USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume II > Part 27
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Rectors of St. Peter's-The trustees called the Rev. Theodosius Bar- tow, a grandson of the first rector, for two years from January 2, 1792. He was to preach every other Sunday ; and his services during the short time of his engagement were very acceptable. He was succeeded by the Rev. John Ireland, August 20, 1794. On January 20, 1795, the trus- tees of the town of Westchester released, for the sum of twenty shil- lings, unto the trustees of the Church of St. Peter's, "all that certain lot, piece and parcel of ground on which the Episcopal Church of St. Peter's is erected, and also the Burying Ground adjoining the said church, as it is now enclosed and fenced, and which has heretofore been used for a Burial Place by the inhabitants of said Township, containing about one acre, be the same more or less." On August 2, 1795, the . church was again incorporated under the provisions of the act of the
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Legislature of March 7, 1795, for the relief of the Protestant Episcopal Church throughout the State. The church-wardens were Isaac Under- hill and Philip I. Livingston, and the vestrymen, John Bartow, Jr., Thomas Bartow, Oliver De Lancey, Warren De Lancey, Joseph Brown, Jonathan Fowler, Robert Heaton, and Nicholas Bayard. Under this act, the vestry, or a majority of them, had full power to call and induct a minister; therefore, at the meeting in August, 1795, the Rev. John Ireland was inducted into full rectorship by confirming to him the tem- poralities of his position. Mr. Ireland continued as a successful minis- ter until 1797, during which time the church edifice was consecrated. The minister was called to St. Ann's Church, Brooklyn, in 1798, and on June 7th of the same year the two congregations of St. Peter's, West- chester, and St. Paul's, Eastchester, resolved to unite for the purpose of calling a clergyman. Accordingly on March 9, 1799, the Rev. Isaac Wilkins was elected minister of the two congregations.
Mr. Wilkins' family and education gave him a considerable position in the town of Westchester, which he represented in the Provincial As- sembly from 1772 to 1775, in the exciting days before the Revolution. As such he was leader of his party in opposition to the Whigs, and was the author of the White Plains Protest. In addition he is supposed to have written the Loyalist tracts over the signature of A. W. F. (A West- chester Farmer), which were ably answered by Alexander Hamilton, himself, like Wilkins, a native West Indian. In 1775 Wilkins fled to England; but returned to Long Island, then a nursery of Tories, in 1776, and resided there until the Peace of 1783, when, with many other Loyal- ists, he went to Nova Scotia. During his exile there in 1798 he was or- dained deacon and the following year was called to the church at West- chester. Having taken priests' orders, the vestry called him to full rec- torship of the parish on July 22, 1801, a position he filled until his death, February 5, 1830, at the age of eighty-nine. On account of his great age, during the last year of his ministry, the vestry called to his assis- tance the Rev. William Powell, B. A., who succeeded him as rector, and who held the position until his death at the age of sixty in 1849. Mr. Powell was the fourth minister to die as rector, and the third to be bur- ied in the churchyard.
The Rev. Charles D. Jackson, A. M., became rector in 1849. Shortly afterwards a new parsonage, costing six thousand dollars, was erected upon the glebe in place of the old one. The wooden church of 1790 was destroyed by fire in 1854, and in the following year a stone edifice cost- ing sixty thousand dollars was raised in its place. The old bell pre- sented by Lewis Morris in 1706, which bore upon its lip, "Lewis Mor- ris 1677" was destroyed by the same fire. Mr. Jackson served until 1871, when he was succeeded by the Rev. Christopher Wyatt, D. D., who served until his death in 1879. In February of that year the church edi-
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fice was destroyed by fire, caused by the candles about the altar igniting some of the dry evergreens which still remained from the Christmas decorations. The church was rebuilt the same year upon the old foun- dations, but was somewhat increased in size, thus becoming the fourth church.
