Our diocese : a study of the history and work of the Church in the Diocese of Central New York, Part 2

Author: Fiske, Charles, 1868-1942
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: [New York] : [C. Fiske]
Number of Pages: 166


USA > New York > Our diocese : a study of the history and work of the Church in the Diocese of Central New York > Part 2


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Father Nash, the Pioneer Missionary. In 1803 Father Nash, "the Apostle of the West," Missionary of Otsego County, found his way to Paris Hill, which he visited about once a month for a year. To his labors were due the founding of a number of parishes. St. Paul's, Oxford, and St. Andrew's, New Berlin, were two missions planted under the nursing care of the Mother Church of the Diocese at Paris Hill, from which Father Nash rode forth on horse- back to visit his distant mission stations. Those were sturdy days, and sturdy men inhabited the wilderness. Priests and laymen were not easily daunted or discouraged. The Prayer Book and a volume of sermons sufficed for pastoral care and official leadership between the somewhat rare visits of the distant priest and missionary. The Rev. Daniel Nash, known as "Father Nash ", and as "The Apostle of the West " deserves more than brief mention. He was born in 1763, graduated from Yale College, was originally a Congregationalist, became a Candidate for Orders, 1794, was ordered Deacon by Bishop Provoost, 1797, and at once took up missionary work in Otsego County, living in a cabin of unhewn logs, not his own, with scarcely a pane of glass to let in the light, going from house


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OUR DIOCESE


to house, baptizing households, teaching and catechizing all, old and young. He did more in thirty-seven years in establishing and extending the Church than any other clergymen ever did in the United States. It has been said of him that " he had no assurance of salary but such as he could glean from the cold soil of unrenewed nature or pluck from the clusters of the few scions which he might graft into the Vine Christ Jesus." For this he gave up hope of a comfortable living, even taking his wife into these primi- tive conditions. Father Nash was advanced to the priest- hood by Bishop Moore in 1801. He was a special favorite with Bishop Hobart. Although the country was then largely an unsettled wilderness, from 1804 to 1816 he


reported 496 baptisms. It is supposed that he was the model from whom Cooper derived the character of the Rev. Mr. Grant in the Pioneers. It is said of him, "The young loved him, the mature confided in him, the aged sought in his counsel and example right guidance." It is told of him that when a clergyman whose brother was interested in sheep raising, asked him, as one familiar with rural life, what was the best food for young lambs, he replied that he always brought his young lambs up on the Catechism.


Other Leaders and New Parishes. The Rev. Daven- port Phelps officiated at Paris, Onondaga, Hamilton, and Manlius, and in the latter place in January, 1804, organized another permanent parish, under the name of Trinity Church, subsequently changed to Christ Church. A par- ish was also organized at Onondaga Hill in 1803, but it did not prove permanent.


Jonathan Judd, Deacon, officiated at Chenango and St. Luke's, Oquaga, in 1804. In the latter place "the con- gregation, though destitute for several years of the minis- trations of the priesthood, had regularly assembled on Sun- days when the prayers of the Church and sermons were read." He also visited Paris, Camden, Utica and Redfield,


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THE DIOCESE OF NEW YORK


and attempted a journey to Lowville, but was obliged to return on account of the badness of the road. At Utica he found a Church in process of building. This was Trinity Church organized by Gamaliel Thatcher in 1804, the mother parish of the present city of Utica, which now has seven churches and two mission chapels.


The fifth permanent parish was St. Peter's, Auburn, which was organized, July 1, 1805. On a certain Sunday, in the absence of the Congregational minister from town, William Bostwick and others read the Church service "in the usual place of meeting". The sermon of the Congre- gational pastor the following Sunday was a severe rebuke to the worthy men who had officiated "by the general desire of the people ", and this evidently spurred them on to do what they had before neglected, and a church of their own faith was the result.


Benjamin Moore, The Second Bishop. Trinity Church, Utica, was consecrated by Bishop Moore, the second bishop of New York, on September 7, 1808, in his first journey into this part of the state. On the following Sunday Amos Glover Baldwin who ministered twelve years in Trinity, Utica, Paris Hill, Fairfield, etc., was ordered deacon and eigh- teen persons were confirmed. These services, with the consecration of Trinity Church, Geneva, seem to have been held on the only visit by Bishop Moore to this part of his Diocese, to which Bishop Provoost had never come. When we are told, however, that Bishop Moore was Bishop of New York, Rector of Trinity Church and President of Columbia College, and when we realize the lack of facilities for


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OUR DIOCESE


travel and the thinly settled condition of the country, we see that there is nothing remarkable in this fact. That Bishop Moore took a very real interest in the distant part of his Diocese may be evidenced by the fact that Trinity Church, New York, gave to Trinity Church, Utica, an endowment of 265 acres of land, and a city lot.


