USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > Old Sands Street Methodist Episcopal Church, of Brooklyn, N.Y. : an illustrated centennial record, historical and biographical > Part 8
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Ife died "much lamented," on the ioth of November, 1816, aged fifty-nine years. The Rev. William Prettyman preached his funeral sermon. A plain marble slab marks the place of his interment in the family burial ground on the farm up- on which he lived, a few hundred yards from the church. It has been proposed to remove his remains to the church- yard, and erect a monument over them.
NANCY, his wife, a daughter of Jacob Wright, who was one of the founders of the Washington Methodist Episco- pal Church, sleeps by his side, but her grave is without a memoria !. They left no children.
3 Experience and Ministerial Labors of Rev: Thomas Smith, p. 23.
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III In. Duking
OOLMAN HICKSON's colleague in New York and Brooklyn, the REV. JOHN DICKINS, was born in London in 1746,1 and educated at Eton College. He united with the Methodists in Virginia2 at the age of twenty-seven. Three years later he joined the Conference, and the following is a record of his
APPOINTMENTS: 1777, North Carolina cir., with John King, Le Roy Cole and Edward Pride; 1778, Brunswick cir. Va., with E. Pride ; 1779, Ko- anoke cir., with Henry Willis; 1780, ditto with Henry Ogburn; 1781-1782, a local preacher, continuing his ministerial labors in Virginia and North Carolina;3 1783, York city, with Samuel Spragg; 1784, remaining in New York; 1785, Bertie cir., Va., with David Jefferson; 1786, (ordained deacon, 4) New York city a second time; 1787, (ord. elder,) remaining in New York, in charge of the Brooklyn class, with Woolman Hickson and F. Garrettson;5 1788, still in New York and Brooklyn, with Henry Willis, "elder;" 1789-1796, Sup't. of the Printing and Book business in Philadelphia; 1797, not named in Conf. Min.
Bishop Asbury met him in Virginia, in 1780, and wrote thus concerning him:
Brother Dickins spoke on charity very sensibly, but his voice is gone. Hle reasons too much; is a man of . . great skill in learning, . . yet prays and walks close with God. He is a gloomy countryman of mine, and very diffident of himself.6
At this time "Dickins framed a subscription for a Semina- ry on the plan of Wesley's Kingswood school, the first proj- ect of a literary institution among American Methodists. It
1See Conf. Minutes, 1798, p. 79. 2Lee's History of the Methodists.
3From Lee's History of the Methodists, p. 253, and Wakeley's Lost Chap- ters, p. 293, we learn that although Mr. Dickens located, he labored inces- santly as pastor and book-steward. He was practically a conference preacher.
+Asbury's Journal, Ed. 1852, Vol. i, p. 518, and Conf. Minutes, 1786.
"See "Lost Chapters," pp. 310, 321.
"Asbury's Journal, Vol. i, p. 377.
.
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Old Sands Street Church.
It resulted in Cokesbury College." He was the first mar- ried preacher in John-street, New York.8 While stationed in that city, Mr. Dickins had the honor of being "the first Methodist preacher to receive Coke, and approve his scheme of the organization of the denomination.""" He is said to be the author of the name "Methodist Episcopal Church," a- dopted by the Christmas Conference, of which he was a member.1º
While he was stationed in New York, in 1788, J. B. Mat- thias attended his ministry, and he was probably the first Methodist preacher that Matthias ever heard. He writes concerning him: "He was a plain-dressed man, and preached with all his might;" and he seems, although unconverted, to have become attached to him, for he thus describes the change of preachers at the ensuing conference: "They took away my thundering. John Dickins, and gave us Robert Cloud and Thomas Morrell."
