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 2
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 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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
The Jewish clergy are generally profound men. Their studies are thorough, into the very sources of theological learning, and from both inclination and habit, these laborious investigations are contin-
13
REV. SAMUEL ADLER, PH. D.
ued as long as. they live. Superficial study is distasteful to them, and they place no reliance on the opinions or preaching of any man who does not first prove himself worthy of attention by deep and scholarly preparation. They are very eritical and close in their esti- mate of the ability of each other, and they are apt to treat with a sneer the presumed learning of elergymen of Christian seets. In both the orthodox and reform churches of the Jews, there are men of the highest reputation for learning, and, consequently, each side is maintained with all the strength of seholarship and faith. The newspaper organs of both are also well conducted, and enjoy a lib- eral patronage. Their discussions are always going on, but with the dignity of learning, rather than any personal aerimony. Take them all in all, there is no religious elass of the community who present a more prosperous and respectable attitude, as a sect and as individ- uals, than the Jews of New York.
Dr. Adler preaches in the German language, and oceasionally lectures in English. Though he speaks quite well in the latter tongue, he states that he does not eare to use it in publie. Sermons in English are regularly delivered by a learned associate, the Rev. Dr. Gottheil, formerly of Manchester, England, called for the purpose. Each of these gentlemen receives six thousand dollars a year. Dr. Adler's sermons are extemporaneous, but show profound thought in his previous preparation. He is a learned theologian, in the full meaning of the term, and henee he is at no loss as a teacher of sa- cred things, to control the human mind and heart. Fervent and elo- quent in expressing himself, his language is well ehosen, and his manner dignified and impressive. In private life he is a man of at- traetive qualities, and is sometimes given to merriment. His taste and habits, however, are mostly of a scholarly nature, and he is generally found absorbed in his books and reflections. He is under the medium height, with a round head. The face is large, having regular and expressive features. It conveys full evidence that he is a man of thoroughly sineere eharacter, and great patience and ear- nestness of effort. Whatever he under akes is done without show, but with unwavering energy, and a happy adaptation of means to the end in view. With the history of Jewish reform in Germany, but more especially in the eity of New York, his name will be forever associated. Profound in learning and conscientious in duty, he has won success for his cause, and imperishable honor for himself.
14
REV. SAMUEL D. ALEXANDER, D. D.,
PASTOR OF THIE PHILLIPS MEMORIAL PRES- BYTERIAN CHURCH.
EV. DR. SAMUEL D. ALEXANDER was born at Prince- ton, New Jersey, May 3d, 1819. He is the son of the late and distinguished Rev. Dr. Archibald Alexander, Professor of the Theological Seminary at New Brunswick, and brother of the late Rev. Dr. Joseph Addison Alex- ander, noted as a commentator on the Scriptures and an Orien- tal scholar, and of the late Rev. Dr. James W. Alexander, a man of high position in the Presbyterian denomination, and at the time of his death pastor of the Fifth avenue and Nineteenth Street Church, New York.
The Alexander family, who were Scotch and Scotch-Irish Pres- byterians, made early settlements in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. A tradition connected with the fam- ily relates that on the eve of the departure of seven brothers of the name from Ireland for the New World, they sent to Scotland for their old minister to come and baptize their children and administer the ordinances to them. Says the account :
" The minister, a faithful and fearless man, came at the invitation ; the family and their effects were embarked with due secrecy and quietness ; the minister was taken on board the vessel and the sacrament of baptism was administered to the younger members of the family with the solemnity and prayerfulness becoming the circumstances. Just then a company of armed men that were prowling about came on board the vessel, broke up the meeting, and carried the minister to a place of confinement.
1
"The company were in consternation, fearing the same fato for themselves, and distressed about leaving their minister in this unhappy condition, brought on him for their sakes. Toward night the old mother, who had been piously covenanting for her grandchildren, exclaimed, 'Mun gang ye awn, tak our minister out o' the jail, and tak him, guid soul, wi' us to Amarika.' Her voice had never been diso-
15
2
REV. SAMUEL D. ALEXANDER, D. D.
boyed. Before morning the minister was on board and the vessel out of the harbor. He was persuaded to go along with them in their pilgrimage. With many prayers and thanksgivings they were landed safely on Manhattan Island."
