USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > One hundred years of Trinity Church : Utica, New York > Part 3
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Schenectady is a village situated on a pleasant river twenty English miles above Albany, and the first castle of the Indians is twenty-four miles above Schenectady.
In this village there has been no Dutch minister these five years, and there is no probability of any being settled among them. There is a convenient and well-built Church which they freely give me the use of. I have taken pains to show them the agreement of the articles of our Church with theirs, I hope in some time to bring them not only to be constant hear- ers, but communicants."
Of the Rev. Barnardus Freeman, who had served the Dutch Congregation in Schenectady from 1700-1705, he thus writes: "This Mr. Freeman five years ago was minister at Schenec- tady, and converted several of the Indians; he has acquired more skill in their language than any Dutch minister that has been in this country, and a great part of our liturgy he has translated into the Indian tongue, in particular morn- ing and evening prayer, the litany, the creed of S. Athanasins, &c., besides several places of the Old and New Testament He told me when he read to them the litany, they were might- ily affected with it. He is a gentleman of a good temper, and well affected to our Church, and if there were a Bishop in this part of the world, would be persuaded to take Episcopal or- dination. I often entreat him to go over to England, but he is afraid of the danger of the voyage, and his wife will not con- sent to live among the Indians; he has promised to give me his manuscripts, and what he has done into the Indian tongue." These manuscripts appear to have been presented
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Trinity Church, Utica, N. Y.
to the Society, and were given to their missionary, the Rev. William Andrews, who was sent out in 1712, and were by him printed in New York in 1714. The Rev. Mr. Barclay must have been very popular among the residents of Schenectady, for towards the erection of the first edifice of S. Peter's, Al- bany, in 1716, he informs the Society that "every inhabitant of Schenectady gave something, one very poor man excepted."
Stated services were undoubtedly continued in Schenectady by the two immediate successors of the Rev. Thomas Bar- clay, at S. Peter's, Albany, the Rev. John Miln, 1728-1737, and the Rev. Henry Barclay, 1737-1746, but there does not appear to be any mention on the records of the parish of their visits or acts. The former of the two was transferred to New Jersey, and the latter became rector of Trinity Church, New York City. In an historical sermon preached by my pre- decessor in the Rectorship of S. George's, the Rev. William Payne, D. D., he thus describes the parish at this time: "In 1748 the Rev. John Ogilvie came to Albany as rector of S. Peter's. And the same year there arrived in Schenectady a layman, who, from the love he bore to the principles and usages of the English Church, and the zeal he showed in pro- moting them, has been called the father of this parish. I refer to Mr. John W. Brown, whose memory is appropriately pre- served by a tablet on these walls. He is said to have come from London, and was only twenty-one years old at the time of his arrival here. Through a long life, till the day of his death at the age of eighty-seven, he was the steady friend, and unwavering supporter of this Church. The earliest baptism, by an Episcopal minister on our parish register is that of a daughter of Mr. Brown, in 1754, by the Rev. Mr. Ogilvie." In this connection, it is an interesting fact to note, that with the exception of an interval of ten years, a period of one hundred and fifty years of the parochial history of S. George's is covered by the lives of two of its parishioners. Mr.
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Brown was identified with the interests of the parish from 1748-1814. Mr. Abram A. Van Vorst, at present one of the Wardens of the parish, came to Schenectady in 1824, was elected a member of the Vestry in 1836, and has served con- tinuously in that body ever since.
It was during the ministrations of the Rev. Mr. Ogilvie, in 1759, that the erection of the present Church edifice seems to have been undertaken, but it was not fully completed for several years. Among other items of disbursement, the parish records contain the following entry in the above year: "To Richard Oldrich and Horsford, for digging the foundation of the Church, £4 3s. 9d." Various entries for "laying up stone," "siding," and "squaring timber," wages for laborers, &c., ap- pear in the treasurer's book from this date onward. The car- pentry work of the Church was done under the superintend- ence of Samuel Fuller, who was subsequently the builder of Johnson Hall, the home of Sir William Johnson, at Johns- town. He was master of the King's artificers, and came to Schenectady from Needham, Mass., with General Abercrom- bie's army.
