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. 2 > Part 14
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. 2 > Part 14
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
Mr. Pullman is a man who is well calculated to spread his faith, and also maintain the rising reputation of his denomination. He has marked talents in the pulpit and out of it for his ministerial work, and he has a force of character and a personal dignity which will always maintain him reputably in his public position. The cause of Universalism will make no baekward strides while in his hands ; but, on the contrary, will receive all the advantages which must arise from his diligence in duty, and earnest religious life.
460
1
REV. ALFRED P. PUTNAM, D. D.,
PASTOR OF THE CHURCH OF TIIE SAVIOUR, (UNITARIAN,) BROOKLYN.
EV. DR. ALFRED P. PUTNAM was born at North Danvers, Mass., January 10th, 1827. His father was the Hon. Elias Putnam, a prominent and influential man in Essex County. Like all the Putnamns in the land he was descended from John Putnam, who came to this country from England in 1634, and settled in Salem, Mass. The father and mother of Elias were Israel and Anna Putnam. Anna's maiden name was Endicott, and she was a lineal descendant of John Endi- cott, the old Puritan Governor of Massachusetts. Dr. Putnam is the eighth of a family of eleven children. An older brother, Israel Alden Putnam, was a graduate of the Theological School at Cam- bridge, Mass., in 1848, and died in October of the same year. He was a man of noble promise, and his sudden death was deeply and widely lamented.
The subject of our notice received his earlier education at various academies. At fifteen years of age he was clerk in the Bank of his native town, of which his father was for some time the honored President, and was engaged in 1846-7 as bookkeeper to Messrs. Allen & Minot, Boston. IIe spent a year at Dartmouth College, whence he proceeded to Brown University, where he was graduated in 1852. He then taught a High School at Wenham, Mass., for six months, when he entered the Divinity School at Harvard, where he was graduated July 17th, 1855, having been licensed to preach the winter previous by the Boston Association of Ministers. He had calls to settle at Watertown, Bridgewater, Sterling, and Roxbury, choosing the last, where he assumed, on December 19th, 1855, the pastorship of the Mount Pleasant Congregational Unitarian Church. He was married January 10th, 1856, to Miss Louise P. Preston, daughter of Samuel Preston, Esq., of Danvers, who died June 12th, 1860, leaving no child- ren. He entered into a second marriage, December 27th, 1865, to
401
REV. ALFRED P. PUTNAM, D. D.
Miss Eliza King Buttrick, daughter of Ephraim Buttrick, Esq., of Cambridge, formerly a prominent member of the Middlesex bar. By this union there have been born four children. The affliction caused by the death of his first wife and ill-health, indueed him to seek a change of scene and climate. On May 28th, 1862, he sailed from Bos- ton on an extended tour in Europe, Egypt, and the Holy Land, reaching Boston again, after an absence of nearly sixteen months, September 16th, 1863. His travels have formed subjects for various lectures, and also articles for papers and magazines. One course was upon the History and Ruins of Egypt, another on his travels over the Desert and in Palestine, and a third on the Religious Aspeets of Europe.
On September 28th, 1864, Dr. Putnam was installed as pastor of the Church of the Saviour, Brooklyn, to which he had been called as the successor of the Rev. Dr. Frederick A. Farley. The Society is large, and one of the wealthiest in Brooklyn.
Unitarian worship was first held in Brooklyn on Sunday, August 17th, 1833. Previous to this time, most of the persons of that faith attended the churches in New York. The Rev. David H. Barlow was the first pastor of the Society, which took the name of the First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn, serving nearly four years. On April 11th, 1838, the Rev. Frederick W. Holland was ordained a min- ister of the Society, and labored in the pastorship until April 1st, 1842. Disaffection in the Society had led to the formation of a second church, which held its first public worship January 3d, 1841. Rev. Frederick A. Farley conducted the services, and was called as the first pastor, beginning his permanent work in August of the same year. On the 1st of November, the Society organized under the name of the Second Unitarian Church of Brooklyn, being mostly composed of members who had withdrawn from the First Church. Later the two Societies were united under the corporate name of the First Unitarian Congregational Church of Brooklyn. Mr. Farley preached at the first service of the consolidated Society, on the first Sunday of April, 1842, and on the 31st of May, was unanimously elected the pastor. On the 24th of April, 1844, the elegant and im- posing brown-stone Gothic Church now occupied by the congregation, on the corner of Pierrepont street and Monroe Place, was dedieated with most interesting services. Mr. Farley was installed on the fol- lowing day. The entire cost of the land, church furniture, etc., was $34,949.61 ; the edifice was dedicated as the Church of the Saviour.