During his lifetime the minister followed their emigrations, and assisted them in their schools and in training their children. Their baptisms and marriages generally took place at the time of his an- nual visit.
The subject of our notice was graduated at the College of New Jersey, sometimes called Nassau Hall, in 1838, and at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1847. During an interval before entering upon his theological course he studied natural philosophy under Professor Joseph Henry, LL. D., now of the Smithsonian Institute, and gave his attention to civil engineering, and subsequently studied law, but never sought admission to the bar. He was licensed in May, 1847, and ordained in November of the same year, when he settled as pastor of the Richmond Presbyterian Church, in Philadel- phia, remaining there three years. In 1856, he removed to the city of New York, and was installed in his present pastoral relations in connection with the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church. The organization of this congregation took place September 8th, 1844, with twenty-seven members, and was one of the early up-town move- ments. For many years the building occupied was a plain but commodious structure, which was erected by the munificence of James Lenox, Esq., of New York. More recently the congregation has followed a second up-town migration, and is now located on the corner of Madison Avenue and Seventy-third street. A new chapel has been built, and a large main edifice is now being erected at a cost of about ninety thousand dollars, on Madison Avenue. The title of the con- gregation has been changed to the Phillips Memorial Church. Dr. Alexander received his degree of D. D. from Washington College, Pennsylvania, in 1863. He is the author of a work, in one volume, entitled " History of the Irish Presbyterian Church."
Dr. Alexander is tall, equally proportioned, and of erect, easy carriage. His head is round and small, but perfectly formed, with prominent intellectual characteristics. He has straight light brown hair, wears side whiskers, and looks his full age. Without anything like hasty familiarity or desire to be communicative, he has a friend- liness of manner and a frankness of address by which he gracefully and agreeably places himself on the best footing with you. There is no show of self-importance, but the most simple and unassuming
16
REV. SAMUEL D. ALEXANDER, D. D.
deportment throughout. You find yourself intimate with him as soon as you are acquainted, and long association only adds to the good opinion and esteem which the earliest intercourse is certain to engender. He has a well-stored mind, but is rather secretive in re- gard to his learning, from the two causes of modesty of his acquire- ments and an aversion to pedantry. His writings display more of his qualifications in this respect than his conversation. He argues closely and elaborately, but with such freedom of diction and clear- ness of conception that there is neither tediousness nor obscurity. He thinks boldly and vigorously, and he writes with quite as much conciseness of expression and energy of application. Following in the footsteps of his father and brothers, he is a critical student of the Bible, and there are few who think more profoundly when expound- ing its pages.
Dr. Alexander has excellent capabilities as a pulpit speaker. His voice is soft and agreeable, entirely under his control, and, with- out being strictly oratorical, his style is highly effective. He has only a moderate amount of gesture, and there is nothing which at all tends to display. But he commands the undivided attention of the auditor, because he never fails to present thought which is not less original than conclusive. There is sufficient warmth and imagi- nation to prove that the quick feelings and ardent mind are both at work ; but the more efficient element of the discourse is broad com- mon sense and substantial logic.
17
REV. GALUSHA ANDERSON, D. D., PASTOR OF THE STRONG PLACE BAPTIST CHURCH, BROOKLYN."
EV. DR. GALUSHA ANDERSON was born at Bergen, Genesee County, New York, March 7th, 1832. He was graduated at the University of Rochester, in 1854, and in theology at the Rochester Theological Seminary in 1856. During the same year he was first settled over the First Baptist Church at Janesville, Wisconsin, where he re- mained two years. He then went to the Second Church of St. Louis, remaining eight years, and accomplishing results in his ministry, not less unusual than satisfactory to himself and the community. The agitation and bitterness of feeling which affected all classes in Missouri, and in St. Louis especially, at the opening of the war with the South, are well known. Dr. Anderson at once took strong ground in his pulpit and out of it, in favor of the Union, and the re- sult was the loss of a large number of his congregation. A thanks- giving sermon on " Obedience to Government," preached on the 27th of November, 1862, at the time published in the local papers, and subsequently in Moore's " Rebellion Record," brought him into great prominence in this matter. He continued his advocacy of the Union, and remained with the part of the congregation who were loyal, gradually regaining in numbers, until at the close of the war the congregation was numerically stronger than before. He regards his work at that period with a vivid recollection of its difficulties, as well as a pleasing satisfaction as to the prosperous condition in which he finally left the restored congregation. In 1866 he was elected to the chair of Homiletics, Church Polity, and Pastoral Duties in the Bap- tist Theological Institution at Newton, Mass., which he filled with marked success for seven years, until called to his present pastor- ship. He commenced his work with the Strong Place Baptist Church of Brooklyn on the first Sunday of October, 1873.
