USA > New York > Genesee County > Our county and its people : a descriptive and biographical record of Genesee County, New York, v. 1 > Part 28
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St. Mary's Roman Catholic church at East Pembroke was organized in 1868. Its first house of worship was erected in 1890. The corner stone was laid September 28, 1890, by the Rev. Father Barrett.
The Free Baptist church at Indian Falls, Pembroke, was founded June 13, 1869, with nine members. W. B. Hopkins was elected the first deacon, and still serves in that office. The house of worship was con- pleted and dedicated in 1878. Some of the records have been lost, but as nearly as can be learned these pastors have served the society: Revs. J. F. Smith, L. Johnson, M. H. Blackman, W. H. Peck, O. B. Buffum, D. M. L. Rollin, H. N. Plumb, G. Donnocker, F. O. Dickey, F. L. Foster, S. W. Schoonover, W. W. Holt, E. L. Graves, A. J. Osborn and E. Jones, the present pastor.
In 18:0 the Presbyterians of Alabama organized a mission, under Asher Wright. They subsequently erected an edifice costing two thousand dollars. In the same town a mission of the M. E. church was organized in 18SS by the Rev. S. S. Ballon.
The Episcopal church in Bergen wasorganized as a mission in June, 18:2, by the Rev. E. L. Wilson. In 1824 Mrs. Cynthia L. Richmond gave to the trustees of the parochial fund of the diocese a deed of a lot as a memorial to her late husband, Dean Richmond, upon which the ceremony of laying the corner stone of the new church was held June 6, 1874, Bishop Coxe presiding. The structure was dedicated January 6, 1875, and consecrated June 15, 1880. The church is known as St. John's.
A number of the German inhabitants of Batavia met and organized the society known as St. Paul's German United Evangelical church
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April 20, 18:3. The first pastor chosen to preside over the congrega- tion was the Rev. George Field, and the first officers of the society were: President, John Friedly; treasurer, Martin Wolfley; secretary, Louis Uebele. In the following year a Methodist Episcopal church was erected by the society at Darien Centre.
In May, 1876, the first Episcopal services were held by the Rev. Jay Cooke at Corfu. The denomination continued to grow in that town, and June 14, 1880, the corner stone of a church costing three thousand dollars was laid. The society is the outgrowth of a mission started at Corfu by the members of St. James's Episcopal church of Batavia. All Souls' Union church at Corfu was organized in July, 1881, by the Rev. C. C. Richardson, with about twenty-five members. Mr. Richardson became the first pastor, and through his efforts a house of worship cost- ing four thousand dollars was erected during the first year of the so- ciety's history.
In January, 1885, the First Freewill Baptist church of Batavia was organized. Four years later a church structure was built at a cost of about ten thousand dollars. The society had its inception in a meeting held in Odd Fellows' hall September 28, 1884, at which the Rev. J. H. Durkee presided.
November 1, 1886, the Rev. Carl Stocker, Lewis Shultz, Carl Bloom, John Harloff, Gottlieb Wayback and Fred Harloff organized the Ger- man M. E. church of Oakfield, which started with thirty members and the Rev. Carl Stocker as pastor. A frame house of worship was erected in 1886 at a cost of about two thousand dollars.
The Evangelical Lutheran Concordia Congregational church of Byron Centre was founded May 5, 1887, by Rev. Voegele of Le Roy, as the Evangelical Lutheran Trinitatis Congregation. August 25, 1889, the Rev. L. Gross became the first pastor. The church was incorporated under its present name October 24, 1889, and the house of worship was dedicated December 18 of the same year. The pastors have been: Rev. L. Gross, 1889-1891; P. F. Becker, 1892-1893; August Stein and Euchler 1894; Otto Poesche, 1895; E. F. Holls, 1895-1898; August Klein, 1898.
The Evangelical Lutheran St. Paul's church of East Oakfield was founded in 1891 by the Rev. G. Bartling of Medina, N. Y., and incor- porated in the same year. November 22, 1891, the church was dedi- cated. The trustees at that time were C. Voss, C. Pasel and Fr. Beck. The Rev. G. Mühlhäuser of Roseville, Mich., the first pastor, was called
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January 30, 1892. He was succeeded August 13, 1893, by the Rev. E. F. Holls of Bayonne, N. Y. The present pastor, the Rev. A. B. Klein, succeeded Mr. Holls in August, 1898. This society, and that at Byron Centre became connected with the Synod of Missouri in 1894.
The Roman Catholic church at South Byron was erected through the efforts of the Rev. Father Kean of Bergen, and dedicated July 26, 1892, by Bishop Ryan of Buffalo.
