USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume II > Part 26
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The organization and influence of The American Society soon led to the establishment of local societies in all parts of the Union and in other countries of the American Continent and elsewhere. The number of local societies incorporated in the United States is now 405 and in other American nations 32 societies have been established and incor- porated since 1866, making a total of 437. The prevention of cruelty to animals has been the beginning of many other humane organizations. Thus, in 1874, the Society appeared as prosecutor in a case of cruelty to children, and it then appeared to be advisable to organize a separate Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. This was done in 1875, under the presidency of John D. Wright; Henry Bergh becoming vice-president of the new society; the first of its kind in the world. The establishment of these and other organizations has represented an in- creased interest in humane work which has found practical expression
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in the legislation of nearly every State in the Union. At this date there is not a single State in which cruelty of any kind is not forbidden by the law, under stringent penalties for disobedience. Some defects con- tinue to exist, of course; but speaking broadly, it may be said that the laws on this subject are good. What is now required is that the great mass of the people shall be educated into sympathy with the humanity of the law. That is now the greatest work of the Society, and it has constant reason to be grateful for the assistance and encouragement which it receives from the press, the pulpit and the judges of the courts.
In The Bronx the Society is located at Park Avenue and 173rd Street, where it has also an ambulance house. David E. Livingston is the In- spector in charge.
The officers of the Society for 1924 were as follows : President, Frank K. Sturgis; Vice-President, John Greenough; Secretary, Richard Well- ing; Treasurer, Alexander S. Webb. The Board of Managers consist of the following: John Greenough, Norman Henderson, Charles E. Mani- ere, Herbert L. Pratt, Frank K. Sturgis, Cortlandt S. Van Rensselaer, J. Macy Willetts, F. R. Appleton, Gordon Knox Bell, Howland Davis, Robert H. McCurdy, Alfred B. Maclay, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Loril- lard Spencer, C. Howard Davison, James Sheldon, R. Lawrence Smith, Walter L. Suydam, Reginald C. Vanderbilt, Alexander S. Webb, Rich- ard Willing.
The report of the General Manager, W. K. Horton, for 1924, observes :
"The last census shows that the population of the Borough of The Bronx is nearly one million. That progressive borough opened up a splendid new field for development along humane lines, which the So- ciety has taken advantage of in the erection of a new plant at the cor- ner of Park Avenue and 173rd Street. This structure combines office facilities, a modern shelter for small animals, accommodations for dogs held under observation by the health authorities, a garage, and the latest scientific system for the humane dispatch of these animals which by reason of disease or injury or for other reasons have to be destroyed. From this new branch the Society's activities in the Borough of The Bronx will be carried on.
"The receiving stations for small animals which the Society has maintained for several years in some of the public parks and play- grounds during the summer months, have become so well known and so well patronized by owners and others having unwanted small ani- mals to dispose of, that it has been found desirable to make two of them permanent depots or receiving shelters. In place of the outdoor cages in Batsy Head Playground, in the Brownsville section of Brook- lyn, permanent cages and other necessary accommodations have been provided in a nearby building, with an attendant in charge; and at the William H. Seward Park, on Canal Street, Manhattan, the Park Com-
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missioner has generously donated the use of a basement park building, where similar activities are being carried on. In the city of New York and nearby summer resorts, the use of the horse for the transportation of passengers has practically come to an end; but in the rural districts, in the mountain resorts of Sullivan and Ulster counties, and in the Catskill and the Adirondacks, the horse is still in demand for pleasure jaunts. His life there is a hard one. From early in the morning until late at night pulling all manner of conveyances overloaded with summer sojourners, the boarding house horse receives little consideration, and often little feed. Our agents who toured these sections during the past summer examined 2,300 horses as to their fitness for the work they were performing; suspended 49 from labor, mercifully destroyed 28, and arrested and prosecuted 118 owners and drivers for causing and permit- ting this cruelty and abuse. Every one of the arrests resulted in a con- viction, the justices everywhere co-operating with the Society in the heartiest manner.
