USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > Old Sands Street Methodist Episcopal Church, of Brooklyn, N.Y. : an illustrated centennial record, historical and biographical > Part 27
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The following account of his labors in his first circuit in New Jersey is taken from his diary. It is a very remarkable record, even for those times. He says :
In every 28 days I preached 42 sermons, walked 113 miles, and rode 152- making in 252 days, 369 sermons ; traveled on foot 1,017 miles, and rode 1,368 ; total, 2,385-besides leading classes, attending Sunday-schools, visit- ing almshouses, etc.
On the twenty-third anniversary of his birth, and soon after joining the New York Conference, he was married to MISS JANE WALKER. While preaching in Wilmington, about 1845, he was invited to Schenectady to deliver an address, and at that time Union College conferred upon him the degree of D.D.
Referring to the list of his appointments, the writer of his conference memorial says :
2 Conference Minutes, 1864, p. 89.
Record of Ministers. 281
The noticeable fact of this record is the number of times Dr. Kennaday was returned as pastor to churches that he had previously served. Of the forty years of his ministry twenty-two years, or more than half, was spent in five churches. No fact better attests his long-continued popularity, and his power of winning the affections of the people.
His death was sudden and unexpected. On Tuesday even- ing, Nov. 10, 1863, he was in the act of delivering an exhortation in the chapel of the Washington-street Methodist Episcopal church, of Brooklyn, when he was struck with apoplexy; he was borne unconscious to his bed, and died the following Sat- urday, November 14, aged sixty-three years. Thus did the Lord Jesus permit his faithful servant to
" Preach him to all, and cry in death, ' Behold, behold the Lambl'"
Bishop Janes preached his funeral sermon, a sketch of which was published in the Brooklyn Eagle. Heman Bangs and others took part in the services. The remains were deposited in " Greenwood."
Dr. Kennaday's career is a marked "illustration of the beauty and glory of a life devoted to the pastorate." He was a model pastor. "To preach Christ and to watch over Christ's flock seemed his highest joy." Bishop Janes penned the following beautiful tribute soon after the death of his friend:
As a Christian pastor, Dr. Kennaday was eminent in his gifts, in his at- tainments, and in his devotion to his sacred calling, and in the seals God gave to his ministry. In the pulpit he was clear in the statement of his sub- ject, abundant and most felicitons in his illustrations, and pathetic and im- pressive in his applications. His oratory was of a high order. His presence, his voice, his fluency of speech, his graceful action, his fine imagination, and his fervent feelings, rendered his elocution effective and powerful, and gave to his preaching great attractiveness and popularity.
Out of the pulpit the case and elegance of his manners, the vivacity and sprightliness of his conversational powers, the tenderness of his sympathy, and the kindness of his conduct toward the afflicted and needy, and his affection- ate notice of and efforts for the childhood and youth of his congregation, made him the greatly endeared and beloved pastor.
The Rev. A. Manship describes the flocking together of his numerous friends to hear him preach the dedicatory sermon in the Hedding church, in Philadelphia, and then adds :
He has labored much within the bounds of the Philadelphia Conference, and is deservedly a popular minister, and his popularity among us has never waned. Several of our best church edifices have been reared through his in-
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strumentality. He has assisted in relieving many from pecuniary embarrass- ment within our bounds. He is abundant in labors, perfectly at home in the work of revival. Who ever witnessed his management of a protracted meet- ing or a camp-meeting, and could not well say, he is a good tactician ? He has the happy art of interesting the children.3
A book of exercises, adapted for use in Sunday-school con- certs and exhibitions-one of the earliest and best of its kind- was compiled by Dr. Kennaday.
It was the author's privilege on one occasion, at a camp- meeting in Milford, Conn., in 1861, to listen to Dr. Kennaday's moving appeals to the unconverted. Many penitents knelt in front of the stand after the sermon, and it was a delight to see how eagerly and thankfully they listened to his affectionate and helpful words, as, with wonderful adaptation to each, he directed their faith to the Lord Jesus Christ.
JANE (WALKER,) widow of the Rev. Dr. Kennaday, lingered among us in patient, happy hope of heaven, until September 13, 1884, when she died, in her eighty-second year, at the residence of Mrs. Joshua Brooks, in Highland, N. Y., where she had spent the summer. Her memorial says :
She was born in New York city, March 27, 1803. and early became a mem- ber of John-street Methodist Episcopal church. ** * She was a person of great gentleness, which, combined with a most exemplary Christian character, made her beloved by all. * * * Her health gradually failed until she sank peacefully to rest, with her family, except one daughter, around her bedside.‘
The Rev. E. L. Allen, pastor of the Highland Methodist Episcopal church, preached her funeral sermon. The remains were interred in Greenwood cemetery. The author visited Mrs. Kennaday, in New York city, about a year before her death. She talked beautifully and affectionately of her husband, of his life and death, and the near prospect of a happy re-union.
