USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > Old Sands Street Methodist Episcopal Church, of Brooklyn, N.Y. : an illustrated centennial record, historical and biographical > Part 18
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1 Minutes of Conferences, 1850. P. 453. This date nearly agrees with his age as inscribed on his tomb-stone. See Stevens' Hist. M. E. Church, vol. iii, p. ISo, where 1772 is given as the date of his birth.
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with B. Northrop ; 1818, Newburgh cir., with Heman Bangs ; 1819, Croton cir., with J. B. Matthias ; 1821, New Rochelle cir., with Wm. Jewett and Robert Seney ; 1822, ditto, with Wm. Jewett and N. W. Thomas ; 1823, Cortland cir., with J. B. Matthias ; 1824, Redding cir., Conn., with John Reynolds ; 1825, sup'y, Cortland cir., N. Y., with Elijah Hebard and Henry Hatfield ; 1826, Stamford cir., Conn., with Luman Andrus; 1827, ditto, with S. U. Fisher ; 1828, New Rochelle cir., N. Y., with S. Cochran and J. Bowen ; 1829, Cortland cir., with II. Bartlett and J. Reynolds ; 1830, sup'y, Cortland cir., with N. White and J. Reynolds ; 1831, ditto, with N. White, J. B. Matthias, and D. Stocking; 1832, ditto, with H. Bartlett, J. B. Matthias, and W. M'Kendree Bangs ; 1833, ditto, with HI. Bartlett and W. M'Kendree Bangs ; 1834, sup'y, no appointment ; 1835, sup'y, New Rochelle cir., with D. Ostrander and B. Daniels ; 1836, ditto, with P. R. Brown and Thomas Sparks ; 1837, ditto, with P. R. Brown, T. Sparks, and J. W. Le Fevre, sup'y ; 1838-1847, sup'd ; 1848-1849, (New York East Conf.,) sup'd.
It took nineteen days or more to reach his appointment in Canada. To accomplish that journey, which could now be made in a few hours with the utmost ease, he was subjected to almost incredible hardships, contending with the rapids in the Mohawk valley, facing storms of rain and snow on the Oswego River, wrecked on Lake Ontario, unsheltered by night, weary, famishing, and sometimes sick, but always happy in the Lord.2 In that northern region he was remarkably popular, and stic- cessful in establishing Methodism in many places. One of the chroniclers of Canadian Methodism writes :
Elijah Woolsey reached a preaching place in Canada weary and hungry. The old lady showed him into the pantry and set a lunch before him. After quite a long time his hostess put in her head and found him still eating with a zest. "Brother Woolsey, the house is full of people," said she. " I will be out and at them in a minute," was his lively and energetic reply ; and our informant said that, sure enough, he went at them with a will, and with good and saving effect.3
Many wept when he left the circuit, and several small farms were offered to him if he would stay. He writes in his auto- biography :
One man followed me down to the water side, and there we sat for some time and talked and wept together, and when I got into the boat, he threw his arms around me, and waded knee-deep into the water, and said, " If you will but come back again, as long as I havetwo mouthfuls of bread you shall have one." * * * It was to me a source of inexpressible satisfaction that I had been made useful to a few of my fellow-creatures, though of another nation, and the thought of meeting them on Canaan's happy shore, after the trials of life are over, and
2 See full account of this journey in Stevens' Hist. M. E. Church, vol. iii, pp. 181-185.
3 "Case and his Contemporaries," p. 44.
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Record of Ministers.