The German Evangelical Lutheran Salem church at Le Roy was founded March 23, 1895. The house of worship was consecrated July 21 of that year, the principal address on that occasion being delivered by the Rev. G. Helmkamp of Rochester. August Dringeman is presi- dent of the society, and the Rev. Karl Edward Wenzel is pastor.
The Catholic church at Corfu was built in 1898 through the efforts of the Rev. Father F. I .. Burns of East Pembroke.
CHAPTER XV.
DEDICATION OF THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY'S OFFICE AS A HISTORICAL MUSEUM.
An event which marked an epoch in the history of Genesee county occurred October 13, 1894, when the ancient office of the Holland Land Company, located on West Main street in the village of Batavia, was dedicated as a historical museum. The occurrence was a most note- worthy one, and called to the county seat many distinguished person- ages from all parts of the country.
The first sign of interest shown by the public in the project for the saving and restoration of the old building was a special meeting of U'p- ton Post, G. A. R., held in Batavia on the evening of Friday, July 25, 1893, for the purpose of taking action toward this end. At this meet- ing the members of that body resolved that an attempt should be made to obtain possession of the structure and place it in possession of a his- torical society.
On the evening of Tuesday, August 1, 1893, a number of Batavia's representative citizens assembled at the rooms of the board of education to take further action in the matter. Daniel W. Tomlinson, president
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of the Bank of Batavia, explained the object of the meeting and called for suggestions. After a general discussion of the matter, on motion of Dr. J. W. Le Seur a committee consisting of William C. Watson, Daniel W. Tomlinson, John H. Ward, Prof. John Kennedy and Carlos A. Hull was appointed to formulate a plan of action and devise means to secure the building. The matter drifted on for over a month, but on the afternoon of September 18 the committee decided to raise by popular subscription a sum sufficient to purchase the building-two thousand dollars-making the minimum subscriptions one dollar and the maximum ten dollars. Soon after an option was secured on the property for one thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars, the option to expire October 20, 1893. The plan of the citizens' committee was to raise eight hundred and fifty dollars, paying that amount in cash and giving a mortgage for the balance. The members having charge of the subscription papers pushed matters vigorously, but up to within a week before the expiration of the option but five hundred dollars had been secured. The balance, however, was soon pledged, and on the morning of November 19, 1893, a deed was filed in the county clerk's office conveying to Daniel W. Tomlinson the Land Office property, the consideration being one thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars. From that time subscriptions continued to pour in, each one making the donor a charter member of the Holland Purchase Historical So- ciety.
A meeting was held on Friday, January 12, 1894, to discuss the de- tails preparatory to drawing up articles of association, constitution and by-laws. February 6 incorporation papers were prepared to be sent to Albany. It was decided that the society should be known as the Hol- land Purchase Historical Society, and officers were elected as follows:
President, Mrs. Mary E. Richmond; vice president, William C. Wat- son; recording secretary, Herbert P. Woodward; corresponding secre- tary and librarian, Arthur E. Clark; treasurer, Levant C. Mcintyre; managers, Gad B. Worthington, George Bowen, Frank B. Redfield. John Kennedy, Mrs. Adelaide R. Kenny, John H. Ward, Daniel W. Tomlinson, Julian J. Washburn and George D. Weaver.
July 17 Vice- President Watson named a general committee to prepare a programme for the dedication. This committee consisted of the fol- lowing:
Dr. J. W. Le Seur, chairman ; Hon. Safford E. North, Frank S. Wood, Daniel W. Tom- linson, Hinman Holden, Dr. H. J. Burkhardt, Louis B. Lane, J. J. Patterson, E. A.
£
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DEDICATION OF THE HISTORICAL MUSEUM.
Washburn, A. W. Caney, John H. Yates, John H. Ward, Frank B. Redfield, F. A. Lewis, John McKenzie, A. W. Skelley, Fredd H. Dunham, C. A. Snell. D. D. Lent, C. R. Winslow, A. E. Clark, R. S. Lewis. W. E. Webster. Dr. Ward B. Whitcomb, G. S. Griswold, J. A. Le Seur, John M. Hamilton, A. J. MeWain, William C. Watson, J., H. Bradish, J. F. Hall, B. R. Wood, J. C. Barnes, Nelson Bogue, W. D. Sanford, H. T. Miller, C. W. Hough, D. Armstrong, Dr. C. L. Baker, F. E. Richardson, A. D. Scatcherd, M. H. Peck, jr., C. Pratt, E A. Dodgson. Delos Dodgson, C. H Dol- beer, Rev. J. H. Durkee, S. Masse, Rev. Thomas P. Brougham, Arthur Ferris, Rev. C. A. Johnson, Carlos A. Hull, John Dellinger, S. A. Sherwin, W. T. Eager, H. O. Bostwick, John Glade and J. W. Holmes.
