USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > Old Sands Street Methodist Episcopal Church, of Brooklyn, N.Y. : an illustrated centennial record, historical and biographical > Part 22
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The grave of Mr. M'Caine, in the cemetery in Augusta, Ga., is inclosed with an iron railing, and marked by a plain, white marble head-stone, appropriately inscribed.
Concerning his two wives only a few facts are known to the author. The maiden name of the first wife was KITUEL MEZICK. As already observed, she was a widow when he married her.
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Old Sands Street Church.
Ten years afterward, May 17, 1815, she died, aged forty-one years, and was buried in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Of the second wife, FRANCES GRIFFITH, we only know this additional fact, that she died without children.
Five children were born to Alexander M'Caine by the first marriage.11 Two of these died in infancy. The eldest son, Alexander Mesick, was a physician of fine ability, and died, in his thirty-third year, at Aiken, S. C., in the year 1844. The second son, Baptist Joshua, resides in Coleta, Clay county, Ala. The only daughter, Sarah Aune, was married to James M. Brett, of Barnwell District, S. C., in 1833. She is now a widow, and resides in Meridian, Miss.
17 For most of his information concerning the family the author is indebted to James Brett, Esq., of Germantown, Tenn., and Miss Mary M. Brett, of Meridian, Miss., grandchildren of Mr. M'Caine.
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REV. PETER P. SANDFORD, D. D.
XLII. PETER P. SANDFORD.
opi is the name of a town on the eastern shore of the Passaic River, in the state of New Jersey. There the REV. PETER P. SANDFORD, D. D. was born, February 28, 1781. His ancestors were residents of the town, and were descended from an officer in the army of Great Britain, who came from the island of Barbadoes, and made himself a home with a few others in that hitherto uninhabited region. The Sandfords were a highly honora- ble and reputable people, possessing all the advantages re- sulting from easy financial circumstances and a good social position. To one branch of this family belonged Joseph Sandford, a local preacher, father-in-law of the Rev. Ste- phen Martindale. He resided in Belleville, and his generous hospitality to the early bishops and other ministers is wide- ly known.
Peter P. Sandford's second initial does not stand for a name, but the letter "P." was adopted for his father's immedi- ate family, to distinguish his children from other Sandfords bearing the same Christian names.
The memoir adopted by the New York Conference says:
At a very early age Brother Sandford gave evidence of being under strong moral and religious influence. * * * While as yet he was a child of but ten years, he was in the habit of gathering the children of his neighborhood into a chapel which he had prepared for the purpose, and read to them the liturgy of the Episcopal Church, and then preached to them as best he could.1
At seventeen years of age he gave his heart to the Savior, and obtained a clear and abiding witness of justification by faith. The conviction of a divine call to preach the gospel, which had been with him from his early childhood, now "re- vived with increased power;" some eight or nine years elapsed, however, after his conversion, before he began his itinerant career. He was spared to preach Jesus to men for abont fifty years, as shown by the following
1 Minutes of Conferences, 1857, pp. 320, 321.
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Old Sands Street Church.