Among the contributors towards the building appear the names of Sir Harry Moore, Governor of New York; William Penn, Governor of Pennsylvania; Governor Franklin of New Jersey; William Alexander, Earl of Sterling; and Sir William Johnson, General Superintendent of Indian Affairs in North America. The Rev. Henry Barclay, at this time rector of Trinity, New York, continued to evince an interest in the prosperity of the parish to which he had ministered while rec- tor of S. Peter's, Albany, and collected about £61 from some of his New York friends. It is a somewhat curious fact that the Church was not consecrated until nearly one hundred years later, by Bishop Horatio Potter, in 1859.
At the time of its erection, there was of course no Bishop
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Trinity Church, Utica, N. Y.
in America to perform such an office, and later on this defect seems to have been overlooked.
The present edifice has, however, enjoyed, as a sort of com- pensation for this omission, the unique privilege of having had within its walls, at one time or another, every Bishop of our Communion who has been located in the State of New York, except your own reverend and beloved Diocesan, the Bishop of Central New York, and the present Bishop of Western New York, and we hope soon to be able to report that these are no longer exceptions to the general rule. The Rev. Thomas Brown, who succeeded the Rev. Mr. Ogilvie at S. Peter's, Al- bany, and the Rev. Harvy Minro who succeeded him, minis- tered to the parish frequently from 1764-1770. In this latter year, on the recommendation of Sir William Johnson and the Rev. Dr. Samuel Auchmuty, Rector of Trinity Church, New York, the Society for the Propagation of Gospel, appointed the Rev. William Andrews as their missionary at Schenectady. He was a native of Great Britain, but had resided for some years in America. He returned home and was ordained by the Bishop of London. There is in the possession of the rec- tor of S. George's, a quaint old vestry bond, duly executed on December 7th, 1769, wherein the vestry of the parish are "held and firmly bound unto William Andrews, in the sum of sixty pounds, current money of New York, to be paid in four quarterly payments after he became residentiary clergy- man in the Town of Schenectady." Mr. Andrews opened a Latin school in 1771, but the labor attendant on this and his parochial duties affected his health, and in 1773 he resigned his charge and removed to Williamsburg, Va.
A glimpse of the condition of the parish at this time is ob- tained from a letter written by the Wardens to the Rev. Dr. Burton, Secretary of the S. P. G. They complain of the diffi- culty of pledging a fixed salary for their rector, owing as they say, "To the absence of many of the congregation (which must
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make the contributions casual and uncertain), who are Indian traders over the great lakes, and do not always return within the year."
Mr. Andrews was succeeded by the Rev. John Doty, a native of Westchester, and an alumnus of King's (now Colum- bia) College. He was the missionary to S. George's from 1774-1777. It was now the eve of the Revolution, and like many of his brethren in the ministry, he suffered between a sense of duty and the pressure of the times. He did not con- sider that his ordination vows allowed him to disuse the litur- gy, with the Prayer for the King and the royal family. After having been made twice a prisoner, "he found it necessary to retire with his family to Canada, and divine service was suspended in the Church during the remainder of the war. When the independence of the Colonies was established, and peace declared in 1782, the members of the congregation which Mr. Doty had felt compelled to abandon, were almost entirely scattered.
From 1785-1792 the names of the Rev. Thomas Ellison, rector of S. Peter's Albany, the Rev. George Ogilvie, of New Brunswick, N. J., the Rev. Thomas F. Oliver, of the united churches at Johnstown and Fort Hunter, and the Rev. Mr. Barber, appear on the parish register. In 1790 the parish was admitted into union with the Convention of the Protest- ant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of New York. At the Convention held in October, 1792, Bishop Provoost states that during the year he had ordained, with four others, Mr. Ammi Rogers, who was now settled in the State, and at the same Convention the Rev. Mr. Rogers from Schenectady appeared and took his seat. Mr. Rogers continued his ministrations in the parish from July, 1792 to March, 1795. In 1793 and 1794 he appears on the Convention Journal as rector of S. George's, Schenectady, and Christ Church, Ballston. In 1796 he appears as representing only Christ Church, Ballston. In
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Trinity Church, Utica, N. Y.
