USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > Old Sands Street Methodist Episcopal Church, of Brooklyn, N.Y. : an illustrated centennial record, historical and biographical > Part 30
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MINISTERIAL RECORD : 1823, supply, Croton cir., N. Y. with Marvin Richardson; (New York Conf., ) Croton cir., with M. Richardson; 1825, Granville cir , Mass. and Conn., with Smith Dayton ; 1826, ordained deacon, -- ditto, with D. Miller and Job Allen ; 1827, Pittsfield cir., Mass., with B. Sil- lick and S. C. Hurd ; 1828, ordained elder, -- ditto, with B. Sillick and C. F. Pelton ; 1829-1830, Poultney, Vt .; 1831, Middlebury; 1832, (Troy Conf.,) Middlebury ; 1833, Charlotte and Shelburn cir .; 1834, ditto, with J. Gobbett ; 1835-1837, presiding elder, Plattsburgh Dist. ; 1838, Troy N. Y., North Second- street, with J. Cannon, sup'y ; 1839, Oneida Conf., Ithaca ; 1840-1841, (New York Conf., ) Brooklyn, Sands-street; 1842-1843, New York, Willett-street; 1844-1845, Stamford, Conn .: 1846, Hartford, Conn., with C. Fletcher ; IS47, Hartford; 1848-1849, Saugerties, N. Y .; 1850, agent, New York State Coloniza- tion Society ; 1851-1852, Yorkville, N. Y .; 1853-1854, Goshen; 1855-1858, pre- siding elder, Rhinebeck Dist .; 1859-1860, Cold Spring; 1861, Ashford and Greensburgh ; 1862-1863, North Newburgh ; 1864-1866, Shrub Oak ; 1867- 1869 Sugar Loaf ; 1870-1871, Milton ; 1873-1874, sup'y ; 1875-1884, sup'd.
He traveled and preached fifty years without losing six months during the entire period. In a letter to the author he says :
In my earlier circuits I preached about thirty sermons in a month, leading class after each public service. The custom was on Sunday to preach three times and lead three classes. But I performed the work as a matter of course, and never thought it hard. The pay was small-one hundred dollars a year for a single man, and I was counted such for four years-but I never grieved at that, for I did not preach for money.
Mr. Oakley was married, September 12, 1827, in Windsor, Conn., to Miss MARIA LOOMIS. His brethren elected him del- egate to the General Conference of 1836. He was married a
.
Record of Ministers. 313
second time, in 1844, to Miss HARRIET SILLICK, daughter of his friend and former colleague, the Rev. Bradley Sillick. This wife still survives, and the two are enjoying a serene and happy old age in the town of Milton, N. Y.
Concerning his connection with Sands-street church, Mr. Oakley writes :
My pastorate in Brooklyn was interesting and very pleasant, but the inci- dents were not remarkable. The longest confinement I ever had in my min- istry was there. In consequence of visiting a sick sister, I caught the varioloid, and was kept in-doors some weeks. I have pleasant memories of, J. W. Harper and family, Jacob Brown, John Smith, David Coope, Father Herbert, etc., etc. But most of them are gone-I hope to meet them on the other shore.3
That he has learned the art of growing old gracefully, is evident from the following statement :
As it regards myself now, my eyesight is good, my hearing a little defective, my hand, as you see, trembles ; otherwise my mental and physical powers are in fair order for one who has passed through eighty-three summers. My children are all gone, except a daughter, who is unmarried and remains at home. Myself, wife, and daughter form a trio to be broken by and by ; but there is a " sweet by and by," where we hope to meet, not as a little trio, but as a part of the general assembly and church of the first-born in heaven.
MARIA, his wife, died in the Willett-street parsonage, April 3, 1844, in the forty-seventh year of her age. She was born in 1798, in Windsor, Conn., and experienced religion a short time prior to her marriage. Her piety was uniform and genuine. She spent her last Sabbath, though feeble, in the house of God. "She was her husband's best earthly friend and confidential adviser. As a mother, she loved her children, and by every means in her power, sought their present and future welfare." 4
3 Letter to the author.
4 Dr. Noah Levings in The Christian Advocate.
LXII Limon Vicento
HE ministry of the REV. LEONARD M. VINCENT in the old Sands-street church was a very marked success. At the close of his term in the year 1844, the full members and probationers had increased to six hun- dred and sixty-four, the largest membership to which the church ever attained.
