USA > New York > Orange County > Newburgh > Newburgh; her institutions, industries and leading citizens, historical, descriptive and biographical > Part 23
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NEWBURGH.
HENRY W. SIGLAR, A. M., Principal of Siglar's Preparatory School, was born October 11, 1833, in the Town of Seneca, Ontario County, N. Y. He spent his entire minority in that town and in the adjoining town of Gorham, the last ten years of this time on a farm on the eastern shore of Canandaigua Lake. He attended a country
State. Returned to school the following August, but was obliged to teach a district school during the Winter, returning to school the following March.
In July he passed the examination required for admission to the sophomore class in Yale College, and worked on a farm in Connecti-
SIGLAR'S PREPARATORY SCHOOL.
district school during Winters till eighteen years of age, when he began teaching in the same grade of schools. When of age he had read enough mathematics for admission to the sophomore class in college, doing this at odd times stolen from farm work, and mostly without a teacher.
On the very day he was twenty-one he started for Franklin, Delaware County, N. Y., for the purpose of finishing his prepara- tion for college. Arriving there he entered the Delaware Literary Institute. Dr. George Kerr was then principal of the school. Being obliged to catch up with classes in Latin and Greek that had been under way about two months, he had to ac- commodate himself to circumstances. For instance, he had to recite Greek to Dr. Kerr after school hours, and on several occasions in the garden while the doctor was digging potatoes. To keep up his physical condi- tion, the foundations for which had been well laid on the farm, and to pay his board, resort was had to sawing wood, and during the two years that followed many a cord of hard wood fell under the saw, and was carried up two and three flights of stairs.
In March, 1856, the Institute building was burned, and Mr. S. lost everything, save a pair of trousers, a coat, and a pair of boots, barely escaping with his life down the outer walls of a stone building from a room in the third story. This calamity spoiled old plans, but new ones were made at once. School had to be given up for the ensning Spring and Summer. The time was devoted to teaching phon- ography in several academies and seminaries in different parts of the
cnt till college opened in September, 1857. After a hard struggle with all sorts of difficulties that come to one with little or no money, he was graduated in July, 1860. In October of the same year he ac-
cepted the principalship of Staples's Free Academy, Easton, Fairfield County, Conn., in which position he remained till the Sum- mer of 1863.
In Angust, 1861, he married Miss Mary F. Burr. During the last two years of his connection with Staples's Academy he re- ceived a few boarders into his family, and the boarding department was continned af- ter leaving the academy till the Spring of 1864, when he removed to Newburgh, where he has since been conducting Siglar's Pre- paratory School.
The school occupies the large stone edi- fice and grounds formerly used as the Theo- logical Seminary of the Associated Reform- ed Church, beautifully situated on a com- manding eminence. A few years ago the brick building used as a gymnasium and schoolroom was erected. The school has al- ways had an efficient corps of teachers, and it is a most excellent institution. Out of six hundred boys that have been connected with it. sixty-nine have gone to college (forty-one to Yale) and five have taken valedictories; two of them at Yale.
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PHOTO. BY ATKINSON.
HENRY W. SIGLAR, A. M.
RENSSELAER HOWELL. though now retired from teaching, is still regarded as one of our most successful educators. He is the son of Rensselaer and Olive (Belknap) Howell, of Newburgh. With only the advan-
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tages of the district school and a term at an academy, he fitted him- self for admission to the State Normal School at Albany, N. Y., from which he graduated Febru- ary, 1854.
Having had no experience in teaching, he did not wait for a large and remunerative charge, but took what was open to him. His first en- gagement was at Setauket, L. I., and from this small beginning he arose step by step, until he was called in October, 1864, to take the principalship of the High School on Grand Street, in this city. Here he remained for ten years, doing effective service, and for several suc- cessive Winters having charge of the evening schools in the same building. In September, 1874, he was appointed an assistant teacher in the Free Academy where he remained until PHOTO, BY MAPES. RENSSELAER HOWELL. June, 1878, when he resign- ed. After retiring from teaching he filled the office of Justice of the Peace in this city for four years, and has been engaged to some extent in real es- tate business.
Mr. Howell married Frances Nichols, daughter of Moses Nichols, Feb. 17, 1856, and of this union Margaret O., Julia A. and Rensselaer N. were born. Mrs. Howell died July 17, 1883, and of the children
only the son survives. August 6, 1885, he married Anna R., daugh- ter of Thomas S. Lester, of Fishkill-on-the-Hudson.
