USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > Old Sands Street Methodist Episcopal Church, of Brooklyn, N.Y. : an illustrated centennial record, historical and biographical > Part 10
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Mr. Cloud was a man of decided convictions and never failed to make known his opposition to those things which he could not endorse. At the conference of 1791, seconded by Freeborn Garrettson, he made a vigorous speech against Benjamin Abbott's noisy and boisterous manner of conduct- ing religious services."
We are without information concerning his personal ap- pearance. An old-fashioned silhouette was in the posses- sion of his descendants, but it has been lost. Robert Cloud had a brother named Adam Cloud, a Methodist preacher- restless, unreliable, and finally disowned by the church. IIc may have been the pseudo Methodist preacher to whom Dr. Nathan Bangs refers in his account of the origin of Meth- odism in Savannah, Ga."
RACHEL MATSON, wife of Robert Cloud, is said to have been sister to Enoch and Aaron Matson," who were [honor- ably identified with the introduction of Methodism into some parts of Pennsylvania." We learn from Wakeley that she was the first preacher's wife mentioned in the old John- street church record as receiving "quarterage."" She lived
7 Life of Abott, p. 177. 8 Bangs' Hist. M. E. Church, vol. ii, p. 192.
9 Letter of the Rev. G. W. Lybrand to the author.
1º See Lednum-"Rise of Methodism," p. 324. 11 "Lost Chapters," p. 326.
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a consistent life, and died in the faith four years after the death of her husband.
Robert and Rachel Cloud were the parents of five sons and one daughter. Their names were Jesse, Caleb, Wesley, Enoch, Robert, Israel, and Mary. The extreme difficulty of maintain- ing so large a family on the pittance which the Methodist preacher in those days received, is sufficient to account for the frequent repetition of the words "under a location" in the pastoral record of Mr. Cloud.
Of the six children the Rev. Dr. Caleb WV. Cloud seems to have been the most noted. He entered the Methodist itinerancy in 1804, and his appointments were in Ohio, Mississippi, Ten- nessee, and Kentucky. He possessed, and possibly inherited from his father, a restless disposition. He located while in Kentucky, in 1811, and entered upon the practice of medicine in Lexington. In 1820 he withdrew from the Methodist Epis- copal Church, and established in Lexington an independent Methodist church, which never gained much influence, and gradually dwindled away. On good authority it is stated that "Dr. Cloud was somewhat addicted to drink in those days; " 12 and that after he had become blind he returned to the (by that time) Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and "died in peace " May 14, 1850.13
12 Letter of Hiram Shaw, Esq., to the author.
13 See Redford's " Methodism in Kentucky," vol. ii, p. 56.
VIII. JOIIN MERRICK.
HEN the REV. JOHN MERRICK was pastor in New York and Brooklyn he was known throughout the land as an eloquent and popular champion of the doctrines and usages of Methodism. If his name is now an unfamiliar one in the church, it is because he located, and no memorial of his life and character appeared in the Con- ference Minutes. It is cause for profound regret that only a mere fragment of the history of this man can now be ob- tained.
Ile was born in the year 1759. The place of his nativity is not known. The following communication from the Rev. Jacob P. Fort establishes the strong probability that this John Merrick was a soldier in the Revolution. He says:
I had the curiosity to turn to the Record of Names of Officers and Privates of the Revolutionary Army from New Jersey, and my discovery was such that I concluded to write you again. I found what I am inclined to believe is the name of our veritable John Merrick. I may be too sanguine about it, but it looks to me like a real discovery. The name is spelled as we spell it. The record fixes his residence at the time of enlistment in Middlesex County, N. J. HIe was in the 4th Battalion of what was called the 2nd Establishment of Mil- itary Order, under Captain Wm. Bond, (an old Trenton name, ) and this Captain Bond was the 4th captain, and Thomas Morrell was the ist captain of the said 4th Battalion. Captain Morrell, as is well known, was in the battles of the Revolution as late as October 4, 1777, (Germantown,) and if this John Merrick was our Merrick, he was at that time in his eighteenth or nineteenth year. As Middlesex County runs up near Elizabethtown, Morrell's residence, it would f .: Morrell and Merrick in the same neighborhood. They joined conference the same year, were ordained the same year, and traveled the same circuit for one term.