Like Peter P. Sandford's second initial, the "M." in Leon- ard M. Vincent's name is only a distinguishing letter. Mr. Vincent is the only surviving ex-pastor of this church whom the writer has never seen-a lack only partly compensated by a pleasant but very brief correspondence. This fact makes the task of writing the present sketch more than or- dinarily difficult and delicate.
The date of Leonard M. Vincent's birth is October 16, 1814; the place one of the villages on the eastern shore of the Hudson-town of Washington, Dutchess, County, N. Y. His childood home was a little cottage by the river's brink.
From its windows in front, vessels could be seen passing up and down. llard by, at the end of the cottage, was a creek, emptying itself into the river. Near the mouth of the creek was a beautiful waterfall. This was backed by a large pond of water, the motive power of mills and factories that stood be- low. The location of the cottage was picturesque in the extreme. Ilere he spent his early days, and spent thein happily, in the society of an affectionate mother and a devoted sister near three years his senior.1
Leonard was very young when his father died, and his mother, though not a Christian, trained him in "the strictest morality." In accordance with his father's expressed desire, the boy was placed at the age of ten years in the care of his uncle, to be brought up on a farm. At fourteen he re- turned to the home of his mother, to spend a year in
1 "The Farmer Boy " pp. 13, 15. This volume is from the pen of Mr. Vin- cent-an autobiography; disguised, however, by the use of an assumed name. Most of the facts here narrated are gleaned from this little book.
Record of Ministers. 315
school. Although his religious instruction had been very lim- ited, he was placed in charge of a class of boys in the Sunday- school. By this means he became acquainted with the minister . and other pious persons, who "taught him the way of the Lord more perfectly." In a short time he was powerfully convicted of sin and happily saved. His struggles with his own heart, the firmness of his resolution, the bitterness of his repentance, the fierceness of his temptations, and the rapture of his deliverance, were quite remarkable in the experience of one so young. He exhibited great conscientiousness and sincerity from the begin- ning of his Christian life. Following his convictions of duty he asked the privilege of erecting a family altar in his mother's home; and, in the presence of the family and several visitors, none of whom were professors of religion, he offered prayer. The joy of the lad was complete when, a short time afterward, he learned that by manfully bearing the heavy cross in the presence of his mother, sister, uncle, and aunt, he had been the means of leading them all to Christ, and erecting two family altars instead of one.
His call to the ministry was simultaneous with his conversion, but not very promptly obeyed. He abandoned the idea of farming, and entered the employ of his sister's husband as clerk of a store in New York. During his stay there he was connected with the Duane-street church, where he became as- sociated with the lamented Dr. Emory and other eminent Christians. Leaving the city at the end of one year, he returned to his native village, served as a clerk in a store two years, then engaged in mercantile business on his own account. After his marriage, which occurred about this time, he applied himself the more closely to business for two or three years, " toiling on under constant convictions and struggles of mind " concerning his call to the ministry.
Receiving license as a local preacher in the summer of 1832, he preached his first sermon in a school-house on a Sunday afternoon. A horn was blown to call the people together. It was the last message to which some of the hearers ever listened, for the cholera seized five persons of that congregation soon after the service closed, and they were dead and buried before eleven o'clock the next day.
Providence opening the way for a satisfactory disposal of his bus- iness interests, he entered the itinerant ministry in the year 1837.
22
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Old Sands Street Church.
