Young, and modest in his nature, he might well have shrunk from the task before him without the slightest aspersion upon his scholarly qualifications. He might with justice have chosen the humbler walk of the inexperienced minister rather than a station made illustrious, through a period of more than two centuries, by pre-eminent godliness and learning. But, no; gladly, proudly, and courageously he took his place at the olden altars, where clustered the memories of the fathers gone before, and where stood other aged and worthy watchmen of Zion. His ambition was stimulated, not satisfied ; he was inspired, not abashed; he consecrated himself more thoroughly to God's work, not forgetting humility as his own first example.
Dr. Duryea is a preacher of remarkable effectiveness. His sermons are argumentative; they go to the length and breadth and depth of principle, and still every word is earnest, graceful eloquence. He 164
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stands erect, looking the embodiment of conscious power, while his brain and heart are overflowing with the theme to which he has ad- dressed his thoughts. In writing he has comprehended all that he desired to say, and he has the art of reasoning and the force and beauty of language to make others comprehend it also. In speak- ing he feels, and shows that he feels, the truths that he declares, and his clear voice and perfect gesticulation carry his meaning direct and full to the conviction of the listening observer. Not a word falls barren of emphasis and effect, and as he proceeds, employing attitude as well as utterance, he sweeps irresistibly onward to the grand climax of the hearer's full subjugation in heart to his eloquence, in mind to his wisdom. He seems to impose upon himself the elucida- tion of difficult texts, and the expounding of great principles. Ab- sorbed, and yet quick to think in the study, he is all case, eagerness, and eloquence in the pulpit. Going downward to the foundations of logic, he raises upward, where inspiration and faith allure his soul. Speaking, gifted with all manly graces, his talents give splendor to Christian oratory.
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REV. THEODORE A. EATON, RECTOR OF ST. CLEMENT'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
EV. THEODORE A. EATON was born in Boston, Massachusetts, August 3d, 1821, and is the son of the late Rev. Dr. Asa Eaton, for many years rector of Christ Church in that city. After a course at St. Paul's College, College Point, Long Island, he entered the Episcopal General Theological Seminary, New York, and was graduated in 1848. He was made a deacon in the same year by Bishop Delancey, at Grace Church, in this eity, and in 1849 was made priest, by Bishop Doane, at Grace Church, Newark. His first position was as assistant at the latter church, where he remained from 1848 to 1850. In the latter year he accepted a call to his present rectorship at St. Clement's Church, corner of Amity and Macdougal streets.
This congregation was organized about 1830. Public services were held in a hall in Barrow street, until a church edifice was erceted on property purchased on the corner of Amity and Mac- dougal streets, then considered one of the most eligible sites in the city. The first rector was Rev. Dr. Lewis P. Bayard, who was with the congregation about ten years, and during which time it greatly increased, and became one of the most flourishing in New York. Rev. Dr. E. N. Meade was reetor for about seven years, and Rev. Dr. C. S. Henry for three years, the last being succeeded by Mr. Eaton. There are now some three hundred communicants, and about one hundred children in the Sunday school. This congregation has experienced the vicissitudes of all the down-town churches. The ยท up-town migration of the inhabitants has almost totally changed the congregation from what it was in former days, and, as a consequence, impaired its numerical strength and influence in no small degree.
Mr. Eaton is of the average height, with a rotund, though not dis- proportioned figure. He has a large, round head, delicate features, and fair complexion; and, while he has a considerable degree of
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reserve and dignity about him, he is sufficiently genial to put all persons on easy terms with himself. He is decided in his purposes and firm in his opinions, but at the same time he is in no measure to be regarded as a stubborn or self-opinionated person in the common acceptation of those terms. He has very clear conceptions of the line of duty, and his conseienee is kept not less clear by-his manner of performing all that is required of him. He is not a man of parade, nor is he one of an especially demonstrative charaeter, but you are never at a loss to know just where to find him on every question and in regard to every obligation. He is as true as steel, honorable to the letter, and faithful to the uttermost. And all this comes as a matter of course, for it is simply his natural character. Such men exercise the largest extent of moral influence. Where others fail with effort, they succeed with none. Their consistency of life, their inflexibility of character, and their total want of everything like pre- sumption, secures them the confidence of their fellows, and makes them bright and accepted moral examples. In their modesty such persons hardly understand their own importance. Their influence is a silent foree : it is not exercised for any selfish end, and it is shown more in their personal discipline and eonduet than in any other way. In the case of Mr. Eaton, his ministerial life is unobtrusive ; he has no notoriety, and, in fact, little publie fame, and still he has an integrity of principle and a purity of character which have given him an importanec and value as a teacher and guide, with those who know him, far beyond that which is allied to a more prominent public position.