462
REV. ALFRED P. PUTNAM, D. D.
The high character of the members, and the pre-eminent fitness of the pastor for his work, soon gave the Society an importance in the community, which it has never lost. After twenty-two years of ser- vice in Brooklyn, Dr. Farley resigned his position, and preached his farewell sermon in November, 1863. Dr. Putnam was called May 2d, 1864, and installed in the following September.
In 1850, this Society witnessed the formation of a Second Uni- tarian Church in Brooklyn, and in 1867, contributed $10,000 for the erection of Unity Chapel for a Third Society. Other works of the Society were the establishment of its Furman street mission school, in 1865, and of the Brooklyn Liberal Christian Union, one of the most deserving institutions of the city, about the same period. In 1865-66 it ereeted the beautiful chapel which adjoins the church at a cost of $20,000, and in 1866 spent $6,000 in repairs on the church edifiee. It has not a cent of debt, and means to have none. Its contributions are always most liberal. There are about two hun- dred and fifty communicants, more than a hundred of whom have united with the church during the present pastorate.
When in Massachusetts Dr. Putnam became a constant contrib- utor to the Monthly Religious Magazine published in Boston. Many political and anti-slavery artieles from his pen appeared in the Roxbury Journal, and the Christian Enquirer, published in New York. He was actively identified with the anti-slavery agitation in New England ; and more recently he has taken a great interest in political reform. IIe is now a contributor to the Unitarian Review, Liberal Christian, and other denominational publications.
Before Lyceums and Literary Institutions he has delivered lec- tures and addresses on a variety of subjects, among others on " The North American Indian ;" "Greece and the Revolution of 1843 ;" " History of the Art of Printing ;" " The Education of Women ;" " America seen at a distance ;" " The Nile;" "The World's Debt to Egypt ;" and " History of Universalism in the Old World and the New." In 1862, at the dinner of Americans in London to celebrate the 4th of July, he replied most eloquently to the toast, " The Con- stitution of the United States." During the winter of 1867-8, he gave to his people and the public a course of Sunday evening lectures on the " Religions of Antiquity,"-of Egypt, Greece, Rome, Persia, China, Arabia, and India ; and in 1872-73, he delivered a course of nine lectures on "Saered Songs and Singers." He has published eight sermons on the following subjects : "On the death of
463
REV. ALFRED P. PUTNAM, D. D
Rev. George Bradford ;" " A Happy New Year ;" " On the Death of Edward Everett ;" " Freedom and Largeness of the Christian Faith;" " Unitarianism in Brooklyn ;" " The Unitarian Denomination in America, Past and Present ;" " Tribute to the Memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Franklin Andree ;" " Broken Pillars ;" a lecture on " The Life to Come ;" and a controversial tract entitled, " Can Two walk together except they be Agreed ?" These and all his other produc- tions have had a wide circle of readers by reason of their unusual brilliancy of scholarship and composition. The feast is a rich one to partake of, but we can only permit ourselves a single brief extract from the lecture, " The Life to Come."
"The rest of the soul-what is it? It is indeed a sense of divine favor ; it is a consciousness of purity ; it is a likeness to Christ, and oneness with God; it is harmony in its fullest, highest meaning. But it is something beside all this, and something upon which all this is conditioned, and with which it is forever associated,-a wise and vigorous exercise of the powers and faculties of our God- given natures. Growth is a law of our being, and it is dependent upon activity. With- out work, struggle, and aspiration, we are not happy : we rust, and we retrograde. There is always a keen delight in putting forth our energies for some noble object or end ; and it is thus that we inevitably develop into what is larger and better. The life of Heaven hereafter as now, is a life of constant, ceaseless exertion, while it must needs be free from the pain, fatigue, weariness, and discomforts which so often attend the exertions of the body here. It is because we always in our minds associate these with the idea of action that we so often indulge the hope that our future state will be one of profound tranquility and inertia. But these constitute no part of the inheritance of the blessed life that is to be ; unencumbered and unembar- rassed by the ills of the flesh and the hindrances of its present material surroundings, the soul will there enjoy a freedom which it here has never known, and the very awak- ening and tension of its glorious, unfettered, and emancipated strength, will be to it a zest and joy more blissful far than the most favored condition of supine, igno- ble security of which it can possibly conceive. It is thus and thus alone, that the immortal spirit ascends for ever and ever, nearer and still nearer to God, more and more comes to be like God, and loses itself deeper and deeper in God's bosom of immeasurable and eternal love."