. of greeting them as my spiritual children, often gilds the shadows of my su- pernumerary hours, and gives brilliancy to the rays of my descending sun.4
Just before the conference in 1807 his wife's health declined, and this seems to have led to his appointment to Brooklyn. He writes thus concerning this appointment and his experience there :
My wife was taken sick with what proved to be her last sickness. * *
I now wished to have my next appointment on Newburgh circuit, where she lived, and I sent my request to Bishop Asbury at the conference, accordingly He did not see fit, however, to grant it, but chose that for me which was better than if my own request had been granted. He appointed me to Brooklyn, where I could fill my Sabbath appointments, and be with my suffering companion most of the time. The friends of Brooklyn were exceed- ingly kind ; indeed, a kinder people I never saw. One day I saw my be- loved companion weeping, and said to her, " What makes you weep?" She said, " I want to live." I said to her, "What makes you want to live ?" She said, "To compensate you for your kindness to me." This made me weep, and I felt unhappy for a time. A few days after I asked her if she was willing to give me up. She said she was. I felt thankful to God for it. She then asked me if I could give her up.' I told her I could. She appeared to be glad. I continued to watch with her night and day as long as she lived.5
He was a member of the General Conference in 1804, 1816, and 1820. In his old age he wrote a history of his life, entitled "The Supernumerary," a valuable contribution to the historic literature of our Church. He spent his last days in Rye, N. Y., where he preached occasionally and was held in great honor by all the people. His conference memorial states that "his de- cease was preceded by a long and gradual decline, during which he exhibited Christian resignation and cheerfulness, and his spirit often rejoiced in God his Saviour."
Near the western boundary of a charming cemetery, owned by the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the village of Rye, N. Y., in a lot belonging to Dr. E. W. Finch, of New Rochelle, there is a very tasteful monument of polished granite, surmounted by an urn, and bearing this inscription :
REV. ELIJAH WOOLSEY,
IN THE MINISTRY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 57 YEARS. Died January 24, 1850, aged 79 Years. In Labors Abundant.
PHOEBE, HIS WIFE, DIED MARCH 27, 1874, . Aged 88 Years. Gone Home.
4 " The Supernumerary," p, 50.
5 Ibid., pp. 93, 94.
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Old Sands Street Church.
Mr. Woolsey was twice married, but he left no posterity. He was tall, well-built, and of noble bearing. The brief memoir adopted by the conference says of him :
Father Woolsey was a man of great benevolence of character and amenity of manners. He seemed to have a happy art of attaching himself to his associates without effort on his part, and those attachments were lasting as life .. He was a holy man, a good preacher, and he shall be held in everlasting remembrance. 6
He was a singer, and, like many of the early preachers, de- lighted in "China" and other old-fashioned minor tunes. He was gifted with a sharpness which convinced many a skeptic that he was a dangerous antagonist. W. H. Dikeman relates that an infidel once said to a friend of Woolsey's in Redding, Conn. : "I tell you, the Methodist preachers don't know any thing. Woolsey is a fool. Invite me to your house sometime when he is there, and I will expose his ignorance." The friend agreed to the proposition, and warned Woolsey to be on the lookout for some vexatious questions. The infidel propounded the following : " Mr. Woolsey, what is the soul ?" . The preacher replied : " Some people say it is the pith of the back-bone." This answer was received with scorn and declared to be ridiculous. "Well, then," said Woolsey, " if it isn't that, what is it?" He had the advantage at once. The infidel was puz- zled and ashamed, and acknowledged that it was easier even for a wise infidel to ask questions than to answer them.
The Rev. Elbert Osborn, who had often heard him preach, wrote of him as "animated in delivery," and Dr. Wakeley well said that he " possessed the spirit of the prophet whose name he bore."
ELECTA, his first wife, died among the Sands-street people, February 14, 1808, aged twenty-nine years. One week before her death she declared to Father Garrettson "that the Lord had sanctified her soul more than two years before, and that she had not seen one moment since that time in which she doubted it any more than she doubted her own existence." In her last moments " she folded her hands together and said, ' Now, Lord Jesus, take me to thyself speedily.' These were her last words." 1
6 Minutes of Conferences, 1850, p. 453.
7 " The Supernumerary," pp. 94, 95.
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Record of Ministers.
She was buried on the east side of the Sands-street church- yard. On the head-stone are these lines :
" IIer sleeping dust, in silent slumber, lies Beneath this stone, till God shall bid it rise."
None would now write such a couplet over the sleepers there. What changes have transpired ! Little did those who laid their loved ones to rest in the quiet slopes beside the village church anticipate that in less than a century their repose might be dis- turbed to make way for the busy throngs of a great and growing city.