MINISTERIAL RECORD : 1807, (Phila. Conf.,) Trenton cir., N. J., with Wm. M'Lenahan ; 1808, ditto, with Wm. Fox ; 1866, ordained deacon, Asbury cir., with Thos. Drummond ; 1810, (New York Conf.,) New York city, with N. Bangs, E. Smith, J. Robertson, and Jas. M. Smith ; 18II, ordained eller -- ditto, with N. Bangs, Win. Phoebus, L. Clark, Wm. Blag- borne, and James M. Smith ; 1812, Troy ; 1813, Newburgh cir., with Bela Smith ; 1814, Albany ; 1815-1818, presiding elder, Hudson River Dist. ; 1819, Newburgh cir., with Josiah Bowen ; 1820-1823, presiding elder, New York Dist. ; 1824, New York city, with P. Rice, T. Mason, J. B. Strattou, S. Bushnell, and E. Brown; 1825, ditto, with [I. Stead, Wm. Jewett, J. Young, D. De Vinne, and H. Chase; 1826, New Rochelle cir., with P. Rice and Jno. M. Smith : 1827, ditto, with Josiah Bowen and Jno. M. Smith ; 1828-1831, presiding elder, Rhinebeck Dist. ; 1832, New York, west cir., with S. Landon, J. Bowen, G. Coles, and C. Prindle ; 1823, ditto, with F. Reed, J. Bowen, J. C. Green, and C. W. Carpenter ; 1834, White Plains cir., with Z. Davenport ; 1835, White Plains and Greensburgh cir., with S. C. Davis ; 1836-1837, Middletown ; 1838-1839, presiding elder, Poughkeepsie Dist. ; 1840, Poughkeepsie-elected book agent that year ; 1841-1843, assistant book agent with George Lane ; 1844-1847, presiding elder, New York Dist. ; 1848- 1849, Kingston ; 1850-1851, Tarrytown ; 1852, White Plains ; 1853, Yonkers ; 1854-1856, sup'd.
From the beginning to the end of his ministry he devoted him- self unfalteringly to the great work to which God had called him.
In his memoir he is characterized as " a thorough divine, an able preacher, a judicious administrator of discipline, an eminent, honest Christian man." One who knew him well describes him in very similar terms, as "a man of great ability and the very soul of honor."" Another says of his sermons, " They were deep-he dug for hid treasure."" It was his apostolic preach- ing in Troy, N. Y., in 1816, which led Noah Levings, when but a lad, into the gospel light.4
His acknowledged pre eminence is indicated by the fact that he was elected from among many worthy and strong men in the New York Conference as a delegate to every General Con- ference from 1816 to. 1852. His son, Joseph Sandford, says that in the great discussion in 1844 he favored more extreme measures in the case of Bishop Andrew, and he afterward inti- mated that for that reason he should not be a candidate for re-election in 1848; but Dr. Bond, of the Christian Advocate and Journal, affirmed that that was a good reason why he should be a candidate.
> J. P. in The Methodist.
3 Rev. Nathaniel Kellogg to the author.
4 Sketch of Noah Levings in Sprague's Annals.
Record of Ministers. 227
His ability as an author was considerable. He wrote an ex- cellent book, entitled " Helps to Faith," 12mo, published by Harpers; also, "Wesley's Missionaries to America," published by the Methodist Book Concern. He received the degree of D. D. from the University of the City of New York in the year 1848. Coming from that source, it was deemed a signal honor.
He died of ossification of the heart, sitting in his chair, on the 14th of January, 1857, having almost completed the seventy- sixth year of his age. To the last moment he was " calm, tri- umphant, and assured of everlasting glory.". In the face of death he exclaimed, " I have prayed for holy triumph, and I have it." His last words were, " Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." His grave is marked by a head-stone in the cemetery in Tarrytown, N. Y.
His first wife, ANN (WYLLEY) SANDFORD, "one of the excel- lent of the earth," died suddenly, after a brief illness, in Belle- ville, N. J., May 12, 1832, aged fifty years. She was a native of New York city, and was reared under the influence of the · Episcopal Church. She is buried in Belleville, and a church is built over her grave.
BETSEY ANN, his second wife, survived him a little more than twelve years. She wrote concerning her early experience :
When about twelve years of age I was melted into tears under a sermon of Rev. Joseph Crawford, and the impressions which it made were not shaken off.
Five years later she found rest in Christ ; and she obtained the blessing of entire sanctification about 1845, and her life ever after was a witness of its reality and power. She was a person of strange peculiarities, and "at times her mind seemed to be considerably affected." Her life was devoted to the church, and she bequeathed a part of her possessions to the missionary cause, and a part to the worn-out preachers of the New York Conference. On the 12th of May, 1869, at the age of sixty-nine years, she fell asleep in Jesus, in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and she lies buried beside her husband."
