USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > Old Sands Street Methodist Episcopal Church, of Brooklyn, N.Y. : an illustrated centennial record, historical and biographical > Part 19
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Children of Daniel and Mary Ostrander: Almira, who was converted at the age of sixteen years, "drank at the fountain- head of Methodist doctrine and spirit by direct association with Bishops Asbury and George, and others of that noble band of pioneers," wrote for the press very creditable articles both in prose and poetry, and maintained a glowing religious zeal and devotion till her death, in 1879, in the seventieth year of her age ; ' Richard, who died young; Daniel Bowen, a highly culti- vated physician, who, after preaching acceptably in the New York Conference a number of years, located, entered upon the practice of medicine, and died in 1877, leaving one child, a son ; Mary H., who married the Rev. Ira Ferris, of the New York Conference, and still survives him, (1884,) at the age of eighty-two, and among whose five living children is the Rev. Daniel Ostrander Ferris, of the New York East Conference.
% These facts were furnished for The Christian Advocate by her daughter, Miss Almira Ostrander.
9 Rev. D. O. Ferris, in The Christian Advocate.
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XXXV.
REUBEN HUBBARD.
ROOKLYN charge was the point of departure from which two of the early Methodist preachers en- tered the Episcopal Church. One of these was the REV. REUBEN HUBBARD. He was a native of Brimfield, Mass. Ilis father's ancestors were of English origin; his mother's name was Keep.' By his devoted parents "he was led on from his carliest infancy to regard himself as set apart for the ministry of the word," and he became a member of the Methodist Church "as early as his fifteenth year."" Joining conference about three years later, he continued in the Meth- odist ministry twelve years, and thereafter he was for half a century connected with the Protestant Episcopal Church. The following is an epitome of his entire
MINISTERIAL RECORD; 1798; Pittsfield cir., Mass., with Joseph Sawyer; 1799, Pleasant River cir., Me .; 1800, ordained deacon,-Bath and Union cir., with Timothy Merritt; 1801, Portland; 1802, ordained elder, - Greenwich and Warren cir., R. I., with Caleb Morris and C. H. Cobb; 1803, Needham cir., Mass., with Thos. Ravlin; 1804, Marblehead; 1805, Boston, with Peter Jayne; 1806, Newport, R. L .; 1807, Gloucester and Manchester cir .; 1808, (N. Y. Conf.,) Middletown and Hartford cir., Conn., with James M. Smith, P. Rice and Joseph Lockwood; 1809, Brooklyn, -withdrew.
1800, Dec. 22, ordained deacon by Bp. Moore of the Protestant Episcopal Church; 1810, (Oct.,) missionary at Duanesborough and places adjacent; 1811 [or 1812]-1818. rector of the churches in Danbury, Redding and Ridgefield, Diocese of Conn .; 1819-1823, rector of St: Michael's, Talbot County, Md., 1824-1827, rector, St. James Church, Goshen, N. Y .; 1828, (June) to 1829, (Dec.) missionary at Sodus; 1830-1831, missionary at Waterloo and Seneca Falls; 1832-1835, missionary at Granville; 1836, several months at Sandy Hill and Fort Edward; 1837-1843, missionary at Stillwater and Mechanicsville; 1844-1845, residing in Waterford; 1846-1849, rector, St. Stephen's Church, Schuylerville; 1850-1858, residing at Yonkers.3
' The Rev. Wm. E. Ketcham obtained from Miss Mary Anna Hubbard, daughter of Reuben Hubbard, some of the facts here recorded, Dr. A. B. Carter states that "the father and other kindred" of Reuben Hubbard are bu- ried in Cortlandville, N. Y.
2 Funeral address by A. B. Carter, D. D.
3 His pastoral record in the Episcopal Church is obtained from Sword's Pock- et Almanacs, Burgess' List of Deacons, and Diocesan Convention Journals of Conn. and N. Y ..
4
Klubbad
REV. REUBEN HUBBARD.
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Record of Ministers.
He was a member of the General Conference in 1804. The following letter,4 written while he was pastor in Massachusetts, was addressed to the Rev. Epaphras Kibby :
MARBLEHEAD, April 3, 1805.
Dear Brother : I was informed by Brother. Robinson that you would be glad to make an exchange with me the second Sabbath in April. I should be very glad to exchange, but I don't know how it will be. Our collections are small. They have paid me nothing this quarter, and were able only to pay Mr. Bowler for my board, not any thing for interest. Mrs. Bowler talks of begging something to defray the expense of an exchange; (such is the peo- ple's attachment to you, not on my account.) If they conclude to do any thing, I will come to Boston on Thursday, if I have no further intelligence from you. If I cannot come on to Boston to change at the time appointed, would it not do a fortnight after, should any thing turn up to make it con- venient on my part ? If it will not, please inform me by letter. I am in good health, and tolerably good spirits, though nothing very encouraging appears among the people. Yours, R. HUBBARD.