PHOEBE (WILSON,) the second wife of Elijah Woolsey, has already been mentioned. Dr. E. W. Finch writes :
Mrs. Phobe Woolsey was aunt to my mother, who spent one year, when a child, in Uncle Woolsey's home. The family ties are exceedingly strong in 0 * the Wilson family. My dear Aunt Phoebe was like a mother to me. * After settling in New Rochelle I purchased a plot in the Rye cemetery, and finding " the minister's plot " quite overrun with weeds and briars, I asked of the Church authority to remove the remains of Uncle and Aunt Woolsey to my family plot, which was readily granted. The plot seems more sacred since their sacred dust was deposited there.8
8 Letter to the author.
XXXIII.
MONG the most holy and useful of the early Meth- odist preachers was the REV. JOHN WILSON. He was born in Poulton, England, February 13, 1763; and, having been "taught by his parents the fear of the Lord," he became in very early life a Christian, and while yet a youth he cast in his lot with "the people called Method- ists." At twenty years of age he came to New York, bring- ing a recommendation from the Methodist preachers in Liv- erpool. Two years later he visited England on business, and on the return voyage "experienced extraordinary mani- festations of the love and presence of the Lord."' He ren- dered faithful service to the cause of Methodism in New York city as class leader, exhorter and local preacher. He was thirty-four years of age, and had been in America four- teen years when he entered the traveling connection of Methodist preachers.
CONFERENCE RECORD: 1797, (New York Conf.,) New Rochelle and Croton cir., N. Y., with David Brown and J. Baker; 1798, Long Island cir .. with David Brown; 1799, ordained deacon, -ditto, with James Campbell ;? 1800, New Rochelle and Croton cir., with David Brown and Elijah Chichester; 1801, ordained elder, -ditto, with Jas. Campbell and Wm. Pickett; 1802, New York city cir., with T. Morrell and T. F. Sargent; 1803, ditto, with T. Mor- rell, M. Coate, and R. Williston; 1804, assistant editor and general book steward, associated with Ezekiel Cooper; 1805, New York, with F. Garrettson;
1 Conference Minutes, 1810, p. 181.
9 The appointment is "Brooklyn and Long Island" in the Conference Minutes. but the quarterly conference records show that the charges were not united in finances, and that Cyrus Stebbins was the Brooklyn pastor that year.
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Record of Ministers.
N. Snethen and Aaron Hunt; 1806, ditto, with A. Hunt, T. Bishop, and D. Crowell : 1807, Brooklyn, with Elijah Woolsey ; 1808, New York, with W. Thacher, E. Cooper, F. Ward, L. Andrus, and P. Peck ; 1808-1809, chief book agent, with Daniel Ilitt.
Lednum says he married Hester, a daughter of Frederick Deveau, a pioneer Methodist of New Rochelle, N. Y.,3 but of her or her family nothing further is known.
In scholarship, John Wilson ranked among the foremost of the preachers. His memorial says :
He was conversant with the Greek and Roman classics. Carrying with him his Greek Testament, he speut many of his leisure hours in the perusal thereof. Ile made great progress in polemical, experimental, and practical theology. He was an enlightened, able, and spiritual divine. In penmanship, for per- spicuity and swiftness ; in correctness of accounts and accuracy of calculations in business, he could be excelled by few.4
In all the graces which adorn the Christian character, his brethren declared him to be "a superior example worthy of imitation." His preaching was "in demonstration of the Spirit, and with power." Sinners and backsliders heard his monitory voice, and trembled ; * *
* mourners in Zion rejoiced at the consolation he brought ; " and by his clear and powerful preaching on his favorite theme, entire sanctification, many were brought to the experience of that great blessing. The follow- ing passage by one of his contemporaries vividly illustrates his ability to overcome prejudice and doubt, when he spoke upon the doctrine of perfect love.