Children : John R., a lawyer, was four years a member of the N. Y. Legislature-two years as senator; died in 1884, soon after the death of his mother ; James H. resides in Rochester, N. Y .; Catherine died January 17, 1884; Jane IV. married Wm. G. Stille ; Maria B. (Mrs. John Sawyer) died about 1864; La- vinia R. died in infancy ; Helen Cornelia ; Caroline Virginia.
3 " Thirteen Years in the Ministry," page 334.
4 J. R., in The Christian Advocate.
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LVI.
John Tucker
HE subject of this sketch, the REV. JOHN LUCKEY, was brother to Samuel Luckcy, who preceded him by a few years as pastor of Sands-street church. The Luckey family originated in Scotland; thence, it is said, in a time of religious persecution, they fled to the north of Ireland, where they held a very respectable social position. Three brothers emigrated to this conntry, and after a time they separated, one going west, another south, and one set- tled near New Hamburgh, N. Y., where the old homestead of "Squire Luckey" may still be seen. Joseph Luckey, Sen., the father of the two Methodist preachers, was a farmer. Ile died at his home in Auburn, N. Y., in 1833. His wife was from Ilolland. The old family record says of her: "Lanah Wag- ner, born July 6, 1763, married 1787, died suddenly August 6, 1816." She was a devout Christian, and her children al- ways spoke of her with loving reverence.
John Luckey was born March 13, 1800.' He gave his heart to God before he was nine years of age .? His widow writes:
He left home when a mere boy, lived with his brother Samuel, went to school, and became a teacher. The love of the brothers for each other was like the love of David and Jonathan to the end of their lives.
1 Presumably in Rensselaerville, N. Y., the birthplace of his brother Samuel.
? I. J. T. Lumbeck-memoir in "The Christian Advocate." 20
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PASTORAL RECORD : 1820, supply, Delaware cir., N. Y., with John Finnegan and James Quinlan ; 1821, (New York Conf.,) Durham cir., Conn., with Josiah Bowen ; 1822, Burlington cir., with C. Silliman ; 1823, ordained deacon, -- Wethersfield cir., with E. Barnett ; 1824, missionary to the west end of Long Island ; 1825, ordained elder,-New Haven and Hamden, with H. Bangs ; 1826, sup'y, Stratford cir., with S. D. Ferguson and Valentine Buck ; 1827, Hampshire mission in the Rhinebeck Dist., N. Y .; 1828, Hampshire cir., with Iliram White; 1829-1830, Southold cir .; 1831, Saratoga cir., with W. Anson, sup'y, J. D. Moriarty, sup'y, D. Ensign, sup'y, and T. Newman ; 1832, New Utrecht ; 1833, Brooklyn and New Utrecht, with T. Burch and J. Kennaday ; 1834, Brooklyn, with T. Burch and J. Kennaday ; 1835, Harlem mission ; 1836, ditto, with D. De Vinne; 1837-1838, Goshen, Conn. ; 1839-1846, chaplain, Sing Sing prison, N. Y. ; 1847- 1848, New Castle and Pinesbridge ; 1849-1850, Pleasantville ; 1851-1852, New York, Five Points mission ; 1853, White Plains ; 1854, Fishkill, west : 1856-1865, chaplain, Sing Sing prison ; 1866, sup'y ; 1867-1875, sup'd, Rolla, Phelps County, Mo.
He organized the Flushing circuit in 1824. ` On the 18th of May, 1829, he was married, by Bishop Hedding, to MISS DINAH RUTHERFORD, of the Sands-street church. He repaired with his young wife to his appointment, the Southold circuit, on the east end of Long Island. More than fifty years afterward Mrs. Luckey furnished the author with interesting reminiscences of their experience on that circuit.