CONFERENCE RECORD : 1837, (New York Conf.,) Dutchess cir., N. Y., with John Reynolds; 1838, ditto, with S. Cochran ; 1839, ordained deacon by Bishop Hedding,-Mount Pleasant cir., with S. Van Dusen ; 1840, ditto, with D. Holmes; IS41, ordained elder,-Johnsville, with J. A. Chalker; 1842-1843, Brooklyn, Sands-street ; 1844, Rhinebeck ; 1845-1846, New York, Allen-street ; 1847-1848, New York, Duane-street ; 1849-1850, Pough- keepsie, Washington-street ; 1851-1852, Matteawan ; 1853-1854, New York, Sullivan-street ; 1855-1858, presiding elder, Newburgh Dist. ; 1859-1862, pre- siding elder, Poughkeepsie Dist. ; 1863, Poughkeepsie, Washington-street ; 1864-1884, superannuated.
In Sands-street church, as already intimated, Mr. Vincent was exceedingly industrious and successful. He endeared him- self to the young, the sick, and the poor-to all, indeed, as a man of warm sympathy, sound judgment, and remarkable adaptation to the pastor's vocation. He was there during "a year of re- vivals," and Sands-street church shared in the general visitation. Mention has already been made of the demolition of the old white church, and the erection of a new, brick edifice during his ministry there.
Several incidents of Mr. Vincent's pastorate in Sands-street are recorded in the story of " The Farmer Boy." In the humble home of a pious widow, a native of Scotland, her little son, John, sickened and died. He had been found by a kind teacher and led to the Sands-street Sunday-school ; the mother had fol- lowed her boy to the church, and both had learned the blessed- ness of trusting in the Lord. Their home was an attic in an obscure " alley," but the pastor found it to be the abode of heavenly peace. He writes:
Frequent interviews with John confirmed my very favorable opinion of his piety and preparedness for heaven. The same calm resignation to the Divine will, the same sweetness of spirit was manifested up to the hour of his depart- ure. * * * He whispered, "I am ready," and sweetly slept in Jesus. * * * John was buried on a Sabbath afternoon. It was one of those bright and glowing days of summer, when nature seemed loudest to proclaim the good- ness and mercy of the Lord. Early in the afternoon the corpse was taken from the home in the alley, and borne to the church-yard. Here it was placed upon a bier, beneath the shade of a majestic willow, whose branches, gracefully bending, swept the green earth, as moved by the winds of heaven. All then retired into the church and listened to the funeral sermon. This service being concluded, a procession was formed for the place of burial, headed by a band of Sabbath-school scholars, bearing the remains of the deceased. Then followed his mother, some three hundred children, and a great number of the congregation, each anxious to show respect to the piety and worth of the mother and her son. After the body was deposited in the
317
Record of Ministers.
ground, and the burial service was read, the vast group of children joined in a sweet and touching hymn, the melody of which was occasionally interrupted by the sobs and sighs of the multitude. It was a tribute shown not to wealth, or fame, or worldly distinction, but to piety, such as commanded the approval of God and the achmiration of men.2
Another incident is worthy of being transferred to these pages, since it furnishes an example of Mr. Vincent's diligent pastoral service, and illustrates the grand work done by the Sands-street Sunday-school. It is recorded as follows :
Soon after my entrance upon my ministerial duties in this charge I was called to visit a poor widow. She was the mother of an interesting and mneh- loved daughter, aged, perhaps, eleven years. She was a stranger in the place. Her birthplace was beyond the wide Atlantic. Her home was there, and her kindred. Her heart yearned to visit her native shores, and she desired that her dust might mingle with the soil of the country where she was born. In my visits I was frequently led to mark her holy triumph. There was joy in her countenance in the midst of her sufferings. Resignation was upon her brow, and the language of sweet submission fell from her lips. There was only one tie, she said, that bound her to earth. Its strength is best known to a mother's heart. That tie was her orphan child, a member of our Sabbath- school. Never shall I forget the scene I witnesssed-that mother gazing with tearful eyes upon her offspring, and commending to God, as her last sacrifice, her girl. She had just asked me to pray for her, that God would give her a complete victory. We prayed. The struggle was severe and somewhat pro- tracted, but the mother triumphed By faith the daughter was committed willingly, and in holy confidence, to God ; and there was a holy calm in the mother's breast. To gratify her earnest wishes, it was resolved that she should cross the wide waste of waters to the shores of France, if her wasted energies would permit it. She hoped this to die amid the scenes of her child- hood. Kind friends came to assist her. The mother and daughter left us, followed by the prayers of pastor, friends, and especially Mary's Sabbath- school teacher and classmates. The mother lived to see the land of her birth, but not to tread on its shores. The pilot boat that towed the ship to her anchorage bore to the wharf the lifeless remains of the mother.