Hon. Robert A. Maxwell of Batavia, then fourth assistant postmaster- general; from the outset had manifested great interest in the project. Soon after the organization of the historical society he began to inter- est his friends in President Cleveland's cabinet in the forthcoming ded- ication, with the idea of securing their attendance. Therefore, when Judge Safford E. North, representing the society, visited Washington on August 23, 1894, to see Secretary Carlisle, who had virtually pron- ised to deliver the dedicatory address, and have a date fixed for the ceremony, he found the way made easy for him. Judge North, in com- pany with Mr. Maxwell, visited other cabinet officers, several of whom promised to accompany Secretary Carlisle. Arrangements for the ded- ication were then perfected as speedily as possible.
Those who first proposed the preservation and enlisted in the movement resulting in the dedication had in mind an unostentatious transfer of the Land Office property to a society organized to hold and maintain it. The old structure was considered to have a historic value as the office where the sales of lands to the early settlers were consummated. It was the office whence deeds of the pioneers' lands were issued. and where the original purchasers from the Holland speculators paid their money for their possessions; and these facts attached to it an interest that seemed sufficient to warrant it being held in veneration. Prof. John Kennedy, superintendent of schools in Batavia, became engrossed in the subject, however, and in a number of admirably written articles, the first appearing in the News of July 20, 1593, connected Robert Morris of Revolutionary fame with the old office, through his sale to the Hol. landers of the greater part of the territory west of the Genesee river. These articles attracted considerable attention, and when the Land Office finally was secured by the Historical society Prof. Kennedy's suggestion that it be dedicated to the memory of Robert Morris and made a National affair, by reason of its consecration to his mem- ory, being a tribute to the first financial officer of the Federal Government, was in its main parts favorably acted upon. 1
On the day set for the dedication, thousands of visitors thronged the streets of Batavia. The parade held in the morning was the largest
1 Batavia Daily News. October 13, 1-21
17
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and most imposing ever scen in Genesee county. Practically all in- terests-industrial, religious, educational and civic-were represented. Upon passing the historical Land Office the column was reviewed by officers of the day and distinguished guests, including the orator of the day. Here the tablet erected to the memory of Robert Morris was unveiled by Hon. Walter Q. Gresham, secretary of state, and a dedi- catory prayer delivered by the Rt. Rev. Stephen Vincent Ryan, bishop of the Catholic diocese of Buffalo. The order of the parade was as follows :
Advanced guard of mounted men under command of W. L. Colville; aids, George Douglass, L. A. Terry and M. S. Dunlap.
Marshal, James A. Le Seur; chief of staff, I. D. Southworth; adjutant, L. L. Crosby ; orderlies, J. F. Read and Burt Williams; marshal's staff, C. S. Pugsley, A. D. Lawrence, Collis Samis, Asher Davis, Harry Ames, Frank Harris, William Tor- rance, Roy Barringer, George Parish, Frank Lusk and William Lusk.
First Division.
G. W. Stanley, assistant marshal; W. W. Plato, Dwight Dimock and Walter Chad- dock, aids. Sixty-fifth Regiment Band and Drum Corps. National Guard. G. A. R. Posts. Sons of Veterans. Continental Drum Corps. High School Cadets. Clerks from Erie County Clerk's Office. Indian Band. Indians.
Second Division.
Captain Timothy Lynch, assistant marshal; James MeMannis, John Leonard, Wilham Burnes and P. Buckley, aids. Select Knights' Band. C. M. B. A. C. B. L. A. O. H. Le Roy Total Abstinence Society. St. Aloysius Society. Third Division.
F. Lewis, assistant marshal; Ira Howe, William H. Walker and I. W. White. aids. Citizens' Band.
Johnston Harvester Company. Wiard Plow Works. Ott & Fox.
£
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DEDICATION OF THE HISTORICAL MUSEUM.
Batavia Wheel Works. Wood Working Company. Cope Brothers. L. Uebele.
Fourth Division.
C. H. Reynolds, assistant marshal; Wolcott Van De Bogart, C. B. Avery, Edward Moulthrop, aids. Le Roy Band. Le Roy Chemical Engine Company. Bergen Fire Department. I. O. O. F. A O. U. W.