If our preacher, John Merrick, is proved to have been a patriot soldier withal, like the fighting Morrell, who carried the wounds he received to his grave, we may feel the more proud of his spiritual contests on the battle field for Christ.1
1 Letter to the author.
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Old Sands Street Church.
Merrick began to preach as an itinerant in 1786. The pub- lished Minutes furnish us with his
PASTORAL RECORD: 1786, Somerset cir., Md., with James Rig- gin ; 1787, Kent cir., with Ira Ellis; 1788, ordained deacon, - Trenton cir., N. J., with Thomas Morrell and Jethro Johnson ; 1789, New York, including Brooklyn, four months-Robert Cloud and Wm. Phebus were to follow him, each for the same length of time ; 1790, ordained elder,-Bur- lington cir., N. J, with James Bell; 1791-1794, presiding elder-district including nearly all of New Jersey; 1795, ditto, with the addition of portions of Pa. and Del. and Canada; 1796, no appointment named; 1797, located.
There is no evidence that John Merrick ever married. Wakeley heard those who knew affirm that Merrick was a re- markably eloquent preacher. There are persons now living who remember often hearing the fathers speak of his wonderful power in the pulpit. He has been likened to Charles Pit- man in the style and force of his oratory.
Few men, even in his day, ever traveled so large a presiding eld- er's district as his, reaching from the Delaware Bay to the north- ern shore of Lake Ontario. We are indebted to the Rev. J. P. Fort for the following facts in relation to this extraordinary man :
Peter Vannest, who was presiding elder a few years after him on part of the same district, frequently related that at the conference, when he asked . for a location, Bishop Asbury gave him a peculiar but significant look, and then replied, with great impressiveness : " John Merrick, if you locate you will either backslide or die before one year." This language, said Vannest, startled the conference. He did not backslide, but he died before the year closed. He died of fever near Ilornerstown and was buried in the rear or east end, close up to the building of the old Methodist Episcopal church, New Mills, (now Pemberton, ) N. J.
The church at New Mills was erected in 1775; rebuilt in 1833. While the workmen were digging for the basement, a few of the bones of Merrick's body that remained were reached. They were carefully collected by the writer, a deeper grave on the same spot was digged, and they were laid away again, thirty-five years after their first interment. On an old-formed marble tablet in the rear of the new church, Pemberton, N. J, is the following epitaph :
IN MEMORY OF THE REV. JOHN MERRICK, WHO DIED JULY 30, 1798, AGED 39 YEARS. Ye who survey with anxious eye This tomb where Merrick's ashes lie; His worth through various life attend, Ilis virtues learn, and mourn his end .?
2 The Christian Advocate, New York, Aug. 12, 1880.
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Record of Ministers.
The same writer adds, in a letter to the author :
My father, the Rev. Andrew Fort, born February 18, 1787, was in his twelfth year when Merrick died, and he remembered his funeral. The pro- cession, he said, reached over a mile, and the excitement among the people was intense. The whole country for miles around was aroused, and every- body seemed to be there. This I remember hearing forty years ago.
Diligent search has been made in vain for additional infor- mation ; also for a copy of his portrait and autograph signa- ture.
Contemporary with the subject of this sketch was another Methodist preacher of the same name, in New England, who married a sister of the Rev. Enoch Mudge, but the two should not be confounded.
8
IX.
WILLIAM PHOEBUS.
HE REV. DR. WILLIAM PHOEBUS labored in Brook- lyn and vicinity for a longer period than most of the carly itinerants, and for many years through- ont this region, his name was a household word.