Christ Church, Binghamton, was organized in 1810. Until this time the only minister of the place was an old- fashioned Calvinist. In a call upon Mrs. Waterman, the daughter of Gen. Joshua Whitney, one of two brothers who founded the village, he is said to have asked her, " Are you in a state of grace." " I hope I am," was her reply. "Are you willing, perfectly willing, to be damned, if it be God's will? "No, I am not," was the frank answer. " Then you are not of our faith," said the preacher. The young woman repeated the conversation to her father, who, though he was not a Churchman, gave the land for a Church, sent for a clergyman of the Church and paid his salary.


John Henry Hobart, the Third Bishop. In 1811 the Rt. Rev. John Henry Hobart became Bishop Coadjutor of New York, and it is scarcely possible to overestimate the import- ance of this fact in the growth of the Church. " The voice of Hobart," it is said, "was a trumpet call such as the Church had not heard since Seabury's day, and never in New York, to stand up for Christ the Church." Before his consecration he placed on record his motto, "My banner is Evan- gelical Truth and Apostolic Order." His clergy, especially the mission- ary clergy, soon felt the force of an aggressive Bishop behind them, who made no timid excuses


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THE DIOCESE OF NEW YORK


for "our peculiarities" and for "our liturgy" but expressed a triumphant confidence and enthusiasm for the Divine Constitution and Mission of the Church. He came to be looked upon by the laity as "a mighty champion of the truth and office of the Church " and was regarded with a personal affection and veneration which it is not easy to realize at this day.


Bishop Hobart's Episcopate was a period of steady ad- vance for the Church. It was not merely that new churches were built in growing settlements, but real faith in the Church was aroused. He explained the feasts and fasts and instructed people how to observe them. His efforts were largely responsible for the restoration (after long disuse in some places) of the surplice, for regular reading of the Epistle and Gospel at least weekly, and for more frequent celebrations of the Holy Communion. His leader- ship and exhortations were not in vain, for his admonitions were heeded by clergy and laity alike and prepared the way for that steadfast and uncompromising loyalty to the teach- ing and worship of the Church, which, under Bishop De Lancey, won for Western New York the title of "The Model Diocese."


In 1811 we read for the first time of services in Skane- ateles, Marcellus, Brutus, Mentz, Genoa and Cazenovia. Parishes were organized in Oxford and New Berlin in 1814. In 1817 services were first held in Vernon, Locke, Dryden, Bridgewater, Greene, Bainbridge, Boonville, Leyden and Windsor, and parishes were organized in Turin, Oswego, and Waterloo.


In 1819 Bishop Hobart visited the Diocese from New York to Buffalo, travelling by stage-coach and canal-boat, and visited Utica, Turin, Lowville, Paris, Oneida, Manlius, Onondaga, and Auburn.


In 1819 services were first held at Sackett Harbor, Danby, and Sherburne. The salaries of the clergy, and the strange


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OUR DIOCESE


manner in which members of the Church elected to give, were burning questions, then as now. Missionary stipends were $175 per annum, while Bishop Hobart says " I see the contributions of Episcopalians extended to religious institu- tions not immediately connected with their own Church and yet how many of their fellow Episcopalians in this state are destitute of the ministrations and ordinances of the Church, and unable from their poverty, to procure them." In the same address he praises the zeal and faith- fulness of the Churchmen of Utica and Paris in maintaining regular services by lay reading during long vacancies.


In 1821 there was founded "The Christian Knowledge Society of the Western District of New York." This re- sulted, six years later, in the establishment of the Gospel Messenger and Church Record of Western New York, edited by the Rev. Dr. Rudd, of St. Peter's, Auburn, and con- sidered "the best, though not the ablest. weekly Church paper we have ever had in this country."


Bishop Hobart's Journey. The Bishop's visitation of his Diocese in 1826 involved a journey of between three and four thousand miles, and on his way from Ithaca through Danby to Catharine town, now Elmira, he was compelled to leave the carriage and walk, the roads were so bad. “I found ", he writes "strong evidence that the clergy can counteract the powerful course of religious fanaticism and not only preserve any of their flocks from being led away, but secure strong accession without any departure from the primitive principles and sober institutions of the Church. The increase of our Church by other means is not to be desired. Numerical strength might prove absolute weak- ness, by bringing within her pale those who will seek to change her character."


