The Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York : historical and biographical sketches of its first fifty years, Part 2

Author: Prentiss, George Lewis, 1816-1903
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: New York : A.D.F. Randolph
Number of Pages: 322


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 2


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MARCUS WILBUR was a warm-hearted Christian mer- chant, - an elder in the Bleecker Street Presbyterian Church. I have a pleasant remembrance of him as, twenty years later, my own parishioner and friend. But his connection with the founding of Union Semi- nary was very slight. His name occurs but once in its records.


At the second meeting, when the two committees on the design and plan of instruction of the con- templated institution, and on its organization, were appointed, five additional laymen, as we have seen, took part in the proceedings. One of them, FISHER HOWE, was a member of the Board of Directors from the beginning until his death, in 1871, - a period of thirty-five years. The Seminary had no truer friend. In manifold ways he rendered it important service. He had the instincts of a scholar, and was in special sympathy with the spirit of investigation in all de- partments of Biblical study and research. Of him, and of John Nitchie, James C. Bliss, and Cornelius Baker, I shall speak elsewhere. Lowell Holbrook appears to have taken no further part in the movement.


I have briefly sketched the men who originated and planned this school of divinity. But it had still other founders, -the men who, approving of the plan, adopted it as their own and helped to carry it into effect. This brings us to the organization and actual establishment of the Seminary. No sooner was the plan completed than other leading Presbyterian min-


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FOUNDERS OF THE INSTITUTION.


isters, together with other leading laymen of New York and Brooklyn, were invited to join in the move- ment. The most of them accepted the invitation, and were present at one or all of the next three meetings. Among this number were such clergymen as Thomas McAuley, Thomas H. Skinner, Ichabod S. Spencer, William Adams, John C. Brigham, Asa D. Smith, and Henry G. Ludlow ; and such laymen as Charles But- ler, Caleb O. Halsted, John L. Mason, Norman White, and Anson G. Phelps.


At the fourth meeting, held on November 3, after a free interchange of views, it was again “ Resolved unanimously that it is expedient, depending on the blessing of God, to attempt to establish a theological seminary in this city." At this meeting the committee on organization was empowered to nominate suitable persons for directors of the new institution.


At the fifth meeting, held on November 9, the re- port of the committee on the best mode of organizing a Board of Directors having been made and adopted, the following clergymen, nominated by this committee, were elected Directors ; namely, Thomas McAuley, Thomas H. Skinner, Henry White, E. Mason, I. S. Spencer, Absalom Peters, William Patton, William Adams, E. P. Barrows, H. A. Rowland, W. W. Phillips, and John Woodbridge. Drs. Phillips and Woodbridge declined ; all the rest accepted.


At this same meeting the Committee of Ways and Means reported that " the establishment of the Semi-


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THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.


nary would involve an expense of $65,000, or $13,000 per annum for five years, supporting during that period all the Professors, and at its expiration leaving a building and a library entirely free from debt." A subscription paper was thereupon presented to the meeting, and the sum of $31,000 was subscribed.


At the sixth meeting, held on November 16, Dr. Gardiner Spring, pastor of the Brick Church, then in the height of his influence and usefulness, was elected a Director; but after attending the next meeting, he declined the appointment.


The following laymen were also elected; namely, Knowles Taylor, R. T. Haines, William M. Halsted, Micah Baldwin, Cornelius Baker, Charles Butler, John Nitchie, Fisher Howe, Joseph Otis, Leonard Corning, and Abijah Fisher. Later, Caleb O. Halsted, Pelatiah Perit, and Zechariah Lewis were added to the number. These ten clergymen and fourteen laymen constituted the first Board of Directors ; no others were appointed until 1837.


IV.


THE SEMINARY EQUIPPED AND OPENED FOR INSTRUCTION.


ITS EARLY TRIALS AND STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE.