It is likely that he raised money enough to meet the expense of a trip to Boston; at all events, he was stationed in that city at the ensuing conference. He was greatly beloved by the people to whom he ministered; yet, though popular and successful in the Methodist Church, he was for some years preparing to go over to the Episcopalians. Dr. Carter says :
In the last conversation I had with him he told me of his success as a preacher in those earlier years, and as a proof of the esteem in which he was held by the congregation to whom he ministered. In Newport, R. I., a large building was erected, and an urgent and repeated call given him to sever his connection with the Methodist Society, and become the independent pastor of this new church. But this his sense of duty would not allow him to do, as he had won their confidence and enlisted their sympathies as a Methodist preacher. The church had been built with the money of that denomination, and by their rule of discipline, to which he had subscribed and they had assented, he must leave, as his allotted time had then expired ; which he accordingly did. He told me, however, that at this very time his mind was inclining to the ministry of the Episcopal Church, and not very long after- ward he entered upon a course of study which was to prepare him for ordina- tion. It had been suggested to him that he might, as a minister coming from another body, avail himself of the canon referring to such, and thus secure a dispensation from some of the studies, which would require more time and. greater application, but he positively refused to be received upon any other than a full standard of requirements ; and so he labored all the
*Copied from the original, on file in the library of the New England Methodist Historical Society.
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more diligently, still, however, preaching to his Methodist brethren every Sun- day until he felt himself equal to the preliminary examination. Ile was fully prepared, and consequently passed with credit.
He organized Episcopal churches in Whitehall, Seneca Falls, Glen's Falls, Mechanicsville, and several other places. His re- ports at the annual conventions of his diocese breathe the spirit of a true missionary, and bear witness to his great labors and privations, rarely surpassed by the most apostolic among the Methodist heroes. It cannot, it need not, be determined whether the same zealous devotion in the Methodist Church would have accomplished more good. It is true that he moved as often, traveled more, obtained less promotion, and probably received as little remuneration as when he was an itinerant of the itinerants among the Methodists. A few brief extracts from his reports may not be amiss.
In 1824. Goshen. Congregations are small, and they are obliged to make great exertions to meet their expenses.
1831. Seneca Falls. During the winter and spring I preached as often as six times a week, besides holding other services.
1835. Your missionary has been wholly unable to keep up the Sunday- school, for want of the support necessary from the people.
1838. Good seed falls on stony places.
1840. In these places the current of prejudice sets so strong against the Church that I have been able, with all the industry I could use, to produce but little inquiry concerning it. But few desire to read our books, or attend the services of the Church.
1843. Communicants in three Churches, thirty-nine.5
True to his Methodist instincts and education, he originated the plan which resulted in "The Fund for the Relief of the Aged and Infirm Clergy of the Diocese." Aged and worn he retired to a quiet home in Yonkers, N. Y., where he was honored as a patriarch among the people. On the last Christ- mas day preceding his departure he spoke to an assembly, while "the tears streamed down his furrowed cheeks, as he bade them listen to what might be his parting counsels." The rector says :
For nearly seven years he always stood beside me at the holy table, and helped me to distribute the precious symbols of a Saviour's dying love. Hle would go anywhere-do any thing -- be always ready to assist, where his services were needed. Often has he joined me before the morning service,
5 Journals of Conventions, Diocese of New York.
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Record of Ministers.
saying, as he would put on the priestly robes, " I like, even if I take no part in the service, to have my armor on." I never heard him speak an angry word, or give expression to an unkind thought, even when there was the greatest provocation for both. How many of us can leave behind so precious a memory as this ?
Just before Mr. Hubbard's death, Dr. Nathan Bangs asked him if he would give him his reasons for leaving the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he answered that after his return from a visit he would; but he died while on that visit. Having introduced Episcopal services in Cortlandville, N. Y., where some of his kindred resided, he was invited when Grace Chapel was erected to visit his old friends, and join them in their rejoicings. This he did. It was the grandest outlook of his life-it was, indeed, his Mount Nebo, where he died in the Lord, February 10, 1859, aged seventy-nine years. The clergy- men of the different denominations in Yonkers acted as pall- bearers at his funeral. He was buried in the St. John's ceme- tery, in Yonkers, where his tombstone may be seen.