During this journey the Bishop consecrated St. Stephen's Church, New Hartford, built mainly by Judge Sanger, who was a liberal benefactor of another religious body, but


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THE DIOCESE OF NEW YORK


because of the bitter opposition shown locally to the Church was led to embrace her cause and with his whole family to become pillars of her strength. Judge Sanger endowed the parish with one hundred and thirty acres of land and an annuity of $250. This land was exchanged for two lots in Utica ; these for a lot in New Hartford for a rectory ( never built) ; this lot was traded in for a house and lot, (occupied but never paid for) ; this was disposed of under forced sale for $200, and this money was used to complete payment on an organ. It will be seen, therefore, that one hundred thirty acres of New York State land is sometimes equal to only one-third of an organ !


In Brownville, in 1828, the majority of the congregation of the principal local denomination, dissatisfied with certain religious views and extravagances, attached themselves to the Church.


In the same year an attempt was made to establish a Clerical Annuity Society for the benefit of clergy incapaci- tated by age or sickness.


A notable example of lay devotion may be mentioned in connection with Sherburne, where a Church and rectory were built chiefly by a merchant who gave time, labor and money, also taking charge of the Sunday School and acting as lay reader.


In 1830 a Church was built at Pompey, where, far from any village or hamlet, there was for years a congregation including nearly every family for several miles, and more than one hundred communicants. The missionary, Rev. James Selkrig, built the organ with his own hands. In the Gospel Messenger of 1858, there is an account of this then deserted church, and in 1871 Bishop Huntington mentions seeing the " Old Church edifice at Pompey, consecrated by Bishop Onderdonk, afterward deserted owing to change in the population. and now degraded to the sheltering and foddering of cattle."


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OUR DIOCESE


Summary of Bishop Hobart's Work. During Bishop Hobart's Eiscopate the Church gained nearly threefold on the rapid increase of population. He found Davenport Phelps the only missionary west of Utica : he left thirty- six. He found twenty parishes and missions with five churches and less than five hundred communicants : he left sixty-six parishes with thirty-six churches and 2,331 com- municants. He found no provision for the support of the Episcopate, except a salary as assistant minister of Trinity Church ; he left an Episcopate Fund of $46,474. “All this increase," it is said, "was largely owing to the personal efforts of the Bishop, but much more doubtless to the spirit which his character and example infused into his clergy and laity. But of far greater importance was his championing, and his clear and persuasive setting forth, in his preaching, his addresses, and his books, of the distinctive principles of the Church, until his time, it is hardly too much to say, slurred over and kept out of sight."


Benjamin Treadwell Underdonk, the Fourth Bishop. Benjamin Treadwell Onderdonk was almost unanimously elected to succeed Bishop Hobart and was consecrated in For eight years he ministered with zeal and faithful-


1830. ness.


In his visitation in 1833 he consecrated ten churches in seventeen days, one of which was "The Apostolic Church " of Geddes. He made the last Episco- pal visitation to the Oneida Indians in New York State, for they soon after joined the rest of the tribe, which had in 1826 removed to Green Bay, Wisconsin. Of this visit we are told that the Gloria in Excelsis was chanted by the In- dians in their native tongue and that the service consisted of Morning


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THE DIOCESE OF NEW YORK


Prayer, Ordination of Deacons, sermon and address to the Indians, Confirmation, Litany and Holy Communion, and lasted four hours, but that the attention of the congregation was unwavering to the end. Perhaps we should import some Oneida Indians to leven the restless spirit of our modern congregations, so critical of even ten or fifteen minutes extra in service or sermon !


In 1834 there were new churches at Mt. Upton, Big Flats, Seneca Falls, Norwich, Greene, and Guilford-none as yet in Elmira.


In 1835 Christ Church, Oswego, relinguished its mission- ary stipend, acknowledging all that it had received as a debt to be paid by liberal contributions. This example is brought forth from the archives of the past as one worthy to be followed wherever earnest zeal can make it possible.


Bishop Onderdonk made two visitations in 1836, traveling nearly three thousand miles, through every county of the present Diocese of Central New York and all but two of the counties of Western New York, and confirming 668 persons. Of Father Nash he says, "Parish after parish was built on foundations laid by him."