1798 the Rev. Robert G. Wetmore, of whom we have spoken in the early part of this paper, became rector, in connection with Christ Church, Duanesburgh, and from this time the affairs of the parish were conducted with increasing success. Mr. Wetmore was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Pro- voost on May 10th, 1798, at the same time that the Rev. Phil- ander Chase was ordained deacon. He resigned in 1801, and from this date to 1805, when the Rev. Cyrus Stebbins became rector, stated services were maintained by visiting clergymen, among whom we find the name of Ammi Rogers, Samuel Lilly, Davenport Phelps, Jonathan Judd and Gamaliel Thatcher. The Committee for propagating the gospel in the State of New York reports to the Convention of 1804, that this latter clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Thatcher, organized a Church at Utica, by the name of Trinity Church, in August of that year. The Rev. Mr. Stebbins resigned in 1819, and re- moved to Hudson, N. Y. The parish register during his rec- torship, contains the baptism, as an adult, of Thomas Church Brownell, the future Bishop of Connecticut. Bishop Brownell was formerly a Presbyterian. He was Professor of Logic and Belles-Letters, and latter on, of Rhetoric and Chemistry, in Union College.
Bishop Clark, of Rhode Island, in his "Reminiscences" thus refers to this period of his Bishop's earlier life: "His wife used to tell me how they would start off together on Sunday morn- ings, and walk on until they reached a certain corner, where they would separate, and he go one way to the Presbyterian Church, while she wended her solitary walk to the Episcopal. It was not long, however, before he followed in her footsteps, as any one might have predicted who knew Mrs. Brownell-a most attractive and winning woman, and as full of quaint and quiet humor as she was of goodness."
His promotion in the Church was somewhat meteoric in re- ference to its rapidity, although not in the permanency of its
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influence, for his light shone for forty-six years in the Epis- copate of Connecticut. Baptized in 1813, ordained deacon on April 11th, 1816, advanced to the priesthood on August 4th of that same year, he was consecrated Bishop of Connecticut on October 27th, 1819. When Bishop Jarvis, his immediate pre- decessor in the Diocese of Connecticut died, Bishop Brownell had not yet been baptized.
For a short time after Dr. Stebbins' resignation the services were maintained by Mr. Alonzo Potter, as Lay Reader. He was then an Instructor in Union College, and afterwards the Bishop of Pennsylvania.
On the minutes of the Vestry, there appears at this time a resolution "fixing the salary to be paid to Mr. Alonzo Potter at two hundred and fifty dollars per annum while he reads in the desk, and five hundred dollars per annum when he shall be in Holy Orders to preach in the Church for the congrega- tion."
In 1821, the Rev. P. Alexis Proal, of Johnstown, became rector, and served most efficiently in that capacity until May, 1836, when he became rector of Trinity, Utica. He was suc- ceeded in turn by the Rev. Albert Smedes, Rev. W. H. Wal- ter, and the Rev. John Williams, at present the learned and venerable Bishop of Connecticut, and Primus of the Ameri- can Church. S. George's was really the only parish of Bishop Williams, as he left Schenectady in 1848 to accept the Presi- dency of Trinity College, from which position he was called to be the Assistant Bishop of Connecticut.
"Old S. George's" has been a veritable training school of the clergy, no less than seven Bishops and sixty-five other clergymen having been connected with it, in one way or an- other, since its organization. Among the former we note the names of Thomas C. Brownell, Alonzo Potter, John Williams, Abram N. Littlejohn, George Upfold, Henry C. Potter and Joseph H. Johnson. The Rev. William Payne took charge of
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Trinity Church, Utica, N. Y.
the parish in 1848, and after a long and useful rectorate of thirty-six years, became Rector-emeritus in 1884, when the present rector was called from S. Luke's Church, Scranton, Pa. Dr. Payne resided in the parish until his death, which took place on March 19th, 1891. Thus ended a mutual rela- tionship of forty-two years, honorable alike to both priest and people.
The Mohawk Mission.
As we have already observed in the earlier pages of this ar- ticle, the labors of the Jesuits among the Iroquois of the Mo- hawk Valley ceased in 1684. From that year to the beginning of the eighteenth century, spasmodic efforts to Christianize the Mohawks were undertaken by individual Dutch ministers, but as the Rev. Mr. Miller pointed out to the Bishop of London in 1695, as previously quoted, nothing had been done up to that time on the part of the Church of England.
Speaking in the name of the rest of the Sachems of the "Praying Indians" of Canada, one of their chiefs thus ad- dressed the Government Commissioners at Albany, in 1700:
"We are now come to trade and not to speak of religion; only thus much I must say, all the while I was here before I went to Canada, I never heard anything talked of religion, or the least mention made of converting us to the Christian faith; and we shall be glad to hear if at last you are so piously in- clined to take some pains to instruct your Indians in the Christian Religion."
