USA > New York > New York City > The Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York : historical and biographical sketches of its first fifty years > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24
An extract from his letter of resignation to the Board of Directors of the Union Theological Seminary, together with one from the Board's reply, will fitly close this sketch. The letter is dated January 2, 1849.
I am induced to take this step, not because of any diminution of interest in the Seminary. From the beginning hitherto, it has had my warmest affections, and most cordially have I devoted time and
9
130
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
labor and contributions to its welfare. The evidences of its use- fulness never were more abundant, and my ardent desire is that it may long continue a blessing to the churches of our blessed Lord.
But as I have changed my ecclesiastical relations by becoming the pastor of a Congregational church, and as the Seminary was founded as a Presbyterian institution, and has thus far been con- ducted in strict harmony with the views of its founders by the election only of members of the Presbyterian Church to the Board of Directors, I feel that it would be indelicate, to say the least, if not positively wrong, for me to hold on to my present connection with the Board, having been elected a member as a pastor of a Presbyterian church. . . . Allow me further to express my personal attachment to the respective members of the Board, as also to the gentlemen composing the Faculty, and to assure them all that it will ever rejoice my heart to hear of the prosperity of the Seminary.
The Board expressed their feelings on the occasion in a minute, of which the following is a part : -
Without entering at all into the question whether the change which has taken place in your ecclesiastical relations necessitated this act on your part, the Board feel that you have acted, as you affirm, under a solemn sense of duty, and that, in accepting your resignation, they do it with great reluctance. They recognize in you one of the earliest and most devoted friends of the Seminary, - one who has stood by it in days of difficulty and peril, and by whose counsels and efforts, in connection with others, it has, by the blessing of God, been enabled to take its place among the very first institutions of the kind in our land. The Board, therefore, part with you from their counsels with sincere and deep regret ; and desire to express to you the feelings of affectionate confidence and esteem which they cherish toward you. And they rejoice in the assurance you give them that the Seminary, which has shared so largely in the benevolent desires of your heart, and which has been aided so materially by your labors, will still be cherished by you, and that it will continue to find in you the same devoted friend that it ever has found in the past.
ERSKINE MASON, D. D., (1836-1851,) the youngest child of Dr. John M. and Anna Lefferts Mason, was born in the city
131
ERSKINE MASON.
of New York, April 16, 1805. He was named in honor of the Rev. Dr. Erskine of Edinburgh, from whom his father re- ceived much kindness while a student of divinity in that city. An uncommonly bright, spirited boy, he early showed a mental vigor and a stability of character which foretokened the com- ing man. When his father became President of Dickinson College, Erskine accompanied him to Carlisle and entered the institution at an advanced standing. In the autumn of 1822, his eldest brother, James, a pious youth of remarkable promise and much beloved, died after a brief illness. When the bier, on which lay his body, was taken up by his companions to be borne to the grave, the heart-stricken father, as by an uncon- trollable impulse, spoke : "Softly, young men, tread softly, ye carry a temple of the Holy Ghost!" The impression produced by this event was profound, and led to a great spiritual awakening in the College. Of the students then converted, not less than fifteen devoted themselves to the ministry of the Gospel. Among this number were Erskine Mason, George W. Bethune, and other noted preachers of the last generation.
Graduating in 1823, Erskine Mason spent a large part of the next year in studying theology under the direction of his cousin, the Rev. Dr. Duncan of Baltimore. Joining the Middle class of the Seminary at Princeton in 1825, he com- pleted his studies there. Licensed to preach by the Second Presbytery of New York, and ordained on October 20, 1826, by the same Presbytery, he was installed as pastor of the Pres- byterian Church in Schenectady on May 3, 1827. Here he quickly showed a power in the pulpit, - a power of luminous and deep thought, - which, to use the words of President Nott, " appeared wonderful in so young a man. He was greatly beloved by his people, highly esteemed by the citizens gener- ally, and his removal from the place was regretted by all, and by none more than by the officers and members of Union College."