The Strong Place congregation was organized by the Rev. Dr .. Elisha E. L. Taylor, who for more than twenty years was one of the
18
REV. GALUSHA ANDERSON, D. D.
most active clergymen of Brooklyn. A stone chapel was built in Strong Place in which worship was commenced in 1849. During 1851-2 a large and elegant structure of red free-stone was erected, fronting on Degraw street, and dedicated on the 19th of September, 1852.
The cost, aside from the seven lots of ground, was a little over seventy thousand dollars. The last dollar of debt upon the entire church property was paid in 1863.
Dr. Taylor was highly successful, and gathered a congregation large in numbers and powerful in wealth and social influence. Up to 1863 one thousand members joined the church, five hundred of whom were received on profession of their faith, and baptized. Dr. Taylor's health at length became much impaired, so that he could not preach regularly, and finally he determined to retire altogether from the active work of the ministry. His congregation made ample provision for him in a pecuniary way for his life time, giving him the sum of twenty thousand dollars. In 1867 Dr. Taylor was suc- ceeded by the Rev. Wayland Hoyt, who remained until 1873.
Dr. Anderson received his degree of D. D. from the University of Rochester in 1866. He has been a frequent contributor to the Bap- tist Quarterly, and other publications.
He is of the medium height, and equally proportioned. His head is round, with regular and expressive features. His hair is slightly gray, and he looks rather older than his years. From his countenance you may readily understand him to be a man of energetic pur- pose, and a lover of right and propriety in all things. He looks into the motives of individuals, and the probabilities of events with a great deal of keen penetration, and he is not often at fault in either his deductions or proceedings. In his nature he is genial, and full of kindness and sympathy, but after all, he is stern in his judgment, and unswerving in his devotion to principle and duty. He is, in fact, a person whose quick impulse is to be just and friendly with all men, but who is equally certain to hold them to uprightness and virtue as the price of his esteem.
He deservedly enjoys a high rank as a scholar and preacher. There is nothing superficial in his attainments in any particular. He shows the substance, vigor, and power of thought in all that he attempts, and in teaching and expounding he is not surpassed by any clergyman of his denomination.
19
1
REV. THOMAS D. ANDERSON, D. D.,
PASTOR OF THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCHI, NEW YORK.
6
EV. DR. THOMAS D. ANDERSON was born in Phila- delphia June 30thi, 1819, but passed much of his earlier years in the city of Washington, whither his parents had removed. He was graduated at the University of Penn- sylvania in 1838, and in theology at the Newton Theological Institute, in 1841. He was ordained and settled in 1842 as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Salem, Mass., where he re- mained six years. Impaired health induced him to resign in February, 1848, but in the following June he again assumed pastoral labors in connection with the First Baptist Church of Roxbury, which continued through a period of nearly four years. During his sojourn with them, the congregation erected a new brick and mastic Gothic church cdifice, with a spirc two hundred feet high, which is considered one of the most beautiful buildings of the kind in the country. Though greatly attached to his people and to the place, so celebrated for its rural charms and social culture, he nevertheless felt it his duty to accept a call in another field of vast importance. In January, 1862, he became pastor of the First Baptist Church, Broome street, New York, formerly under the pastorship of the late Rev. Dr. Spencer HI. Conc.
Dr. Anderson's publications consist of occasional sermons and addresses. In July, 1850, he delivered, before the city government and citizens of Roxbury, a funeral oration on Zachary Taylor, late President of the United States ; and in January, 1860, he delivered the "Election Sermon," annually given before the Executive and Legislative Departments of the Government of Massachusetts. His degree of D. D. was bestowed by Brown University in 1859.