Turners.
School Children. Fifth Division.
G. A. Wheeler, assistant marshal, R. I. Page, Lewis Johnston, George Constable, aids. Bergen Band. Pioneers in Carriages. Officers in Carriages.
The exercises at the State Institution for the Blind in the afternoon were impressive and interesting. The programme carried out was as follows :
Selections by the Sixty-fifth Regiment band; music, "To Thee, O Country." chorus; prayer, by Rt. Rev. Arthur Cleveland Coxe, bishop of Western New York; music, "Zion, Awake," chorus; dedication poem by John II. Yates, read by the author; music, "O Columbia, Columbia Beloved," from Lucretia Borgia, chorus; address, Hon. John G. Carlisle, secretary of the treasury ; music, " America," chorus; clos- ing prayer and benediction by Rev. Philos G. Cook, the oldest clergy- man on the Holland Purchase.
Perhaps no better idea of the life and services of Robert Morris can be gained than from the address delivered by the Hon. John G. Carlisle. Such extracts of that memorable address as are deemed appropriate in in this connection follow:
Robert Morris, or, as he was sometimes called, Robert Morris, jr., was for many years one of the conspicuous figures in the galaxy of great men whose statesman- ship and courage achieved the independence of the American colonies, and to him more than to any other man in a civil station, the people were indebted for the suc- cessful termination of the Revolutionary war.
It is alike creditable to the patriotism and the liberality of the citizens of Western
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New York that they have organized the first public association and inaugurated the first practical movement for the purpose of paying a long deferred tribute to the memory of a man who, notwithstanding all the malignant accusations made against him while in the public service, has left a record in which the critical researches of a hundred years have failed to discover a trace of dishonor, or any lack of unselfish devotion to the true interests of his countrymen.
Robert Morris was born at Liverpool, England, on the 31st day of January, new style, and, according to a statement in his father's will, came to America in the year 1748.
By a contract, or treaty, entered into at Hartford on the 16th day of December, 1786, between commissioners of the State of New York and the State of Massachu- setts, the conflicting claims of the two States to certain territory west of a line drawn northwesterly from the eighty-second milestone on the boundary of Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario, except a strip one mile wide the length of the Niagara river on its east side, were adjusted, Massachusetts ceding to New York full sovereignty and jurisdiction over the land, and New York yielding to Massachusetts the pre-emption or proprietary right. The tract thus described was supposed to contain about six million acres. In 1788 the State of Massachusetts sold all the land to Phelps and Gorham, but they failed to pay the whole purchase money and in March, 1791, re- conveyed about 3, 750,000 acres to the State. On the 12th of March, 1791, the State sold to Samuel Ogden, who was acting for Robert Morris, all the land, excepting one million acres, or thereabouts, which Phelps and Gorham had paid for and retained. This purchase embraced all Western New York west of a line which corresponds, substantially, with the Genesee river, or, in other words, nearly all that part of the State west of Rochester. In 1792 and 1793 Morris sold 3,400,000 acres of this land to the Holland Land Company, but the conveyances were at first made to other par- ties, probably on account of the alienage of the Hollanders. Afterwards, however, conveyances were made direct to the individuals composing the company, of which Wilhelm Willink, through whom one of the public loans in Holland had been nego- tiated while Morris was Superintendent of the Finances, appears to have been the president. After this purchase a colony of Germans, consisting of seventy families, was formed at Hamburg and sent over to settle on the land. They were furnished with tools and put to work to construct a road from Northumberland to Genesee, but, having come mainly from cities, they were unaccustomed to such labor and the set- tlement finally broke up in a riot. After this, an office was opened by the company and the land was sold and conveyed in parcels to suit purchasers until 1839, when its affairs were closed. In 1802 its office was removed to Batavia, and in 1804 the building which you are here to day to dedicate to the memory of Robert Morris, was erected, and for more than a third of a century the titles to the homes of the people who now inhabit the counties of Erie, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Niagara, except the Indian reservations, and nearly all the countiesof Orleans, Genesee, Wyoming and Allegany were prepared and executed within its walls. Thus it is that nearly every home in the western part of the beautiful valley which suggested the Indian name of the river which flows through it, is connected with the name of Robert Morris, and, though all others may neglect his memory, and even forget the name of the great financier of the Revolution, his fame will live on in this historic region as long as the people love the land on which their children were born and in which their fathers sleep.
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DEDICATION OF THE HISTORICAL MUSEUM.