MOUNT ST. MARY'S ACADEMY,
Under the direction of the Sisters of St. Dominic, was founded as an institution of learning in 1883, and chartered in 1888. It is under the visitation of the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York. The property was formerly the country-seat of the late Harvey Weed, and was sold by his successor, Mr. McAlpine, to the Sisters of the Order of St. Dominic. The institution is delightfully situated on an elevation commanding a view of the Hudson for miles. The grounds, six acres in extent, are handsomely designed with walks, carriage drives and lawns for exercise and recreation. The mansion was recently greatly enlarged, and is now a commodious and handsome structure expressly arranged for a boarding school, and furnished with every modern improvement.
Mount St. Mary's Academy is now one of the most prominent in- stitutions of learning in our city. Those in charge aim to make the institute a school of the highest grade, to stimulate a love for study and to surround the pupils with influences ennobling the character by conducing to the highest culture, tending to form the heart to virtue as well as to cultivate the mind. The course of instruction embraces two departments, elementary and academic. In the latter the studies are Christian doctrine, grammar, epistolary correspondence, composi- tion, elocution, penmanship, physical geography, arithmetic, book- keeping, algebra, geometry, physiology, etiquette, calisthenics, sacred and profane history, civil government, rhetoric, literature, natural philosophy, astronomy, typewriting, shorthand, instrumental and vocal music, drawing, painting, wax flowers, plain and fancy needle work. Three times a year written examinations are held by the Board of Regents, Albany, for all the pupils who are old enough to receive benefit from such work. At the completion of the course, if the final examinations are accepted, the graduates receive their diplo- mas from the State.
MT ST MARY'S
ACADÉMÝ
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MOUNT ST. MARY'S ACADEMY-Gidney Avenue near Lander Street.
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NEWBURGH.
REV. JOHN BROWN. D. D. (See Page 126.)
REV. JOHN FORSYTH, D. D. (See Page 136.)
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REV. JOHN JOHNSTON, D. D. (See Page 119.)
REV. JOSEPH McCARRELL, D. D (See age 121 .
OUR CHURCHES AND PASTORS.
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
ITHIN a few months after the disbanding of the Army of the Revolution and the breaking up of its encamp- ments upon these surrounding hills, the First Presby- terian Church of Newburgh had its formal, legal exist- ence. Its history. therefore, is contemporaneous with our national history. But previous to this time for nearly a score of years there had been a religious or- es ganization composed of those who were by education and conviction of the Presbyterian faith-or, in the language of those days, "in communion with the Church of Scotland." It was an informal society, somewhat irregular and incomplete as to its ecclesiastical structure, and constituting hardly more than an outlying mission station or district. But it was so far independent as to have its own Board of Trustees and the management of its own temporal affairs and the freedom of co-op- erating with other neighboring socie- ties in the choice and support of a minister. We find in the records of the Marlborough Society that in the year 1773 it united with that society in procuring the sup- ply of a minister for both congrega- tions for a very brief period. It appears however to have been in the earlier years in more cordial and active sympathy with the old church at Bethlehem-the venerable mother of all the Presbyterian Churches in this region. To her it looked for religious aid and oversight, and from her it received cooperation in supplying the religious needs of this then sparsely-settled district.
Through the long gloomy years of the Revolution and amid all the distractions incident upon the long encampment of the army in this vicinity, this feeble congregation continued to maintain its existence, though having no pastoral supervision other than that given by an elder-William Lawrence.
Immediately after the close of the war the organization, strength- ened by the addition of several persons who became permanent resi- dents on the disbandment of the army, obtained the building which had been erected by the army as a storehouse for clothing at the cor- ner of First and Montgomery Streets, where it appears to have held public worship in the Winter of 1783, or Spring of 1784. We learn from the church records that divine service was held in this build-
ing in 1784, and that on the 12th of July of that year this feeble flock formally organized itself as a Presbyterian Society under the laws of the State, enacted the preceding April. It elected as its Trustees Adolph Degrove, Daniel Hudson, Thomas Palmer, Joseph Coleman and Isaac Belknap. Who or how many constituted this corporate So- ciety we do not know. Its roll of membership has not been preserved. In the February of the following year, they united with the congre- gation in New Windsor, the compact to continue for seven years, " for the purpose," as the resolution stated, " of promoting the preach- ing of the Gospel."