When John Dickins entered upon his work as book stew- ard, he was required to do two men's work, being at the same time pastor in Philadelphia. The seven years of his service in the Book Concern constituted the formative pe- riod of the publishing interests of the denomination, and their subsequent magnificent growth is largely due to his fidelity, ability, and enterprise in that department. The fol- lowing statement is a tribute to his industry:
During the four years immediately preceding his death he issued about 114,- ovo books and pamphlets, taking charge of every thing pertaining to the work. 11
He died of yellow fever in Philadelphia, September 27, 1798, aged fifty-two years. When dying he clasped his hands, while tears of rapture coursed down his cheeks, and shouted, "Glory to Jesus! My soul now enjoys such sweet commun- ion with him that I would not give it for all the world. Love him! Trust him! Praise him!" Rev. Ezekiel Cooper preached his funeral sermon, which was published.12 . His remains were first deposited in the cemetery of St. George's, in Crown-street, Philadelphia." They were afterward placed
1 Stevens-Hist. M. E. Church, vol. ii, p. 41. 8 "Lost Chapters," p. 299.
9 Stevens-Hist. M. E. Church, vol. ii, p. 41.
10 Meth. Quar. Rev., 1832, p. 98.
11 Funeral sermon by Ezekiel Cooper.
. 1º Noticed by Lednum and Sprague. 13 Lednum, p. 198.
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Record of Ministers.
in the old Methodist burial ground in Baltimore, but were some years later removed with the remains of his widow, at the expense of the Baltimore preachers, to the Mount Oli- vet Cemetery near that city, where many of the heroes of Methodism sleep.14 His death brought a greater sense of loss to the church than that of any other preacher up to that time." Asbury said on hearing of his death:
Ile was in person and affection another Thomas White to me. * * * I feared death wouldl divide us soon. 16
He still further testifies:
For piety, probity, profitable preaching, holy living, Christian education of his children, secret closet prayer, I doubt whether his superior is to be found either in Europe or America, 17
As a public man he was eminent among the chieftains of early Methodism; and few, if any, excelled him in classic scholarship. He "was in literature, logic, zeal and devotion, a Paul among the preachers."18
His wife, before their marriage, was Miss ELIZABETH YAN- CEY. She resided near Halifax, N. C. When in 1783 the question was asked for the first time in conference, "How many preachers' wives [in the entire connection] are to be provided for?" the answer was, "Eleven;" and among them was named "Sister Dickins." Four years later the follow- ing was published in the Minutes:
Question 15. Are not many of our preachers and people dissatisfied with the salaries allowed our married preachers who have children? They are. Therefore, for the future, no married preacher shall demand more than 648, P. C.
Mrs. Diekins was the pioneer preacher's wife in this re- gion, and the first to occupy the John-street parsonage. Few if any of her successors have filled the station of minister's wife more honorably. She wrote affectionately concerning her husband and the transport of his dying hour. Lednum says:
She survived her husband until 1835, when she ended her days in Baltimore,
14 Letter of Rev. Dr. James HI. Brown to the author.
15 Lee's History of the Methodists, p. 254.
16 See Lednum, p. 198.
17 Quotations in Sprague's Annals. 18 Lednum, p. 201.
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Old Sands Street Church.
at the house of her son in law, Dr. Samuel Baker. She had been a Methodist for more than fifty years, and was seventy years old at the time of her death. 19
One of John Dickins' daughters died of yellow fever the day before his death; another maiden daughter lived with her sister, Mrs. Dr. Baker.
John Dickins had a son, Asbury Dickins, who was well and honorably known in our day. The following extract is from a first-class authority:
Asbury Dickins, born July 29, 1780, was in ISor associated with Joseph Dennie in founding the "Port Folio" at Philadelphia. He was first clerk in the United States treasury department from 1816 to 1833, and in the state de- partment from 1333 to 1836, when he was elected secretary of the United States senate, which office he held till July 16, 1861. While in the treasury and state departments he was often acting secretary, and wrote many important state papers. He died in Washington, October 23, 1861."0
19 Rise of Methodismi, p. 198.
20 American Cyclopædia.
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of Gavethon
REV. FREEBORN GARRETTSON.
IV. FREEBORN GARRETTSON.
MONG the early Methodist preachers in Brooklyn, none has reached a higher rank in history than the REV. FREEBORN GARRETTSON.