ABAGAIL M., his wife, was a daughter of Dr. Lester, of New Haven, Conn., who was for some time president of the Medical Society in that city. Her grave is near that of her husband.
Of their children-six sons and three daughters-eight are still living. The eldest, Miss Mary Anna Hubbard, a member of St. John's Episcopal church, Yonkers, N. Y., resides in the Ashburton Cottage, where her father lived. One of the sons was educated at Union College, another at Hobart. Two sons are in the banking business. John Lester, Samuel Seabury, and Murray are the names of three of the surviving children.
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XXXVI.
HE REV. THOMAS DRUMMOND will occupy but a small space in these pages, "having," so far as any known record attests, "neither beginning of days nor end of years." Ile had a prosperous but brief career as a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Two of those years-a part of each-he was pastor of Sands-strect church. From the Conference Minutes and the church re- cords we obtain the following list of his
APPOINTMENTS: 1808; (Phila. Conf.,) Cambridge cir., Md., with James Ridgaway; 1809, Asbury cir., N. J., with P. P. Sandford, -the latter part of this year, Brooklyn, N. Y., in place of R. Hubbard, withdrawn; 1810, Staten Island; 1811, ordained deacon,-located; 1813, (N. Y.Conf.,) Stamford Cir., Conn., with Benj. Griffin,-came to Sands-street, Brooklyn, the latter part of the year; 1814, New York, with Wm. Phoebus, S. Cochran, N. Emery, M. Richardson and Wm. Blagborne; 1815, ordained elder, -- Albany city sta- tion; 1816, expelled.
That he was a popular minister is apparent from the high grade of his appointments. Reference has already been made to his faithful instruction of the children of Sands-street church before the days of Sunday-schools. At the close of each period of his service in Brooklyn he reported an in- crease of members.
It is painful to read the record of his expulsion. He might have been held in grateful and lasting remembrance, but if known at all in the history of the church, it will be as an admonitory beacon. The crime of adultery was the ground of the charges against him. On reliable authority it is stat- ed that he ran away with the wife of a steward in his church, and did not return.
This man should not be confounded with the Rev. Thomas Drummond of blessed memory, who "died at his post" in St. Louis, in 1834, and concerning whom the Rev. Dr. Wm. Hunter wrote the touching and beautiful lines, commencing --
Away from his home and the friends of his youth,
He hasted, a herald of mercy and truth.
1
XXXVII.
HILE as yet the Sands-street Church comprised the whole of Brooklyn Methodism, it was for more than three years under the able and successful leadership of the REV. LEWIS PEASE. Ile was born of Chris- tian parents, in Canaan, Columbia County, N. Y., August 7, 1786. In early youth he was troubled with many anxious doubts concerning his immortal destiny. Upon this point his published memorial says:
Having been educated in the peculiarities of Calvinism, he feared that the eternal decree had forever excluded him from divine mercy; and his distress and despair on that account became so great that he was strongly tempted to put an end to his own life, to know the worst of his ease. But God delivered him from that temptation, and directed him to the Methodists, by whom he was taught a general atonement and free salvation.1
A divine voice whispered peace to his troubled spirit on the 30th of January, 1805. He was then in his nineteenth year. Soon afterward, while on a bed of sickness, the con- viction dawned upon him that he was called to preach the gospel. He was licensed first to exhort, and then to preach, in the year 1806. '
1 Minutes of Conferences, 1844, p. 475.
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Old Sands Street Church.
ITINERANT RECORD : 1807, (New York Conf., ) Brandon cir., Vt., with Geo. Powers; 1808, Cambridge cir., N. Y., with Wm. Bull; 1809, or- dained deacon, -Buckland, Mass .; 1810, Pownal cir., Vt., with Wm. Swayze; 1811, ordained elder,-Albany city ; 1812 and part of 1813, Brooklyn; 1814 -1815, sup'd; 1816, Pittsfield cir., Mass., with James Covel, Jr .; 1817-1818, sup'd; 1819-1820, Otis, Mass .; 1821-1822, Brooklyn ; 1823-1824, Hartford, Conn .; 1825-1826, (Phila. Conf .; ) Philadelphia, Union church; 1827-1828, (New York Conf.,) presiding elder, Champlain Dist .; 1829, sup'y; 1830, New York, with S. Luckey, S. Merwin, S. Martindale, B. Goodsell, H. Bangs, and S. D. Ferguson; 1831, ditto, with S. Merwin, S. Martindale, B. Goodsell, S. Landon, John Clark, B. Silleck and C Prindle; 1832, sup'y, Lee cir., Mass., with Julius Field; 1833, sup'y, Lee and Lenox cir., with Thomas Sparks, Clark Fuller, and S. S. Strong; 1834, ditto, with J. B. Wakeley and E. S. Stout; 1835, sup'y, Richmond and Stockbridge cir., Mass., with G. Brown and A. Rogers; 1836, sup'y, New York, West cir., with C. W. Carpenter. Jas. Covel, Jr., Z. Nichols, and L. Mead; employed as chaplain to the New York City Hospital; 1837, sup'y, Richmond, Mass., with J. Hudson; 1838, ditto, with Win. Bloomer; 1839, ditto, with A: G. Wickware and B. Hibbard ; 1840, ditto, with T. Bainbridge, E. A. Youngs, and B. Hib- bard, sup'y; 1841-43, sup'd; 1843, part of the year a supply in North Second- street, Troy, N. Y.