Peter P. Sandford was the father of thirteen children by the first marriage, seven by the second, making twenty in all. Four
8 C. S. B., in The Christian Advocate.
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Old Sands Street Church.
of the thirteen-Catharine, William, Joseph, and Wesley-sur- vived their mother. Only one of them- Joseph-is now living, (1884.) He has for many years been connected with the print- ing department of the Methodist Book Concern in New York, having assisted in the printing of the first copy of The Christian Advocate, in 1826. Most of the latter group of children reside in the vicinity of Tarrytown, N. Y. One daughter, Mrs. D. Miller, of White Plains, died in 1874. Another, Sarah M., wife of B. S. Horton, of Mount Pleasant, N. Y., died on the Ist day of June, 1881.º
9 The Christian Advocate.
Hung chase
REV. HENRY CHASE, M. A.
.
XLIII. HENRY CHASE.
LEXANDER M'CAINE's unexpired term as pastor in Brooklyn in the year 1820, was acceptably filled by the REV. HENRY CHASE, A. M.
He was born in Hoosic, Rensselaer Co., N. Y., Sept. 10, 1790-the third child and eldest son of Daniel and Eliza- beth Chase. His parents were reared as members of the so- ciety of Friends, and although they ultimately joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, they spoke the "plain language" through life.
Henry spent his boyhood on his father's farm, and attend- ed the district school; but he longed for better opportunities, and with tears entreated his father to send him to an acade- my. A large family and limited means seemed to his father sufficient reason for denying his request. Yet the boy could not be turned aside from his purpose, and by dint of his own persevering effort, he obtained a superior classical, scientific and theological education.
At the age of eighteen he became a member of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church. We here transcribe his
MINISTERIAL RECORD;1 1809, supply, Pownal cir., Vi., with James M. Smith; 1810, Pittsfield cir., Mass., a supply with Seth Crowell,; 18ir, in' Ohio; 1812-1817, teaching, farming and preaching, mostly in his native town; 1818-1819, teaching in Troy, N. Y., and preaching statedly en the Sabbath; 1820, teacher in Wesleyan Seminary, New York, -- pastor in Brooklyn from Feb'y 21 till conference;2 1821-1822, teacher, Wesleyan Seminary, and preach- er, Mariners Church, assistant to John Truair; 1823-1824, wholly employed in the seamen's cause; 1824, (from November, ) a supply in New York city, with P. P. Sandford, P. Rice, T. Mason, J. B. Stratton, S. Bushnell and E. Brown; 1825, (New York Conf.,) an elder-remaining in New York with P. P. Sand- ford, II. Stead, Wm. Jewett, J. Youngs and D. De Vinne; 1826-1847, New York, Mariners', Church, Roosevelt-st .; 1848-1851, (New York East Conf.,) ditto; 1852, a local preacher, retaining his place as pastor of Mariners' Church.
1 Ilis son, Prof. Chase, in Sprague's Annals gives the names of his appoint . ments previous to his ministry in Brooklyn.
2 Sands-street church records.
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Old Sands Street Church.
Such a record of nearly thirty years devoted to the work of a minister of Jesus Christ among the sailors, renders him wor- thy to take rank with Father Taylor, of Boston, among the no- blest and best of philanthropists. In Sprague's Annals is the following, written by an intimate friend :
No sailor belonging to the port, or who had worshiped at the Mariners' Church, in Roosevelt-street, would ever pass him in the street without doffing his hat, no matter whether drunk or sober. And his success in founding and sustaining the Mariners' Temperance Society, for the reformation of intemper- ate sailors, may be regarded as among the greatest blessings with which God was pleased to crown his labors.
