USA > New York > Orange County > Montgomery > The Goodwill memorial, or, The first one hundred and fifty years of the Goodwill Presbyterian Church : Montgomery, Orange Co., N.Y. > Part 2
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+ "Why the name 'Goodwill ' was selected we do not know, unless, perhaps, it was thought a suitable term to represent the character of the people, or as imply- ing that 'the goodwill of Him who dwelt in the bush' was graciously experi- enced among them."-DR. MACLISE.
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and Ulster counties, under the general designation of the churches of the Highlands, were included in the new Presby- tery. But the records of the East Jersey Presbytery are lost. The records of the Synod of Philadelphia, however, give us a clue to a chapter in the history of the church which tells of its stern orthodoxy, while it suggests that even in zeal for orthodoxy men may swerve from the path of rectitude, · and that our most public-spirited men may fall far short of the perfect man.
"PHILADELPHIA, Tuesday, Sept. 23d, 1735, 9 A.M.
"A reference coming into the Synod from the Presbytery of East Jersey, complaining of John McNeal's disingenuous conduct in relation to the settlement of Mr. Chalker in Bethlehem, and a supplication from said McNeal containing several complaints against said Presbytery in reference to their conduct in that affair, with several other papers from several parties concerned therein, and all parties being heard what they had to offer, they were removed. And the Synod, entering upon the consideration of the affair, do agree that Messrs. Thomson, Thomas Evans, Treat, and Martin do meet and prepare an overture upon the whole, and bring it into the Synod as soon as possible.
" Adjourned to three of the clock P.M.
" At three of the clock P. M.
" The members appointed to bring in an overture upon the affair of John McNeal, above mentioned, did accordingly do it, and the Synod, after much dis- course, do agree in the following particulars :
" First. That from what appears to us, the jealousies which John McNeal had conceived concerning Mr. Chalker, as being averse from conforming to the order of Synod in respect to our adopting the Westminster Confession, were altogether groundless.
" Secondly. It appears more than probable that these groundless jealousies, --- - too industriously spread and propagated among the people of Wallkill, have! been a principal cause of all the difference which hath fallen out between them and Mr. Chalker.
" Thirdly. That John McNeal hath acted a very disingenuous and sinful part, in seeming to concur with and approve of the motion of ordaining Mr. Chalker at New York, and then immediately after to practise upon the people of Wallkill at home, to discourage them from adhering to their formerly declared desire of having Mr. Chalker settled among them. The degree of censure to be a rebuke from the Moderator.
i " Fourthly. That as we can see no ground of charging the people of Bethlehem or Mr. Chalker with breaking of covenant with the people of Wallkill, so we are of the mind that of what of that kind the people of Wallkill were guilty, which principally appears in their letter or remonstrance to the Presbytery, was chiefly if not wholly owing to John McNeal's industrious spreading his jealousies as above, and possessing the people of Wallkill with them.
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"Fifthly. That seeing Mr. Chalker did transport his family from Long Island to the Highlands, being encouraged thereto by the people of Wallkill as well as Bethlehem, with a view of being fixed as pastor of both congregations, there- fore we judge that, in justice, that people are obliged to contribute according to agreement, to the discharging of the expenses of said transportation, besides satisfaction for the supplies which he gave. And we earnestly exhort said people to comply with the design of this minute, that so they may clear their own way for their being regularly provided with a minister as their circumstances will afford, which we judge they are not qualified for until they, or as many of them as will be a competent congregation, fit to join in the calling of a minister, shall comply with this order; yet in the meantime we judge them capable of being supplied by preaching, and not to be excluded from sealing ordinances. We also earnestly exhort them to lay aside all their jealousies and prejudices arising there- from, and cordially accept of Mr. Chalker for their pastor, according to the first agreement, until such time as they may be in better condition to support a min- ister of their own.
" Sixthly. The Synod do also think the Presbytery was too hasty in their proceeding to Mr. Chalker's ordination in so short a time after the presentation of his call and trial, and cannot approve of it being performed at such a distance from the people where he was to officiate.