He was born August 4, 1754, in Somerset Co., Md., where his ancestors settled in 1675. The Phebus family was orig- inally attached to the Church of England.1
The Conference Minutes say; "Of his early days little is known, nor is the period of his conversion ascertained." When he joined conference, he had reached his twenty-ninth year. The story of his extended ministerial life is briefly set forth in the following
PASTORAL RECORD: 1783, Frederick cir., Md., with J. Pigman; 1784, East Jersey cir., with S. Dudley; 1785, West Jersey cir., with Thos. Ware and Robt. Sparks; 1786, not named in the appointments; 1787, (ordained deacon, ) Redstone cir., Pa, and Va., with J. Wilson and E. Phelps; 1788, Rockingham cir., Va., with James Riggin; 1789, New York city and Brook- lga, with Robert Cloud and John Merrick-each foar months, and Jacob Brush several months,2-also, Long Island cir., with John Lee; 1790, ordained elder, appointed to New Rochelle cir., with M. Swaim and Jacob Brush, but continued to preach on Long Island with D. Kendall and A. Hunt;3 1791, L. I. cir,, with B. Abbott; 1792-1793, local; 1794, supernumerary, New York and Brooklyn with Ezekiel Cooper, L. M'Combs, J. Brush, sup'y, and D. Kendall, sup'y; 1795, no appointment; 1796-1797, Brooklyn station, exchang- ing systematically with the Long Island preachers; 1798-1805, local; 1806-1807. New York Conf., Albany; 1808, South Carolina Conf., Charleston, with Joh : M'Veau; 1800, New York Conf., Long Island cir., with Francis Ward and Henry Redstone; 1810, Troy;4 1811, New York, with N Bangs, Laban Clark, Wm. Blagborne, Jas. M. Smith, P. P. Sandford; 1812, ditto, with Jo- seph Crawford, Laban Clark, Phineas Cook; 1813, New Rochelle cir., with W.
1 Rev. Geo . A. Phebus, D. D .- Letter to the author.
? "Lost Chapters," p. 367. 3 See sketch of Aaron Hunt in this book.
4 Here he found no prospect of an adequate support, and he left the charge by the consent of the presiding elder.
REV. WILLIAM PHOEBUS.
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Record of Ministers.
Thacher and O. Sykes ; 1814, New York, with S. Cochran, N. Emery, M. Richardson, T. Drummond, and Wm. Blagborne; 1815, ditto, with Wni. Thacher, E. Washburn, M. Richardson, and A. Scholefield; 1816, Albany; 1817, Jamaica cir., I. I., with John M. Smith ; 1818, New York, " Zion and Asbury ; " . 1819-1820, missionary ; 1821, sup'y without appoint- ment; 1822, Schenectady, N. Y .; 1823, no station ; 1824-1831, superan- nuated.
From the foregoing record it appears that he was frequently re-appointed to the same circuit or station. As an associate of Dickins, Ware, Asbury, Garrettson, and others in the Christmas Conference of 1784, he was one of the men who organized the Methodist Episcopal Church. He represented the South Caro- lina Conference in the General Conference of 1808, and was a member of the "Committee of Fourteen " appointed to devise and report a plan for a Delegated General Conference. He was elected a delegate to the New York Conference in 1812 and 1816.
When on the Long Island circuit, in 1791, as colleague of Benjamin Abbott, the worldly people in Rockaway expressed their notion of the difference between the two men by saying that " Abbott raised the devil, but Phoebus laid him again."> It was during this year that he was married to a Miss Anderson, and the next year he thought himself justified in locating in order " to provide for himself and his household." " He main- tained a successful practice in New York as a physician when not actively engaged in ministerial work. While supernumerary, in 1794, he laid the corner-stone of the original Sands-street church, in Brooklyn. Shortly after this ( 1796,) he began to edit The Experienced Christian's Magasine. One of the most im- portant of his literary works was a Life of Bishop Whatcoat. He preached frequently in New York during the years of his loca- tion.