As the foregoing record shows, Mr. Luckey spent more than twenty years in ministering to the poor people of the city and the criminals of the prison. C. C. North, Esq., who was Sun- day-school superintendent and class-leader at the Five Points mission when Luckey entered upon his work there, writes as follows :
The first Sabbath of Mr. Luckey's pastorate was memorable. The society still occupied the old saloon, corner of Cross and Little Water streets. Serv- ices and Sunday-school had been held in this room for one year, with tem- perance meetings on Wednesday nights. Class-meetings on Thursday nights were held in an adjoining dingy old room, where the writer dealt out for one year to hungry souls the bread of life.
Sifting from the doubtful company twelve who, amid surrounding tempta- tions of debauchery, had stood with heroic fidelity and proved that they were, indeed, disciples of the Lord Jesus, they were presented to Mr. Luckey as the foundation of the church which he came to establish. On the morning of May 18, 1851, these twelve knelt at the altar, Mr. Luckey and the writer within, while the noble ladies of the society, with deep solicitude, saw the twelve received on probation, and then joined them in the Lord's Supper. Under Mr. Luckey's administration the work prospered in all departments, until the capacious mission buildings were erected. It could not do other- wise. His fine sense, his industry, his integrity, his humor, his patience, and
Record of Ministers. 285
his transparent piety were guarantees of success. I loved to see him in his work. He was charity personified as he stood with bread and garments for the poor and words of counsel for the erring. The Five Points mission was and is a colossal work, and he was the colossal figure in it. The dignity of his person and the integrity of his character drew to the mission the support of many of the best men and women of all the churches.3
From personal knowledge the same writer gives the following glowing account of Mr. Luckey in the peculiar work of the pris- oners' chaplain, which occupied a very large share of his min- isterial life :
In 1855 he was called to the chaplaincy of the Sing Sing prison. This way his second appointment. His first, including the years from 1339 to 1846, was so eminently successful that many distinguished men of both parties were deeply interested in his renewed service. In 1861 the writer moved to the neighborhood of Sing Sing, and was at once sought out by Mr. Luckey to as- sist him in his Sunday services among the prisoners. During five years the custom was for me to address the prisoners once a month. The frequency of these visits gave me a thorough acquaintance with his personal traits and his successful administration. During that whole period I never heard an unkind word said against him from inspectors, wardens, keepers, or even prisoners, except from those who feared his incorruptibility. I called at each of the 1,000 or 1,200 cells, and conversed with every prisoner. In these conversa- tions Mr. Luckey's name was generally if not always introduced, and the sen- timent was unanimous that his character for piety, probity, and unselfish de- votion to his work was without a flaw. The convicts might berate the in- spectors, wardens, and keepers, but the name of Luckey closed at once the lip, of derision and scorn. With the tenderness of woman he would listen on the one hand to the sad stories of the convicts, and on the other penetrate with rare sagacity the schemes of corrupt then. He was loved by the worthy and sincere, while the false dreadel no mas more than him whom they were wont to call " old Luckey." When he discovered in a young man the promise of a better life, with what tenacity did he follow the care, not only through prison-life, but also into the great outside world, until the young man was re- stored to the family and society from which he had fallen ! No one on earth can know how numerous were his visits to the wives and children and parents of the convicts, nor how countless were the little benefactions he conferred on the families and friends of those unhappy men.
The last ten years of his life were spent on a farm near Rolla, Mo. His pastor says :
He donated to the church six acres of land and a small house, which, re- pairel, became " Luckey's Chapel." He preached once a month an I worked in the Sunday-school till his health utterly failed. His last public discourse was to the children of this little school, and it was very affecting.4
& The Chri tian Advocare, May 9, 1976.
4 1 J. K. Llinbeck in The Christian Advocate.
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Old Sands Street Church.
His old-time friend, C. C. North, visited him in his Western home. He tells the story thus :
Business called me a few years since to St. Louis. On Saturday the inquiry arose in my mind where I should spend the Sabbath. Rolla and the Luckeys flashed on my mind. Taking an afternoon train a ride of eighty miles brought me at midnight to Rolla. I learned at the hotel that my friend lived four miles away. Curbing my impatience, I remained till early morning, and then, mounting a horse, rode out to their home in the woods. It seemed a long and devious way, my road winding around " settlements," until, perched upon a side hill and flanked by a forest, was the picturesque, yet plain and unadorned home of the Luckeys. They had spied a stranger emerging from the woods, had seen him fasten his horse and enter the gate, and then came the recognition, followed by a scene which the reader will not expect me to describe. I found that religion in the new relations was just as marked and prominent as at former periods of Mr. Luckey's history. His home that Sabbath was the gathering-place for Christian worship. The neighbors looked upon him as a patriarch to whom they might come for counsel, sym- pathy, and help.