Moved by this and other representations received from the Earl of Bellemont (Governor of New York), the "Commis- sioners of Trade and Plantations" addressed the Archbishop of Canterbury and Queen Anne on this subject, and in 1703, an order in Council was passed, referring the matter of appoint- ing two missionaries to dwell among the Indians, to Archbish- op Tenison.
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In the preceding year, the Rev. John Talbot, who in com- pany with the Rev. George Keith (the first missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel), had visited the Indians at Albany, reported that "even the Indians them- selves have promised obedience to the faith," and that "they were glad to hear that the sun shined in England again since King William's death." They rejoiced that they had now "a squaw sachem" or "woman king," but hoped she would "be a good mother, and send them some to teach them religion, and establish traffic amongst them." It was not however, until 1704 that the Rev. Thoroughgood Moor, "with a firm courage and resolution to answer the excellent designs of the Society" undertook the Mission. Soon after Mr. Moor's arrival in Al- bany two Indians came to see him, one of whom spoke as follows :
"Father we are come to express our joy at your safe arrival and that you have escapt the dangers of a dreadful sea, which you have crost, I hear, to instruct us in religion. It only grieves us that you are come in time of war, when it is uncer- tain whether you will live or die with us." This latter an- nouncement was not, it must be confessed, very encouraging, and although Mr. Moor was from time to time courteously received at their settlement, it soon became evident that his mission was not going to prove very fruitful, and after waiting at Albany for about a year, he finally withdrew to Burlington, N. J. In 1709 the Rev. Thomas Barclay, Chaplain to the Fort at Albany, was appointed a missionary of the S. P. G., with a direction "to instruct the neighboring Indians." They ac- cepted his ministry, and he soon had fifty adherents. Soon after Mr. Barclay's appointment, four of the Iroquois sachems visited England, and expressed to the Queen and other prominent persons their earnest desire for resident Mission- aries. In consequence of their representations, the S. P. G. on April 28th, 1710, adopted a resolution "to send itinerant mis-
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Trinity Church, Utica, N. Y.
sionaries to preach the gospel amongst the Six Nations of the Indians, according to the primary intentions of the late King William of glorious memory." It was further "Ordered that 4 copies of the Bible in quarto with the Prayer Book bound handsomely in red Turkey leather be presented in the name of the Society to the Sachems."
The Queen was also urged to take measures for the speedy appointment of a Bishop for America.
The Sachems wrote before and after their return home to remind the Society of its promise to send missionaries. "For the safety and conveniency of the mission," the Queen or- dered the erection of a fort, a house, and a chapel. Towards the furnishing of this latter and of another, among the Onon- dagas (which, however, was not built), the Queen gave among other things a set of Plate for the Holy Communion, and the Archbishop presented twelve large octavo Bibles, with tables containing the Lord's Prayer, the Creed and the Ten Com- mandments. The Society also contributed "a table of their seal finely painted in proper colors, to be fixed likewise in the Chapel of the Mohawks." This seal represents "a ship under sail, making towards a point of land; upon the prow standing a minister with an open Bible in his hand; people standing on the shore in a posture of expectation, and using these words, Transiens Adjuva Nos."
The silver communion set, sent by Queen Anne for the Mo- hawks, was used by them at Fort Hunter, until the time of the Revolution, when it was placed in a cask and buried with some other fixtures of the Chapel in the vicinity. Some time after the war, it was recovered by members of the tribe who had been sent back for it from the Mohawk reservation at Brantford, Ontario, Canada. It is now in the possession of the Indians.
The Rev. Joseph Hooper, of Durham, Conn., to whom I am under obligations for several valuable suggestions during
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the preparation of this paper, thus writes of the duplicate set sent by Queen Anne for the use of the Onondagas: "The Queen Anne silver of S. Peter's, Albany, is similar to that of the Mohawk's, but was intended for a Chapel of the Onon- dagas, which was never built. It was kept in Albany, as S. Peter's was the Indian Chapel for all other New York Indians excepting the Mohawks, in trust, and is now its most valued possession. While New York was a royal province, a receipt for it was exacted from the Warden of the Church by each Royal Governor."