Dr. Wyatt's successor was the Rev. Joseph H. Johnston who became rector in 1881, and served until 1886, when he resigned to become bishop of Los Angeles, California. In 1887 the Rev. Frank M. Clendenin, D. D., became rector. In 1894 a slight fire occurred in the church from the fur- nace; and on August 16, 1899, fire once more destroyed the church edi- fice, the cause being presumably accidental. The present church, the fifth on the same site, was constructed almost immediately on the old foundations, but became a more imposing structure by the addition of a clerestory. All five of the church edifices have occupied what was originally the Town Green. The cemetery adjoining the church has been used as a burying place from the time when the town was under the Dutch jurisdiction as Oostdorp. Here, not only do "The rude fore- fathers of the hamlet sleep," but also several of the rectors, and many of those whose names were famous in early days, members of the fami- lies of Ferris, Pell, Wilkins, Honeywell, De Lancey, Bayard, Bowne, Livingston, Ludlow, Morris, Hunt and others. The communion serv- ice, consisting of a silver chalice and paten, was presented to the church by Queen Anne in 1706, during the rectorship of Mr. Bartow. In addition the Queen presented a Church Bible, a Book of Homilies, a cloth for the pulpit, and a communion table. The communion service and several manuscript and printed sermons of the early rectors are preserved in the church, probably saved from destruction through the exertions of Dr. Seabury at the time church services were suspended during the Revolution. About a stone's throw to the south of the church edifice is a handsome stone building used as a chapel and Sunday school, which was erected about 1880, at a cost of $18,000. It occupies the site, very nearly, of the ancient court-house and jail, which were destroyed by fire in 1758.
A quarter of a mile south of the church, on Westchester Avenue, is the parsonage or rectory, which was built about 1850, not far from the site of the old one of 1763. It was extensively repaired and enlarged in 1891 at an outlay of over nine thousand dollars. It occupies a portion of the ancient glebe, several acres of which surround it.
Church of St. Ann's-Until 1840, Morrisania was attached to St. Pe- ter's in the support of a minister. In that year Gouverneur Morris, of Morrisania, founded St. Ann's ; and on July 17, 1841, he made a deed of gift to the church and the plot surrounding it to the rector, wardens, and vestrymen, of the new Parish of St. Ann's, Morrisania. The church was
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incorporated, July 20, 1841, with Robert and Lewis Morris, wardens, and Jacob Buckhout, Daniel Deveau, Benjamin Rogers, Benjamin M. Brown, Edward Leggett, Lewis G. Morris and Henry W. Morris, ves- trymen. The church is at St. Ann's Avenue and East 140th Street. Bol- ton says (1848) :
"The church of St. Ann's is situated in a picturesque position, near old Morrisania, on rising ground, overlooking a clear and rapid little stream (Mill Brook), hastening to join the more expanded waters of the East River. It is a pleasing Gothic structure of marble, and com- prises a nave with two aisles, small recess chancel, and a spire over the southern end. It was erected by the present Gouverneur Morris, Esq., in a field of his own estate, which for some time had been hallowed as containing the sepulchre of his parents. A vault was constructed to re- ceive his remains. A tablet in the chancel contains the following in- scription :
THE RELICS OF THE HONORABLE GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. A name illustrious in his country's annals, were laid by his faithful widow.
In the year of our Lord, 1837, she joined him with the dead; and over her re- mains has arisen this beautiful Sanctuary, which in remembrance of her, and with respectful regard to two other valued relations of the name, was called St. Ann's Church, from the blesséd St. Anne of the Gospel, and consecrated by that name, on the 28th day of June, 1841, by Bishop Onderdonk.
The church contains several beautiful stained glass windows in mem- ory of various members of the Morris family and their connections, also a brass tablet on the right side of the chancel bearing the following in- scription :
GOUVERNEUR MORRIS, born February 9, 1813; died August 20, 1888. Founder of this Parish, to which he gave church and lands for the glory of God and in memory of his mother.
There are a great number of historic dead pioneers, statesmen, jurists, soldiers and sailors, whose remains repose in the vaults of the church of St. Ann's. In earlier days the burial place of the Morris family was near the manor-house, but the remains were all removed to the church on February 15, 1866. In the graveyard attached to the church are sev- eral gravestones, which have been injured and defaced by the romping children of this thickly-settled neighborhood, who made a playground of the church property.
St. Paul's in Washington Avenue near 170th Street was formerly in- cluded within St. Ann's parish, and was begun as a chapel July 8, 1849. On May 31, 1853, it severed its connection with the mother church and was organized as a separate parish under the title of St. Paul's, Morris- ania Village. Grace Church, West Farms, was incorporated December 13, 1844. The credit of first attempting to establish an Episcopal church in the village was due to Miss Margaret Hunt, daughter of Thomas
SWEDISH IMMANUEL LUTHERAN CHURCH (Walfred Erickson, Architect)
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Hunt, fourth in descent from Edward Jessup, one of the original paten- tees of West Farms. The corner-stone of the church was laid Novem- ber 10, 1846, and the edifice was consecrated by Bishop De Lancey of Western New York, June 28, 1847.
Society of Friends-The earlier influx of settlers, both to Throgmor- ton's Colony and to Westchester, included a great many members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers. There were also several settlements of Friends on Long Island, and many of them came into the county and founded settlements, as in Harrison's Purchase, or became inhabitants of those already started. In the records of the borough town of West- chester, and in the reports of the rectors of St. Peter's to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in Foreign Parts, we find constant allus- ions to them.