Dr. Putnam is of a tall, compact, erect figure, with a pale com- plexion and sandy hair and whiskers. He has a large round head ; the expression of his face gives the highest token of amiability, cul- tivated breeding, and mental capacity. With the thoughtful, com- posed countenance there is the bright, beaming eye, ever kindling with the heart's best sympathies, and with a dignified reserve there is an honest cordiality. A glance shows you that he is one of those calm natures guided almost wholly by reflection. He is never moved by mere impulse ; he has no excitability, but the most insignificant and the most important acts are alike subjected to mental considera 464
REV. ALFRED P. PUTNAM, D. D.
tion. Hence to ardent temperaments he seems cold, and sometimes stern ; but, after all, the coldness and severity are entirely in the out- ward man, having no relation to the heart when onee reached. Amia- ble in the extreme, gentle as a child, nobly sincere, his susceptibili- ties are tender and true, though somewhat guarded by a natural and unconscious reserve.
Dr. Putnam preaches with much effectiveness. His style of speak- ing is subdued. and without much gesture, but his language has all the power which scholarly finish and carnest sincerity can impart to it. There is great comprehensiveness in his thought, and he is able to give expression to it in terms of rare conciseness, and not less of beauty. All that he says has this vigor of meaning and force of ap- plication, and much of it is delivered in the most classie and glowing pieturings of eloquence. In his argument he addresses himself to an elaborate and practical consideration of his subject, and you are led along with him, without tediousness, but rather allured by the at- tractive interweavings of a warm and chaste fancy. No intelligent person need be told of the irresistible fascination of polished diction, and of the majestic utterance in language which rolts its awakening echoes upon the understanding, as the reverberating thunder startles the timid heart. And herein is it that this gifted preacher excels. Your attention is instantly riveted by the smoothness of his periods, and the elegance of sentiment which usher you to profound discus- sion and lofty imagery. From his pen and his lips the English tongue speaks in its grand completeness, and mental inspiration attains its sublimer conceptions.
IIe received his degree of D. D. from his Alma Mater, Brown University, in 1871.
He belongs to the old or Channing school of Unitarianism. Hold- ing to his particular tenets with all the strength of his intellect and his love, he stands prominent among their ablest expounders, and in a pure, consistent life seeks their practical illustration before his fel- low-men.
465
REV. DANIEL MCL. QUACKENBUSII, D. D.,
PASTOR OF THE PROSPECT HILL REFORMED CHURCÍI, EIGHTY-FIFTH STREET, NEW YORK.
EV. DR. DANIEL McL. QUACKENBUSH was born in the city of New York, March 9th, 1819. His early stu- dies were at the High School in Crosby street, of which Professor Griscom, a noted Quaker scholar of that day, was the principal. Among the pupils of this school, who have distinguished themselves, may be mentioned Captain James Lawrence, of the United States Navy, who fell on board the Chesa- peake ; ex-Judge Roosevelt, and Daniel Lord, of the New York bar, and Hon. Schuyler Colfax. Dr. Quackenbush was graduated at Columbia College in 1836, and in theology at the Seminary of the Reformed Church at New Brunswick in 1839. He was licensed by the Presbytery of New York in 1840, and in the following year was ordained and installed by the Presbytery of Cambridge, as pastor of the Presbyterian church at Hebron, Washington county, New York, where he remained five years. He then went to a leading Re- formed church in Ulster county, New York, which position he held two years, and then went to the Reformed church at Fish- kill-on-the-Hudson, where he remained four years. ITis next field of labor was a chapel of the Reformed church on the Heights, Brooklyn, situated in Summit street, South Brooklyn, where he was engaged three years, when he was called to the Reformed church at Hastings, New York, where he remained two years, and then went to his pre- sent position as pastor of the Prospect Hill Reformed church, in Eighty-fifth street. He received his degree of D. D. from the Uni- versity of New York about 1863.
This church was organized in 1860. The first preaching was in a little hall at the corner of Eighty-sixth street and Third avenue, but during the first year a temporary building was put up on Third avenue, between Eighty-seventh and Eighty-eighth streets. In January, 1861, Dr. Quackenbush commenced his duties as the first
466
REV. DANIEL MCL. QUACKENBUSH, D. D.
pastor. The congregation increased, and, after a few years, it be came necessary to provide other accommodations. In 1867, an edifice on Eighty-fifth street, between Second and Third avenue, formerly occupied by the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, was purchased by the Reformed church congregation, and, after extensive improvements, occupied by them.