On the sixth day of our session, [New York Conference, ISO4, ] the post- poned subject of sanctification was called up, and Stebbins, its enemy, came on with his objections. Up rose John Wilson, whose soul flamed with the fire of it. ITis sanguine countenance, his sparkling eye, his animated frame and fervor of soul, all indicated that his heart was full of the subject ; and, as in the case of Stephen, none could "resist the spirit and wisdom with which he spake." He sat down to wait a reply, but ** none opened his mouth, or mut- tered, or peeped." The victory was complete ; the debate was closed ; all seemed love, and the angel of peace brooded over the consecrated assembly.5
He was several years secretary of the New York Conference, a member and secretary of the General Conference in 1804, and a member again in 1808.
3 " Rise of Methodism," p. 103.
4 Conference Minutes, 1810, p. 181.
5 William Thacher's manuscript Autobiography.
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Old Sands Street Church.
During the last seven years of his life he suffered greatly from asthma, and while this affliction developed his patience, it did not quench his zeal. He died suddenly from suffocation, January 29, 1810, having conversed and prayed with his family a few hours before his death. His remains were deposited in a vault in the rear of the Forsyth-street church, New York."
6 See " Lost Chapters," p. 501.
Dan Ostrander
REV. DANIEL OSTRANDER.
XXXIV.
DANIEL OSTRANDER.
OHN WILSON and Elijah Woolsey were succeeded in the Brooklyn charge by that "shrewd and far-see- ing Methodist statesman," the REV. DANIEL OSTRANDER. He was born in Plattekill; Ulster Co., N. Y. , on the 9th of August, 1772. Ile sprang from a rugged and vigorous stock-his ancestors were from Holland. His con- version at the age of sixteen years was followed by the car- nest and sincere devotion of more than half a century to the noblest work that can engage the powers of a human being. Entering the itinerancy at the age of twenty one, he wrought grandly for God and the church in the following
APPOINTMENTS: 1793, Litchfield cir., Conn., with Lemuel Smith; 1794, Middletown cir., with M. Rainor; 1795, ordained deacon-Pomfret cir., with N. Chapin; 1796, Warren, R. I .; 1797, ordained elder-Boston and Needham cir., Mass., with Elias Hull; 1798, Pomfret, Ct., with Asa Heath; 1799, Tolland cir .; 1800, Pomfret cir .; 1801. New York with John M'Claskey, Thos. Morrell, and M. Coate; 1802-1803, New London Dist .; 1804-1805, (New Ing. Conf.,) same district; 1806, (N. Y. Conf. ) Dutchess cir., N. Y., with F. Ward and Robert Dillon; 1807, ditto with Wm. Vredenburgh and Wm. Swayze; 1808, Brooklyn; 1800-1510, Albany; 1811-1814, Hudson River Dist; 1815, Chatham cir., N. Y., with S. Minor; 1816, New York, with Wm. Thacher, E. Wash- burn, L. Andrus, and A. Scholefield; 1817, ditto, with N. Bangs, S. Crowell, and S. Howe; 1818, New Rochelle cir., with Coles Carpenter; 1819-1820, pre- siding elder, Ashgrove Dist .; 1821-1822, Saratoga Dist .; 1823-1826, Hudson River Dist .; 1827, New Haven Dist .; 1828-, 1831 New York Dist .; 1832, New York city, east circuit, with B. Griffin, B. Silleck, P. Chamberlin, and P. R. Brown, 1833, ditto, with Laban Clark, B. Griffin, P. Chamberlin, and l'. R. Brown; 1834, New Rochelle cir., with P. L. Hoyt and E. Woolsey, sup'y; 1835, ditto, with B. Daniels and E. Woolsey, sup'y; 1836-1839, New York Dist .; 1840-1842, Newburgh Dist .; 1843, superannuated.
.