" The above-mentioned rebuke was given by the Moderator, according to order, and said McNeal professed submission to it."
We may confidently assert that Mr. Chalker never be came the pastor of this church, whatever may have been his relation to the church at Bethlehem. In the absence of all testimony to the contrary, this is the legitimate inference from the disposition of the people as indicated in the above extract, and the matter is reduced to a certainty by the record made a few years later that the Rev. Mr. Houston was the first pastor.
According to Mr. Webster's history, Mr. Chalker was of the family of Chalkers in Saybrook, Ct., and graduated at Yale in 1728. After being licensed, he married, and remained on Long Island till his ordination, in 1734. He left the bounds of the Synod in 1743 "very poor and very much in debt," " having lost his stock of cattle in the extremity of the cold winter of 1741-2." In 1744 he was settled in Eastbury, Ct. He died May 28th, 1765. What the success or the oppo- site of his ministry was we are not informed. It certainly had an unpropitious beginning, and was manifestly full of
2
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discouragements in so far as worldly support was concerned. His true record, as yours and mine will be, is with the Master. The day of final accounts will declare it. In the judgment of the Synod this church evidently did him injustice.
But the year 1735 allows us to approach this people by another avenue, and to view them in a different light. If they were somewhat over-zealous for the truth, it was because their love for it made them so. They would allow nothing to detract from what they considered its purity and lustre. "Trained as they had been in the principles of truth con- tained in the Scriptures and embodied in the Catechisms and Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian Church at home, they did not leave their love of truth behind them when they crossed the ocean, seeking an asylum in a land of liberty. They carried with them the undying faith of their fathers, to maintain which many of them had suffered the fires of Smith- field, and stained the heather of their native hills with their blood." Great as must have been their trials and discourage- ments in their wilderness home, their conscientious rejection of Mr. Chalker, when they had just come to hope and feel that their prayers for the stated means of grace were being answered, could not have been among the least. And yet we find them apparently united and adding to their stability as a church; for, according to a document that is yet extant,*
* This document is an attested copy of a deed of a highway from the town of Shawangunk, in Ulster County, to the Goshen line, where the County of Orange then commenced-all this portion of Orange County to the town of Goshen being then a part of Ulster County.
It commences thus: "To all to whom these presents shall come, or may in any wise concerne, Greeting: Know yee, that in pursuance of an act of the General Assembly of the Coloney of New York, passed at New York, in the sixth year of the reign of his present Majesty King George the Second, Intituled, 'an act for the continuing of an act, entituled an act for the better clearing, assertaining, and further laying out publick High roads in the County of Ulster,' We Zacharias Hoffman, Benjamin Smeedes, and Johannis Decker the present Commissioners for the precinct of Shawingunk and the Neighborhood of the Wallkill appointed for this purpose, have laid out and assertained one common publick Highway ex- tending." &c. After minutely stating the marks, lines and boundaries of this road till it comes to this neighborhood, they direct it to be laid out " by or neare the meeting House now erecting neare the settlement of Adam Graham and from there through the tract of land now of John Macnell, Senr.," &c., on, through Neeley-town to the Goshen line, "Until it meets the road laid out by the In- habitants of Goshen to the South line of the said County of Ulster." And this
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
they were even then erecting a sanctuary for the public wor- ship of their covenant God. That this was their first church edifice is very improbable. The character of the people and the customs of the early settlers would argue strongly against it. " Having with their own hands hewn out of the primeval forest rude habitations in which to dwell, and there erected the family altar," they would soon "set about building a temple to the honor of the triune God." And then there are the facts already enumerated-namely, that, in conjunction with the church at Bethlehem, they had called a pastor, and that five years before this they had, through their commis- sioner, applied to the Synod of Philadelphia for supplies of preaching, with the plausible conjecture that while from small beginnings their community was gradually growing, they had met in the capacity of a worshipping assembly and had occasionally enjoyed the ministrations of God's commis- sioned servants, having had from the planting of their colony, a Presbyterian pastor within ten miles .* In the absence of historic data, we see no room for any other supposition than that they had already outgrown their first rude place of meet- ing, whatever and wherever it may have been.
document is dated, signed, and sealed " at Shawingunk, the Ist day of September, Anno Dom. 1735," by the above named commissioners of highways. Adam Graham at that time owned the land on which this church edifice stands, and his name, and that of his wife Mary, by her mark, are attached to the deed of the ground occupied by the church and graveyard, which was executed by them, on November 9th, 1741, as well as to the deed of the parsonage farm executed after- wards .- DR. MACLISE.