ONE of the most interesting documents in our ar- chives is the original subscription-book. The first four names are Knowles Taylor, William M. Halsted, Richard T. Haines, and Cornelius Baker, against each


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2 4153,1


ITS EQUIPMENT AND OPENING.


of which stands the sum of $5,000, - a large sum in those days. Other names follow, that were widely known and honored then, and some of which are far more widely known and honored now; such names as Charles N. Talbot, S. S. Howland, George and Na- thaniel Griswold, Russell H. and Rufus Nevins, Anson G. Phelps, William E. Dodge, Charles Butler, Thomas H. Skinner, Henry White, William Patton, George P. Shipman, W. W. Chester, Norman White, P. Perit, F. Howe, David Leavitt, Leonard and Jasper Corning, John G. Nelson, Gurdon Buck, L. Holbrook, T. Mc- Auley, Joseph Otis, John L. Mason, Z. Lewis, E. W. Morgan, Alfred Edwards, G. T. Robbins, Abijah Fisher, Frederick N. Marquand, and Joseph Brewster. The subscriptions were to be binding upon reaching $60,000. Fifty thousand dollars had been secured when the great fire occurred, on the night of De- cember 16, 1835, by which more than five hundred buildings in the wealthiest section of the town and $17,000,000 of property were destroyed. In spite of this appalling calamity the steadfast purpose of the founders remained unshaken. At a meeting held on January 11, 1836, the Committee of Ways and Means reported : "Notwithstanding the late calamity which has befallen our city in the destruction of so large an amount of property by fire, the subscription in aid of the Seminary is now binding, amounting to the sum of $61,000."


On the evening of January 18, 1836, the first meet-


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THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.


ing of the Board of Directors was held at the house of the American Tract Society, in Nassau Street. At this meeting it perfected its own organization by the choice of officers for the year, appointed its committees, and proceeded forthwith to business. The name of the new institution was "THE NEW YORK THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY." Of the measures which were taken to give it a "local habitation," I borrow the following interesting account from Dr. Hatfield's Early Annals of Union Theological Seminary, published in 1876.


A plot of ground, two hundred feet square, between Sixth and Eighth Streets, extending from Greene to Wooster Streets, four full lots on each street, was selected. It formed a part of the property of "the Sailors' Snug Harbor," which shortly before had been located in the old Randall mansion on Broad- way, above Ninth Street. It was subject to an annual ground- rent of eight hundred dollars. The lease was purchased for eight thousand dollars. The locality was well up town, quite on the outskirts of the city. Population had been speeding from what was then familiarly known as Greenwich Village, along the Hudson River, northward; and, in like manner, along the Third Avenue, on the eastern side of the city. A few improvements had been made along the Bloomingdale Road from its junction with the Bowery Road, at Seventeenth Street, to the House of Refuge, which stood at the starting- point of the old Boston Road, on the westerly side of the present Madison Square, extending to the present Broadway, and covering the site of the Worth Monument. Union Place, now Union Square, had just been opened, at the forks of Broadway and the Bowery, but was still unimproved. Eighth Street, and a few of the parallel streets above, opened but a few years before, were beginning to exhibit some evidences of


23


ITS EQUIPMENT AND OPENING.


substantial improvement. With these exceptions, vacant lots, unpaved streets, primitive roads and lanes, open fields, and country seats, many of them highly cultivated and of con- siderable extent, covered the island to the north, as far as the ancient Dutch village of Harlem. The New York of that day scarcely extended above Tenth Street, the original termi- nus of Broadway. Beyond was the open country.


The General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Epis- copal Church, some ten years before, had been erected far out of the city, and near it, on Twentieth Street, an Episco- pal chapel (St. Peter's) of small capacity had been erected in 1832. Old "St. Mark's" occupied its present site on Tenth Street, near Second Avenue. Two or three mission stations, in advance of the population, were struggling for a foothold in the outlying districts. Excepting these, not a. church edifice of any description was to be found on the island, below the villages of Bloomingdale and Harlem, above Tenth Street. A new Presbyterian church had just been erected in Mercer Street, near Eighth Street, which for many subsequent years was the " Up-town Church " of the denomi- nation. The stately structure erected for the University of the City of New York, on the block below the new purchase, had just been occupied in part, but was not fully completed. Wooster Street had just been extended to Fourteenth Street, and the part above the University widened and called Jackson Avenue, - a name shortly after exchanged for University Place. The location was deemed quite eligible, near enough to the business portion of the city, and sufficiently remote for a quiet literary retreat.


The next step was to secure a permanent corps of instructors. For the chair of Theology the Rev. JUSTIN EDWARDS, D. D., was chosen; and for the chair of Biblical Literature, Prof. JOSEPH ADDISON


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THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.