A number of sailors, having just landed after a long voyage, started Sunday morning for their own church ; but several of them were induced by some land-shark to drink on the way, and by the time they reached the church had become somewhat intoxicated. The spokesman inquired at the door whether the captain of the ship was on the quarter-deck-his way of asking if their own preacher, Mr. Chase, was in the pulpit ; and, on receiving an af- firmative answer, they entered in a body. * * * A stranger being introduced as the preacher, one of these sailors said, in an audible tone, that as the preacher was not the captain of the ship he would pay him as far as he had gone, and, holding up a half dollar to the sexton, he made for the door, leav- ing the money for the usual collection at the close of the service. This was followed by an apology when the man became sober, and by his becoming a pledged member of the temperance society.4
This same friend describes him as a Christian, remarkable for his humility, rarely speaking of his personal experience; a min- ister, who won the affection and respect of Christian people of different denominations ; a preacher, whose sermons were well prepared but extemporaneously delivered; and whose prayers were offered with a pathos which often brought floods of tears to the eyes of the hardened sailors as they listened.
In society he was exceedingly courteous and affable, and much sought for in marrying people. It is stated by his son, Prof. Daniel II. Chase, that he united in holy matrimony ten thousand couples. A younger son, Sidera Chase, remarked to the author that when a youth he. prepared an index to his father's large and well-kept marriage record book, and found that he had undertaken no inconsiderable task. The income from so many marriages, added to his moderate salary, enabled Mr. Chase to give to each of his large family of children an excel- lent education. His own scholarly attainments were well known,
4 Rev. David Meredith Reese, M.D.
Record of Ministers. 231
and the Wesleyan University conferred upon him the degree of A.M., in the year 1835.' His appearance and bearing are thus described by the writer already quoted :
Mr. Chase was below the medium stature, strongly built, but not corpulent, and exhibiting an activity in his bodily movements corresponding to his quick perceptions and his ready utterance. His countenance was expressive of great benignity, and yet cheerfulness, which, instead of detracting from his solemnity, rather adorned it. He was regarded as a fine-looking man.
In answer to inquiries as to why he located and why the Mar- iners' Church dropped out of the list of Methodist appointments, it is stated that as the church was not sustained by Methodists alone, it seemed desirable to drop the denominational character it had assumed as a conference appointment.
Mr. Chase died of paralysis, July 8, 1853, in the sixty-third year of his age. During his fatal illness he was unable to speak, hence he left no dying testimony. His funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. J. B. Wakeley, and his body lay in the Mariners' Church after the funeral until the next day, and hosts of sailors, during the day and night, passed through the church and looked for the last time upon the face of their friend. Thence his remains were carried to the Indian Hill cemetery, in Middletown, Conn., where a monument has been erected to his memory.
RACHEL. PINE, of Swansea, Mass., was married to Henry Chase, September to, 1800, the day he was nineteen years of age. She died in New York, June 7, 1842, aged fifty-five years. From New York, where she was first buried, her remains were taken to Middletown, and buried by the side of her husband.
Children of Henry and Rachel Chase: Arling, married, de- ceased ; Elisabeth, died in mature life, leaving a family ; Daniel II., LL. D., first on the list of graduates of Wesleyan University, a successful educator; George W., died in youth ; Sidera, a graduate of Wesleyan University, formerly at the head of ini- portant educational institutions, now on the editorial staff of the New York Tribune ; Richard A., died, leaving a family ; Corne- lia; Jane E .; Rachel, wife of the Rev. N. J. Burton, D.D. ; Susan IV., died in infancy. The daughters as well as the sons of Henry Chase enjoyed the best educational advantages of their time ; two of them attended Rutgers' Female Seminary in New York.
XLIV. LABAN CLARK.
HE REV. LABAN CLARK, D. D. was personally asso- ciated with the Sands-street Church as presiding elder of the New York District, from 1824 to 1827, and of the Long Island District from 1848, to 1851.