Mr. Pease was greatly embarrassed by feeble health, as might be inferred from the frequent occurrence of the words "super- numerary " and " superannuated " in connection with his name. He was attacked with bleeding at the lungs soon after his re- appointment to Brooklyn in 1813, the hemorrhage recurring " almost daily for fifteen months." Resuming his labors in 1816, his health again gave way.
Concerning his appointment to Brooklyn for a second term, his memoir in the Conference Minutes says :
This was a great trial to him, as his health was poor, and he had once failed on that station ; 2 but for his relief, the Church obtained the assistance of a local preacher the first year, and a revival of religion commenced in Angust of the first year, and continued to the close of the last, and two hundred souls were added to the Church.
It has already been recorded that the membership was nearly doubled under his ministry in two years-an unparalleled increase in the history of Sands-street church.
His retirement from the Champlain District was caused by a violent return of his disease. In 1835 he was called
2 It was an unwelcome appointment, moreover, because "his predecessor, Alexander M'Caine, had left the station in a deranged condition."-Billy Hibbard, in Christian Advocate and Journal, October 25, 1843.
1
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Record of Ministers.
to part with his beloved wife. After a few months he married again.
His closing labors were performed while serving as a supply in Troy, N. Y., during the illness of the pastor. There, as in other places, he did the work of an evangelist, and made full proof of his ministry. Assisted by another preacher, he was per- mitted to gather 208 persons into the church in a few weeks.
From scrofulous affection of the lungs and of the other vital organs, he suffered months of pain almost beyond endurance ; "but he was wonderfully supported by divine grace, and on the borders of the grave he was happy in prayer, and singing praises to God." To his ministerial brethren he sent this dying mes- sage :
Tell the conference that I died in the full faith of the Gospel, as taught by the Methodists; yes, tell the Bishops, the elders, and the preachers, that I love them, and that I die in peace.
When he could speak no more, "he gave his weeping wife a silent token that all was well," and sweetly fell asleep in Jesus, on the 5th of September, 1853, aged fifty-seven years. The Rev. Thomas Bainbridge preached his funeral sermon, and the Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian clergymen acted as pall- bearers. He is buried in Canaan, N. Y.
Lewis Pease was greatly respected and beloved. His breth- ren elected him delegate to General Conference in 1828 and 1832. His early advantages were small, and perhaps his scho- lastic attainments were never remarkable ; but he is declared to have been a diligent student, and, as a preacher, remarkably " efficient, impressive, at times pathetic, and always acceptable." Dr. Wakeley says :
Mr. Pease had great power as an exhorter. In May, 1834, I preached dur- ing the session of the New York Conference, in Sands-street church, Brook- lyn, and he followed the sermon by an exhortation. He had been stationed in Brooklyn a few years before, when the population was comparatively small, ' and a powerful revival had occurred in connection with his labors, of which he gave many most touching reminiscences, particularly in respect to those who had with him fought the battles of the Lord and fallen at their posts. But he was an admirable preacher as well as exhorter. His sermons were chiefly of the expository kind, but they were well digested, and full of judicious, scriptural thought, and delivered in an earnest, impressive manner. He always preached well, but it required a great occasion to bring out his full strength. At quar- terly meetings or camp-meetings he was very apt to appear as the master- spirit. I recall particularly an instance of his overwhelming power at a camp-
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meeting at Hillsdale, N. Y., in the fall of 1834. The text was highly charged with terror : "For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red : it is full of mixture ; and he poureth out of the same : but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them." For more than two hours there was a vast sea of upturned faces, gazing at him in. breathless silence, as he delivered one of the most alarming sermons I ever heard. It seemed as if the preacher was actually standing between heaven and hell, with the songs of the redeemed and the wailings of the lost both vi- brating in his ears, and throwing his whole soul into an effort to secure the salvation of his hearers. The description throughout was so unutterably ter- rific, that it seemed that every wicked man in the assembly must have been horror-stricken.