* Next to the church at Goshen, which had its settled pastor in 1721, this is the oldest Presbyterian church in the State west of the Hudson river; and for many years it was the only Presbyterian church in all this region, with the excep- tion of Goshen and the church at Bethlehem, which was probably organized soon after this. The German Reformed church west of the Wallkill-mentioned in an old deed as "the High Dutch Presbyterian church of Wallkill"-was organized about 1732. But as the German language was used in its services, there was for long years no affinity between it and this church, in whose records more than fifty years afterwards it is spoken of as the German Society. "This church, therefore," says Dr. Maclise, " soon grew to be large and prosperous; the people many of them coming on horseback and on foot, a distance of twelve or fifteen miles, and this during all kinds of weather and by all kinds of roads-or rather, no roads at all, but paths and by-paths through the woods and swamps and streams. What a change has taken place in the habits of the people since then; how careful of themselves have the people become; how fearful of exposure and fatigue with regard to things of this character! Verily, all changes are not im- provements."
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In 1738 the Presbyteries of Long Island and East Jersey were united to form the Presbytery of New York, and one might suppose that with no small degree of satisfaction we would turn from the Presbyteries of Philadelphia and East Jersey, with their lost records, to this new organization into which this church entered. But we do so, alas! only to find that some sacrilegious hand has destroyed all the records of the New York Presbytery from 1738 to 1775. We must therefore still gather our information from other sources.
. The year 1740 witnessed the settlement, and within a few months the death, of the first pastor of the church-the Rev. Joseph Houston. The event, as we note it, seems to say to all succeeding pastors and people, as it said to the bereaved church then, " Prepare to meet thy God." " Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh." " Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning."
The following sketch of Mr. Houston has been compiled mainly from " A History of the Rock Presbyterian Church in Cecil County, Maryland"-an able discourse by the present pastor, the Rev. J. H. Johns. The Rock church is simply the old Elk River church under another name.
Mr. Houston was a native of Ireland, but received his col- legiate and theological education in Scotland, as the Presby- terian Church at that time in his native land was destitute of the higher institutions of learning. He came to New England a probationer, and preached a few months at Freetown, Mass. On the 29th of July, 1724, he was received by the Presbytery of New Castle, and was appointed to supply the Elk River church. On the 14th of September, the Elk River church presented him a call to become their pastor, and on the 15th of October, in the same year, he was duly ordained and installed. An apparent error has crept into print that may here be noticed. It is to the effect that after he was received by the Presbytery of New Castle, he was employed as a supply at New London, Ct., during the absence of Rev. Mr. Hillhouse in his native land, and, as if to make room for this, that his ordi- nation did not take place till the following year. The minutes
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of the Presbytery are very definite, and leave no place for such a return to New England while he was yet a proba- tioner, and if he thus acted as supply, as Mr. Webster seems to assert on good authority, it must have been previous to his going to Maryland. The Elk River church was his first and only charge previous to coming here, and he served it as its first pastor for fifteen years. They were manifestly years of successful work, though at times of fearful discord .*
A most active and faithful laborer in the Master's vine- yard, he was also punctual in his attendance on meetings of Presbytery and Synod. From 1725 to 1740 he is recorded every year as present in Synod, with one exception (1731), when sickness is assigned as the reason for his absence. He was chosen Moderator in 1733, and opened the Synod the next year with a sermon from Matt. 5 : 16, " Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven." The historian of his Mary- land charge says: " In 1739 he left here for some unknown reason, and was installed pastor of the Goodwill Presbyterian Church in Orange County, N. Y., before May, 1740." We have the statement elsewhere that this installation took place in January. He died on the 29th of October in the same year. His sepulchre is with us. Humanly speaking, the church
* In 1726 there was a violent strife among the members about seats. The matter was at last referred to Presbytery for settlement, and the following action was taken: "The Presbytery, hearing the mind of the major part of the congre- gation, Ordered that the minister's seat be next on the right hand of the pulpit; Ordered, that Robert Finney have the seat before William Hoge's, paying said William Hoge for his expense in building and dividing it; or the next to the min- ister's, laid out for Andrew Steel, as Robert Finney shall please to make choice, and in case he chose the last, then Andrew Steel may have the first. Ordered, that Abraham Emmet, Sr., and Robert Lawson exchange seats, and if any difficulty be in the value of the seats, that they accommodate the same in a friendly and Christian manner." We hear no more of this trouble, but the same year another arose of still greater magnitude and violence, respecting the organi- zation of the present New London congregation. Robert Finney, with many others, lived many miles from the Elk River church, and were anxious to have a church organized nearer them, in the neighborhood of New London.