Ile is classed among the founders of Methodism in New England, all his earlier appointments having been in that region. His first presiding elder's district "comprehended, during a part of the time, the entire field of Methodism in Connecticut, (except one circuit,) most of Rhode Island,
14
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Old Sands Street Church.
and a portion of Massachusetts."1 Subsequently his labors were mostly in the State of New York. He was a member of General Conference ten successive terms, 1804 to 1840. His conference memorial, in reviewing his remarkable career, says :
From the year 1793 to the year 1843, a full term of fifty years, so remark- ably did the Lord preserve him, that only three Sabbaths in all that the was he disabled from pulpit service by sickness. Where, in the history of minis- ters, shall we find a parallel to this ? For fourteen years he was on circuits, eight years in stations, (New York, Brooklyn, and Albany,) and twenty-eight years in the office of presiding elder.2
On September 3, 1798, he was married to Miss Mary Bowen. While pastor in Brooklyn he was the first to call out Marvin Richardson by " announcing him to preach without his knowl- edge."3 One of his contemporaries, who, however, survived him many years, thus describes his appearance at the close of his effective ministry :
Entering the New York Conference, your attention is attracted by the ap- pearance of a venerable man occupying a seat near the platform directly in front of the presiding officer. His statue is small and slender, his form erect and sinewy, his complexion bronze, his nose sharp, his eyes small but clear and piercing, his mouth thin-lipped and compressed, his forehead high and broad, over which hang spare locks, well sprinkled with gray.
He is attired in the costume of the early Methodist preachers ; with black suit, the coat round-breasted, the vest buttoned to the chin, and the neck minus a collar, encompassed with a white neckerchief of excessive proportions. This is Daniel Ostrander, the Cromwell of the New York Conference. His face is indicative of vigor ; his head, phrenologically viewed, of an iron will ; in fact, the whole expression is that of a man of great energy, determination, and perseverance. Nor do his looks belie him. He is uncompromising in his antagonism to every form of wrong-doing, and this, when circumstances demand, finds expression in no ambiguous terms. His yea is emphatically yea ! and his nay, nay !
IIe is a Methodist from conviction and choice, and next to the Gospel he has faith in the ultimate ubiquity of the discipline, doctrines, and usages of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He has just concluded his fiftieth year as an effective preacher, and by a vote of the Conference he has been requested to preach a semi-centennial sermon. And how wonderful the record of those fifty years ! +
1 Stevens' IIist. M. E. Church, vol. iii, p. 228.
9 Minutes of Conferences, 1844, P. 472.
3 Stevens' Ilist. M. E. Church, vol. iv, p. 254.
4 Rev. J. L. Gilder, in The Methodist, April, 1874.
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Record of Ministers.
A large audience listened to this sermon in the Allen-street church, New York. At this time he insisted upon taking a su- perannuated relation, but it doubtless cost him a severe struggle of feeling to retire from his much-loved work. It is believed to have hastened his death. His memoir says :
He preached occasionally, on Sabbaths, until his final sickness, and on .August 29, 1843, at a camp-meeting near Newburgh, delivered his last ser- mon, from Psalm exlvi, 8: " The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind," etc. It is said to have been an able discourse, and one of his happiest efforts.
Through the whole of the summer he seemed to be ripening for heaven, and soon after this last message his health failed. * * * When asked if Christ was still precious, with his last and utmost effort he cried, " Yes !" and peace- fully fell asleep in Jesus. So lived and labored, and so died Daniel Ostran- der, literally worn out in the best cause-his life, from sixteen years of age to seventy-two, a living sacrifice to God.
The date of his departure is December 8, 1843. Bishop Hedding preached his funeral sermon from 2 Tim. iv, 7, 8 .; 5 and his remains were interred in the old burial-ground in Platte- kill, Orange county, N. Y., near the scene of his birth and childhood.
The best characterization of Daniel Ostrander that we have seen is from the pen of the Rev. J. L. Gilder. He describes him as "more aggressive than progressive-in fact, sternly con- servative," and enlarges upon this point as follows :
Jealous of the integrity and purity of Methodism, he regarded her pecul- iarities as constituting her chief excellence, and hence he viewed with sus- picion whatever would tend to impair or destroy them. Therefore he reso- lutely resisted some measures which ultimately became an integral part of the economy of the Church.