I was the only one of his eastern friends who had visited him. My pres- ence, therefore, that day was a comfort to him, while the visit was to me a feast. Amid an apparent serenity the presence of one from the East renewed the yearnings he felt for his old friends. The shades of evening drew on, and I and my beloved friends waved the last farewell as the family group, cottage, and hill-side faded from sight.
He was exceedingly affable, child-like, perfectly unostenta- tious, counseling with the youngest preachers as with equals, notwithstanding he was " the associate and peer of the ablest men of the church." The weak, suffering, and penitent always found in him a friend. His piety burned the brighter as the lamp of life grew dim. He delighted in hearing the gospel proclaimed, and had preaching in his room when he could not go to the chapel. He never missed his family worship until the morning of his death. When it became necessary for him to move into town, where he might be near a physician, he would not leave his farm until he had arranged for a tenant who would care for his little church. This done, he expressed him- self as fully satisfied and ready to meet his God.
On the morning of the roth of January, after he had moved into town, he arose as usual, with no premonitions that death was at the door. Mrs. Luckey describes the closing scene :
He sat in a rocking-chair at the table, eating his breakfast. He indulged in a little pleasantry, just like himself, but I observed that he leaned over on
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his left side. Eliza and I succeeded in getting him into the bed ; his eyes closed, he lay like one in a deep sleep, and in a few hours "he was not, for God took him." 5
Funeral services were held in the Methodist Episcopal church in Rolla, Mo., and in Sing Sing, N. Y. In Dale ceme- tery, in Sing Sing, is a head-stone suitably inscribed, which marks the resting-place of John Luckey.
His widow resides in Haverstraw, N. Y., with their only sur- viving child, Helen Eliza. Two children, Mary and John, died while Mr. Luckey was stationed in Brooklyn, and their graves are in the Sands-street church-yard. Two others, Samuel and Emma, are at rest by the grave of their father ; and another, Isabella, is buried in Newcastle, Westchester County, N. Y.
Mrs. Luckey is a daughter of Christopher Rutherford, an honored local preacher of the Sands-street church.6 Her letters to the author contain evidence of rare talent and culture, and a character worthy of fellowship with her noble husband both in labor and reward.
" Letter to the Rev. Elbert Osborn.
6 For an extended account of the Rutherfords, see Book III.
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LVII. BARTHOLOMEW CREAGH.'
HE REV. BARTHOLOMEW CREAGH was born in Dub- lin, August 23, 1801. His ancestors on his father's side were Scotch-Irish, while his mother's family were of English extraction and of high social position. His maternal grandfather, John Hawkins, of Dublin, was an em- inent barrister. His father was a gentleman of culture and ability, but it was to his mother, a refined, accomplished lady, that he owed his religious training. Mrs. Creagh felt that up- on her devolved the responsibility of moulding the religious character of her children. Although a member of the Episco- pal Church, she became deeply interested in meetings held un- der the auspices of the Methodists. About this time her old- est son, Bartholomew, who had already been baptized and confirmed, became deeply exercised upon the subject of relig- ion. To his mother's great joy, at one of these meetings he dedicated himself to God's service, and there never was a more entire consecration. The habitual tendency of his soul was toward the object of its supreme love; he seemed to watch for opportunities for communion with God, and testifies in his diary to the blessedness of his intercourse with his "soul's Be- loved", and this habit followed him through life. He was em- inently a man of prayer, a firm believer in the immediateness of Divine help in daily duty. He entered upon this life of faith when sixteen years of age.
Born in a home of luxury, with expectation of handsome inheritance, he had intended to follow a legal profession; but God's thought for him was of higher things. These plans were relinquished that he might preach the gospel, and ev-
1 This elegantly written memerial i; frem the pen of his daughter, Miss Fi- d' lin M. Creagh, of Proc lyn, I .. Y.
Record of Ministers. 289
ery energy was devoted to preparation for the work of his choice. He was richly endowed by nature and by grace, and these gifts were supplemented by a classical education. He was a fine linguist, reading Greek, Hebrew, and Latin with ease, and was also conversant with some of the modern languages." He was, perhaps, most remarkable for the beauty and purity of his English. One of the most eminent instructors of the age said of him : " His language was perfect, so simple that a child might understand, and always critically correct."