He left his charge on the Peninsula and came North to spend the latter part of the Conference year 1787 in New York, as the associate of Dickins and Hickson, both of whom were in feeble health,' and it may be presumed. that he applied himself to carrying forward in Brooklyn the work. which Hickson had begun. Two years later he suc- ceeded Henry Willis in taking charge of the district which included Long Island. He was the first to bear the full ti- tle of "Presiding Elder," but his predecessors, "Elders," filled the same office, attending the quarterly conferences, superintending the preachers, and administering the sac- raments.
Freeborn Garrettson was born in Maryland, August 15, 1752, and was born again in 1775, when twenty-three years of age. Ile appears to have been a moral young man, and outwardly religious. A word spoken to him personally by a Methodist exhorter filled his conscience with alarm. He tried to quiet his fears by living a "respectable" life, and "serving God in a quiet manner," but when he listened to the searching appeals of Asbury and Shadford and Daniel Ruff, his "foundations would shake." He was con- verted on horseback, while returning from a Methodist meeting through a lonely wood. "I threw," he says, "the reins of my bridle on my horse's neck. and putting my hands together, I cried out, 'Lord, I submit!' *** My soul was so exceedingly happy that I seemed as if I wanted to
5 Wakeley-"I.ost Chapters," p. 321.
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Old Sands Street Church.
take wings and fly away to Heaven."" That very day he es- tablished a family altar; and shortly after, "while standing in the midst of his slaves, with a hymn book in his hand, be- ginning their family worship, he pronounced his servants free."3
He commenced holding meetings and exhorting hi's neigh- bors from house to house. He accompanied Martin Rodda on his circuit, and so suddenly and unexpectedly did he find himself a preacher, that he was "alarmed," and "mounted his horse to escape fifty miles to his home." But he did not di- minish his evangelistic labors. Presently (1775,) "Daniel Ruff called him out to a circuit. He went, never to turn back."4
It was in the midst of these earliest itinerant labors, that he yielded to a sudden impression, and preached that mem- orable sermon to the soldiers, by which the youthful Ezekiel Cooper was led to Christ. His ministerial career, thus be- gun, covers the long period from 1775 to 1827. He never su- perannuated. The following are his
CONFERENCE APPOINTMENTS: 1776, Frederick cir., Md., with M. Kodda; 1777, Brunswick cir., Va., with Wm. Watters and John Tunnell; 1778, Kent cir., on the Peninsula, with Joseph Hartley, John Littlejohn, and John Cooper; 1779, State of Delaware eir., with Francis Asbury, Caleb B. Ped- icord, Lewis Alfrey, M. Debruler; 1780, Baltimore cir., Md., with Daniel Ruff, and Joshua Dudley, 1781, Sussex cir., Va., with James Morris; 1782, Somerset cir. Md., with James Magary; 1783, Talbot cir., with John Mayor; 1784, dit- to, with William Thomas; 1785, (ordained deacon and elder,) Shelburne, No- va Scotia; 1786, associate "elder" in Nova Scotia with James O. Cromwell; 1787, "elder" of a district on the Md. l'eninsula, and a few months previous to the conference in October, 1788, in New York with John Dickins and Wool- man Hickson; 1788, elder, Hudson River and Lake Champlain Dist .; 1789, New York Dist.,-Long Island to Lake Champlain; 1790-1792,, Hudson River Dist .; 1793, elder, Philadelphia Dist., and pastor Philadelphia station;5 1794, New York Dist .; 1795, "elder" Western Mass. and Eastern New York; 1796-1797, New London, Pittsfield and New York Dist., with Sylves- ter Hutchinson, associate; 1798, Albany Dist .; 1799, New Jersey Dist .; 1800 -1803, New York Dist .; 1804, Rhinebeck ;. 1805, New York, with N. Sne-
2 Bangs' Life of Garrettson, p. 37.
3 Stevens' Ilist. M. E. Church, vol. i, p. 354. 4 Ibid., vol. i, p. 355.
5 At the end of six months he was to exchange places with Thomas Morrell of New York, but this arrangement seems not to have been carried out on account of the failure Mr. Morrell's health. See "Lost Chapters," by Wakeley, p. 578.