Mr. Houston and the Maryland part of his congregation stoutly opposed this movement, because another church so near would weaken their own, and because some of those belonging to the new enterprise had refused to pay off their arrears of salary. This war between the two congregations was waged in Presbytery and Synod for four years. However, the persistent New London people received a separate organization .- REV. MR. JOHNS.
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sustained a great loss in his removal, and his descendants may feel honored in that the name of Joseph Houston stands among their ancestors .*
Before leaving this point in our narrative, another error needs to be corrected. We are told that "in 1743 the Synod of New York agreed to remit his bond, dated July, 1740, in favor of his widow and family." The bond was for £15-borrowed from the Widows' Fund-was dated July 25th, 1740, and was remitted by the Synod of Philadelphia. This does not affect the inference " that he did not abound in this world's goods."
The years that followed were full of discord in the Presby- terian church. Disturbing elements had existed ever since, as before, the Adopting Act. The revival of religion that attended the labors of Whitefield, and the prominent part taken therein by leading ministers and churches, called forth fierce opposi- tion which resulted in the great schism of 1741-a schism which was not healed till 1758. That the swelling tide of con- troversy reached here is sufficiently evident. Mr. Webster says that " The revival spread through the Highlands ;" that while the Presbytery of New York stood aloof on the division before the formation of the Synod of New York, "the Pres- bytery of New Brunswick took under its care the churches of West Chester county, installed a pastor, and appointed sup- plies for the Highlands as though the Presbytery of New York had ceased to exist." Referring to the records of the Presby- tery of New Brunswick, we find : "Philadelphia, May 29, 1742-Mr. Sackett is to supply the Highlands the one half of his time, and Cronpond and White Plains the other half;" also, " Oct. 12, 1743-Application being made to the Presby- tery in behalf of the Highlands for supply, Mr. Sackett (Rev. Samuel S.) is appointed to supply them as often as he can, which he readily undertakes."
In all this there is no mention made of this particular church, but this was one of the churches of the Highlands,
* Many of Mr. Houston's descendants still reside in this county. General Sam. Houston, of Texas, I am informed, was also a descendant of the first pastor of this church .- DR. MACLISE.
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and, at the time, a vacancy, and no doubt shared in the bless- ings of the revival and in these provisions for pulpit supplies. This is all very cheering. But just here comes in another record to the effect that Rev. Samuel Cavin, "after laboring for some time in the Highlands of New York, was called, May 26th, 1743, to Goodwill, or Wallkill."* Now Mr. Cavin was one of the "Old Side" men-was one of the signers of the Protest that led to the Schism-as such was out of all sympa- thy with either the Presbytery of New York, to which this church belonged, or the Presbytery of New Brunswick, then supplying the field. His labors here, resulting in a call from this people, force upon us the alternative either that the " Old Side" party endeavored through him to secure a foothold in this region, or that he sought for himself a settlement far out of his proper latitude and atmosphere. That his labors here ceased with his call is apparent from the further statement of Mr. Webster that " the remainder of his life was spent in itin- erating in Virginia and the other vacancies." He was a man of whom the complaint was made that he never asked about the state of his people's souls.