Unexpected loss of fortune induced his family to seek pros- perity in the New World. He accompanied his father to New York at the age of eighteen years. He began to preach in 1826 at Flushing, L. I. This event is noted in his diary :
A few days since I left my pleasant home, and a large circle of friends, whose society had been a joy to me, but it was under firm conviction that necessity was laid upon me to preach the gospel.3
This entrance upon the work of the ministry was not a cause of small import. This, the struggles of his heart as expressed in his diary, amply testify. He says :
I am led to think if I could always preach with satisfaction to myself, I. should in some measure forget that my help cometh from the Lord. I con- tinually cry, " Who is sufficient for these things?"
Again he writes :
Lo! I see another year. With what propriety can I adopt the words of the venerable Jacob, " Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been." I am .greatly humiliated with a sense of my imperfections, and would ever cry, Lord pardon what I have been, and order what I shall be. ' If I know myself, I more ardently long for inward purity than fullness of joy.
2 [ His children say that he was educated in Dublin. The statement in M'Clintock and Strong's Cyclopedia that he studied Greek and Latin in Bel- fast is an error .- E. W.]
3 [Thus began a ministerial career of more than twenty-five years, of which a comprehensive view is furnished in the following record of successive
APPOINTMENTS : 1826, Flushing cir., N. Y., a supply, with Richard Seaman and O. V. Amerman ; 1827-1828, (New York Conf.,) Hempstead cir., with D. De Vinne and D. Holmes ; 1828, ditto, with N. W. Thomas and D. I. Wright ; 1829, ordained deacon ; 1829-1830, Plattsburgh ; 1831, ordained elder; 1831-1832, Rhinebeck; 1833-1834, Middletown, Conn. ; 1835- 1836, Brooklyn, Sands-street ; 1837-1838, New York, Vestry-street ; 1839-1840, Rhinebeck ; 1841-1842, Red Hook mission ; 1843-1846, presiding elder, Hartford Dist., Con. ; 1847-1848, (the latter year, New York East Conf.,) New York, Allen-street ; 1849-1850, New York, Seventh-street ; 1851-1852, Williamsburgh, South Fifth-street .- E. W.]
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Modest and tender, gentle and strong, compassionate to the weak, he was most severe with himself, for self was continually arraigned before the stern bar of his own tender conscience. . He seemed clothed with humility as with a garment, and it was of no scanty pattern. While those who knew him best were rejoicing in the light which his consistent life threw upon the pathway to the skies, he was often in secret places, deploring as in dust and ashes his own short-comings, and pleading the merits of Jesus, as his only hope.
In the pulpit he was a fervid, impassioned speaker.4 Preach- ing was not an opportunity for the display of natural gifts, but rather the outpouring of a full heart, that sought to free itself from solemn responsibility. He seemed literally to persuade men, and under his soul-stirring appeals many dead hearts were touched, and blind eyes opened to the beauty of holiness. It was not strange that one who so continually communed with his "soul's Beloved," the one "altogether lovely," should have many seals to his ministry. An extract from a memorial sermon by that eminent man of God, the Rev. Nathaniel S. Prime, D.D., of the Presbyterian Church, will be appropriate. He says :
It is not my intention to pronounce a eulogy upon the great man whom God has taken from our midst ; but I cannot withhold the spontancous tribute of my heart, and I predicate my right upon the fact that when such a man as Bartholomew Creagh is removed from a community, it is a greater loss to the public than to his own particular church. During the past year it has been my privilege to hear him oftener than any other clergyman, and always with intense interest and profit. His sermons gave evidence of careful prep- aration and deep thought, and were delivered with a pathos that could only be obtained in the closet. From the first time I heard him proclaim the gospel of our common Master, I understood more fully than ever before the force of that simple record, " It came to pass when he had made an end of speaking, that the soul of Jonathan was knit unto the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul." Being his near neighbor, my privilege of social intercourse was considerable, sufficient to show me that he was every-where the same warm-hearted, consistent, catholic Christian. To ex- press in a few words my estimate of his character, I would say that to a vig-
4 [Daniel De Vinne, a fellow-countryman of Mr. Creagh, said in his Semi- centennial Sermon : " Brother Creagh had been fitted for Trinity College, Dublin. He was naturally eloquent, while his piety, earnestness, and whole- heartedness gave a peculiar force and beauty to his enunciation. I have heard John Summerfield in his best days, but would as soon have heard Bar- tholomew Creagh." Bishop Davis W. Clark says, in Sprague's Annals : " As a preacher he was always interesting and impressive. * * * He was extremely tender and earnest in his appeals; indeed he was sometimes overwhelmingly eloquent."-E. W.]
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