Ile was born in Haverhill, N. H., July 9, 1778, and during his infancy the family moved to Bradford, Vt. He was trained in the belief of his parents, who were Congregation- alists, and strictly Calvanistic in their creed. . But the lad was inclined to think independently, and often question- ed certain points of the prevalent theology. The Wesleyan books brought into the neighborhood from England by a Mrs. Beckett, he carefully read, and his mind and heart were open to the teachings of the Methodist itinerants, when at length they made their way into that part of the state. John Langdon, of Vershire, who seems to have been the only Methodist except the Becketts, in all that region, peti- tioned the New York Conference for a preacher, and Nicho- la's Snethen in 1796,1 after him Ralph Williston, and a year later, Joseph Crawford and Elijah Chichester were sent to that field, they comparatively a remote wilderness country. Clark heard Williston preach in a barn in Vershire. He writes :.
The day was pleasant, and sants were prepared in and out of the barn. I saw where they had prepared for the preacher to stand, and I took my position where I might see and hear to the best advantage. Under the first prayer an arrow seemed directed singly to my heart, and I felt that I was the very person he was praying for, and that I was the sinner who nee.led prayers. I there and then resolved that I would try to be a better man. I saw people, men and wo- men. in the barn and out of it, on their knees in time of prayer, and I said to myself, This is the old Bible way, # # # and I went home with a fixed deter- mination to live a new life. But how and where to begin I knew not. I was in perfect darkness."
1 Joshua Hall was appointed to the state of Vermont in 1794, but did not go. See Stevens' Hist. M. E. Church, vol. iii, p. 235.
2 Quoted in an editorial article in the Christian Advocate.
1
REV. LABAN CLARK, D. D.
233
Record of Ministers.
In our sketch of Joseph Crawford the overwhelming impres- sions produced upon Clark's mind by the public and private appeals of that earnest evangelist have been described. It was while Crawford held him by the hand, urging him to accept Christ by faith, and imploring God to bless him. that the burden of sin was lifted from his conscience and he enjoyed " a perfect calmness " which he could hardly understand. This was fol- lowed a few weeks later by an undoubted witness of his accept- ance. On this occasion a class was formed, and he became one of the original members. He was then twenty-one years of age.
It has always been the glory of Methodism that it sets all its converts to work ; so young Laban Clark was soon called out to speak in public, and sometimes to expound and defend the doctrines taught by Wesley and Fletcher, with whose strong, logical discourses he was happily familiar. He was licensed to exhort in the year 1800. John Langdon, Rosebrook Crawford, and Martin Ruter were associates of Clark as exhorters or local preachers. . By their pioneer labors the way was prepared for the itinerants, and the famous old Landaff circuit was formed. They were not dismayed by threats or violence, and even when Rosebrook Crawford was " ducked " in the river, at Lancaster, amid the jeers and shouts of the mob, they counted it all joy to be counted worthy to suffer in so good a cause.
Young Ruter, who afterward became a church historian and a missionary preacher, went with Clark to a quarterly meeting, and heard John Broadhead, the presiding elder, preach " with an effect that swept down the congregation so that scores of them lay as dead men." That was the starting-point in Ruter's itinerant career, and soon afterward Clark was also in the field. Sixty-eight years of ministerial life are embraced in the follow- ing
ITINERANT RECORD : 1800, supply under the presiding elder, place not known ; 1801, (New York Conf., ) Fletcher cir., Vt. and Canada, with Jas. Coleman ; 1802, Plattsburgh cir., N. Y., with D. Brumly ; 1803, ordained deacon-missionary at St. Johns and Sorreille, Canada, with E. Chichester ; 1804, Adams, Mass .; 1805, ordained elder-Lebanon cir., N. Y., with .Geo. Powers ; 1806, Whitingham, Vi .: 1807, Buckland, Mass .; 1808, Granville cir., with J. Beeman ; 1809-1810, Litchfield cir., Conn., with Reu- ben Harris; 1811, New York, with N. Bangs, Jas. M. Smith, and P. P. Sandford : 1812, ditto, with Joseph Crawford, Win. Phochus, and Phinehas Cook ; 1813-1814, Troy ; 1815, Pittstown ; 1816-1817, Schenectady ; ISIS,
.
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Old Sands Street Church.