Mr. Eaton is a preacher of a thoroughly sober, practical style. He is never carried away with his feelings, never shows the slightest impulsiveness, but delivers calm, thoughtful, sensible lessons upon faith and duty. His expositions in faith are particularly clear and beautiful. Without being illiberal or bigoted, he is a thorough churchman, and nothing gives him greater pleasure, or more power- fully appeals to all his reasoning faculties, than the explanation of the doctrines of his beloved church. He has a good voice, appro- priate gestures, and altogether his delivery is quite effective.
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REV. DAVID EINHORN, PH. D.,
RABBI OF THE TEMPLE BETH EL, NEW YORK.
EV. DR. DAVID EINHORN was born in Dispec, Bavaria, November 10th, 1809. He studied at the Uni- versities of Erlangen, Wurzburg, and Munchen from 1828 to 1834. He was first connected with synagogues in the Grand Duchies of Birkenfeld and Mecklenburg - Schwerin. Later he became Rabbi of the Reform Congregation at Pesth, whose synagogue was closed by order of the Emperor of Austria, as he regarded their reform doctrines as one of the fruits of the revolu- lution of 1848. Dr. Einhorn determined to remove to the United States, and in 1855 reached Baltimore, Maryland, where he remained in charge of a synagogue for seven years and a half. He became deeply interested in the slavery question, taking extreme abolition views, and made himself very conspicuous, and, to some extent, un- popular by his preaching and writings on the subject. For seven years he published a monthly magazine, called Sinai, devoted to the cause of reform Judaism, but in which he also wrote strongly against the institution of slavery. When the war finally broke out he was obliged to leave Baltimore. IIe then went to Philadel- phia, as rabbi of a prominent congregation, where he remained five years. In 1866 he was called to New York to become the first rabbi and preacher of the congregation " Adas Jeshurun," which was organized at that time. A spacious temple was built on Thirty- ninth street, near Seventh avenue, which was much improved in the summer of 1873.
In the latter part of that year arrangements were made for a union of the " Adas Jeshurun " and " Anshi Chased " congregations, the latter of which had recently completed and dedicated a new temple on the corner of Lexington avenue and Sixty-third street. This old congregation of New York worshiped originally in White
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street, from which place they moved into Elm street, where they built. Their next move was into Henry street, where they also built, but afterward sold their synagogue to another Jewish congregation, and in May, 1850, dedicated a new house in Norfolk street. After nearly a quarter of a century they removed to the splendid temple ou Lexington avenue, which was dedicated September 12th, 1873, and cost about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The united congregations took the name of the Temple Beth El, and Dr. Einhorn was elected to the position of rabbi.
Dr. Einhorn is the author of the " Olath Tumid," a prayer book, and the " Ner Tamid," a religious book. The first passed through three editions in the Hebrew and German, when Dr. Einhorn issued it in English translation, with some emendations. Another work by him in the German is entitled " Das Princip des Mosaismus." Many of his sermons have been issued in pamphlet form also in the German.
Dr. Einhorn is of the medium height and sparely made. ITis head, though not large, shows very decided intellectual development, and his eyes, especially, light his face with a striking and pleasing in- telligence. In his manners he is polite; but it is always to be ob- served that he has the seriousness and reserve common to scholarly men. Hc is circumspect and exact in his own demcanor, and in all the duties of life. Consequently those who approach him are impressed by the dignity of his bearing as well as his learned and exalted character, making his influence very great with all ages anc classes.