"The space at our disposal will not permit a review of the varied ac- tivities of the Society, but some operations that lend themselves to tab- ulation have been included in the following summary :
Retired police and fire horses placed in homes 34
Horses examined at auction sales 17,078
Horses condemned at auction sales 1,957
Cases treated at Society's hospital 13,623
Days of hospital treatment 27,469
Dogs restored to their owners and placed in homes 2,111
Permanent drinking fountains in operation, summer and winter 70
Temporary watering stations maintained during summer 25 Temporary receiving stations for animals 6
In addition to the above summary, our usual statistical table shows the following work accomplished during the year 1924:
Offenders arrested and prosecuted by the Society 901
Offenders arrested by police and prosecuted by Society 53
Total arrests and prosecutions 954
Animals suspended from labor
3,979
Horses, mules and other large animals, disabled beyond recovery, humanely destroyed 663
Disabled horses removed from the streets in ambulances 606
Complaints received 5,864
Cases investigated 10,797
Calls made for unwanted, sick and injured animals 132,889
"There are approximately 500 societies for the prevention of cruelties to animals in the United States and actively carrying on operations."
CHAPTER XVIII THE RELIGIOUS ASPECT
A little over a decade ago there were in round numbers, something like a hundred and fifty churches of various denominations in The Bronx. The following are some of the pioneer churches of the different recognized beliefs: The Forest Avenue Congregational Church was established in 1851 at East 166th Street; the Second Church of the Dis- ciples of Christ was started about 1867 in East 169th Street near Frank- lin Avenue; the Jewish congregation of B'nai David, at Third Avenue and 175th Street, was established in 1898; the Second Moravian Church was organized in Manhattan in 1852, but moved to its present location at Wilkins Avenue and Jennings Street in October, 1906. With such a large influx of Germans, there was at an early date established a Luth- eran as well as a Roman Catholic Church. These Germans made efforts as early as 1852 to found a German Lutheran Church; but, though church services were held in a hall at 161st Street, the congregation sep- arated after a year, as no agreement could be reached as to whether the church should be situated in Melrose or Morrisania. As a result, two churches were established, the earlier one, St. Matthew's German Luth- eran Church in East 156th Street, Melrose, and St. John's in East 169th Street between Fordham (Third) and Fulton avenues, Morrisania. The first of these was incorporated in 1862, and the latter in 1865; though both had been organized and services held probably five years earlier than these dates.
Bronx, a Borough of Churches-At the present time there are over two hundred and fifty churches in The Bronx, a rate of progress which would seem to indicate that religion is one of the most productive ac- tivities that prevail amongst us. There were, for example in 1926, twelve Baptist churches in the borough; there were two Christian Science churches; five Congregational; one Disciples of Christ church ; two Evangelical churches; twenty-five Lutheran churches; twenty-one Methodist Episcopal churches; one Moravian church; nineteen Pres- byterian churches; one Presbyterian United church; twenty-five Prot- estant Episcopal churches; nine belonging to the Reformed Churches in America; one Reformed Church in the United States; fifty Catholic churches; one belonging to the Seventh-Day Adventists ; fifty-four Jew- ish congregations. In addition to these there are the following miscel- laneous places of worship : Bread Enough and to Spare Mission, No. 647
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East Tremont Avenue; Bronx Gospel Hall, 154th Street and Elton Avenue; Church of God, No. 2134 Grand Avenue and No. 774 East 223rd Street; Grace Gospel Hall, No. 589 East 164th Street; Salvation Army, No. 777 Courtlandt Avenue and No. 1872 Webster Avenue; Tre- mont Gospel Hall, No. 4243 Park Avenue; Union Pilgrim Rescue Holy Church of New Covenant, No. 677 East 232nd Street; United Christian Workers, No. 2429 East Tremont Avenue and No. 675 East 238th Street ; West Farms Mission, No. 1833 West Farms Road; 146th Street Mission, 146th Street, west of Third Avenue.
Religion in the Early Bronx-The earliest settlers in The Bronx were refugees from New England colonies who sought the Dutch colony of New Netherland for a freer exercise of their religion; the policy of the Dutch in regard to religious matters being much more liberal than that pursued in Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Salem, or the Connecticut col- onies. Most of these settlers were Independents, the rest were Quak- ers. In 1646 Father Jogue, a Jesuit missionary, visited New Amster- dam and wrote: "No religion is publicly exercised but the Calvinist, and orders are to admit none but Calvinists, but this is not observed; and there are in the Colony, besides the Calvinists, Catholics, English Puri- tans, Lutherans, Anabaptists, here called Ministres, &c., &c." Sir Ed- mund Andros, the Governor, in an account of New York in 1768 says:
There are Religions of all sorts, one Church of England, several Presbiterians & Independents, Quakers & Anabaptists, of several sects, some Jews, but Presbi- terians & Indipendts most numerous & substantiall ........ And all places oblidged to build churches and provide for a minister, in wch most very wanting, but presbi- terians and Independents desirous to haue & maintaine them if to be had. There are abt 20 churches or Meeting places of wch aboue halfe vacant.