132
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
One of the most accomplished ministers of that day was the Rev. Matthias Bruen, at once the founder and first pastor of the Bleecker Street Presbyterian Church in this city. Mr. Bruen died, lamented by good men throughout the land, on December 6, 1829, in the thirty-seventh year of his age. Mr. Mason accepted a unanimous call to become his successor, and was installed on September 10, 1830. Here he contin- ued to labor, for more than twenty years, to the close of his life. Dr. William Adams, his biographer, thus refers to this period : -
The Bleecker Street Church was then quite above the centre of the city population, that tide of removal and growth which has since made such prodigious advances scarcely having commenced. An " up-town church," however, afforded accommodations and at- tractions to those who soon began to change their residence, and such was the ability displayed by the pastor in Bleecker Street, that it was not long before that church was entirely filled ; and for many years after it occupied a position which gave it pre-eminent advan- tages over all other churches of the same denomination in the city. Nothing of opportunity was lacking on the one part, and nothing of talent, diligence, and success on the other. The congregation was large and intelligent, and everything encouraged that purpose which the pastor had formed to devote himself to the one thing of studious, careful, and excellent preparation for the pulpit. Others might grasp at a different prize, and select a different path, but the composition and delivery of good sermons was the object for which his taste, talent, and judgment of usefulness best qualified him. From that occupation he never suffered himself to be diverted. Before he had lost the impression of one Sabbath, he had begun the preparation for another. Thus he never lost the headway he had gained. Adhering to the counsel of our great dramatist,
" Stick to your journal course, the breach of custom Is breach of all,"
he has left a thousand sermons - not to speak now of their intel- lectual and theological excellences - written entire in the perfection of penmanship, as the proofs of the wise and faithful manner in which he occupied the pulpit. . .. Because of this was he deficient as a pastor? Who of his people ever knew a substantial sorrow or
133
ERSKINE MASON.
necessity without his presence and aid? Did age ever complain of disrespect, or grief of his want of sympathy, or suffering that he refused a balm? While the pulpit was the throne of his strength, who could speak, out of it, more wisely than he? If he sometimes appeared to be taciturn, who shall forget that silence, in its place, is wisdom as well as speech, - that modesty is a beautiful property of greatness, and that he talks to the best purpose who says the right thing at the right time and in the right manner ?
An anecdote, related by Dr. Adams, will illustrate the effect of his preaching : -
His preaching was argumentative and logical. Commencing with some obvious truth, which all would admit, he advanced step by step, carrying one conviction after another by a process of demonstration which would admit of no escape, till he reached that conclusion, in the application of which he poured out the fulness and fervor of his religious pathos. A distinguished civilian, skilled in diplomacy and an adept in letters, invited once by a friend, a parishioner of Dr. Mason, to hear him preach, sat in the corner of the pew, at first somewhat listless, then alert, and following the argument with intense interest, till his countenance betrayed the emotion which was working in his heart, exclaimed on leaving the church, " Well, I know not what you who are accustomed to this may think ; as for myself, I never heard such preaching before. As Lord Peterborough said to Fenelon at Cambray, 'If I stay here longer, I shall become a Christian in spite of myself.'"
Dr. Mason, although retiring and reserved in his manners, was still a leader in the affairs of the church. He took a prominent and very decided part in maintaining the New School position in the troubles that led to the disruption of 1838, and, as a counsellor of his brethren, in the movements that followed. Often a member, for eight years he was the stated clerk of the General Assembly. To use again the words of Dr. Adams : -
In the judicatories of the Church, he was willing that others should conduct the debate ; but when the matter in hand was be- coming involved, and perplexity and trouble were likely to ensue,
134
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
how often, like a pilot in a difficult passage, by the introduction of some resolution, or the suggestion of some amendment, did he contrive the very relief which was needed, extricating the subject from all embarrassment, and leading the minds of all to an issue of complete harmony. The records of our ecclesiastical bodies will prove that this eulogy on the soundness of his judgment is not exaggerated ; and when he died, the general impression throughout the Church was that a standard-bearer had fallen.
Dr. Mason was invited to other important pulpits of the denomination, as also to the Presidency of the Union Theo- logical Seminary ; but nothing could draw him away from his beloved Bleecker Street flock. In 1846 he passed some time abroad. Until a few months before his death he had hardly known the meaning of ill-health. He entered into the joy of his Lord, May 14, 1851, in the forty-seventh year of his age.