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Record of Ministers.
then, A. IIunt, John Wilson; 1806, do., with T. Bishop, S. Crowell, John Wilson; 1807, conference missionary; 1808, Rhinebeck again; 1809-1810, mis- sionary; 1811-1814, New York Dist. again; 1815, no station; 1816, mission- ary; 1817, sup'y, Bridgeport, Ct., with A. Hunt; 1818-1820, sup'y, without appointment; 1821-1827, conference missionary.
Wakeley says that while in New York, previous to the conference of 1788, he "occasionally made an excursion on Long Island;"" and it is not improbable that he was one of the first to repeat the gospel call that Woolman Hickson had sounded on the slopes of Brooklyn. The record of appoint- ments shows that he was once pastor and twelve years pre- siding elder over the Sands-street church.
The labors and trials of his early ministry were almost unparalleled even in his day. He preached twice, thrice, and even four times a day in Maryland. On one occasion he was nearly killed by the blow of an assailant, but contin- ued preaching, "his face bruised, scarred, and bedewed with tears." Once a ruffian attempted to drown the voice of the preacher by beating a drum. A great fire was made in the fire- place of the room where he was preaching in a very warm day, and the author of the mischief stalked through the house ringing a bell. While preaching at another time he was siezed by a mob and thrust into prison; but in the midst of all this opposition, his triumph was wonderful. Mobs were terrified, and their ringleaders converted. He won the re- spect and affection of the masses, and people often walked twelve miles to hear him preach; and before many years that whole region-eastern Maryland and Delaware-had been conquered for Methodism.
It was a notable period in the life of Garrettson, when he spent six weeks in traveling twelve hundred miles to warn out the preachers to attend the Christmas conference in 1784, when the Methodist Episcopal Church was formally organ- ized. At this conference he was ordained by Bishop Coke, and volunteered for Nova Scotia, where his success was so great that Wesley desired that he might be appointed bishop for the British Provinces. Dr. Bangs says the reason why the conference did not accede to Mr. Wesley's request was probably the unwillingness of the preachers in the states "to
" "Lost Chapters," p. 321.
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Old Sands Street Church.
have him entirely separated from them."7 Coke wrote to Garrettson in letters that have never been published," not that he had been requested, but that he had been "ordered" by Wesley to ordain Mr. Garrettson bishop; and the exact truth may be that the conference began to think it best to do as they pleased, and not as Mr. Wesley "ordered." Free- born Garrettson was a member of every general conference from 1804 to 1824. The story of his pioneer movements on the Hudson River District (1788) with his little band of ardent young men, reads like a romance, and Coke at the next conference triumphantly records:
Ile has not only carried our work in New York state as high as Lake Cham- plain, but has raised congregations in most of the states of New England, and also in the little state of Vermont within about a hundred miles of Montreal.
Garrettson shares with Jesse Lee the honor of planting Methodism in the New England states. These old friends met on the highway near Boston, and such an affectionate greeting is rarely witnessed in this world.
In 1789 a severe accident befell him in Sharon, Conn. He was thrown down by his horse and lay unconscious for some time. His shoulder was dislocated and his body very much bruised. He says:
I knew not who I was nor where I was. After lying for a considerable time, I made an atempt to lay my head on my hat for a pillow. I saw the two first letters of my name upon my hat, and immediately I knew myself and cried out, "Is this poor Canettson?"
But that same day he borrowed a carriage and rode on; and without any cessation continued his travels and his preaching, his body racked with pain, but his "mind sweetly calm and happy.""
In the year 1793 Freeborn Garrettson, then forty-one years of age, was married to Miss Catharine Livingston, daughter of Robert R. Livingston of Clermont, and sister of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, Washington's friend. The ceremony was performed by Peter Moriarty in the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Rhinebeck, and on the same
1 Life of Garrettson, p. 166:
* Extracts from these letters were read by Rev. Dr. A. S. Hunt in his cen- tenary sermon before the New York East Conference, 1884.