At the town meeting of Westchester, January 2, 1692, it was agreed "that there shall be an orthodox minister in the town aforesaid, as soon as possible may be; and to allow him forty or fifty pounds per annum, equivalent to money, for his maintenance. It is also voted and agreed upon that a man shall go to the Honorable Colonel Heathcote and see if he can prevail with him for to procure us a minister, in his travels in New England, otherwise, that Captain William Barnes shall go and procure us a minister."
The Provincial Assembly in 1693 passed an act for settling a min- istry ; and the county of Westchester was divided into two parishes, Westchester and Rye. The former included the towns and precincts of Westchester, Eastchester, Yonkers and Pelham Manor, and was re- quired to raise fifty pounds per annum for the support of a minister. There was also to be "Called, inducted and established a good, sufficient Protestant minister"; but so few persons at that time were qualified to accept the call of the vestry that it was not until May, 1695, that steps
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were taken to call the Reverend Warham Mather, a graduate of Har- vard and a member of the family which gave so many divines to New England. That there was a church building at Westchester is evident from the description of the town given by the Reverend John Miller in 1695. "There is a meeting-house at Westchester, and a young man coming to settle there without orders (i. e., not a clergyman of the Church of England). There are two or three hundred English and Dis- senters, a few Dutch." When this meeting-house was built is proble- matical; but as on May 5, 1696, it had so fallen into decay that the town voted to repair it, we may surmise that it might have been perhaps twenty years old. In 1697 "It was voted and agreed upon, that there should be a Town House built, to keep courts in, and for the publick to worship God."
In 1699 an act of the Provincial Assembly authorized the towns of the Province to build and repair meeting-houses, and to lay taxes for the same. In view of this act the idea of building a town house was abandoned, and a new parish church was erected in 1700, the expense of building the same being laid upon all the inhabitants, irrespective of re- ligious belief. It was twenty-eight feet square, with a "terret" on top for a bell tower, capping a pyramidal roof, and was built of wood by Richard Ward at a cost of forty pounds. It occupied the site of the present Episcopal Church of St. Peter's on the Town Green, adjoining the court-house and jail. It was used as a church until 1788, when it was in such bad order after the Revolution that it was sold to Mrs. Sarah Ferris and removed. The Reverend Warham Mather served as minister until 1701, but was never inducted into the living, owing to the adverse efforts of Colonel Heathcote, who had been elected a church warden of the parish and who, stout churchman as he was, opposed the installation of a dissenting clergyman. In his letter of April 10, 1704, to the secretary of the Propagation Society, Colonel Heathcote says :
Sir, being favor'd with this opportunity, I cannot omitt giving you the state of this county in relation to the church, and shall begin the history thereof from the time I first came amongst them, which was about twelve years ago, when I found it the most rude and heathenish country I ever saw in my whole life, which called themselves Christians-there being not so much as the least marks or foot- steps of religion of any sort. Sundays being the only time sett apart by them for all manner of vain sports and lewd diversions, and they were grown to such degree of rudeness, that it was intolerable, and having then the command of the militia, I sent an order to all captains, requiring them to call their men under arms and acquaint them that in case they would not, in every town, agree amongst them- selves to appoint readers and pass the Sabbath in the best manner they could, till such times as they could be better provided, that they should every Sunday call their companies under arms, and spend the day in exercise, whereupon it was unanimously agreed on thro' the county, to make choice of readers; which they ac- cordingly did, and continued in those efforts some time. After which the people of Westchester, Eastchester, and a place called Lower Yonkers, agreed with one
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Warren Mather, and the people of Rye with one Mr. Woodbridge, both of New England, there being at that time scarce six in the whole county who so much as inclined to the church. After Mr. Mather had been with them for some time, Westchester Parish made choice of me for one of their church-wardens, in hopes of using my interest with Colonel Fletcher to have Mather inducted to ye living. I told them it was altogether impossible for me to comply with their desire, it being wholly repugnant to the laws of England to compel the subjects to pay for the maintenance of any minister who was not of the national church, and that it lay not in any governor's power to help them.