But his preaching was not always of the bold and alarming character. He knew how to present the most precious and consoling truths of the Gospel with great effect ; and sometimes, by an exhibition of the love of Christ, he would open fountains of tears all over the audience. 3
The same writer-an intimate friend and colleague of Mr. Pease-thus describes his personal appearance :
He was tall and slender, with a long face, rendered thin and pale by dis- ease, of light complexion, fine forehead, penetrating eyes, with a general ex- pression of countenance at once grave and intellectual.
Of his first wife we have no definite knowledge, except that she died March 17, 1835, while he was attached to the Lee and Lenox circuit, that she was some years his senior, and that there were no children by this marriage.
MISS ANN ELIZA WHEELER became his second wife when he was in his fiftieth year, and she was twenty-two years of age. She was a native of Great Barrington, Mass. After his death, which was soon followed by the death of three of their five children, she remained a widow several years. Her second husband was Robert Disney, of Utica, N. Y., "a good but eccentric man, by whom she had one child that died in infancy. Then followed a second widowhood." Mr. Disney left her a comfortable home, and sufficient means of support.
In 1874 she was married to the Rev. James Erwin, a promi- nent minister of the Central New York Conference. This union lasted four years, and " the mortal scene closed " in Caz- enovia, N. Y., November 19, 1878, in the sixty-sixth year of her age. Her last words were "Precious Jesus !" Dr. Wm. Reddy
3 Manuscript prepared for Sprague's Annals.
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Record of Ministers.
preached her funeral sermon, and wrote an obituary for the Northern Christian Advocate, from which are taken most of the facts here recorded. She sleeps in Oakwood cemetery, in Syracuse, N. Y.
She was a woman of fine intellect, attractive social qualities, and uncommon energy ; remarkably gifted in prayer and exhor- tation, a helper in the Gospel, and'" a succorer of many." It was a great delight to her in her last days, as the wife of a pre- siding elder, to renew her personal connection with the itiner- ancy, and she spent much of her time in visiting, with her hus- band, the various churches in his extensive district.
A promising young man, son of Lewis and Ann Eliza Pease, whose initials were IV. P., died a few years ago in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Millie A., the only daughter who lived to maturity, was an estimable woman. She became the wife of the Rev. William C. Steele, of the New York East Conference, and died at Sea Cliff, L. I., September 20, 1873.
XXXVIII.
Emily
ANDS STREET CHURCH received for its pastor, in 1815, the REV. NATHAN EMERY. His ministry there is memorable on account of its connection with the origin of Sunday-schools in Brooklyn.
Mr. Emery was born in Minot, Maine, August 5, 1780. He was of the sixth generation descended from John Emery, who came from England with his brother, Anthony Emery, to Newbury, Mass., in 1635. Moses Emery, father of Nathan, was the first settler in Minot, and built the first mill in that town. His wife, Nathan's mother, was Ruth Bodwell before marriage, and (on the authority of her son Stephen) was one of the most pions of women, who "could not remember the time of her conversion, or the time when she did not love to pray." Such a woman could not fail to be blessed in her children. They were six in number. The eldest was Ruth, who married John Downing. "She never went to school, but learned to write so well that she taught her youngest broth- er, Stephen, and so anxious was she to help him to a college training, that she used to knit and sew, and actually peel bark with her own hands to obtain means to aid her broth- er in his struggle to acquire an education." Moses, the eldest son became a Methodist local preacher. The third child was Olive, who married Ezekiel Loring, and settled in Ohio. The fourth is the subject of this sketch. The fifth was Polly, who married Ebenezer Emerson, and lived and died
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Record of Ministers. 203
in Bridgeton, Maine. The youngest was Stephen, a graduate of Bowdoin College, lawyer, judge, attorney-general, etc. He resided in Paris, Me., and died there in 1863. Two of his daughters married ex-Senator Hamlin, and a son, George F. Emery, to whom the author is indebted for the foregoing facts, was recently connected with The Boston Post.
When Nathan Emery was fourteen years of age, (1794,) he heard at his father's house the first Methodist preacher who ever visited that region. The next summer, he and several other members of the family became Christians, and joined the class. One year later, at the remarkably youthful age of six- teen, he was appointed class-leader.
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