But the little girl, the orphan ; you ask, what became of her ? She found the home sought by her parent, but O ! how desolate ! The joy of her life was wanting. No parental car was there to hear the tale of her sorrow. No breast heaved with emotion, on which to pillow her little head and find com- fort. She was alone. Though among her kindred, they were strangers. Months passed, and then a letter came to the Sabbath-school teacher, bearing tidings of this lone child of sorrow. In that letter, she, in substance, said : "I am hastening to meet my mother in a better world. I am dying ; con- sumption takes me as it did mamma ; but I wish to tell you that my heart cherishes its attachment to my Sabbath-school in America. I have not for- gotten nor ceased to love my teacher, schoolmates, and friends. Though far
2 " The Farmer Boy," pp. 123-130.
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Old Sands Street Church.
away, my heart still clings to you who received us, strangers ; yet cared for us, and taught us the things of God. I am dying ; but my Sabbath-school lessons I learned with you (for I have no minister now) have shown me where to go in the hour of trouble, and in whom to trust. I believe that I have the prayers of those who cared so much for me in a land so distant. I have gone to my Saviour ; I have offered my prayers to him ; I have been brought into his favor, and feel that I am his child. I am ready to go and meet mamma in heaven. Farewell ! I am dying ! happy, happy, happy !"
This letter came with a postscript : "She is dead." O! ye Sabbath-school teachers and friends, see the fruits of your toil! God waters the seed you sow, and gives you a hundred-fold. Toil on, then. Here is one saved, at least,-yea, two, the mother and the daughter. When the mother landed on our shores she was a French Catholic. It was a Sabbath-school teacher that won the mother by winning the child ; both by this means were led to Christ.3
Mr. Vincent was married to a daughter of the Rev. Marvin Richardson. One of their sons is the Rev. Marvin R. Vincent, D).D., of the Church of the Covenant, New York city, and their daughter is the wife of a minister.
8 " The Farmer Boy," pp. 138-142.
1
J. J. Matthias
REV. JOHN J. MATTHIAS
-
LXIII.
JOHN J. MATTHIAS.
OHN B. MATTHIAS was a sturdy pioneer Methodist preacher, whose name will not cease to be honored in the annals of the church. His visits to the lit- tle society in Brooklyn soon after it was organized, and his prominent agency in the introduction of camp-meetings into this region, we have already noted. His son, the REV. JOHN JARVIS MATTHIAS, was born in the city of New York, Janu- ary 7, 1796. The name Jarvis was given him in honor of his mother's family. Her parents, Nathaniel and Phoebe Jarvis, were devoted Methodists in the town of Huntington, L. I. Of the same family were Bishop A. Jarvis and the Rev. S. F. Jarvis, of Connecticut.1
Bishop Janes, an ardent friend and admirer of John J. Matthias, wrote thus concerning his early life:
At a suitable age he went to Brooklyn to learn the art of printing, but the de- cease of his employer prematurely closed the engagement. While in this per- suit he became the subject of converting grace, and soon felt that he was called of God to the Christian ministry, which he entered at the age of twenty-one.2
Hle was charged with various responsible offices during his active ministry as appears from the following list of his
APPOINTMENTS: 1817, (New York Conf.,) Goshen cir., Conn., with E. P. Jacob; 1818, Pittsfield cir., Mass., with E. P. Jacob; 1819, ordained dea- con,-Stow cir., Vt., with HI. Dewolf; 1820, Luyden cir., Mass., with John Clark; 1821, ordained elder,-Cortland cir., N. Y., with G. Lyon; 1822, ditto, with R. Harris; 1823, Middlebury, Vt .; 1824, St. Albans cir., with S. Covel; 1825, Pittsfield, Mass., with G. Pierce; 1826, Cortland cir., N. Y., with HI. Hatfield; 1827, New York city, with T. Burch, N. White, R. Seney, N. Lev- ings and Julius Field; 1828, ditto, with "T. Burch, C. Carpenter, J. Hunt, N. Levings and George Coles; 1829-1830, Albany, North ch .; 1831-1832, (Phila. Conf.,) Newark cir., N. J., with A. Atwood; 1833-1835, presiding elder, Fast Jersey Dist .; 1836, Philadelphia, Nazareth ch .; 1837-1841, sup'd; 1837, govern, or of Bassa Cove, Africa; 1842, (New York Conf.,) Flushing, N. Y .; 1843.