It is to be recalled that Governor Benjamin Fletcher intentionally misconstrued an act of the Assembly and had declared the Church of England to be the Established Church of the Province. Colonel Heath- cote tried to have called to the living a French Protestant living in Bos- ton, the Reverend Mr. Bondett, who had taken holy orders; but though the vestry agreed, they afterwards refused to allow of his induction. Appeal was then made to London, to the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Faith in Foreign Parts, whose province it was to furnish clergymen to the colonies of England. In accordance with this request the Society sent out to Westchester the Rev. John Bartow, M. A., who arrived in New York in 1702; and who, on December 6 of the same year, was regularly inducted into the Parish of Westchester and Eastchester by the Rev. William Vesey, rector of Trinity Church, New York, and Josiah Hunt, church-warden of the parish, acting under in- structions from the Bishop of London, and from Lord Cornbury, the governor of the province. Mr. Bartow thus became the first regular rector of the parish, and served as such until his death in 1726, at the age of fifty-two. He was of French extraction, the name being formerly, Bertaut.
In an account of the state of the church in the province laid before the clergy of New York, October 5, 1704, we find the following sum- mary :
Westchester, Mr. Bartow, Rector: Here is a church built, but not finished, be- ing neither glazed nor ceiled. The parish of Westchester is divided into four sev- eral districts, viz., Westchester, Eastchester, Yonkers and the Manor of Pelhanı. There is £50 settled on the ministers by the act of Assembly.
There is twenty acres of land given by Westchester division for a glebe.
There is one Independent Congregation at Eastchester, whose minister designs to leave there, whose congregation upon his departure, are resolved to join with the Church.
Towards the close of 1706 it was ordered by the justices, church- wardens, and vestry of the parish to finish the church at a cost of £17, "in good and current money of New York. .. the justices and vestry to find boards and nails and hinges." During the ministry of Mr. Bartow he acquired considerable land in Westchester, and also several thousand acres in East New Jersey, in the counties of Monmouth and Middlesex,
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which he devised by will to his widow and six sons. The careers of the sons and their descendants show that the rector was the ancestor of a line of clergymen of the Church of England and of the Episcopal Church of today.
Early Ministers and Churches-Mr. Bartow was succeeded in 1727 at Westchester by Dr. Thomas Standard, who was rector of the parish over thirty-four years, dying in 1760. In the rector's report of 1728 to the Society he states : "I preach one Sunday at Eastchester and another at Westchester, twice a day, for the summer half year." The Rev. John Milner was installed as "Rector of the Parish Church at Westchester, commonly called St. Peter's Church, including the several districts of Westchester, Eastchester, Yonkers and the Manor of Pelham," under orders from Lieutenant-Governor Cadwallader Colden, dated June 30, 1761. In his report to the Society on October 3, 1761, he says: "My mission is of large extent; and I am obliged to attend three churches, and till Mr. Houdin came to New Rochelle, officiated there once a month. One of my churches is a new edifice, raised by the generosity of Col- onel Philips. I have baptized forty-three white infants and four adults, twelve black children and three adults. My communicants are sixteen." Later, June 29, 1762, he reports : "I constantly attend three churches, in three different townships, preaching to crowded audiences of devout, well-behaved people. They have no dissenters among them except a few Quakers. The number of my communicants is increased fifty-three."
By royal charter of December 2, 1762, St. Peter's at Westchester was incorporated under the title of "The Rector and inhabitants of the Bor- ough Town of Westchester, in Communion of the Church of England, as by law established." This gave them the right to sue and be sued, to acquire property, and to lease or otherwise dispose of it, as well as power to build and repair, and to conduct their affairs as a body corporate and politic without regard to the authorities and inhabitants of the town. The names of the incorporators were Rector John Milner, John Bartow, Isaac Willett, Lewis Morris, Jr., Peter De Lancey, Nathaniel Underhill, James Graham, and James Van Cortlandt, a list which includes the most prominent names of the borough of colonial times.
Mr. Milner went to considerable expense in 1764 to repair the parson- age house and to erect new barns and outhouses upon the glebe lands. In addition, the church-wardens notified the Society that,
"We have purchased a glebe of thirty acres with a house, which, when we have repaid Mr. Milner the expense he has been at, will cost us, in the whole, near seven hundred pounds, which we spend with cheerful- ness, as our minister's behaviour has very much endeared him to the people; and his diligence has been attended with much success, that whole families of Quakers-the only dissenters in this parish-have conformed to the Church."