Dr. Quackenbush is about of the medium height, equally propor- tioned, and ercet. He has a head of ample size, with good features. He is not a showy or a demonstrative man, but he has the valuable quality of bringing a large amount of practical judgment to bear in all cases, and thus wields as much power as those who make more pretentions. While there is a measure of dignity about his manners, they are invariably courteous and genial. He has a good flow of language in conversation, which he always seeks to make agreeable and interesting. In truth, he is one of those plain, sober-minded, sensible men who make hosts of friends, and do the largest amount of work in professional life, with the least noise and show about it. He is a public man, discharging constant pub ie duties, and still he has all the modesty of a person in the utmost retirement of life. He confines himself strictly to the limits of his pastoral duties and obli- gations, and never neglects them for those public appearances which are the occasion for so much notoriety on the part of so many of the clergy. He is an old-fashioned minister, who attends to his own flock, who goes about doing good, and who exercises his office solely in its spiritual relations to the salvation of sinners.
He is a matter-of-fact preacher. He indulges in no rhapsodies, no flourishes of rhetoric, no appeals to bigoted sentiments ; but he discourses in a common-sense vein of the great fundamental doc- trines, and applies them seriously to every-day life. No man can ever take exception to a word that he utters; but on the contrary the most indifferent hearer is moved to expressions of commendation. He would be called a plain preacher also in his manners, for they are without display, and have only the simple naturalness of the con- versational style.
Dr. Quackenbush is a valuable man to his church and to the community. IIe is conscientious in his life, and in the performance of all his duties as a pastor. Seeking the spiritual development of his people, he is a follower of the Apostolic example, rather than covetous of personal distinction.
467
REV. ALEXANDER REED, D. D., PASTOR OF THE SOUTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, BROOKLYN.
EV. DR. ALEXANDER REED was born in Washing- ton county, Pennsylvania, September 28th, 1832. IIe is the son of the Hon. Robert R. Reed, M. D., an emi- nent citizen of Pennsylvania. He was graduated at Wash- ington College in 1851, and at the Western Theological Seminary in 1856. In adopting the clerical profession he followed the example of many of his ancestors, for he is descended from a ministerial family. Both of his father's grandfathers were ministers of the Church of Scotland, and the Reed family has fur. nished a long line of ministers from the time of the Rev. James Reed, first pastor of Banchory-Ternan, after the Reformation. Dr. Reed informs us that the name was originally spelled Reid, after the Scotch style, but was changed to its present mode by his grand- father. He was ordained and installed pastor of the Upper Octorara church, Chester county, Pennsylvania, in October, 1857, where he remained some time. In December, 1864, he was installed as the pastor of the Central Presbyterian church, Philadelphia. Here he preached with great success for some nine years, making a wide reputation for learning and eloquence. He finally accepted a call to the South Presbyterian church, Brooklyn, where he was installed on Sunday, June 8th, 1873.
The South Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn was incorporated on the 20th of July, 1842. The Rev. William W. Patton was im- mediately employed as a preacher for the congregation for the term of three months. On the evening of Sunday, September 18th, 1842, the Rev. Dr. Cox, and the Rev. Messrs. Duffield, Rowland, Fairchild, and Bidwell, acting as a committee of the Presbytery of Brooklyn, proceeded to constitute the South Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, consisting of seventy-two members. At the same time six elders and three deacons were publicly inducted to their respective offices.
468
REV. ALEXANDER REED, D. D.
The Rev. Samuel T. Speer was installed as the first pastor on the 14th of May, 1843, and thus remained for about twenty-seven years. The present church edifice, on the corner of Clinton and Amity streets, was erected in 1845, at an expense of thirty-thousand dollars, including the cost of the ground on which it stands. It was dedicated to the worship of God in the month of July of the same year. In 1845 about fourteen thousand dollars were subscribed and paid for the erec- tion of the church edifice, and in 1848 two thousand and seven hun- dred dollars were raised to cancel a floating debt. From December, 1849, to December, 1853, fourteen thousand dollars were paid on the mortgage debt contracted in erecting the church edifice. The present membership is about four hundred and seven, and the Sunday School has between three and four hundred pupils. After the resignation of Dr. Speer, the Rev. Mr. Patton was called, who remained only a short time, having been elected a professor in the Presbyterian Theo- logieal Seminary in Chicago, when Dr. Reed became the third pastor of the church.