Dr. Phœbus departed this life in peace November 3, 1831, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. His remairs were de- posited in a burial ground in First-street, New York,' but were removed about the year 1855 to the " Asbury Removal Grounds" in Cypress Hills Cemetery, L. I. His grave is marked by a head-stone. The memorial adopted by his Conference says :
He was a man of great integrity. uniformly pious, deeply learned in the Scriptures, and a sound, experimental, and practical preacher.8
5 Life of Abbott, p. 187. " Bangs' Hist. M. E. Church, vol. iv, p. 128.
" Wakeley -- " Lost Chapters," p. 327.
8 Minutes of Conferences, 1832, p. 162.
.
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Old Sands Street Church.
The character of his discourses may be inferred from the fol- lowing description of a sermon preached by him at a camp-meet- ing in Cow Harbor, L. I., in 1817. The account was given by the Rev. Dr. Fitch Reed, nearly fifty years after the event :
At this meeting Dr. Phoebus preached a sermon which at this distance I re- member with greater distinctness and particularity than almost any sermon I ever heard. His theme was suggested by the account of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus, as narrated in the twelfth chapter of John. His propositions were : The Act of a Women ; The Censure of a Traitor ; The Decision of a Fudge. The woman symbolized the Church in acts of piety for the honor and spread of the gospel ; Judas was the representative of all who either openly or covertly oppose the Church ; and the reply of Jesus sets forth the true esti- mate both of the Church and its opposers, and of the ultimate finding and open decision of the infinite Judge in the great day. The illustrations and appli- cation of this sermon were of thrilling interest, and produced a most decided effect.9
Although an able preacher, he was not especially popular with the masses, and alluding to the habit of those who left the church when they saw him in the pulpit, and started off to hear their favorite preacher, he said, in a pleasant way, that " when he preached there was generally a moving time." 1º On one occasion he preached in the place of Summerfield, who was sick. When asked how he could supply the place of so popular a man he dryly and pleasantly remarked : "Don't you see that the Summer-fields cannot flourish without the rays of Phoebus ?" "
During the session of the New York Conference of 1823, Dr. Phoebus preached the sermon on the occasion of the ordination of elders on Sunday afternoon, from the words of our Lord, " I am the door." George Coles, who heard the sermon, writes :
I thought his preaching was too metaphysical to be remembered ; but in the course of his sermon he showed the importance of personal piety in a minister in a very striking and solemn manner. 12
William Phoebus belongs to that noted company of eccentric but truly godly Methodist preachers, whose singular words and ways can never be forgotten. He was sociable or taciturn, as his moods might chance to be. He had great veneration for antiq- uity, and perhaps paid undue deference to the views and opin- ions of the old divines. He was not favorable to the office of
9 " Reminiscences," in the Northern Christian Advocate, 1863.
10 " Lost Chapters," p. 328.
11 Ibid., p. 329.
12 " My First Seven Years in America," p. 263.
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Record of Ministers.
presiding elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church.13 The fol- lowing portraiture is copied from the writings of an intimate friend :
Dr. Phœbus had acquired a large stock of useful information, but lacked that systematic arrangement of knowledge which we expect in a mind that has had an early and classical training. * * Ile had great independence of mind, great contempt for every thing designed merely for show, * and a deep insight into human nature. He was much given to enigmatical expression, which the mass of his hearers did not comprehend. * * * His character was, on the whole, one of varied excellence and un- common power, while yet he appeared like a different man under the exhibi- tion of its different qualities. Dr. Phoebus was of medium height, compactly built, and had a countenance decidedly intellectual, and expressive of great sincerity.14
The accompanying portrait will aid the reader in forming an estimate of the sturdy nobleness of this great and good man.
Concerning his wife and children, almost nothing has been definitely ascertained. ANN PHOEBUS, (probably his wife,) and Abdiel Asbury Phabus, (presumably his son,) are buried in the same grave with him. One of his brothers was grandfather of the Rev. George A. Phoebus, D.D., of the Wilmington Confer- ence.
