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 20
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 20
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He is a man of liberal attainments, and a fluent, earnest preacher. In his public appearances he seeks no display. He is most modest in his bearing, but convinces all of his virtues, merits, and piety. He adopts plain, comprehensive language, which is spoken with much earnestness of manner and warmth of appeal. But he is at no time more sublimely the Christian teacher than when his lips are motionless, and he is delivering holy truthis by perfect and eloquent signs. Those whom the sweetest sound could not attract, and who are mute to all utterance forever, receive intelligibly the message of grace. It is a triumph beyond oratory. It is a presentation of the argument of faith in a new discovered tongue. It is the anointing of souls which otherwise might go unhealed into eternity.
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REV. JOHN N. GALLEHER,
RECTOR OF ZION EPISCOPAL CHURCH, NEW YORK.
EV. JOHN N. GALLEHIER was born in Mason county, Kentucky, February 17th, 1839. After pursuing aca- demie studies in that county, he entered the Latin School of the University of Virginia, where he was graduated in 1858. Ile went to Louisiana, but returned to Kentucky at the outbreak of the war, and he became a private in the command of General Albert S. Johnston. Acting as secretary of General Buckner, he went to the front, and, taking part in the bat- tle of Fort Donelson, he was captured and sent a prisoner first to Camp Chase in Ohio, and then to Fort Warren in Boston harbor. In July, 1862, he was exchanged, when he received an appointment to the staff of General Buckner, and with him accompanied General Bragg's famous expedition into Kentucky. IIe subsequently held the different ranks of captain, assistant adjutant-general, and licu- tenant-colonel, and at the close of the war was in the Trans-Miss- issippi Department, still on the staff of General Buckner.
He then commenced the study of law, and was graduated at the law school of Judge Brockenbrough at Lexington, Virginia, in 1866. He was admitted to the bar in Louisville, Kentucky, and practiced for one year. At this date he determined to become a candidate for holy orders in the Episcopal Church, and, accordingly, took a partial theological course at the General Theological Seminary, New York. In June, 1868, he was made a deacon at Christ Church, Louisville, by Assistant Bishop Cummins of Kentucky. He remained as assist- ant to the Rev. Dr. Clark, at Christ Church, until January, 1869, when he was called to the rectorship of Trinity Church, New Or- leans, as the successor of the Rev. Dr. John W. Beckwith, who had been elected Bishop of Georgia. He was admitted to the priesthood in June, 1869, at Trinity Church, New Orleans, by Bishop Wilmer of
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REV. JOHN N. GALLEHER.
Louisiana. He continued in that parish for nearly three years, ยท when, in the fall of 1871, he was ealled to Memorial Church, Bal- timore, from which he was called, September 21st, 1873, to Zion Church, on Madison Avenue, New York.
At an early period this congregation was Lutheran, but became united with the Episcopal denomination in 1810. This action was taken by reason of a change in the religious views of both pas- tor and people. For a long period they worshiped in Mott street. In 1835 their present edifiee, on the corner of Madison avenue and Thirty-eighth street, was erected.
Mr. Galleher is above the medium height, with a round, erect person. He has a stately, dignified walk, and his manners at all times give evidence of the composed, self-possessed character. A slight reserve with strangers disappears on more intimate aequaint- ance. His head is large, and firmly placed on his shoulders. The whole face is full of expression. In all respeets both the physical and mental powers show great development. Often in the man of Southern birth you observe more that is impulsive than you do in Mr. Galleher, for while he is quick to feel and determine, still he is never hasty, never excited, and never without method. The fact is, he is by nature a person of cool reflectiveness, and his large ex- perienee in the world has trained and subdued him even more to the direction of his own calm will. Hence in the pastoral and all other work he is a safe counselor and an unwearying laborer. He has penetration and foresight, and he has a steady patience and en- ergy. Ilis agreeable personal character and his life of piety go far to make him admired and influential, but his success is secured by praetieal wisdom and perseverance in action which are always equally apparent. In all branches of the pastoral duty, in preaching and in writing, in the Sunday School, and in works of benevolence, he is always conspicuous for fidelity to every claim upon him, and for the highest ability in his mode of discharging them. ' Showing deep convictions of his responsibility, he is found constantly labor- ing in his appointed place, with results at once significant of his judgment, talents, and faithfulness. In the pulpit his gifts as a speaker, his originality of thought, and his polish of language are not less effective.