It is stated that the first meeting in America of the Society of Friends was held in The Bronx in the town of Westchester. There is also a tra- dition that George Fox, the founder of the sect, preached in The Bronx, on his visit to this country. The headquarters of the Friends, or the place of their Yearly and Quarterly meetings, was at Flushing, Long Island, in the early colonial days. An early quarterly meeting decided that "ffriends at Yorke Gravesend and fflushing & Westchester, ye Kills & Newton doe all belonge unto one Monthly meeting," which was that of Flushing.
In the year 1707 the Yearly Meeting appointed a committee to pur- chase a house of Richard Ward in Westchester; and they reported at the Quarterly Meeting on June 30, 1707, that the same had been bought for a meeting-house. In November, 1716, a Preparative Meeting was established in Westchester County for Friends in Rye and Mamaroneck ; and the borough town remained a part of this meeting until February 14, 1787, when it was set off by itself. It became a part of the New York Monthly Meeting, August 7, 1836, and was laid down, February 29, 1860. The Flushing Yearly Meeting appointed Monthly Meeting to be held in Westchester on the ninth day of the fourth month (April) 1723; and in the town records of 1723 mention is made of the "Quaker meeting- house." In his letter of April 14, 1714, Mr. Bartow speaks of the father of a child dying of measles as a "half Quaker." The Reverend Mr. Stand- ard, under date of November 5, 1729, remarks that "The Church at Westchester was built by the Quakers (who were the first settlers in this place, and are still the most numerous party in and about it; and indeed the whole parish as to their manners, are somewhat Quakerish) and by them given to Colonel Heathcote, for the use and service of the Church of England." He continues: "As to their religion, those who settled in Westchester, some were Quakers, those in Eastchester were New England Independents. . . In my parish are two meeting-houses, Bronx-43
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one of which is of Quakers, built within a stone's throw of the church, and indeed is a better building than that. . . To the third head of inquiry, I say there are three meeting-houses in my parish-one of the Quakers at Westchester, one of the Dutch, from it three miles west (Fordham), and one of the French at New Rochelle. . . The Quakers preach against hireling priests, and pretend to give nothing to their teachers."
"The professed dissenters in this parish are not numerous; some Cal- vinists or Presbyterian French at New Rochelle; a few Presbyterians at Eastchester, and some Quakers; at Westchester, a good many Quak- ers" writes the Reverend Seabury in 1757, from which it would appear that as time passed there was not much decrease in the number of Friends. The old Quaker meeting-house formerly stood south of the ancient burying ground. About 1828 the Orthodox Friends erected an- other meeting-house on the opposite side of Westchester Avenue. Noth- ing remains of either except the foundations of the older one, they both having been destroyed by fire on the same night in 1893.
"Shortly before annexation" writes Stephen Jenkins, "a series of in- cendiary fires occurred in the town; and barns, stables and outhouses began to burn up with alarming frequency. The incendiaries had a regu- lar organization, with president, secretary, etc., and stated meetings at which the places to be fired were selected and lots drawn as to who should light them. The incendiaries were recruited from the tough ele- ment of the town, who set fires for the sake of the excitement, and inci- dentally to pillage. Among the buildings so fired were two Quaker meeting-houses. A more flagrant and wanton piece of vandalism it is hard to imagine. An attempt was also made to fire the Sunday-school building of St. Peter's, and it was suspected that the church itself might be a probable subject. The gang of firebugs was finally broken up. Whether some of them belonged to the volunteer fire company or not is still a question with the respectable inhabitants."
Reformed Dutch Church-The Dutch were the members of the Es- tablished Reformed Church, and the Manor of Fordham, principally set- tled by Dutch from Harlem, is to be looked at for the beginnings of the Reformed Dutch Church. "Little is known concerning the early history of religion in the manor, except that in 1671, 'the inhabitants residing between the two Kills of Harlem and the Broncks' were obliged to con- tribute towards the support of a minister when one should be settled or called to the Manor of Fordham," writes Bolton.