During some part of the following year, the Rev. William Robinson labored " in ' the government of New York,' proba- bly in the Highlands. Gilbert Tennent heard that many had been awakened by his labors." He died young, but of him the Rev. Samuel Davies said, " Oh, he did much in a little while! Who would not choose such an expeditious pilgrim- age through this world ! His dear memory will mingle with my softest and most grateful recollections as long as I am capable of reflection." His praise was in all the churches where vital godliness was prized. We love to think that this church probably drank with him of "the brook in the way."
From our own fragmentary records, to which we can now occasionally refer, we learn that a Mr. Richards-probably Aaron Richards, afterwards pastor at Rahway, N. J .- seems to have been stationed here the greater part of 1747; that a Mr. Thane-probably Daniel Thane, afterwards pastor at
*. Mr. Webster.
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Connecticut Farms, N. J., succeeded him; and that a Mr. Ayres-probably Enos Ayres, who was afterwards pastor of Blooming-Grove-preached here somewhat statedly during 1749 and the early part of 1750.
With this we pass over the eleven years that intervened between the death of Mr. Houston and the re-establishment of the pastoral relation. In 1751 the Rev. John Moffat, a graduate of Nassau Hall in 1749, was ordained and installed in the office. Comparatively little is known either of him or of his work, but sufficient to enable us to form a high opinion of both. The fact that this was his only charge, that a few years later he was without employment in the ministry, and that toward the close of his days he was engaged in teaching, by no means proves that his ministry was a failure. Other causes may have led to his change of occupation. Nor are we confined, as has been assumed, to the few sentences given by Mr. Webster for our information regarding him. And where shall we look for his record but to the field in which his labors were performed ? The comparative anatomist says,. " Give me a bone, and I will describe the animal to which it belongs." We have in this case two bones-and quite import- ant ones-to begin with. In an old book that contains a little of several things connected with this church, though not very much of any one thing, there are two very significant entries .. One commences thus :
" November ye first 1756 an account of Charges be- longing to the congregation of the Wallkill. £34-13-0 to John McNeal.
to the Carpenters for building the house. 32-00-0"
The account, which is somewhat lengthy, shows that in that year a two-story house was erected, and that both stories were finished in good style. This was some years before the parsonage farm was purchased, and what house could the church be building of such a description but a parsonage ? Where it was no one can tell. The date of the account is five years after Mr. Moffat's installation, and a church thus.
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engaged is not likely to be in a lifeless condition, nor without at least financial prosperity.
The other entry is even more significant. The following is a true copy:
" March ye 21st 1765 Alexander Trimble as trustee for the building of the Meeting House has Bal- anced with the new trustees for what he receiv- ed by Subscription which was. 139-14- I
s. , d.
it appears by Receipts that he paid out. 126- 6- 9
Remains in his hands as yet. Settled the above {13 in Mr. Moffat's Salary *
13- 7-4
David Jagger Received by Subscription 53-10- 0
it appears by Receipts that he paid out 46- 8-10 Remains in his hands as yet. . Paid 7-1-2 Matthew Rea Received by Subscription 19-11-0 it appears by receipt that he paid out 21- 7-0 Remains due to Matthew Rea I-16-0"
The trustees will notice that there is no evidence in the account that Matthew Rea ever received this balance. But the point in the record is that in 1765, Mr. Moffat was still pastor of this church, and that the church was then or had just been engaged in building a meeting-house-probably the very house in which we worship to-day, but with different appointments. In confirmation of the position that that was the old church, with its pulpit high up on one side, and its extensive galleries, and to which an addition was afterwards made with a somewhat elevated steeple, of which your fathers and your elders have told, and of which there are still living witnesses; there is in the same book, under date of December 12th, 1770, the appointment of a committee to make certain repairs in the galleries. Connect with this the fact that the parsonage farm was deeded to the trusteest for their use July Ist, 1766-the very next year-and you have suggested a
* This last clause is an after-entry with a different ink, but apparently by the same hand.
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