Mr. Gallcher went into the ministry from the deepest personal conviction. Already in a profession offering the widest scope for talents and ambition, he prepared himself for another of a sacred
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character on the promptings of a converted heart. His opportunity for observation among men has been greater than is generally the case with clergymen, and this circumstance has given him addi- tional power in his preaching and other efforts. He is no-stranger to the world or men in the conflict between good and evil. Conse- quently, he is a very effective preacher in dealing with the tempta- tions of life, and human opportunities and hopes. On these subjects, especially, he is a close, philosophical thinker, and awakens an ab- sorbing interest in his audiences. He penetrates to the truth of human motives, however hidden; he tenderly unfolds the daily life and aspirations of man, and he paints in glowing language the bliss of religion and virtue, while he tempts the froward heart to penitence and peace. His voice rings out in tones of melody, and he stands strikingly impressive in his stature and bearing. No one can doubt his sincerity, and no one can fail to feel the force of his rea- soning, and the thrill of his eloquence. Preacher and people are thus made one in sympathy and purpose, and they go forth from these ministrations alike anointed with heavenly grace; and inspired with a stronger courage in faith and duty.
222
REV. HARVEY D. GANSE, PASTOR OF THE MADISON AVENUE REFORMED CHURCH, NEW YORK.
EV. HARVEY D. GANSE was born at Fishkill, Dutch- ess county, New York, February 27th, 1822. He was graduated at Columbia College, New York, in 1839, and in theology at the Seminary at New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1843. During the same year he accepted a call to the Reformed Church at Freehold, New Jersey, where he re- mained until 1856. He then became the pastor of the Northwest Protestant Reformed Dutch Church of the City of New York, now known as the Madison Avenue Reformed Church, over which he has presided with great acceptability for a period of seventeen years.
This congregation was organized by order of the Classis of New York, by the installation of four elders and four deacons, on the 17th day of April, 1808 ; a previous meeting for the election of those officers having been held on the 27th day of January in the same year. Rev. Dr. Livingston, of the Collegiate Dutch Church of New York, presided at both of these meetings. The church began with one hundred and forty members, of whom more than two-thirds, or nearly a hundred, had been dismissed for that purpose from the Collegiate Church. The first church edifice in Sugar-loaf (afterward Franklin) street was dedicated on the same day on which the first Consistory was ordained; Dr. Livingston eondueting both services. This building was burned in 1839, and was at onee re-built on the same site. In 1854 the congregation removed to a new church which had been erected on West Twenty-third street, between the Sixth and Seventh avenues, a location, then far up-town. Fifteen years later the continued up-town movement of the population obliged another removal to be determined upon. In 1869 a sale was made of the Twenty-third street property, and lots were purchased on the corner of Madison avenue and Fifty-seventh street. The corner-stone of a new edifice was laid on the 23d of May, 1870, in the presence
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REV. HARVEY D. GANSE.
of a large congregation. Addresses were made by a number of the eity ministers of different denominations. The church is an impos. ing building of Ohio stone in Romanesque style. There is a main building, which will seat nearly eleven hundred people, and a lec- ture room also of commodious size. The spire is one hundred and eighty-eight feet high. By deeree of Court, the name from the 1st of January, 1871, was changed to Madison Avenue Reformed Church. The pastors of the church have been Rev. Christian Bork, from 1808 to 1823 ; Rev. George Duboise, from 1824 to 1837 ; Rev. Christopher Hunt, from 1837 to 1839; Rev. James B. Hardenberg, from 1840 to 1856; Rev. Harvey D. Ganse, from 1856 to the present time.