The first church edifice was built in 1706 through the liberality of Margaretta Steenwyck, William Dyckman, and others; the building stood on the farm of James Valentine, later the property of Moses De- voe, at what is now Fordham Road and Sedgwick Avenue. At the south- east corner of these two roads formerly stood the ancient Dutch bury-
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ing ground; an ancient willow tree, the girth of which was over twenty feet, stood at the corner of the lot, with the unmarked, broken, and sunken tombstones behind it. The church stood on the opposite side of the Fordham Road, on what is now the property of Webb's Ship- building Academy and Home. The first pastor resigned his charge and was succeeded by the Rev. Henricus Beyse, who, about 1709, also re- signed his position and became a minister of the Church of England. Judge Lewis Morris, writing to the Propagation Society in that year, says : "I have used some endeavors to persuade the Dutch in my neigh- borhood into a good opinion of the Church of England; and have had that success, that they would, I believe, join a great part of them in the sacraments and worship-had they Dutch Common Prayer book and a minister who understood their language. I have taken some pains with one of their ministers, one Henricus Beyse, and have prevailed on him to accept of Episcopal ordination." It would seem that the Rev. Mr. Beyse did not have an altogether happy time of it after he had changed his mode of worship, for, in 1712, Governor Hunter was pe- titioned by the clergy of the Established Church to do something for the relief of the unfortunate gentleman, who not only "suffers hard- ships, having no salary from the people of New Harlem, where he offi- ciates," but also is financially neglected by the Propagation Society "through some aspersions thrown upon him by his adversaries."
The congregation had doubtless difficulty in maintaining a pastor dur- ing colonial times, as there is no record of a fixed pastor between 1709 and 1766; though Dominies Dubois, Boel, Ritzema and De Ronde vis- ited and supplied the church. Dominie John Peter Tetard bought his farm at Kingsbridge in 1763, and came to live there in 1766, and from this time until the Revolution he occupied the pulpit. At the beginning of the struggle he joined his former neighbor Montgomery in the expe- dition to Canada, serving as a chaplain. During the war, the church edifice suffered the usual damage, and being close to the camp of Em- merick and his chasseurs, probably served as a hospital and stable, like all the other churches. At a classis of the Reformed Church held in Flatbush on September 2, 1800, it was resolved,
"That the church in the manor of Fordham, being reduced during the war, and a prospect now opening of its being restored, that the Clas- sis encourage and countenance them, by assisting and supplying them. Resolved further, that Dr. Livingston visit and preach to them as soon as convenient."
A church building was put up in 1801 near the site of the present church on the Kingsbridge Road. In 1802 Dr. Livingston reported that he had fulfilled his appointment and reorganized the church, and the classis sent the Reverend John Jackson to take charge. He was regu- larly called to the church and installed as pastor, and the congregation
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grew apace. His term of service ended in 1835, since which time there have been ten pastors. The Rev. Joseph Merlin Hodson served from 1894. The land on which the church edifice of 1801 was erected was a gift from Dennis Valentine, Sr. In 1848 the present church, the third edifice, was erected immediately adjoining the second church on land given by Dennis Valentine, Jr. In 1878 Horace B. Claflin, whose prop- erty lay just north of the church, gave the funds for the enlargement of the building. The records of the church and of the congregation were destroyed several years ago by a fire in the home of the one of the mem- bers of the congregation in whose custody they were.
Presbyterians and the Established Church-The settlers within The Bronx, those coming from Connecticut, were variously called Presby- terians, Congregationalists, and Independents, though the first name pretty well identifies them. In 1692, at Eastchester, Samuel Casting was chosen "to read the bibell and other good sermon-books, and so carion (carry on) the sabath days Exercises as according to our Hon- orable Col. Heathcuts order unto us"; for which he was to receive a certain compensation to be contributed by the people. The ministers, or readers, who officiated at Westchester-Mr. Baly, Mr. Morgan, and Mr. Fogg-were also Dissenters; and we have already read how Colonel Heathcote prevented the induction of Warham Mather, also a Presby- terian. The act of 1693 "to establish a good, sufficient minister" in each parish was construed by Governor Fletcher to mean a minister of the Church of England, which thus became the Established Church of the Province. The ministers at both Westchester and Eastchester were turned out, and the churches became Episcopalian with the Rev. Mr. Bartow as rector. He complained to Cornbury, the Governor, that he had some difficulty at Eastchester in superseding the Rev. Joseph Mor- gan in 1702. Mr. Morgan removed from Eastchester in 1708. William Tennant, a Presbyterian clergyman, between the years 1718 and 1721, attempted to evangelize that part of The Bronx and spent several months at Eastchester. In the letters of the Westchester rectors to the Propagation Society, there are also references to the preaching of Pres- byterian and Independent ministers within their cure; and also to the ac- tivity of some Dissenting preachers, who are called "new lights." Though in other parts of the Province strenuous objections were made by the inhabitants to both the Governor and the Assembly about being turned out of their churches, the inhabitants of the two places within The Bronx of that time, acquiesced silently in the change-except for slight trouble with Mr. Morgan at Eastchester-owing to the influence of Colonel Heathcote and the moderation of Mr. Bartow; and the edi- fices became Episcopalian and have remained Episcopalian to this day.