CHAPTER III


FORMING NEW DIOCESES


I [F the brief history already given has been so condensed as to seem tiresome, the reader should briefly examine his own conscience. Would that we could appreciate what the history meant to those who made it ! Would that we could raise up today men like Bishop Hobart, ready to spend and be spent for the cause so dear to the heart of Christ ! Indeed, we are not now without men of faith, vision and zeal ; but it would be hard to find many whose lives have meant as much for God and his church as the labors of these men of other days.


We pass on now to days of endeavor toward larger orga- nization and efficiency. During the years whose history we have been telling, the whole state was one great diocese. Imagine the burdens that lay on Bishop Hobart's heart. He was rector of Trinity Church ; was Bishop of an im- mense territory ; was deeply interested in founding educa- tional institutions (witness Hobart College, which now bears his name) and was building churches, winning men to the ministry, instructing clergy and laity and doing the work of an evangelist himself while he stirred up the zeal of others.


Of course the burden of such a work was too great for any men to bear. The work in the state was, of very necessity, divided, It had grown under one man until one man could no longer care for it.


DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK


William Heathcote Delancey, the First Bishop of Western New York. A movement for a new Diocese, or for addi- tional episcopal supervision, began in 1834 and the Diocese


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of Western New York was erected in 1838 with the Rt. Rev. William Heathcote De- lancey as first bishop. The eastern line of the new diocese coincided with that of our pre- sent diocese, viz., along the east- ern boundary lines of the counties of Broome, Chenango, Madison, Oneida and Lewis, and there were sixty-seven priests, eight deacons, ninety- six parishes and missions, seventy church buildings, and four thousand communicants, to be directed, adminis- tered, and spiritually admonished by the new bishop.


The fourth convention of the Diocese was held in Trinity Church, Utica, in August, a date continued until 1876. Until 1867 the convention opened with Morning Prayer, Litany, Sermon and Holy Communion, with a full church and a great number of communicants. Again-people did not complain of long services in those days !


The Christmas Fund for disabled clergymen, apparently the first diocesan provision of this kind, was established in 1840, in response to the bishop's appeal.


In the Bishop's address in 1840 he mentions a matter which is of great interest to us of this diocese, the Van Wagenen fund of which some account has already been given. The fund began as a gift of one thousand acres of land in Saratoga County, from Gerritt H. Van Wagenen to the Vestry of St. George's, New York, for the support of a missionary in Chenango County. The Vestry declined the trust and Mr. Joseph Juliand of Greene became Trustee until 1870, when Mr. John R. Van Wagenen of Oxford, was appointed and continued to administer the fund with great devotion and skill until his death in 1915. The land


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OUR DIOCESE


being not readily salable, the heirs of the donor added $1,000 in cash to the legacy. Finally the property was sold for $400, half of which was paid out for taxes. At the division of the Diocese in 1869 this fund amounted to about $4,000. Further gifts, amounting to $11,500, were made from time to time, and the principal now amounts to about $50,000.


The Diocesan Convention of 1842 was held in St. Paul's Church, Syracuse, which had just been consecrated, having been completed and paid for, with bell and organ, in one year, at a cost of $13,000. The Bishop's convention address occupied one hour and twelve minutes and was on "The Extent of Redemption."


Bishop DeLancey is described as an "old fashioned churchman of the Hobart School, courteous and attractive in his demeanor, an accomplished scholar, a winning and interesting preacher, and a true man." In 1854 he tried to remedy the small salaries of the clergy by making Thanksgiving Day, "donation day," salaries being from $325 and house to $600 and house, with donation-the latter being regarded as wealth. This custom, then begun, is continued in a few parishes of the diocese to this day. He also proposed the Provincial System-a half century before it was adopted. He urged Tithing. And a com- mittee reported that the salaries given the clergy seriously deterred young men from entering on a work so slightly esteemed and upheld. Thus does history teach present- day lessons.


Ecclesiastical Matter. The work every where prospered under the new Bishop. Fine churches were building. Richard Upjohn who came later to be known as the fore- most proponent of ecclesiastical architecture designed St. Andrew's, New Berlin ; St. Paul's, Oxford ; St. Thomas, Hamilton ; St. James, Pulaski, Trinity, Water- town ; Zion, Rome ; and St. Paul's, Waterloo.