A volume of his sermons, entitled A Pastor's Legacy, with a memoir by his friend, Dr. William Adams, was published in 1853
KNOWLES TAYLOR (1836-1842) was born at Middle Had- dam, Conn., on January 21, 1795. His parents, Colonel Jer- emiah Taylor and Lucy Brainerd Taylor, were members of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and greatly respected in the circle of their acquaintance. He came early to New York, established himself in business here, and in 1835 ranked among the leading merchants of the town. At that time he was a ruling elder in the Bleecker Street Presbyterian Church, which he had helped to found, and a warm personal friend of its pastor, Dr. Erskine Mason. All the recollec- tions of Knowles Taylor which I have been able to obtain, whether furnished by those associated with him in the walks of business or in works of benevolence, agree in depicting him as an admirable example of Christian excellence, - gen- erous, whole-souled, a true gentleman, a lover of good men,
135
KNOWLES TAYLOR.
and thoroughly devoted to the cause of the Divine Master. Alike in prosperous days and in days of adversity, at home or abroad, he showed himself a loyal disciple of Jesus, and abounded in the sweet charities of the Gospel. No one took a deeper interest in the great benevolent organizations and movements of that day. He was one of the founders and almost from the first had been the treasurer of the American Home Missionary Society. Years before, the subject of edu- cation for the sacred ministry attracted his special attention. He had contributed liberally towards the endowment of the Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, and learned by his intercourse with Dr. Rice to appreciate the claims and im- portance of such institutions.
Largely by his instrumentality, the Little Scholarship of $2,500, and, later, the New York Professorship of $20,000, in that Seminary, had been founded. The following extract from one of Dr. Rice's letters to him, written early in 1828, will throw light upon the state and temper of the times, and show also how his relation to that great and good man helped to prepare him for the part he was to take, seven years later, in the founding of this institution.
I look back to our co-operation in obtaining the New York Pro- fessorship with peculiar pleasure. This pleasure is derived from two sources. First, there is most manifest evidence of the pres- ence and blessing of God in this thing. Who but God could have accomplished a work of this sort? When I consider the strength of local prejudices which unhappily prevail in our country, and the mighty current of feeling which had long been running in favor of other objects, and, of course, the difficulty of exciting an interest for a new enterprise of magnitude, I do not see how any one can help exclaiming, " See what God hath wrought!" And it is de- lightful to the pious mind to be engaged in a work which is clearly God's. To Him be all the glory! But, in the next place, this enterprise has offered a fine opportunity for the exercise of Chris- tian friendship. . . . When the heart is filled with pure, fervent fra- ternal love, there is a taste of heaven on earth. Yes, my brother,
136
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
we shall look back with pleasure on the days when we labored to- gether in this field of God's harvest. ... When you become an old gray-headed elder, and meet in the General Assembly the men who received their education at our Seminary, and hear them mag- nify the word of God, and see that they are sound, faithful Bible preachers, you will rejoice and bless God for what you see and hear. But it is time to tell you about Philadelphia. . .. Some are not as fully cordial as I could wish, because they know that I will not be a partisan. One excellent brother told me that he sus- pected me of being too much of a Yankee. But I will not turn my course for any suspicions. I will acknowledge as brethren those who love the Lord Jesus, of all parties, and I will co-operate zealously and heartily with any who aim to promote the truth as it is in Jesus. Our Seminary shall be based on the Bible; and we will know no isms there but Bibleism. I am sure that the Bible will afford good support to sound Presbyterianism, and if it will not, why, let Presbyterianism go.
How much in this letter applies, almost literally, to our own early history ! The first formal meeting of those inter- ested in the question of establishing a theological seminary in New York, as we have seen, was held at the house of Mr. Taylor, and he presided over it. He also served on sev- eral of the committees of organization, and was one of the first Board of Directors. An extract from a letter of Mrs. Thomas A. Rich, of Boston, dated January 4, 1887, will not be here out of place.