9 Bangs' Life of Garrettson, p. 180.
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Record of Ministers.
occasion they all partook of the Lord's supper.1º Through his wife, as one of the heirs of the property belonging to the Livingston Manor, Mr. Garrettson came into posses- sion of the Rhinebeck estate. The Garrettson mansion was Bunyan's "Palace Beautiful," and for many a weary itiner- ant it was a refuge, a hospital, a sanctuary and a home. As- bury admired its "beautiful land and water prospect," and named it "Traveler's Rest."" Here the pioneer bishop spent many an hour in communion with his life-long and intimate friend. They were not always of one mind; Garrettson dif- fered with him in his views of the general superintendency, holding the opinion that instead of having the whole conti- nent under one general superintendency, it would have been better if it had been divided among several, cach superin- tendent being responsible to the general conference for his own particular district." Many of the carly Methodists be- . lieved that but for these views of church government, he would have been made a bishop.
Mr. Garrettson preached his last sermon in Duane-street church, New York, on "Growing in Grace." In the same city soon after this, quite unexpectedly he fell asleep, Sept. 26, 1827, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He died with devout and rapturous praise upon his lips. His last sen- tence was, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty! Halle- lujall! Hallelujah!" William Phebus, Nathan Bangs, and Thomas Burch preached powerful sermons on the character and memory of this great and good man. The prominent traits of his character were sincerity, zeal, liberality, equi- nimity of temper and unconquerable perseverence. His in- tegrity was never questioned.
He was one of the the founders of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a valuable friend and supporter of other benevolent institutions. As a preach- er he was sometimes eloquent, and his sermons were always instructive and practical. A tombstone, appropriately in- scribed, marks the place of his rest in Rhinebeck, N. Y.
10 Bangs' Life of Garrettson, p. 208.
" Asbury's Journal, vol. ii, p. 462, and vol. iii, p. 77.
19 Life of Garrettson, p. 205.
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Old Sands Strect Church.
His wife, CATHARINE, only two months his junior, sur- vived him twenty-two years, and died at the age of ninety- six. The Rev. Dr. A. S. Hunt, who is familiar with her gen- ealogy, states that she was a lineal descendent from the distinguished Covenanter, John Livingston, of Scotland. Simpson's Cyclopedia says:
She was a daughter of Judge Robert R. Livingston, who inherited a large estate on the Livingston Manor on the Hudson River. Her mother was. the daughter of Col. Beekman, who was governor of what is now the state of Del- aware, under a commission from Sweden. Her brother, Robert R. Livingston, was one of the committee who framed the Declaration of Independence, and was first chancellor of the state of New York, and administered the oath to Wash- ington, when first inaugurated President. He was also Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and Minister to France. She had six sisters, -women of more than ordinary talent, three of whom married generals famous in the history of their country. Their house was a center of deep patriotic interest, where public movements were noted and discussed, and no small sacrifices were made.
In the year 1789, two years after her conversion, with one other person she formed a Methodist class at Rhinebeck. That one other was a poor, ignorant laborer. When her friends in great distress and chagrin inquired why, if she must be a Methodist, she had not joined a class with some respectable persons in it, she replied that she had joined that class in order that it might have one respectable person. A class meeting was held at her house several years, usually conducted by the pastor. In her last class meeting she said she wished "to know more of God," and soon that wish was gratified. As she neared the gates of death her soul was ex- ultant. She exclaimed, "He is coming!" and raised her hands and looked upward after she could speak no more. Dr. Stephen Olin preached her funeral sermon. Two other well-known ministers, John Seysand J. N. Shaffer, took part in the services; and the Rev. L. W. Peck wrote for The Christian Advocate an obituary containing some of the facts above mentioned. In a work entitled "Our Excellent Wo- men," (page 31) it is said:
To the last her fine intellect was preserved, and she knew little of the infirm- ities which usually accompany extreme age. Iler eye had lost none of its bright- ness, her form was erect, and her step elastic.