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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK


Ritual practices were being reformed as Puritan influence waned. In 1852 surplices began to appear and by 1859 gowns were disappearing. Black stoles arrived and bands withered and died in 1867. Eucharistic vestments (called the "St. Alban's" surplice) appeared in 1860 from Ver-


ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, NEW BERLIN


mont, and were first worn in Zion Church, Rome, and St. John's, Oneida, and then by the Bishop himself. At the Convention of 1863 the service was choral with clergy as choristers.


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Meanwhile, however, the nation was facing a struggle which finally ended in the crisis that led to the war between the states.


War clouds were on the horizon. The Bishop said in 1856, " The clergy of the Diocese will continue to abstain as they have hitherto so uniformly done, from intermingling themselves with the political conflicts of the day . . . we serve a Kingdom that is not of this world the Gospel pulpit is no appointed place for partizan politics. For my- self, I have never even voted at an election."


That is hardly an example we would recommend today. The Bishop's practice probably arose out of his unwilling- ness to confuse the relations of Church and State-and English history had furnished sufficient warnings of such an evil ! Moreover, the wise course of the clergy during these trying days preserved our unity, saved the Church from division and aided the progress of reconstruction after the war. Even if he abstained from voting, the Bishop was a real patriot. In 1862 he urged the "ready contribution, the cheerful sacrifice, and the fervent prayer that the rebel- lion may be suppressed, the Union restored, and the Republic preserved " and he addressed the President on assigning "clergy brought into service, to duty as non- combatants according to the principles of the Catholic Church."


A. Cleveland Coxe, Second Bishop of Western New York. In 1864 Bishop De Lancey asked for assistance. The Rev. Dr. A. Cleveland Coxe was elected on the first ballot, al- though the bishop had absolutely refused to allow open nom- inations. The new Bishop's first visit was to convicts in Auburn prison.


In 1865 Bishop De Lancey died and Bishop Coxe suc- ceeded to authority. He at once advocated division of the diocese, although his diocese was only twenty-seven years old. His desire actually was for a bishop in every city, as


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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK


the normal condition of Church life. This, he felt, would be a restoration of "the Apostolic ministry to the apostolic posi- tion". "Vast regionary juris- dictions," he argued, "are only tolerable in the first evangeliz- ing of countries and as a tem- porary and transitory expedient." As a first step he advocated the erection of a new See and pro- posed Utica as the See city and as the name of the new diocese. The first committee on division reported that Oneida, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, and Chenango Counties had a population of 278,000 ; (forty-eight parishes, thirteen self-supporting) ; 13,339 communicants ; offerings for all purposes, $40,000 ; with $1400 a year at once available for the support of a bishop.


The division was not "unaccompanied by division of opinion. Many favored Syracuse as the See city of the new Diocese. A layman of Trinity Church, Utica, offered on behalf of the vestry, to provide the funds to increase the bishops's salary to $3,000 on condition that Utica be made the See city and Trinity Church the cathedral, the parish also to provide the support of its rector. General opinion favored dividing the Diocese about equally by means of a line running north and south. On the other hand, the southern tier wanted division along the lines of the railroad to Buffalo. Chemung and Schuyler County were debatable ground for some time. However, the convention of 1867 adopted the report of a special committee as to territorial division, General Convention consented in 1868, and the Primary Convention was called.


Organization of the Diocese of Central New York. The Primary Convention of our present diocese met in


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Trinity and Grace Churches, Utica, November 10 and II, 1868. Three of our present clergy were members of that Convention : The Rev. William M. Beauchamp, then rector of Grace Church, Baldwinsville; the Rev. John A. Staunton, then rector of Grace Church, Water- town; and the Rev. George G. Perrine, then rector of St. John's, Oneida. Sixty-eight parishes were repre- sented-among them Perryville, Whitestown, and Augusta, all now extinct. Sixty-one clergy were entitled to seats.


The Committee on the Support of the Episcopate reported a proposal (adopted by the Churchmen of Syracuse at a meeting in the City Hall over which Charles Andrews, then Mayor, presided ) that the name of Syracuse should be given to the diocese, since Syracuse was the principal city, nearly in the geographical center and at the center of travel and communication. They promised a warm welcome and cordial support to the bishop and pledged themselves to provide not less than $20,000 for the purchase or building of a See house or residence. The committee recommended a salary of $3,500, in addition to the use of a house, so soon as provided. The Convention omitted the proviso, and fixed the salary at $4,000.




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