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In the fall of 1765, Mr. Milner severed his connection with the parish, for what reason does not clearly appear, though it was probably due to a difference in money matters between him and the vestry, who were slow in paying him the money he had expended. In fact the vestry must have refused to pay him at all, for in his letter to the secretary of the Society from his new cure in Virginia, under date of February 3, 1768, he says :
"I am very sorry to inform you that the people of Westchester pay very little regard either to their promises, or the Society's expectations, for I am informed by my lawyer that they absolutely refuse to refund me one penny of all the money I have expended on their glebe, which, without the repairs and buildings I made, would have been entirely useless."
The Reverend Samuel Seabury succeeded to the rectorship near the end of 1766, after a vacancy of nearly a year. He is spoken of "as a youth of good genius, unblemished morals, sound principles of religion and one that hath made as good proficiency in literature, while in Amer- ica, as the present state of learning there would admit of." In a letter to the secretary dated June 25, 1767, he writes: "with regard to the in- come of this parish, the salary, by an act of Assembly is £ 50 currency. The exchange from New York to London being generally from £70 to £80 for £100 sterling. Burial fees here, there are none; but the more wealthy families sometimes give the minister a scarf on these occa- sions. Marriage fees from one to four Spanish dollars; but far the greater number go to an Independent teacher in the Parish of Rye, because the ceremony is short, and they have nothing to say. Possibly these fees may amount to £5 or £6 a year ... But there are many families, especially among the lower classes, who do not pretend to be of any religion at all."
During the Revolution-Seabury was a Tory and took a part in the discussion preceding the Revolution. He was captured by Sears and imprisoned in Connecticut, and upon his return took up his residence at the parsonage in fear and trembling, as he was closely watched by the authorities. Upon the Declaration of Independence he shut up his church. On September 1, 1776, after lying hidden for some time in the Wilkins' house with Dr. Chandler of Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Dr. Myles Cooper, president of King's College, he, with his companions, took advantage of the neck being unguarded and escaped at night to Long Island. "Upon finding they had missed him, the Rebels vented their rage on his church and his property, converting the former into a hospital, tearing off the covering and burning the pews; and damaging the latter to the value of three hundred pounds currency."
In his letter of November 12, 1777, he writes: "That about a month
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REVEREND WASHINGTON RODMAN, FORMER RECTOR OF GRACE CHURCH, WEST FARMS. AND FOUNDER OF THE PRESENT HOME FOR INCURABLES
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before I had visited Westchester, and thought of staying the winter there, but was obliged to drop such intentions on General Burgoyne's defeat ; as the Rebels upon that event came to that town by night and carried off forty-two of the inhabitants." He removed from Long Is- land to Staten Island; but finding it "impracticable to return to West- chester, or reside on Staten Island," he took up his residence in New York in 1778, and lived there until the end of the war, acting as chap- lain of Colonel Fanning King's American Regiment of Loyalists.
During the Revolution, St. Peter's was closed as far as religious serv- ices were concerned; though, like St. Paul's at Eastchester and the Dutch Church at Fordham, it was used either as a hospital or stable by the British, perhaps both. No services were held for thirteen years, and the church edifice was so dilapidated as to be irreparable. On April 6, 1784, the State Legislature passed "An act to enable all religious denominations in this State to appoint trustees, who should be a body corporate for the purpose of taking care of the temporalities of their respective congregations, and for other purposes therein mentioned." Under the provisions of this act St. Peter's was incorporated April 19, 1788, with the following persons as trustees: Lewis Graham, Josiah Browne, Thomas Hunt, Israel Underhill, John Bartow, Philip I. Liv- ingston and Samuel Bayard. The first record of their meeting is that of May 12, 1788, when "it was resolved that the old church be sold to Mrs. Sarah Ferris for the sum of ten pounds." A subscription paper for funds to build a new church was circulated among the people, and an appeal was made to the Propagation Society. By 1789 enough funds were in hand or in sight, to warrant the making of a contract, January 26th, with John Odell, carpenter, of New York, for the erection of a church edifice for the sum of £336. The new edifice was built on the site of the old one removed by Mrs. Ferris, and was ready for use at the end of the year.
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