Previous to the year 1669 there was preaching in the city of New York, according to the Baptist faith, by one William Wickenden, of Rhode Island, who was imprisoned several months for presuming to
20
REV. THOMAS D. ANDERSON, D. D.
preach without a license from an officer of the crown. In 1712 Mr. Valentine Wightman, from Groton, Connecticut, preached with con- siderable success. This clergyman was invited to the city by a Baptist brewer, named Nicholas Eyers, who organized the first con- gregation. The following petition appears among the public records of New York of 1721 :
"To his Excellency William Burnet, Esq., Captain General and Governor-in-Chief of the province of New York and New Jersey, and the territories depending on them in America, and Vice-Admiral of the same.
"The humble petition of Nicholas Eyers, brewer, a Baptist teacher in the city of New York.
"Sheweth unto your Excellency that on the first Tuesday of February, 1715, at a general quarter sessions of the peace held at the city of New York, the hired house of your petitioner, situate in the broad street of this city, between the house of John Michel Eyers and Mr. John Spratt, was registered for an Anabaptist meeting-house within this city. That the petitioner has it certified under the hands of sixteen in- habitants of good faith and credit, that he had been a public teacher to a Baptist congregation within the city for four years, and some of them for less. That he has it certified by the Hon. Rip Van Dam, Esq., one of his Majesty's council for the pro- vince of New York, to have hired a house in this city from him January 1st, 1720, only to be a public house for the Baptists, which he still keeps ; and as he has ob- tained from the Mayor and Recorder of this city an ample certificate of his good be- havior and innocent conversation, he therefore humbly prays :
" May it please your Excellency
"To grant and permit this petitioner to execute the ministerial function of a min- ister within this city to a Baptist congregation, and to give him protection therein according to His Majesty's gracious indulgence extended towards the Protestants dissenting from the Established Church, he being willing to comply with all that is required by the act of toleration from dissenters of that persuasion in Great Britain, and being owned for a reverend brother by other Baptist teachers. And as in duty bound the petitioner shall ever pray, &c.
" NICHOLAS EYERS."
Mr. Eyers organized a church of twelve members in 1724, who purchased lots and built a house of worship on Gold street. After about eight years' existence the congregation numbered only twenty- four members, and, being left without a pastor, under great pecuniary embarrassments, was disbanded. The present First congregation originated in 1745, when Jeremiah Dodge, a member of the Fishkill Baptist Church, settled in New York, and opened his house for public worship. In 1753 the number was so small that they united with the Scotch Plains Church, New Jersey, with the understanding that Elder Benjamin Miller, the pastor of that church, should preach occasionally in New York. The attendance increased, and a rigging- loft was hired in Horse and Cart Lane, now William street, where worship was held for several years. On the 14th of March, 1760, a
21
1
REV. THOMAS D. ANDERSON, D. D.
small meeting-house was opened, which they had erected on pur- chased ground in Gold street. Twenty-seven members of the Scotch Plains Church, having taken letters of dismission, the New York congregation was reorganized on the 19th of June, 1762, Rev. John Gano becoming the pastor. In two or three years the members had increased to two hundred, and the meeting house was considerably cn- larged. The war of the revolution scattered the congregation. The ordinance of baptism was administered April 28th, 1776, and not again until September, 1784. Mr. Gano, " a firm patriot and a brave man," served as chaplain. He returned to New York after its evac- uation by the British in November, 1783, and collected together " about thirty-seven members of the church out of above two hundred." The meeting-house was repaired, having been used as a store-house and stable for horses. The congregation, in two years, again numbered more than two hundred members. In March, 1801, the meeting-house was removed, to make room for a new building. A stone edifice was erected, at a cost of about twenty-five thousand dollars, which was opened in May of the following year. In 1805 there were two hundred and fifty-three members, and in 1809 they numbered five hundred and sixty-four. At different periods much dissension occurred in the church, growing out of questions of doc- trine and church discipline. Among others pastors was Rev. William Parkinson, of Fredericktown, Maryland, who resigned in 1840, after a service of more than thirty-five years. From this church sprung the Second, or Bethel, Zoar, Abyssinian, Bethesda, and several other churches. Between seventy and eighty members united with the Bethesda Church, of which Dr. Parkinson became pastor. In July, 1841, Rev. Dr. Cone assumed the pastorship, having preached in the Oliver street Baptist Church eighteen years and two months. The church was reduced to about two hundred members, and was much in debt. Prosperity returned under the ministry of Dr. Cone. . The building until recently occupied by the congregation, on the corner of Broome and Elizabeth streets, was constructed, and opened February 20th, 1842. The cost of the whole property was about seventy-five thousand dollars, a portion of which was paid by the sale of the lots in Gold street for thirty-three thousand dollars. In 1848 the number of members was six hundred and two. The number is now about seven hundred. The regular Sunday School has three hundred and fifty children, and a Mission School as many more. A flourishing Industrial School is held on cach Saturday, and is
22
REV. THOMAS D. ANDERSON, D. D.