In the New York Observer, December 16, 1886, I read with great interest your address at the fiftieth anniversary of the Union Theological Seminary, especially your allusions to Knowles Taylor. He was my father. In 1835 I was a little girl, but well remember seeing the chairs in our parlor for the meetings of which you speak. It is pleasant to know that my father is not entirely forgotten ; and if it will not tax your time too much, I should be very glad to hear from you more about him. I was baptized by Dr. Erskine Ma- son, and taken by him, later, into the membership of the Bleecker Street Church, while my father was absent in Europe. I can re- member how I loved Dr. Mason in his place.
In 1869, it was my privilege to aid in forming the " Woman's
137
RICHARD TOWNLEY HAINES.
Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church," in the Tremont Street Church, Boston. I was the treasurer of the society for ten years, and its first annual meeting was held in my parlors. I was pleased to know that I had followed, somewhat, in my father's steps.
In a letter dated a week later, Mrs. Rich writes :-
Many thanks for your quick response to my note. I cannot add much to your account of my father. While travelling in his own carriage through the country, he was in the habit of distributing tracts by the roadside, and sometimes in the cottage of the laboring man, giving with them a word of cheer and encouragement. When his means were but meagre compared with the affluence of former years, he would place a five or ten dollar gold piece in the hands of those he thought more needy than himself. The New York Jour- nal of Commerce, in an editorial notice, written at the time of his death, thus refers to this trait : "We remember him as one of the princely merchants of New York, and as an earnest Christian laborer. He gave liberally of his wealth, and was foremost in every Christian charity. Besides many large public charities, he gave to individuals in many ways, of which his family knew noth- ing until after his death." My father died at Dr. Howe's Ferry, on the Tuolumne River, California, October 7, 1850.
RICHARD TOWNLEY HAINES (1836-1870) was born at Eliza- beth, N. J., May 21, 1795, and early established himself in business in this city. At the age of twenty-four he united with the Reformed Dutch Church in Garden Street. Some years later he joined Henry White, then just beginning his ministry, in building up the Allen Street Church, changing his residence for this purpose to East Broadway. He became an elder of this church. In 1840 he joined the Mercer Street Presbyterian Church, of which Dr. Skinner was then pastor, and in 1845 he removed to his native town, where he died, August 21, 1870, at the age of seventy-five. For forty-five years he was an active member, and for twenty-seven years chairman of the executive committee of the American Tract Society. A man of calm, penetrating, weighty judgment,
138
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
modest and unassuming in all his ways, he exerted an influ- ence for good in his day and generation which cannot casily be measured. I have spoken in the Address of his inestima- ble services to the Union Theological Seminary, as one of its founders, and as a life-long Director and friend. In a letter dated May 3, 1886, Mrs. Haines thus refers to his connection with the Seminary : -
My own earliest recollection is of seeing him, while he was as yet a stranger to me, watching the masons and carpenters at work on the old University Place building. After my marriage I soon found that the Rev. Dr. Henry White was one of our most frequent vis- itors ; and sometimes he would come, when his pale face and whole appearance showed him to be ill. Evening after evening, in our sitting room, at 37 Clinton Place, would the two good men talk over together the affairs of the Seminary ; oftentimes, with such anxious countenances as to suggest the thought of some heavy personal trouble. The real trouble was "want of money to meet expenses." But I could not share their fears. I said God had given them the students and the wonderfully competent Professors, and surely He would provide the third factor of success. And in what a marvel- lous way it has so come to pass !
The following minute on the death of Mr. Haines will show how he was regarded by the Board of Directors : -
Mr. Haines's connection with this Board dated from the beginning of its history. It was owing in large part to his earnest and effi- cient efforts that this Seminary was undertaken. He was one of its founders, and to the day of his death continued to be one of its most devoted friends and patrons. Through all the period of its financial embarrassment and threatened extinction, his faithful ser- vices and wise counsels were among the most efficient means of rescuing the institution from ruin and establishing it on a firm foun- dation. An original member of its Board, and one of its corpora- tors in 1836, he was chosen President of the Board in 1840, and for a period of thirty years was annually re-elected to the same office, presiding over its deliberations with impartiality, dignity, urbanity, and wisdom. The Board take a mournful pleasure in re- cording their deep sense of his great worth as an enterprising and
139
WILLIAM M. HALSTED.
successful merchant of the strictest integrity ; as a fellow citizen of large and generous impulses ; as an humble, devout, and eminently faithful follower of Christ and office-bearer in the Church; as a liberal contributor to all good causes, and especially to that of min- isterial education ; as a projector, founder, and untiring friend and supporter of this Seminary ; and as an associate dearly beloved and greatly mourned. He rests from his labors and his works do follow him.