That the Established Church was not popular, even at that time or
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later, is shown by the proceedings of the Assembly of 1769; in which Colonel Lewis Morris, representative from the borough-town of West- chester, introduced a bill to exempt Protestants of all denominations from the support of the Episcopal Church; John Thomas, of the County of Westchester, a bill to exempt Protestants from com- pulsory taxation for the support of churches; and Charles De Witt, of Ulster County, a bill to exempt the inhabitants of the coun- ties of Westchester, New York, Queens, and Richmond from the pay- ment of taxes for the support of churches to which they did not belong. All of these bills passed the Legislature, but failed to become laws on account of their rejection by the Governor and his council. The Gover- nor further refused to allow the incorporation of Presbyterian churches, even in the city of New York, which put the several existing congrega- tions to much inconvenience.
In the pre-Revolutionary period some of the churches in the north part of Westchester County were comprised within the presbyteries of Connecticut or of Dutchess (Putnam) County ; but even thirty years after the Revolution little or nothing was done in the lower part of the county, and it was considered a good field for missionary work by the New York Presbytery. In 1814 the Rev. Isaac Lewis divided his time between New Rochelle and West Farms engaged in such work; and in the following year, 1815, a church building was erected at West Farms. Four members organized the church on December 4, 1816; and the con- gregation was fully organized by the election of officers on November 5, 1818. The time-honored edifice, the oldest in the city belonging to the Presbyterians, and its churchyard, stand on East 180th Street, a short distance west of the Boston Road and the site of De Lancey's Mills. In 1903, Charles Bathgate Beck left a legacy to the church, and a fine stone edifice with an imposing tower was erected on the land di- rectly opposite the old church building, which was for a time given over to a colored congregation. The church is known as the Beck Memor- ial Presbyterian Church. In 1829 the Presbytery of Bedford included the Presbyterian churches of Putnam and Westchester counties; but in 1854 the lower county was within the Second New York Presbytery. By this date the section north of the Harlem River was making great strides in population, and the Presbytery therefore organized a church at Tremont.
Catholicity in The Bronx-On the muster roll of the Westchester company commanded by Captain Isaac Corsa between May and Decem- ber, 1755, there appear a number of Irish names, which, according to Father D. P. O'Neil in his monograph on Catholicism in Westchester County, were presumably also the names of Catholics. This company accompanied the expedition of Sir William Johnson to Lake George,
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but returned without seeing further active service. Later companies that took part in the French and Indian War also had Irishmen in their ranks, and it is thus made clear that there was a Catholic population in The Bronx at that period. The distinctively Irish names would only in- dicate a part of that population. From the period when the English kings gained a footing in Ireland there were laws that compelled that changing of the old Gaelic names either by translation into English or in other ways : thus MacGowan became Smith, MacShane (son of John) Johnson, and so on. The English Penal Laws directed against Catho- lics also prevailed in the colonies and reduced their numbers. In 1755 occurred also the dispersion of the Acadians, described so graphically in Longfellow's poem of "Evangeline." These unfortunates appear to have been treated with the utmost rigor in every colony into which their wanderings took them ; and New York was not different from the others. They were called by the English colonists "French Neutrals." Between May and August, 1756, there is a record of sixteen of them being sent to Eastchester, and of nine of them being in Westchester jail, where they had been placed by the authorities for no other crime than that of being Acadians. The women and the children of the party were thus thrown on their own resources and became a burden to the town, so that the latter were separated from their parents and bound out to service. As the French war was in progress at the time there might have been some excuse for their harsh treatment and there is no doubt that in the superstition of the authorities these simple people were credited with the intent of injuring their oppressors. It is hard to account for the delu- sions of the time as the Salem witchcraft and the vogue of Titus Oates show. The New York "Mercury" of July 11, 1757, contains the following item : "We hear that a party of French Neutrals, who had been for some time past at or near Westchester, made their escape from that place and were taken up at or near Fort Edward on their way to Crown Point." These wanderers were of course Catholics, and it is stated that Father Farmer, an alias for Father Steinmeyer, passed through Westchester in disguise and visited them in their captivity and gave them the consola- tions of their religion. He was a Jesuit priest attached to the Pennsyl- vania and New Jersey missions; and as the laws were very strict against these priests and the penalties very severe, he was obliged to go in dis- guise and exercise great caution in ministering to the people of his faith in and about the city of New York before the Revolution. It was not until the year 1784 that the authorities permitted the unconcealed per- formance of the rites of the Catholic Church.
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