He makes note of his punctuality, his frequent and pointed speeches in conference, his intuitive discernment of the right and wrong of every question, his consummate skill in unravel- ing difficulties which sometimes arose in the course of discus- sions, and his calm self-possession in the midst of intense ex- citement, on account of which he was sometimes called "the balance-wheel of the conference." As Mr. Gilder states,
HIe was decided in his convictions, and his position once taken, he was im- movable. In his administration he was rather severe and exacting. To the requirements of the Discipline he gave the most literal interpretation. It is not surprising, therefore, that instances arose in which he was regarded as
5 Report in The Christian Advocate.
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Old Sands Street Church.
being dogmatical in his opinions and arbitrary in his measures. He was, however, thoroughly honest and conscientious in his convictions and acts ; and no flattery on the one hand, nor threats on the other, would cause him to swerve one iota from what he conceived to be just and right.
The casnal observer, forming his estimate of Mr. Ostrander by his general appearance and manner, might very naturally have considered him devoid of tenderness and sympathy, but to those who were brought into intercourse with him in social and private life, there was found underlying that rongh ex- terior a stratum of almost womanly gentleness and kindness of spirit. Among his familiar friends he would throw off his nsual reticence and be free and un- restrained. He would frequently enliven conversation with a spicy anecdote, and entertain by the narration of thrilling incidents connected with his itiner- ant career. While severe in his denunciations of what was simply mere- tricious, he was quick to discern and prompt to encourage real merit. Hence the young minister struggling with adverse circumstances, but consecrated to his work, found in him a judicious friend and a wise counselor.
As a preacher, he was distinguished for plainness of speech, depth of thought, scriptural language, and powerful appeals to the heart and con- science. If he had not elegance of diction or flights of oratory, he was free from verbiage. His style was compact, forcible, direct, incisive. IIe was mighty in exhortation, and there are those living who will recall the potency of his appeals. 6
Though possessing a dignity bordering upon sternness, he is said to have had "a vein of the brightest humor, which was sometimes exhibited to the amusement of his friends." After a speech he had delivered in Baltimore, during which he was interrupted every few minutes by his opponents calling him to order, he met at a dinner party several of those who had at- tempted to silence him. One of them said, "Brother Ostran- der, you beat all the men I ever saw ; it seems to me that if twenty jackasses were to run over you when you were speaking, they could not break the thread of your discourse." Ostrander listened to the remark, then "bringing his fingers to his lips, and spitting rapidly three or four times, as if to get rid of some lingering bad taste, simply replied, in the most quiet manner possible, 'I think I have been pretty well tried in that way this morning.' "
It is cause for gratulation that Mr. Ostrander, at the age of sixty-seven, withdrew his persistent refusal to sit for a portrait, and that the artist has given us an excellent likeness in oil, from which the engraving in this book is copied.
6 Article in The Methodist.
7 Dr. Samnel Luckey, in Sprague's Annals.
Record of Ministers. 191
MARY (BOWEN,) his wife, was born June 26, 1767, in Cov- entry, R. I. Her father, though regarded as an honorable citi- zen, was a man of deistic principles, who late in life, however, became a Christian. The gay pleasures of the world did not satisfy the daughter, and on hearing a Methodist preacher in her twenty-fourth year, she sought and found the Lord. In spite of great persecution, she united with the Methodists, under the ministry of Ezekiel Cooper, in 1793. Every two weeks she rode ten miles on horseback to attend class-meeting. Jesse Lee and George Roberts were her pastors, and she formed an early acquaintance with Asbury. She heartily ac- cepted the lot of an itinerant's wife, and "forgot her own people and her father's house." She was an excellent wife and mother, noted for "industry," " frugality," "punctuality," and " neatness," and her many acts of charity. Through feeble- ness and watching over a dying son, in 1818, her reason gave way, and "for some weeks her mind became the sport of the enemy." Prayer availed for her recovery. She bore the death of her husband with amazing fortitude, and in five weeks and two days after his decease, on the 14th of February, 1843, she peacefully slept in Jesus, in the seventy-seventh year of her age. Her grave is beside that of her husband."
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