WILLIAM M. HALSTED (1836-1851) was a native of Eliza- beth, N. J. At the age of fourteen he was a clerk in New York; at twenty-one he commenced business, and at thirty- one became senior partner in the firm of Halsted, Haines, & Co. He soon came to be known as a trusted counsellor in the circles of philanthropy and religion. He was a director of the American Home Missionary Society and the American Tract Society, a member of the Assembly's Board of Foreign Mis- sions, and an elder of the University Place Presbyterian Church. His Christian character had uncommon solidity and strength. He seemed to be penetrated with a profound sense of the reality and saving power of the Gospel, and of his own duty as a disciple of Jesus to help diffuse its blessed influence far and wide. Distrustful of his ability to perform this duty by direct personal appeal or effort, he was the more diligent to do it in other ways, particularly by the distribution of good books. When a volume struck him as specially excellent, many copies of it would go from his hand to relatives, friends, or acquaintances, wherever he hoped salutary impressions might be made. On reading the Life of Dr. Justin Edwards, for example, he presented a copy to each student in the Semi- nary ; and so of the Life of Rev. Richard Knill, and I know not how many other works. At the beginning of every year he looked into his income, and as he judged to be his duty sent donations to important objects, sometimes committing funds to the theological professors, the city missionary, or others, to be distributed at their discretion. Although laid aside by ill-
140
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
health during the later years of his life, his chamber was kept bright and fragrant by devout exercises, holy fellowship, and those sweet fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God.
Mr. Halsted died on November 20, 1863, in the seventy- sixth year of his age.
ABIJAH FISHER (1836-1859) was born in 1786, and spent the most of his life in New York and Brooklyn. Like Haines and Halsted and Otis, and so many other men of business in his day, he was a leader in religious and evangelistic work. In his fine appearance and courtly manners he typified the Christian gentleman of the old school. The elements of his character seemed to partake of both the eighteenth and the nineteenth century. He was never so happy as when engaged in some scheme for the benefit of others. For many years he sustained the office of an elder in the Brick and Bleecker Street Presbyterian Churches, and afterward in the First Presby- terian Church in Brooklyn. For more than thirty years he was chairman of the executive committee of the American Home Missionary Society, and attached his official signature to nearly every commission that was given in that long period. I have already spoken of him as one of the founders of the Union Theological Seminary. He died at the residence of his son, in Bridgeport, Conn., on May 28, 1868, in the eighty- third year of his age.
CORNELIUS BAKER (1836-1840) was one of the founders of the Seminary, and one of its largest original donors. For the following interesting sketch of this excellent man I am in- debted to his eldest surviving daughter.
My father was born at Rahway, N. J., December 15, 1792. When about twenty years old, he came to New York and entered upon a mercantile career. In 1826 he joined the Laight Street Church, then under the pastoral care of Rev. Samuel H. Cox, D. D.
141
CORNELIUS BAKER.
Six years later, he was persuaded it was his duty to leave that church, which was then flourishing and in which he had served as deacon for some years, to join others in forming a new church, which was called " The Free Presbyterian Church of New York." Here he served as an elder, Dr. Joel Parker being the chosen pastor.
In 1839, owing to reverses in business and impaired health, he re- moved to New Jersey, where he lived for the remainder of his days, though after a time, his health being improved, he returned to ac- tive business in New York, and retired only about a year before his death. He went to Europe in the summer of 1867, whither some of his family had preceded him, in the hope that the change would benefit his health, but from the time of his arrival there his strength gradually failed him. He reached Montreux, Switzerland, in the autumn of 1867, where, after rallying and relapsing several times, he sank peacefully asleep at the Hotel de Cygne, on the 30th of March, 1868, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. His remains now rest in the beautiful cemetery at Clarens, near Montreux, on the slope of the mountain which rises above the shores of the Lake of Geneva. A suitable tablet marks the spot where his body lies.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.