13 Bangs' Hist. M. E. Church, vol. iv., p. 128.
14 Dr. N. Bangs in Sprague's Annals, vol. vii, p. 88.
X.
Parole Brush .
usT before the Brooklyn society was annexed to the Long Island circuit, the REV. JACOB BRUSH. having come from Delaware, was employed as a preacher in New York, and he doubtless assumed his share of the pastoral charge in Brooklyn. . Two years later he had supervision of the district. He was the first, and until 1872, the only native of Long Island assigned to the presiding elder's office in that section.
In what part of Long Island he was born has not been def- initely ascertained.1 Very little is known concerning him previous to the appearance of his name in the Conference Minutes We trace him from year to year by the following
APPOINTMENTS: 1735,2 Trenton cir., N. J., with Kobert Cloud and John M'Claskey; 1780, West Jersey cir., with John Simmons and J. Lurton; 1757, Dover cir., Del., with A. Hutchinson; 1788, ordained deacon, Northamp- ton cir., Md., with L. Ross; 1789, Dover and Duck Creek cir., Del. and Pa. A part of the winter and spring previous to the N. V. Conf. of 1760, he was in New England, with Jesse Lee, George Roberts and Daniel Smith; and the same year he labored some time in New York and probably Brooklyn, with Thes. Morrell and Rob't Cloud; 1790, October, New Rochelle cir., N. Y.
I The Rev. Z. Davenport, who knew some of his relatives, said to the author that he was well-nigh assured that the birth place of Mr. Brush was in the vi- cinity of Merrick, L. I.
" Stevens (Hist. M. E. Church, vol. ii, p. 436,) makes the date 1783; doubt- less a typographical error.
3 Stevens-Hist. M. E. Church, vol. ii, p. 435.
4 "Lost Chapters," pp. 367, 368.
5 Aaron Hunt, quoted by Stevens, (History M. E. Church, vol. iii, p. 221,) gives the impression that Mr. Brush was presiding elder of New York District at this time. He was Hunt's pastor in 1790, and his presiding elder in 1792.
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Record of Ministers.
with M. Swaim, and the Minutes say Win. Phoebus, but Phoebus was, some part at least of that year, on Long Island cir. ; 1791, returned to New Rochelle cir., with T. Everard and T. Lovelle; 1792, presiding elder for L. I. and other parts of N. Y. and Western Conn., a district embracing nearly the same territory now included in the N. Y. East Conf .; 1793, "elder" of a district embracing parts of N. J. and N. Y., including Long Island ;6 1794, sup'y, New York and Brooklyn, with E. Cooper, L. M'Combs, W Phoebus, sup'y, and D. Kendall, sup'y.
His coming north was like the advent of an angel from heaven. He found Thomas Morrell and the other New York preachers worn out in revival work, and taking his place by their side as a fellow-laborer, saw four hundred added to the roll of the converts in eight weeks. He then passed on with George Roberts and Daniel Smith to re-enforce Jesse Lee at Dantown in New England. "No one knows," says Lee, "but God and myself what comfort and joy I felt at their arrival." That was genuine pioneer work. Brush was the only ordained elder among the four preachers, and the members in New England were not more than two for each preacher. He soon returned to New York.
Through his influence Aaron Hunt was led to enter the min- istry. In recording this fact, Stevens, by a lapsus penne, erro- neously quotes Aaron Hunt as saying that Jacob Brush was an " old man." 7
In his thirty-fourth year he fell a victim to the yellow fever, in the city of New York, on the 24th of September, 1795. In his conference memorial his brethren state that he died in peace ; that when the power of speech was gone he indicated by a pressure of the hand that all was well. They also record their apprecation of him as " an active man of God, a great friend to order and union." 8
Wakeley says he was engaged to be married to an amiable young woman, a daughter of a Methodist preacher, but death prevented their union.º His remains were laid to rest in the burial ground in the rear of the Forsyth-street church, New York, where his tombstone may be found. Lines of no great
6 Stevens errs in saying that this district was wholly in New York. Com- pare Hist. M. E. Church, vol. ii, p. 437, and Conf. Minutes, 1793, P. 51.