1 Sprague's Annals.
2 The Christian Advocate, Jan. 9, 1862.
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Old Sands Street Church.
Rockaway ; 1844-1847 presiding elder, Long Island Dist .; 1848-1849, (New York East Conf.,) Williamsburgh, Grand-street, (Gothic ;) 1850-1851, New York, 27th-street ; 1852, sup'y, Hempstead, with S. W. Smith ; 1853, Jamaica ; 1854, sup'd ; 1855-1858, chaplain Seamen's Friend Retreat, Staten Island ; 1859, sup'y; 1860-1861, sup'd.
His appointment, in 1837, as governor of Bassa Cove, on the West Coast of Africa, was given him by the Colonization Socie- ties of Pennsylvania and New York. He remained in Africa about one year, " filling the station of governor with ability and usefulness, and to the satisfaction of the societies." There his wife died of African fever, and he barely escaped death from the same disease. After his return he was employed for a while in the Methodist Book Concern, and some time on his farm in Bloomfield, N. J. He was married, in 1839, to MISS MARY C. BEACH, of Newark, N. J.
While serving as chaplain in the " Retreat," he discharged his duties well, and "was held in the highest esteem by the officers and managers of that institution." He resigned the chaplaincy on account of feeble health, and retired to a quiet and comfortable home in Tarrytown, N. Y., where he spent the remnant of his days. Bishop Janes says :
Perhaps none of the positions he had filled in his active ministry was more difficult than this retired one ; * * * but he pleasantly moved in this circum- scribed sphere, ornamenting the church, and honoring his profession to the last.
Hle preached the Sabbath but one before his departure, from the text, " And there shall be no more death." Though afflicted a long time with dyspepsia and clergyman's sore throat, he was prostrated only a few days. In the midst of his greatest suffering he requested his wife to repeat the hymn commenc- ing,
"Jesus, thy blood and righteousness My beauty are, my glorious dress ;"
and exclaimed, " How beautiful !" A little later he said to Mrs. Matthias, "If disembodied spirits are permitted to return to this world, I will love to be with you." Though he talked thus of his departure, he did not seem to apprehend that it was so very near. He wound up his watch as usual, and within half an hour he slept in Jesus, on the 25th of September, 1861, aged sixty-five years. The funeral services were conducted by
Record of Ministers. 321
the Revs. C. K. True and G. W. Woodruff, and the remains were interred in the Sleepy Hollow cemetery, in Tarrytown, by the side of his friend, Stephen Martindale. A head-stone desig- nates his grave.
His brethren, at the ensuing session of the conference, put on record an appreciative testimony, in which they say :
In all his work he was punctual and patient, firm and affectionate, spar- ing no labor or sacrifice to promote the cause of God and the comfort of his brethren. As a presiding elder he was much beloved. "Ile was a high-minded, intelligent, and honorable man," of refined taste, delicate feelings, with dignified and affable manners. IIe was faithful as a pastor, and particularly devoted to the interests of the Sabbath- school. lle was often truly cloquent in preaching, and exceedingly happy in his illustrations.3
Fitch Reed, who was ordained deacon by Bishop Roberts at the same time with Matthias, his conference classmate, says of him :
John J. Matthias was a buoyant and cheerful companion, and for his earnestness and fidelity, as a preacher and pastor, stood high in the favor and praise of all the churches.4
He was a model of devotion and consistency in his domestic and private life. Besides attending strictly to family worship, it was his life-long custom to retire morning, noon, and at evening twilight for secret communion with God.