On the question of the union of the two branches of the Presby- terian Church, Dr. Reed took decided ground from the first agitation of the object, and was an ardent advocate of all measures leading to promote that object. He was chosen to preside over the meeting of ministers and elders, which called the great convention of all branches of the Presbyterian churches, held in Philadelphia in Sep- tember, 1867, and (with others) called and addressed the first meet- ing held in favor of the basis adopted by the general Assemblies of the two branches in 1868; this meeting was held in Dr. Reed's church, then in Philadelphia.
During the war Dr. Reed performed a most patriotie and efficient part as a General Superintendent of the Christian Commission, and had much to do with getting it into thorough working order. He is a trustee of the General Assembly, and one of the trustees of the Presbyterian House; has been a member of all the boards of the church, chairman of the Committee of the Relief Fund, and is now President of the Board of Publication. He was Moderator of the Synod of Philadelphia in 1868, and has always been an active mem- ber of the ecclesiastical bodies of the church, and several times a delegate to the General Assembly. IIe received his degree of D.D. from Princeton College in 1865.
He has delivered various exceedingly entertaining lectures on popular subjects, and is in much demand as a platform speaker.
469
---
REV. ALEXANDER REED, D. D.
Among his lectures may be named "American Boy," "Secret of Success," and "Italy as I saw it."
When Dr. Reed was about removing from Philadelphia, one of the leading Methodist preachers remarked "that the vote of the en- tire Conference could be had if it would induce Dr. Reed to remain." The following is an accurate account of this distinguished man : "Dr. Reed's course in the ministry has been steadily upward. He is a man of sound judgment, great sagacity, and thorough scholar- ship ; an active promoter of revivals, and full of vitality, which he imparts to the congregations under his charge. As a preacher he is earnest and eloquent; at once instructive and practical, alive to the issues of the day, fully abreast of the times, and specially attractive to the young, never preaching to empty benches. He is a gentleman of high culture, of fine moral qualities, and warm sympathies, and eminently successful as a pastor." A letter before us, from a high source, thus speaks of Dr. Reed: "Learned in the sciences, familiar with the teaching of the doubters from the days of the Greek sophists to the Maudsleys and Darwins of the present epoch, himself a dispu- tant and logician of the highest training, this preacher impresses not less by the learning he exhibits, than by the beautiful and unwaver- ing faith that is seen to be in him."
Dr. Reed is of the average height, and has a round, compact, and erect figure. His head and face are large, with finely moulded features. He looks pale, as if his scholarly application was excessive, and his expression is that of the thoroughly intellectual and de- cidedly amiable man. His manners are warmly polite, and with his conversation, so agreeable that he wins your good-will on the instant. In social life he is noted for an inexhaustible fund of humor and anecdote. One reason of his popularity as a lecturer arises from the fact that his productions abound in brilliant wit, sprightly anecdote, and graphic sketches of individual peculiarities, provoking outbursts of laughter, and rounds of applause. As a speaker his voice is rich in tone, and his gestures are timely and expressive. Profound in his learning, strong in his faith, eloquent with pen and tonguc, he preaches with a power cqual to any clergyman of his day. Admired and beloved in the social circle for his many fascinations of char- acter, he is not less esteemed in the church and community, for splendor of talents and practical usefulness.
470
REV. WILLIAM REID,
PASTOR OF THE MCDOUGAL STREET BAPTIST CHURCHI, NEW YORK.
EV. WILLIAM REID was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, in the year 1812. He is of good Scotch Presbyterian stock, from a very remote ancestry. IIe was the subject of religious impressions and resolutions from early child- hood. At the age of seventeen he was baptized in one of the beautiful little lochs of the west of Scotland, and united with the Baptist church in Scotland under the pastoral care of the Rev. James Blair. His father likewise withdrew from the Presbyterian church and joined the Baptist denomination. In his nineteenth year, after frequent efforts in speaking in the congregations, he re- ceived, unsought, the license of the church to improve his gifts. In 1832 he came to the United States. He was engaged to some extent in secular business, but the improvement of his gifts, and the urgency of his Christian friends induced him to consider the subject of devot- ing himself exclusively to the Christian ministry. His earlier educa- tion had been in connection with the select and grammar schools of his native town. For several years he pursued his studies at the Connecticut Literary Institute at Suffield.
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.