Mr. Ganse is about of the medium height, with an equally pro- portioned figure. He has a sandy complexion, and wears spectacles. His head is fully developed in the intellectual seetion ; both his appearance and manners impresses you with the fact that he is a diligent student and thinker. He always shows a great deal of ab- sorption in whatever task or duty may engage him, but is never without all proper courtesy to those with whom he comes in contact. He is, in the largest sense, a minister of Christ and the pastor of his floek. Nothing turns him aside from the duties and responsibilities which rest upon him. Throughout his career he has been a model to his professional brethren, and a cherished guide of the religious community at large. Failing in nothing, but rigidly correct in all things, by whatever test has been applied to him, he has exerted an influenee wide in its ramifications, and still no more than such a man should enjoy. The strong and controlling element of his nature is conscientiousness. He applies it strietly to every personal aet, great or small, and to the actions of all other persons. Policy and com- promises in life, or the church, are never thought of by him; but he follows the light of conscience and duty wherever it may lead him. Consequently he is a strong man in the community, and a still. stronger one in his denomination.
As a preacher he is a person of facts rather than fancy. He preaches to the point, with entire command of all the bearings of his subject, and interests wholly by the language of religious instruction, which is imparted in a manner of unmistakable sincerity and serious- ness on the part of the speaker. These pages relate the career of no man who is more worthily doing the work of the ministry.
224
REV. GEORGE J. GEER, D. D.,
RECTOR OF ST. TIMOTHY'S EPISCOPAL CHURCHI, NEW YORK.
EV. DR. GEORGE J. GEER was born at Waterbury, Connecticut, February 24th, 1821. His early studies were at Cheshire Academy, which was under the direc- tion of the Rev. A. C. Morgan, a well-known instructor of that period. He was graduated at Trinity College, Hart- ford, in 1842, and at the Episcopal General Theological Sem- inary, New York city, in 1845. He was made deacon in the latter year at Christ Church, Hartford, by Bishop Brownell, of Connecticut, and priest in 1846 at Christ Church, Balston Spa, by Bishop Delancey, of western New York. Soon after graduation he had been called to Christ Church, at Balston Spa, and he discharged the duties of a very efficient rectorship in this parish for seven years. At the end of this time he was invited to the more extended field of an assistant to the Rev. Dr. Robert S. Howland, at the Church of the Holy Apostle, in Ninth avenue, New York. He officiated in this parish from 1853 until November, 1863, a term of thirteen years. During the latter portion of this time he had received a call to the parish of St. Timothy, in the upper section of the city, which he did not immediately accept, though he .undertook to attend to the pulpit supply. At length, however, he accepted the call, and entered regularly upon the parish work in which he has since been engaged. Dr. Geer received his degree of D. D. from both Union and Columbia Colleges in the same year.
St. Timothy's parish was founded by the Rev. Mr. Tracy, who desired to afford church accommodations for Episcopalians in the growing population of the up-town wards. The first preaching was in a small building in Fifty-first street; and in 1853 a church edifice was erected in Fifty-fourth street, west of Eighth avenue. This building was occupied by the congregation for seven years, until 1860, when it was sold to the Baptist congregation under the pastoral care
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REV. GEORGE J. GEER, D. D.
of the Rev. Dr. Williams. An eligible site on Fifty-seventh street was then purchased, where a chapel was ereeted, which was first occupied on Easter Day, 1867. This chapel has seating accommo- dations for five hundred people. A large portion of the site has been reserved for the erection of a handsome church edifiee at no distant day. A wealthy and highly respectable class of population are fast filling up all of this section, which is immediately adjacent to the Park, and the congregations here planted will in the future be the most numerous and important of the city.
Dr. Geer is about of the average height, with a round figure. He is a person of aetive temperament and movements. His head is large and round, with regular features of much amiability. He has, in fact, one of those bright open faces which it is a pleasure to look at. It has nothing sinister, nothing ignoble, and nothing unpleasant about it. You read in it the good heart, the faithfulness to moral and religious principles, and the culture and intelligence, which to- gether form the highest standard of character. His manners are not less agreeable to contemplate. IIe is not without dignity-and no clergyman should be-but it is modified by so much real, hearty good feeling and geniality that you are at once placed on the most friendly and intimate footing with him. No person ever went into his pre- senee, no matter of what station, who found him anything but eour- teous and genial, and at the same time did not think that he main- tained all the dignity and circumspeetion which were proper in his calling.