Morris's pecuniary affairs grew worse from day to day, and finally his creditors be- came so importunate that he was compelled to remain constantly in his home to avoid them. They watched his house, even at night, and lighted fires on his premises in order that he might be intercepted if he attempted to escape. One of them, a Frenchman, went so far as to threaten to shoot him if he made his appearance at the window. In January or February, 1798, he was committed to a debtor's prison, where he remained for more than three years and a half. It was his habit, while confined, to walk around the prison yard fifty times each day and drop a pebble at the completion of each circuit in order to keep the count. During the hardest of his misfortunes he never became despondent or uttered a complaint, except to express his profound regret that he was unable to discharge his honest obligations. He never referred to the great service he had rendered his country, or appealed to the sympathy or charity of the public, but silently submitted to unjust accusations, to prolonged imprisonment and to the indifference and ingratitude of his countrymen with the heroic fortitude of a great and noble mind.
No period of his long and honorable career better illustrates the stalwart and in- dependent character of the man than those closing years of his life. He had stood on the very pinacle of fame and listened to the enthusiastic plaudits of his emanci- pated countrymen and had received even the forced homage of their defeated an- tagonists. He had been the confidential adviser and trusted agent of the govera- ment, when a serious mistake would have been fatal to its existence, and had proved his statesmanship and patriotism by the wisdom of his counsels and the cheerful sacrifice of his personal interests. He had been the bosom friend of Washington and nearly all of the great Americans whose names have come down to us from the last half of the eighteenth century and had been the peer of the greatest among them. He had lived in luxury and had at his command all that wealth and political influence and official station could procure; but now he was broken in fortune, im- prisoned for debt, denounced as a reckless speculator, separated from his old per- sonal friends and ungenerously neglected by the government and the people he had served so long and so well. But he endured it all without a murmur, and after his re- lease from prison went uncomplainingly to his dismantled home, and by the practice of close economy managed to live in a tolerably comfortable condition, for which he was mainly indebted to the Holland Land Company, which paid to Mrs. Morris as long as she lived an annuity of $1,500.
Morris died on the 8th day of May, 1806, in the seventy-third year of his age, and was buried in a little churchyard on Second street in Philadelphia, where his remains now rest, with no monument over them except an ordinary stone slab. The great country which he helped to rescue from the domination of its oppressors has grown rich and powerful under the constitution he helped to frame; the three million people whose liberties he helped to establish, have multiplied until they largely outnumber the population of the mother land; the thirteen feeble States on the shores of the Atlantic, which he helped to unite under a compact of perpetual peace and mutual protection, have become the progenitors of a mighty sisterhood of prosperous com- monwealths, whose confines are limited only by their western seas; and still, no obelisk rises to tell the story of his great services, his unselfish patriotism, his honor- able life, and its melancholy close.
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Following is the dedication poem written for the occasion by John II. Yates of Batavia and read by him :
When to the banks of Jordan's rolling tide The hosts of God from far off Egypt came- With cloudy pillar their long march to guide, Past Sinai's awful mount of smoke and flame,
The found no passage the dark waters o'er, No way to cross the overflowing stream, And Israel's warriors stood upon the shore But could not reach the Canaan of their dream.
Then Joshua, their leader, strong and true, Lifted his voice and soul to God in prayer, While angel hands the billows backward threw, And made a passage for God's people there.
The ark of God moved on at his command, And forward moved the host o'er Jordan's bed ; Their feet as dry as when, through burning sand, Their weary way the cloudy pillar led.
Then reared they high a monument of stone, To tell to generations yet unborn How he, the King of Kings, on throne of thrones, Held back the waters on that glorious morn.
In after years, when sunny youth inquired " What mean these stones?" the gray-haired fathers told The story that again their bosoms fired, The story of deliv'rances of old.
Before us stands this monument of ours, That hath these many years the storms withstood; Reared 'mid the perfumes of the forest flowers,
In shadows cast by monarchs of the wood.
Reared on the banks of Ton-a-wan-da's stream, Which, fed by living springs and rippling rills, Winds down the vale as gentle as a dream, From the bitte domes of the Wyoming hills.
Reared at the junction of two Indian trails, Where chieftains met to seal some white man's doom ; Where war cries mingled with the night-wind's wails And council fires lit up the forest's gloom.
To-day, when sunny youth of us inquires "What mean these stones?" we stop with pride to tell Of wonders wrought by high Ambition's fires, And honest toil, o'er every hill and dell.
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DEDICATION OF THE HISTORICAL MUSEUM.
As sea shells sing forever of the sea, Though borne inland a thousand miles away, So do these walls give forth to you and me The sounds and songs of our forefathers' day.
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