From 1785 to 1796 the Rev. John Close was the stated supply. He was succeeded by the Rev. Isaac Lewis, who served also as stated sup- ply until the year 1800. On May 6, 1801, the Rev. Jonathan Freeman was installed pas- tor over the two congregations. He resigned his charge in 1804, and was succeeded by the Rev. Eleazer Bur- net in the following year, whose brief pastorate was ter- minated by death one year later. On the 5th of July, 1807, the Rev. John Johnston was or- dained and install- ed pastor over the two churches, and continued to hold this relation until 1810, when the union was dissolv- ed and the New- burgh congrega-
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH-Corner of Grand and South Streets.
tion, having acquired sufficient strength to support alone a pastor, secured exclusively his services. Thus for more than forty years the society had continued its uninterrupted life, and for twenty-six years as a legally incorporated organization, and had not been able during all this period to furnish the support for a minister.
Such was their poverty that even the church building, erected eight years afterwards upon the same site, was left in an unfinished condition. It was hardly tenable. Dr. Johnston tells us in his auto- biography that " it was without galleries, plastering or pulpit-a mere shell, and that he often preached standing on a carpenter's bench with a few boards on which to rest the precious Bible." The congre- gation was too poor to finish the building and place pews in it, and the plan devised to seat it was that every person who chose to do so should have the privilege of putting up his own pew with a choice of location for so doing. And not only did these few Christian families have to contend with poverty. The com-
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munity was pervaded with a spirit of irreligion and infidelity. The openly avowed infidels were sufficiently numerous and strong to form a club or society for the dissemination of their opinions ; to hire a man, a certain apostate minister, upon a stipulated annual salary, to give public lectures on the Sabbath upon the teach- ings of Rousseau, Paine, Voltaire and others, and to support a week- ly newspaper devoted to their cause. Their attacks upon Christianity and the Christian Church were most virulent. So notorious was the place for its wickedness, for its open flagrant vice, as well as for this determined spirit of opposition to the Christian religion and its insti- tutions, that the friends of Dr. Johnston, hearing of his purpose to accept the call to a pastorate here, remonstrated with him and begged him to reconsider it. His biography states that his mother wept and besought him not to locate in such a wicked place.
When Dr. Johnston came to Newburgh though the leaders of the infidel party had died and its strength and members had considerably diminished, yet the baneful effects of the influences that had long been at work remained. There was a widespread apathy and indif- ference to the cause of religion. In the young, particularly, these effects were marked. The few people who cordially welcomed him, and who were ready to co-operate with him, were chiefly those of ad- vanced age. The church at no time had number- ed more than sixty-five,and numbered only thir- ty-seven when he assumed the charge of it. So we can understand how, under all these com- bined circumstances, the outlook must have been very dark and discouraging to this young man entering upon his first pastoral charge.
But it was not long before the outlook brightened. The spirit in which he undertook his work was indicated by the text he chose for his first sermon-" Brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified among you." Dr. Johnston was not by mental nature or habit a disputant. He did not love controversy. He preached the Gospel in its simplicity, confident that it would win its own triumphs, giving no heed to the attacks that were made upon it by unbelievers. The attendance upon divine service was soon greatly increased. He instituted a weekly prayer meeting, which was held in the homes of his people. A larger place was soon found to be necessary. A chapel or lecture room was built for the purpose. In the fifth and sixth year of his pastorate there was a large and genuine revival of religion. It was the first revival of religion Newburgh had ever witnessed. Three years later his ministry was blessed with another spiritual refreshing, when nearly fifty more were added to the church. There were seven such marked events in his ministry.
REV. WILLIAM T. SPROLE, D. D. "
The church during the pastorate of Dr. Johnston-this honorary title was conferred upon him in the latter part of his ministry by Lafayette College-was lifted out of insignificance into prominence, out of weakness into commanding strength; whereas there were less than two-score communicants when he became its pastor, there were years when upwards of four hundred were reported as its mem- bership to the Presbytery. The church roll has the names of nearly a thousand that were added to it during his ministry.