Clothed with marked and many graces of character, Dr. Geer is peculiarly armed for his work in the field of the Lord. He goes about it with an earnest spirit and a cheerful heart. He makes no failures, for he is persevering, and not less practical. . Hle always works harder than anybody else. Whatever may be the measure of his success, be it small or great, he is neither discouraged nor elated. But he keeps straight on. Cheerful and confident, bold and deter- mined, he sweeps away obstacle after obstacle, and, in the end, often astonishes those who are looking on, at his signal triumphs ; but never himself, as he has not allowed his sanguine nature to contemplate anything short of success. He is sanguine, but only so because he has faith in works and prayer. Without these he expects nothing. As neither are never wanting, he has always a great hopefulness.
He has been emphatically a worker in all the parishes he has been connected with. He does not believe in an ornamental, inefficient
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REV. GEORGE J. GEER, D. D.
ministry, but in one that earns success by work, struggles, and hero- ism. If the sheep do not come to his flock, he goes after them. Self-sacrifice, toil, in season and out of it, vigilance, and faith, are the great sources upon which he relies. He does not stand aloof from his fellow-men, nor is he satisfied to do certain official things in an official way, but he is every man's friend and servant and comforter. His large heart, and his invincible spirit gave sincerity and force to all his undertakings, and he stands foremost among his cotemporaries for the earnestness and success of his whole ministerial career.
As a preacher, Dr. Geer is sound, logical, and persuasive. He has a good voice, and his manners are unexceptionable. He preaches as if he felt its responsibility, and his tender, while serious, words go far to arouse the same feeling in his hearers in regard to their own condition. The effect of this preaching is to awaken reflection. He does not send the audience home talking of extraordinary bursts of eloquence, but they go away edified and comforted in holy truths.
227
REV. F. W. GEISSENHAINER, D. D.,
PASTOR OF ST. PAUL'S LUTHERAN CHURCHI, NEW YORK.
EV. DR. FREDERICK WILLIAM GEISSENHAINER was born at New Hanover, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- vania, June 28th, 1797. His father was Rev. Dr. Fred- erick William Geissenhainer, a native of Prussia, an carly Lutheran minister in this country, and a man of great learning. This gentleman was distinguished for intelligence, and was particulary noted for thorough scholarship in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. He was also a profound mathematician, mineralogist, and botanist, and of extensive scientific acquirements. He is said to have been the first to discover the value of anthracite coal for melting iron. For a number of years he officiated as pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in Frankfort street, New York. This church is well remembered as being the only church in New York, beside the Episcopalian, which escaped desecration at the hands of the English, it being attended by the Hessian soldiery, who were Lutherans. The senior Dr. Geissenhainer died in 1838.
The subject of our present notice came to New York with his father at an early age, and received his education, both academic and theological, from his father and other instructors who were employed. He was licensed as a minister of the Lutheran Church in 1818 at the early age of twenty years. He was first settled over a congregation at Vincent, Chester county, Pennsylvania, where he remained ten years. He was then called to St. Matthew's Church, in Walker street, New York, where the services were conducted in English. He continued in this position about fourteen years. The congrega- tion of Christ Church at length became the possessors of the pro- perty of St. Matthew's, and took that name.
Dr. Geissenhainer now determined to found a new organization, and established his present church, known as St. Paul's. The first preaching was in a hall in Eighth avenue. A church was creeted in
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REV. F. W. GEISSENHAINER, D. D.
1842 on the corner of Sixth avenue and Fifteenth street, mainly through the liberality of Dr. Geissenhainer himself. It is a fine stone structure, and the whole property is now valued at some eighty thou- sand dollars. Dr. Geissenhainer commenced his organization with eleven poor families; but the congregation has now one thousand three hundred communicants, and the Sunday school has between six and seven hundred scholars. The principal service is in the German language, but one is in English, for the benefit of the young people, who, as a general thing, speak that language. Through Dr. Geis- senhainer's efforts and pecuniary means a large Lutheran Cemetery has been established.