7 Compare Stevens' Hist. M. E. Church, vol. iii, p. 221, and " Lost Chap- ters," p. 369. See, also, Conf. Minutes, 1796, p. 66.
8 Minutes, 1796, p. 66.
" " Lost Chapters," p. 369.
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Old Sands Street Church.
literary merit, but expressive of the general and profound sor- row occasioned by his death, were published a few months after the event.10
Jacob Brush was a burning and a shining light in the church. When compelled, by a chronic inflammation of the throat, to take a supernumerary relation, he had traveled eight years suc- cessively. Few men in his or any generation were more con- stantly or successfully devoted to the work of the Christian ministry.
The Rev. W. D. Thompson, of the New York East Confer- ence, has in his possession a valuable memento of this pioneer preacher-a copy of Lord King's " Plain Account of the Consti- tution of the Christian Church in the First Three Centuries." It was owned by Mr. Brush and contains his signature. The volume was presented to Mr. Thompson by the late Rev. Z. Davenport.
10 " Experienced Christian's Magazine," Wm. Phœbus, editor, 1796, p. 89. See the same in " Lost Chapters," P. 370.
XI. DAVID KENDALL.
MONG the pastors of the Sands-street church there is perhaps not another whose history so complete- ly eludes the search of the biographer, as that of the REV. DAVID KENDALL. Personal correspondence and in- quiries published in The Christian Advocate and in Zion's Herald have failed to call forth the least word of testimony concerning this good and useful minister of Christ.
In 1790, he succeeded Jolm Lee as the colleague of Wm. Phebus on Long Island. His name alone is set down for Long Island circuit in the printed Conference Minutes; but from Aaron Hunt's journal we infer that Phoebus was as- signed to the circuit with Kendall. Hunt was there also during Kendall's sickness. From the Minutes we obtain a chronological list of his
APPOINTMENTS: 1788, New City cir., N. Y., with S. Q. Talbot; 1789, Lake Champlain cir., with W'm. Losee; 1790, ordained deacon- Long Island cir., with Wm. Phoebus, and A. Hunt; 1791, Saratoga cir. ; 1792, Pittsfield cir., Mass., with R. Dillon and J. Rexford; 1793, ordained elder,- Greenwich cir., R. I., with E. Mudge; 1794, sup'y, New York and Brooklyn, with E. Cooper, [ .. M'Combs, W. Phoebus and J. Brush; 1795; "located through weakness," etc.
Stevens, writing concerning him and Losee, and the Champlain circuit in 1789,-then the northernmost outpost of Methodism on the continent-says:
Their journeys brought them within sight of Canada. The circuit seems not, however, to have been successful, for in 1790 it was abandoned.1
It can but be inferred from the important character of his appointments that he was a man of respectable talent and good standing in the connection, yet most of his history has passed into oblivion. His work abides in the hearts and lives, as well as in the thoughts of many who never heard his name.
Though they may forget the singer, They will not forget the song.
1 Hist. M. E. Church, vol. ii, p. 392.
VA
XII.
AARON HUNT.
HE REV. AARON HUNT was born in East Chester, Westchester County, N. Y., March 28, 1768. The war of the Revolution transpired during his boy- hood, and he was shocked by the "scenes of horror and suf- fering" which he witnessed. Although surrounded in youth by wicked associates, he was preserved, to a large extent, from their corrupting influence. When seventeen years of age he took up his residence in New York city, and attended the Protestant Episcopal Church.
After two years had elapsed, while passing old John Street Church one evening, in company with a fellow clerk, their attention was arrested by the earnest tones of the preacher. They went in and heard a part of the sermon. His comrade reviled, but he was favorably impressed, and continuing to attend the services, he was, on the 18th of March, 1789, while in his twenty-first year, brought to a' saving knowledge of Christ. He wrote in his journal the following vivid account of his conversion:
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