The visitor will find her grave beside that of her husband. Tablets with epitaphs to the memory of both were placed in
.
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Record of Ministers.
the church at Rhinebeck.13 Dr. Stevens' "Women of Meth- odism" contains a beautiful sketch of Mrs. Garrettson.
Miss Mary, only daughter of Freeborn and Catharine Gar- rettson, the author once met at a session of the New York East Conference. The writer of a memorial sketch has this paragraph concerning her youth:
Related to a large number of prominent families, and accustomed to visit or be visited by them, her reminiscences of early life -- or many of them-are wor- thy of permanent record. In company with Mrs. Col. Wm. Few, she visited the notorious infidel, Thomas Paine, as he lay on his death-bed at the house of Madame Bonneville, and graphically described the conversation between him and the kind Christian lady who strove to lead him to the great Physician. On all subjects but religion he conversed freely; on that he maintained a sullen, uil- broken silence. 13
After visiting ner in company with Dr. Pope, Dr. Rigg of London wrote:
She is eighty-two years old, and a woman of remarkable ability and culture, of various and extended reading, as well as of great benevolence. So bright a woman of her age it has not been iny lot to meet.
Before her death she became blind as Milton, but contin- ued to be quite as busy. She organized a sewing society for the aid of our missionary work among the women of Utah. In her zeal to attend that society which met on an inclement day, she took cold and returned home to die. She is the author of the beautiful epitaphs of her father and moth- er in the Rhinebeck church.
She bequeathed her entire estate to the church. Wilder- cliffe, as the old homestead has for many years been called, passed by purchase into the hands of a relative.
13 Rev. R. Wheatley, D. D., in The Christian Advocate.
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V.
HENRY WILLIS.
HE REV. HENRY WILLIS was presiding elder and pas- tor during the last year of John Dickins' term (1788), and doubtless often preached in Brooklyn. He shines forth as one of the brilliant stars in the galaxy of early Methodist preachers. His memory has much of the same fragrance as that of Summerfield. His contemporaries, Quinn, Ware, Garrettson and Asbury, vie with each other in admiring the greatness and rejoicing in the usefulness of this saintly minister of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Mr. Willis was a native of Brunswick County, Virginia. We are without further knowledge of him until we find him, in 1778, remaining on trial in the itinerant ranks, which fact indicates that he had previously been appointed to a circuit. From the old Minutes we gather the following
MINISTERIAL RECORD: 1778, Pittsylvania cir., Va., with Wm. Gill and John Major; 1779, Roanoke cir. with John Dickins; 1780, Mecklen- burgh cir. with Moses Park; 1781, Talbot cir. with Jeremiah Lambert; 1782, Dorchester, cir. with Samuel Rowe; 1783, New Hope, N. C .; 1734, Holsten, Tenn .; 1785, (ordained deacon and elder) presiding elder in the Holsten region; 1780, Charleston, S. C., with Isaac Smith; 1787, appointed to New York with John Dickins, but no traces of him are seen; he was probably called to another field - (See sketch of Woolman Hickson); 1788, elder for New York and Long Island, with two Conference preachers and probably several local preachers under him; 1789, associate presidng elder with Lemuel Green in Dela- ware, Pennsylvania and Ohio; 1790, local preacher in Baltimore; 1791-1792, Philadelphia, with John Dickins the book agent; 1793, ditto with F. Garrett- son, Thomas Morrell and John Dickins; 1794-1795, a "located" elder, or what is since known as supernumerary without an appointment; 1796, Old Town; also Baltimore Town with Wm. Jessop, Andrew Nichols and John Hagerty; 1797, Baltimore city with John Harper and Nelson Reed; 1798, ditto with John Harper and Thos. Lyell; 1799, ditto with Thos. Morrell and I. Mansfield; 1800, Frederick cir. with Thos. Lucas, Jos. Stone and Jonathan Forrest; IS01, ditto with Joseph Stone and Noah Fiddler; 1802, ditto with Curtis Williams,
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