New York, with N. Bangs, S. Crowell, S. Howe, and Thos. Thorp; 1819, ditto, with A. Ilunt, S. Merwin, B. Hibbard, T. Spicer, and N. Morris ; 1820, Redding cir., Con., with P. Cook; 1821, ditto, with A. Hunt ; 1822, Strat- ford cir., Conn., with E. Barnett ; 1823, ditto, with J. Nixon ; 1824-1827, presiding elder, New York Dist .; 1828-1831, New Haven Dist .; 1832, agent, Wesleyan University ; 1833, New York, cast cir., with D. Ostrander, B. Griffen, P. Chamberlin, and P. R. Brown ; 1834, ditto, with S. Cochran, J. Youngs, N. Bigelow, and J. Law; 1835, sup'y, without appointment by his request ; 1836, sup'y, Haddam, Con .- agent for Wesleyan University ; 1837-1840, presiding elder, Hartford Dist .; 1841, Wethersfield, Conn .; 1842, sup'y; Middletown, with A. M. Osbon ; 1843, Stepney and Weston ; 1844- 1847, presiding elder, New Haven Dist .; 1848-1851, presiding elder, Long Island Dist .; 1852-1868, sup'd, residing in Middletown, Con.
He rode three hundred and forty miles to attend the confer- ence in New York city and have his name enrolled among the itinerants in iSo1. Of his experience on the Fletcher circuit, he says :
After traveling nine months I received three dollars only, and those to re- pair my boots. My spending money was exhausted, and I had borrowed five dollars of Mr. Coleman. At the quarterly conference the question came up how the money was to be divided. I told them that Mr. Draper, who had been sent to the east after the conference, had a family, and he must have his share. The elder then asked me for my traveling expenses. I told him that I had none, for I had just entered upon the regular work. He smiled, and told the steward to give me one dollar for shoeing my horse, and for quarter- age money paid me seven dollars, so that I had enough to pay what I had borrowed, and a little to spare.3
He acted a prominent part in the eight different General Con- ferences of which he was a member-all from ISOS to 1836, except that of 1820. One of the many marked results of his ministry was the conversion of Noah Levings, in Troy, N. Y., while he was stationed there, in 1813. While pastor in New York, in 1819, he first suggested and helped to organize one of the noblest institutions known among men, the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. As presiding elder of the New Haven District, in 1829, his quick eye caught sight of the opportunity to obtain property for a Methodist insti- tution of learning; and, with a faith that seemed inspired, he offered to purchase it, or find the men who, with himself, would purchase it for that purpose, and then brought the matter be- fore the New York Conference. Laban Clark is recognized, therefore, as the father of the Wesleyan University, and he was
" Quoted by The Christian Advocate.
Record of Ministers. 235
president of the board of trustees from its inception, in 1831, to his death, in 1868. For this institution he very naturally cher- ished a paternal fondness; and, according to his desire, he lived and died and was buried almost beneath its shadow.
In the year 1851 he preached before the New York Confer- ence a semi-centennial discourse, which was published. He was made a D.D). by the Wesleyan University in 1853. He finished his course, November 28, 1868, in the ninety-first year of his age. His life was longer than that of any other Sands- street pastor or presiding elder; he outranked, in this respect, Aaron Hunt, who also lived to be a little past ninety years of age. The cemetery, in the rear of the Wesleyan University, contains a brown stone monument, appropriately inscribed, which marks the place where the body of Laban Clark awaits the resurrection summons. His conference memorial says :
Ile was a leader in the old New York Conference, and died the patriarch of the New York East Conference. As a preacher, he was sound, instructive, and, in his prime, frequently powerful.'
Dr. Stevens also describes him " as an able preacher, notwith- standing a marked vocal defect."" The author heard him ad- dress the conference when he was too far advanced in years to impress the preachers, except with a veneration for his age. He appeared at that time to be a man of medium stature and quite erect ; his hoary head was a crown of glory, and his face, though deeply wrinkled, wore an expression of cheerfulness and peace. The memorial adds :
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