A brief extract from one of his sermons may serve as an ex- ample of his style. His text was the language of Paul, " I have fought a good fight," etc .:
We behold him, as it were, standing on an eminence, with both worlds in view. On the one hand he looks down the line of his past history, and finds dotted thickly on the record, shipwrecks, encounters with beasts at Ephesns, stoning, scourging, hunger, and nakedness; the contempt and ignominy of the world, the multiplied care of churches, and, in fine, all sorts of privations, hardships, and frequent deaths. On the other, he beholds the blissful plains of Paradise, the river of God, the New Jerusalem with its streets of gold and gates of pearl ; thrones, dominions, principalities; a crown jeweled with works of faith, purified and fitted by the hand of Christ. This in reserve for him ! O, the rapture of that view !5
3 Minutes of Conferences, 1862, p. 80.
4 Reminiscences, in the Northern Christian Advocate, 1864
5 Memorial sermon, at the funeral of Stephen Martindale ; published in The Methodist, May 11, 1861.
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Old Sands Street Church.
His wife, CHARLOTTE, shared the toils and pleasures of his itinerant life until suddenly cut down by death, soon after their arrival in Africa. She is buried by the side of Cox and the other missionaries.
The widow, MARY C. MATTHIAS, and her only son, (who bears his father's name,) are journeying homeward, where a happy reunion awaits them at the close of their pilgrimage. Mrs. Matthias resides in Newark, N. J. John J. Matthias re- sides at New Haven, Conn .; is a member of the First Method- ist Episcopal Church there, one of its trustees, and superin- tendent of its Sunday-school. He is the author of a service of song, entitled "Saint Paul; " also, of a volume, entitled " An Experiment in Church Music."
LXIV. 76. y Pease
OHN and Patty Pease, the parents of the REV. HART FOSTER PEASE, were members of a Congregational church, and showed their pions care for their son by dedicating him to God while an infant in holy baptism. He was born in Ashfield, Franklin County, Mass., on the 27th of December, 1811. In the same month that he was eighteen years of age, he gave his heart to God. In 1830, while pursuing his occupation as merchant in the city of Rochester, N. Y., he was there received into the Methodist Episcopal Church by the Rev. Gleason Filmore.
He prepared for college at Wilbraham, and entered Wes- leyan University in 1833, but left during his Freshman year. His first license to exhort he received while he was a student at Wilbraham Academy in 1832. It was signed by Orange Scott, presiding elder. The following year, while teaching school in Cheshire, Conn., he received a local preacher's li- cense, bearing the signature of the presiding elder, Stephen Martindale. These names and dates remind us that Mr. Pease was connected in his earlier Christian life with a gen- eration whose foremost men have nearly all passed away; yet we have never thought of our brother as having attained to old age. le seems like a veteran in labors rather than in years.
PASTORAL APPOINTMENTS: 1834, (New York Conf.,) Fair Ha- ven, Conn .; 1835, Cheshire; 1836, ordained deacon by Bp. Hedding; 1836- 1837, Fair Haven; 1838, ordained elder by Bishop Andrew; 1838-1839, Guil- ford; 1840-1841, Sharon; 1842-1843, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., 2nd ch .; 1844-1845, Brooklyn, Sands-street, with J. C. Tackaberry, sup'y; 1846-1847, New Ro- chelle cir., with R. C. Putney; 1848-1849, (N. Y. E. Conf., ) Stamford, Ct. ; 1850- 1851, New York, Second-street; 1352-1853, New York, Willett-st. ; 1854, Essex, Ct .; 1855, Essex and Deep River; 1856-1857, Redding; 1858-1859, Norwalk, Ist
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