Fort Hunter, containing the historic edifice known as Queen Anne's Chapel, was built by residents of Schenectady. The Chapel was opened by the Rev. Thomas Barclay, on Oc- tober 5th, 1712, the sermon being preached from the text in S. Matthew xxi. 13, "It is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." This subject was selected at the particular request of the sachems, it being their desire that he should "preach against the profanation of their Chapel, some being so impious as to make a slaughter-house of it." The Rev. William Andrews, who possessed colonial experience and a knowledge of the Indian language, was selected by the Archbishop for the Mis- sion, and was received with considerable satisfaction by the Mohawks, in November, 1712. The Indians built a school- house, but were unwilling that their children should be taught any other than their own language, "for it had been observed that those who understood English or Dutch were generally the worst people." With the assistance of the Rev. Barnardus Freeman, formerly the Dutch minister at Schenectady, as mentioned heretofore in this paper, school books and portions of the Bible and the Prayer Book were provided in the Mo- hawk language, and for a time there was considerable progress made, Mr. Andrews baptizing fifty-one Indians within six months, and having eighteen communicants.
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Trinity Church, Utica, N. Y.
But the traders hindered the mission by "their ill practices in bringing too much rum among these poor people," and "in cheating them abominably in the way of traffic." The work was suspended from 1719-1727, when the Society for the Pro- pagation of the Gospel appointed the Rev. John Miln, to Al- bany. The Indians at Fort Hunter, who formed part of his charge, received him "with much respect and civility," and he found them "very well disposed to receive the gospel," some having been "pretty well instructed in the grounds of Chris- tianity by Mr. Andrews."
In April, 1735, Mr. Henry Barclay, son of the second mis- sionary to the Indians, was appointed Catechist at Fort Hun- ter. In 1738 he went to England for ordination, and soon after his return to America, he reported "That there grew a daily reformation of manners among the Mohawks, and an in- crease of virtue proportionable to their knowledge; inasmuch that they compose a regular, sober congregation of 500 Chris- tian Indians, of whom 50 are very serious communicants." In 1745 the French nearly succeeded in closing the Mission. Their Indian emissaries excited the Mohawks against the English, and for a short while it looked as though their alle- giance was to be transferred to the French King. Their loyal- ty to the English, however, soon revived, never again to be shaken. Mr. Barclay was transferred to New York in 1746, but the Indian Mission was continued by a succession of able clergymen, a number of whom were rectors of S. Peter's, Al- bany. Rev. Messrs. John Ogilvie, J. J. Del, Thomas Brown, Harry Minro and John Stuart ministered to the Mohawks from 1749-1778, besides lay teachers, English and native. Among the latter was a sachem named Abraham, "who being past war and hunting read prayers at the several Mohawk Castles by turns."
The Rev. Mr. Ogilvie, in 1756, informs the S. P. G. that "many of the Mohawks of both castles appear to have a se-
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rious and habitual sense of religion. When at home they regularly attend divine worship, and are frequent communi- cants at the Lord's Supper; and even while out upon the hunt, several of them came sixty miles to commune on Christ- mas day. "In 1760 Mr. Ogilvie complains that the only lead- ing man of the colony who rendered him any active assist- ance in his mission was Sir William Johnson, and makes some pointed references to the coldness and indifference of the home authorities in contrast to the zeal and liberality of the French Romanists.
It may not be out of place to refer briefly, at this point of our history, to the immense influence wielded by Sir William Johnson over the members of the Iroquois confederacy, and to the valuable assistance which he rendered to the clergy of the Church who were settled in this vicinity during his resi- dence here.
He came to America and settled in the Mohawk Valley in 1738. He soon became known to the Indians as a friend and an honest trader. His simple and masterly plan was "never to cheat, lie or deceive, and never to grant what he had once refused." He refused to gain a temporary advantage by a sacrifice of principle, and his word, even as a young man, be- came bond and law. He was appointed by Governor Clinton in 1746, "Superintendent of Indian Affairs." His personal influence over the Mohawks (into which tribe he had been adopted and appointed a chief), and the other tribes of the Iroquois, largely decided the result of the French and English war that was being waged at this time, in favor of England, and kept the way open for the future growth and extension of the Church of England on this continent. He also early fore- saw the necessity for the establishment of an American Epis- copate, and was anxious to secure an endowment for it. For this purpose, he conveyed to the S. P. G. a gift of twenty thou- sand acres of land about thirty miles from Schenectady, sub-
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