crowded chiefly with Irish and German children. More recently the church in Broome street was sold, and a magnificent edifice was erected for the congregation in the upper part of the city, on the corner of Thirty-ninth street and Park Avenue. It was dedicated October 1st, 1871.
The general statistics of the Baptists in the United States are as follows :
Associations.
799
Churches 15,143
Ordained ministers. 8,787
Baptisms last year. 70,172
Total membership. 1,221,349
In membership Georgia leads off with 134,337; Virginia follows with 122,120, and then comes New York with 100, 616. In the British provinces there are 45,145 Bap- tists; in Europe, 200,511; in Africa, 2,101; in Asia, 21,064; in the West Indies, 22,719; in Australasia, 4,321- making a grand total of 1, 746,414. These figures are uot perfect, but they show a near approximation to the actual numbers.
We take the following eloquent passage from Dr. Anderson's " Election Sermon " on "The Home and the Nation :"
"Most favorable for permanence is our location. We are planted on fresh soil, where no incrustation from the debris of decayed ages held bound the germ of free principles, or stunted its growth. No moldering antiquity threw its baleful shadows over our inheritance, chilling the earnest endeavor, or mildewing the first fruits of our toil. Wuile defenceless, the sea rolled its protection of waves between us and harm; and our rigorous climate and unsubdued forests had but small attrac- tions to the east-loving lust of dominion. The immense territories embraced within our borders afforded ample room for the most rapid increase of population, and the cheapness of our unsold land places within the reach of all the means of subsistence and comfort. There is demand for labor in joining our distances: opportunity for skill in the construction of implements of industry, that we may avail ourselves of our exhaustless resources; trade and commerce are necessities of our variously con- ditioned, prosperous, and widely-scattered inhabitants. In one region we have the pine and the hemlock battling with the winter storm, to be exchanged for the live oak and the hickory flourishing under milder skies; here the autumnal fields were with the yellow grain, and there the cotten and rice whiten the plantation, or the cane yields its sweetness almost beneath a tropic sun. The mines of one neighbor- hood send forth the load, the iron, and the copper; those of another the silver and the gold, while interlacing all run the imperishable veins of coal. Rivers rise in our mountains, and, flowing thousands of miles, receiving through navigable tribu- taries the drainage of a continent, find still on our own coasts their outlets to the sen, while everywhere homes, palpitating to the throb of kindred joys, like pulses, transmit the same vital current to the extremities, and thus bind the remotest mem- bers of the confederacy in one organic, living Union."
Dr. Anderson is a man of striking appearance. Tall and thin, he stands perfectly erect, and has a proud, commanding air, which, how
23
REV. THOMAS D. ANDERSON, D. D.
ever, undoubtedly proceeds more from habit than intention. He has a long head, rising full and large in the crown, and covered with a bountiful growth of silken, iron-grey hair, which falls about in grace- ful confusion. His features are small, but thoroughly intellectual ; his complexion is dark, and his eyes, of the same hue, are bright and piercing. He is courtcous and affable, while there is always a well- sustained dignity about him. In conversing he speaks with thought- fulness and deliberation, evidently seeking to be exact in all his statements, and not showing much patience with those who talk un- reflectingly. He is a scholarly man, having a mind already enriched with high culture, and still believing itself but on the threshold of the flight to which it aspires. Every branch of learning awakens his intellectual energies; but all that he sceks and all that he gains is for use in the one cherished purpose of making plain the truths of re- ligion. Measuring duty by the keencst perceptions of conscience, he never knowingly falls short of any of its requirements, while the en- thusiasm as well at the comfort of his life are found in his prized and well-assured faith.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.