Twice the church building was enlarged to accommodate the in- creasing congregations. In the Summer of 1837 a second Presbyterian church was organized, and mainly through the urgent and oft-re- peated appeals and earnest personal efforts of this zealous pastor. It was his heart's desire to see the kingdom of God advancing in this region, and it had long been his cherished wish to send out a colony from his own church to plant another of like faith and order in Newburgh. This second church, largely iu consequence of the agi- tations that arose over the division of the Presbyterian Church into the Old and New Schools, which took place at this time, did not gain a firm footing. It had for awhile a languishing existence and then
died. At the start it united with the New School branch, and by this it alienated some of its prominent members and withdrew itself from the active sympathy and aid of the mother church, which had by a very decided majority voted to continue its relations with the Old School. Dr. Johnston's pastorate extended over a period of forty- eight years, during which more than fifty ministers preached for a longer or shorter time in Newburgh, with all of whom he had main- tained most friendly relations. Between him and his nearest clerical neighbors, the Rev. Dr. McCarrell, pastor of the Associate Reformed Church, and the late Dr. Brown, rector of the Protestant Episcopal Church, with the former for thirty-three years and with the latter for thirty-nine years, there existed without interruption or jar the most cordial Christian friendliness and Christian courtesy.
Dr. Johnston's death occurred on the 23d of August, 1855, and on the 19th of the following December the congregation called the Rev. S. H. McMullin to the vacant pastorate. Mr. McMullin had been for some months the assistant of Dr. Johnston, and had greatly endeared himself to many of the people. A remonstrance, however, from the minority against his settlement was presented to the Presbytery, which had such weight with that judicial body, that it hesitated to put the call into the hands of the young pastor-elect. The commis- sioners appointed to prosecute the call before the Presbytery decided to delay until receiving further instruction from the congregation. The call was renewed. But the Presbytery deemed it inexpedient to settle Mr. McMullin under all the existing circumstances. The congregation did not further press the matter. On the 27th day of August, of the following year, 1856, forty-five members requested dismission from the church to constitute another church, and the request was granted. It was at this time and with these persons, together with others that soon joined them, that what is now Calvary Presbyterian Church was organized.
On the 10th of September following, a call was made out to the Rev. William T. Sprole, D. D., and on the 28th day of the ensuing month he was installed pastor of the church. He came with a large aud ripe experience from a ministry in Philadelphia, Carlisle and Wash- ington, and from the chaplaincy and a profes- sorship at the West Point Military Academy. He was a man richly endowed with mental gifts, of commanding personal appearance and of strong individuality. With the settlement of Dr. Sprole the church entered upon a fresh and invigorated life. His pulpit abilities attracted large congre- gations. The old meeting-house, which even in Dr. Johnston's time was too limited in its accommodations for the congregation, proved now wholly inadequate,
The question of building a new house of worship had been agitated as far back as 1827. At that time the Board of Trustees resolved that one should be built, but with the proviso "if it could be done with unity, peace and harmony." The matter progressed so far that ar- rangements were made for holding divine service in the Academy, while the new building was being constructed. But it was not until the year 1857 that decisive steps were taken, when the present site of the church at the northwest corner of Grand and South Streets was chosen. Upon the 8th of August of that year the work upon the foundation was begun, and the building was dedicated November 4, 1858. On Thanksgiving morning, November 18, the iron cross was fixed upon the spire. The building, with walls of blue and grey stone dressings, is in the early geometrical style of Gothic art. and affords very comfortably 830 sittings. George Veitch was the builder. The total cost was about $43,750. The total height of the spire is 135 feet.
The prosperity of the church in this its stately, beautiful home continued. Its pecuniary resources were increased; its roll of mem- bership was extended. It kept full pace with the growth of the com-
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munity in population and material wealth. Dr. Sprole's pastorate extended through a period of sixteen years, which were years of great usefulness and invaluable service to the church. He resigned his charge November 4, 1872. In the year 1874 he accepted the call of the Second Congregational Church in Detroit, which he resigned in 1877. On the 9th day of June, 1883, he entered into rest.
Soon after the resignation of the Rev. Dr. Sprole the church in February, 1873, extended a call to the pastorate to the Rev. William K. Hall, of Boston, Mass. The following month of March he as- sumed the pastorate, and was installed in the following May, the Rev. Dr. Howard Crosby, of New York, preaching the installation sermon.