He is one of the most advanced of the Judaic reformers. In Europe his views made a deep impression upon the people, and, as has been stated, were thought dangerous to monarchieal government itself. Since his arrival in the United States, he has spoken with even more power, and with an enlarged scope of learning, for his thoughts were frec, and the field grand enough to inspire him for the utmost efforts by both energy and mind. A man who was willing to sacrifice so much for his doctrines at home, and one who resolutely undertook a erusade against American slavery under the circumstances which he did, has certainly those qualities which are most effective in all reform movements. Obstructions, defeats, and gloom are all as nothing to the brave and hopeful spirit of a re- former, like Dr. Einhorn ; but, on the contrary, act as incentives to a stronger courage and a more laborious toil.
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REV. DAVID EINHORN, PH. D.
Dr. Einhorn is a very interesting preacher. He is not only a learned man, but a very pious one. Hence he teaches with the largest amount of scholarly explanation, and at the same time imparts to all that he says the solemn impressiveness belonging to religious truths. His manner and tone are characterized by much earnestness, showing the deepest conviction in regard to his subject on his own part, and his heartfelt desire to make the occasion profitable to those who hear him. Modest in the actions of his whole life, and seeking only the highest religious development of the Jewish people, and indirectly of the community at large, still his profound erudition and his great success entitle him to the wide fame which he enjoys.
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REV. JOSEPHI F. ELDER,
PASTOR OF THE MADISON AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH, NEW YORK.
R EV. JOSEPH F. ELDER was born in Portland, Maine, March 10th, 1839. His academie studies were at the Portland High School, where at an early age he gave evi- dence of considerable mental capacity. In 1860 he was graduated at Colby University, at Waterville, Maine, which was then known by the name of Waterville College. After leaving college he engaged in teaching. In the autumn of 1861 he was licensed to preach by the Free-street Baptist Church of Portland, of which he was a member. Subsequently he took a theological course at the Rochester University, from which institution he was grad- uated in 1867. He was ordained and installed pastor of the Baptist Church at North Orange, New Jersey, May 1st, 1867, where he re- mained until called to his present pastorship in New York. He en- tered upon the discharge of his duties as pastor of the Madison-avenue Baptist Church January 1st, 1869.
This congregation is a union of the Oliver-street congregation with one having originally the title of the Madison-avenue Baptist Church. They occupy one of the handsomest church edifices in the city on the corner of Madison avenue and Thirty-first street. It is built of brick, with a square tower rising about twenty-five feet from the front. The galleries are supported by a series of Corinthian columns, and the whole arrangement of the interior is peculiar and tasteful. One thous- and two hundred persons can be accommodated with seats. A ques- tion has arisen as to which of the original congregations hold the title to the property, which has been for some time before the courts for settlement. It is merely a legal point, not involving any change or unpleasantness in the present congregation. Rev. Dr. Henry G. Wes- ton, who, in 1859, had been called from Peoria, Illinois, to the Oliver- street Church, became the pastor of the new Madison avenue, and so remained until 1868, when he accepted the presidency of a theologi. cal seminary. The pulpit was vacant until Mr. Elder was called 171
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Mr. Elder is of the average height, with an equally proportioned and erect figure. He has a head of fair size and form, with the in- tellectual peculiarities most strikingly developed. His features are regular, and expressive of amiability and decision of character. Ii .- manners are courteous, but not warm. In fact, for a young man, he has a great deal of dignity. He is composed and assured, and seems always to think before he acts or speaks. He shows stamina of char- acter and much self-possession, but no forwardness. Let him advance an opinion, and he will maintain it with an intellectual comprelien- sion which no one can dispute; or give him a work to perform, and he will display marked resources of judgment and nerve. But in the same instances you will be quite as much struck with the entire modesty of his personal bearing, and his disposition to underrate rather than to magnify his own ability and labors. He has ambition, but it is not a inere reckless zeal for position and power. It is under the government of both good-breeding and sound reason.
Never ashamed of his powers, and never feeble in his mode of ac- tion, still he is not disposed to thrust himself into prominence. As you look into his countenance and notice his half-averted eyes, or listen to his calm, measured utterances, you can have no doubt as to these traits of his character. Cheerful in disposition, and interesting in conversation, he is sufficiently engaging to give zest to all inter- course with him; but you become convinced that one great merit of' the man is in an inner nature of high moral and intellectual man- hood.
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