The Lutheran Church was established in the American colonies at an early period. There was a church in New York in 1659, which was called Trinity, and stood in Broadway, near Wall street, but was destroyed in the great fire after the city fell into the possession of the English, and another in Georgia in 1748. There was no general or- ganization of the church, however, until the arrival of Rev. Dr. Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg at Philadelphia, about 1742, who was a distin- guished European scholar, and gathered the first synod or confer nce of the ministers in that city. In 1795 there were from three to four hundred clergymen, and from four to five hundred congregations. There are now 2,309 pastors, 4,115 congregations, and 435,000 com- municants. During 1873 there was an increase of 134 pastors, 289 con- gregations, and 27,000 communicants. It is estimated that in the city of New York alone there are at least one hundred thousand Lutherans, who support thirteen churches. Pennsylvania and Ohio have the largest population of Lutheran believers. Missions are maintained by the American Church in Asia, Africa, Canada, and Texas. About three years since a theological seminary was established in Philadel- phia, for the education of young men for the ministry, which has a learned faculty of seven professors and about thirty students. At an earlier period of the church the want of such an institution was supplied by the appointment of four ministers, whose duty it was to instruct young men for the ministry. Rev. Dr. Geissenhainer, Sr., was one of these instructors.
Dr. Geissenhainer is about the medium height, sparely made, and, for a man of his years, has a great amount of activity. His head is more long then round, and his face is very decidedly of the German type. His features are small and regularly molded, and his eyes are lit with a keen and often times merry twinkle. There is great
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REV. F. W. GEISSENHAINER, D. D.
flexibility in his features, and all his emotions are vividly shown in his countenance. He is a person of much vivacity and cheerfulness of manners, and his conversational powers are such that he is a most attractive social companion. His manners are not only courteous, but so genial and unassuming that you find yourself, though a stran- ger, on the very best terms with him in the shortest possible time. HIe talks upon any and all subjects with knowledge, animation, and interest, and shows himself at once the profound scholar, the shrewd observer of the world's affairs, and the genial gentleman.
Dr. Geissenhainer preaches an original and very practical sermon. He is a logical, pointed writer, as are all the thinkers of the German cast of mind; and while he comes very directly to the idea he wishes to convey, his argument in maintaining every proposition is absolute and overwhelming. He deals mostly in those themes which invite a learned expounding of the scriptures, and a full exposition of the moral obligations which are incumbent upon mankind. His peo- ple go to him for religious instruction, and they get it. It is given with the authority of a man holding a sacred commission to proclaim the truth, and likewise with the tender concern of a father, solicitous for their temporal and spiritual welfare.
IIe has a clear, distinct voice, and is emphatic in his manner of delivery. He is equally acceptable as a speaker in the German or English languages, having them both fully at his command. There is an ever-present dignity and seriousness about him in the pulpit, and everything that he does is in evident recognition of the sacredness of the place and occasion, and of the responsibility resting upon him- self as a religious teacher.
Dr. Geissenhainer has done a great work among the people of his ancestral race. While he has not wished to unlearn them in the language and habits of the Fatherland, he has been able, from his knowledge of the American people and society, to make the strangers at home in the new land, and at the altar of their religion. At St. Paul's church the German language is spoken in all its purity, and the forms and services are those of the European Lutheran church ; and still it is a congregation with its members loyal to the American government, and with all their interests identified with that of the country of their adoption. Their pastor, in his extensive scholarship and high moral character, is a fitting type of the great and good in the land beyond the sea, at the same time that he stands prominent as an American citizen, and one of the foremost theological expound. ers of the American Church.
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REV. CHAUNCEY GILES,
PASTOR OF THE NEW JERUSALEM HOUSE OF WORSHIP, NEW YORK.
R EV. CHAUNCEY GILES was born at Charlemont, Franklin county, Massachusetts, May 11th, 1813. His early studies were at a seminary under the charge of Rev. James Ballard, at Bennington, Vermont. He entered Williams College, but was obliged to withdraw by reason of ill. health. He taught school for several years at Fishkill, Roch- ester, and Palmyra, in the State of New York. In 1840 he re- moved to Ohio, and continued teaching at Hamilton, Lebanon, and Pomeroy until 1853. He had been converted to the Swedenborgian or New Jerusalem faith while settled at Lebanon in 1846 ; and while at Pomeroy in May, 1853, he was licensed and ordained to preach. There are three degrees in the Swedenborgian ministry, in the first of which the minister is allowed to preach and baptize; in the second, to ad- minister the Lord's Supper and solemnize marriage ; and in the third, authority to ordain is given. Mr. Giles passed regularly through these degrees. In 1854 he was called to the First New Jerusalem Society in Cincinnati, where he remained until May, 1864. At the latter date he accepted the pastorship of the First Society in New York, over which he has now been settled nine years.
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