In November, 1884, this church celebrated its centennial, having had, during its long history, only three regularly settled pastors. On Sunday, November 9, Dr. Hall-he was honored with the doctor- ate by the University of New York in 1881-preached an historical discourse, and on Thursday, the 13th, memorial services were held in the afternoon and evening. A memorial tablet to the two deceased pastors was placed npon the wall, the Rev. Dr. S. I. Prime delivering a memorial address upon the life of the Rev. Dr. Johnston, and the Hon. E. L. Fancher upon the life of the Rev. Dr. Sprole. The Rev. Dr. J. Forsyth also delivered an address, containing personal remin- iscences of these pastors and of the early church life of Newburgh. Brief addresses of greeting were given by the pastors of the several city churches and others. In the evening a sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Howard Crosby upon the text Eph. iii: 10. The full re- port of these interesting ex- ercises of its centennial has been preserved in an attrac- tive form, the book contain- ing much that is of histori- cal value in the reference to events and incidents con- nected with the early history of many of the churches of Newburgh.
BETHEL MISSION SCHOOL-Corner of Water and Clinton Streets.
This church in 1883 pur- chased and enlarged at an expense of $14,000 the house No. 84 Grand Street for a manse. The present elders of this church are M. C. Belknap, Daniel S. Waring, Charles E. Snyder, Rensselaer Howell, John Schoonmaker and George Barnes. Deacons-William C. Belknap and Henry W. Siglar. Trustees-William O. Mailler, M. C. Belknap, David Carson, John Schoonmaker, Alfred Bridgeman, Stephen King, Charles E. Wil- liams, Abram S. Cassedy and Howard Thornton.
BETHEL MISSION SCHOOL.
Soon after the settlement of Dr. Hall, Bethel Mission School, which had heen an independent union organization, though largely deriving its pecuniary aid and force of teachers from the First Pres- byterian Church, became organically connected with the church. This mission enterprise had its humble beginning in a small base- ment room at No. 184 North Water Street, January 14, 1866, and was known as the North Water Street Mission Sunday School. In De- cember of that year it moved to the rear room in the building on the corner of North Water and Clinton Streets, which had been erected and occupied by what is now the Union Presbyterian Church, and by it sold to the Newburgh Steam Mills company. This proved very soon to be of insufficient capacity, and the adjoining room was add- ed. The school grew rapidly. A church organization under the pastoral care of the Rev. Charles Shelling, a Methodist minister, had leased and fitted up the large room on the first floor for public meetings, and this organization being extinct, the lease and furniture were bought, and this mission school, thenceforth called the Bethel Mission
School, found a home in these new and more capacious quarters. Here it has continued to the present, a vigorons and prosperous in- stitution, accomplishing a great good in that neighborhood.
Its first superintendent was the Hon. Robert G. Rankin. He was deeply interested in the work, and his name, together with that of his devoted wife, Mrs. Laura Wolcott Rankin, who died December 24, 1887, has been closely identified with the mission through its whole history. William B. Brokaw succeeded Mr. Rankin. The present superintendent is John Schoonmaker.
There has been held in the Bethel Chapel for the past few years on Sunday and week-day evenings an evangelistic and mission ser- vice, under the leadership of Egbert R. Bates, attended with large and beneficent results.
REV. JOHN JOHNSTON, D. D., was born in the township of Montgomery, N. Y., January 28, 1778. His parents were from the north of Ireland. His father was an intelligent farmer who had been a school teacher. John was engaged on the farm as soon as he was able to work.
" In the Fall of 1794," says Dr. Johnston in his autobiography, " I went to remain for the Winter in the store of a man who lived three
miles distant. In the Spring when on a Monday morning I was preparing to return to the store, my father told me to sit down, that he wished to have a conversation with me; and he went on to say that it was time I began to think what I would wish to be employed in for life; that he had been thinking that if I preferred farming he would purchase a farm which was for sale, and it would be ready at the time I would want it; or, if I wish- ed to be a merchant, I must complete my clerkship, and he would try to help me in commencing business; or if I chose an education, I should have that. ' Take time,' said he, 'to consider these propositions, and when you have made up your mind let me know, and my conduct shall be regulated accord- ingly. But remember when you decide it must be a final decision; I will have no change.'
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