ALEXANDER, of Princeton. Both appointments were declined. The Rev. HENRY WHITE, pastor of the Al- len Street Church, was then called to the Theological chair; and Dr. THOMAS MCAULEY to that of Pastoral Theology and Church Government, with the position of President of the institution. The chair of Biblical Literature was now offered to Prof. GEORGE How, of the Theological Seminary at Columbia, S. C .; and upon his declining, EDWARD ROBINSON, D. D., formerly of Andover, Mass., received and accepted the ap- pointment. Several clerical members of the Board consented to act as Professors Extraordinary. Late in November, the recorder was authorized to announce to the public that on Monday, the 5th of December, 1836, the Seminary would be opened for instruction. On that day, accordingly, thirteen young men ap- peared at the house of the President, No. 112 Leonard Street, and were duly enrolled as students of divinity. For two years the institution was necessarily more or less "peripatetic." "Now," says Dr. Hatfield, "the young gentlemen are seen wending their way to the house of the President, in Leonard Street; the day following they have gathered at the residence of Prof. White, No. 80 Eldridge Street; the third day finds them at the rooms of the Presbyterian Education Society, No. 116 Nassau Street, drinking in the erudi- tion of Prof. Robinson ; or, in his absence, profiting by the genial instructions of the scholarly George Bush, at his study, No. 115 Nassau Street; and again


25


ITS EQUIPMENT AND OPENING.


they are to be found gathered about the polished and enthusiastic Skinner, in his quiet retreat in the chapel of the Mercer Street Church."


But, in spite of these disadvantages, ten additional students were enrolled in the course of the first year. At the close of the second year fifty-six names were on the Seminary roll. At the opening of the third year, the catalogue, now for the first time printed, showed a total of ninety-two students, thirty-two of them Juniors. Thus in about three years from the earliest meeting at the house of Knowles Taylor, October 10, 1835, the new Seminary had grown into the third institution of its kind in the land, only Ando- ver and Princeton outranking it. Sudden growth, however, is not always healthy growth. The Union Seminary owes, perhaps, quite as much to the sharp trials as to the brilliant success which attended its early years. Let us dwell a little here upon these trials. They were such, essentially, as almost always mark the beginning of a great work for Christ and the Church. Bitter as they were at the time, we can now look back upon them as a wholesome discipline to the youthful institution. Dr. Hatfield thus refers to them: -


The plans having at length been completed and approved, contracts were made for the erection of a Seminary building on University Place, and of four Professors' houses in the rear, on Greene Street. Early in March, 1836, the work was fairly begun, but with utterly inadequate resources. The original


26


THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.


subscription had reached nearly seventy thousand dollars ; but the first instalment, payable June 1, 1836, had yielded scarcely more than ten thousand dollars, four fifths of which had been required for the purchase of the lease; the ground rent and assessments absorbed nearly three fourths of the small re- mainder, leaving almost no provision for the payment of the salaries of the three Professors, the purchase of books, and other current expenses. The great fire had crippled quite a number of the patrons of the Seminary, and the prospects for the second instalment, in June, 1837, were anything but promising. Whence were the funds for building purposes to be derived ? Only from loans. Further subscriptions, to any considerable extent, were out of the question. The times were now adverse in the extreme for new enterprises. Mr. Van Buren had just succeeded to the Presidency. The excit- ing era of land speculations had come to an end. The com- monwealth of trade and commerce had lost confidence in the policy of the general government. Credit was destroyed. Trade was prostrate. The great manufactories were sus- pended. The demand for labor ceased. An era of bank- ruptcy set in. Merchants and bankers, after a while, yielded to the storm. House after house went down in hopeless ruin. A tremendous panic ensued. The land was convulsed. Every bank in the city of New York on the 10th of May, and immediately after every bank in the land, suspended specie payments. It was no time to borrow, no time to build. It is not strange, therefore, that the Directors of the Seminary resolved, April 26, 1837, "to suspend the erection of the buildings until they shall possess the means which will en- courage them to resume the task." As if to add to the dis- tractions of the times and the embarrassments of the Board, the Presbyterian General Assembly, at its meeting in May, at Philadelphia, was led into heated and angry discussions, and convulsed with party strife. The excision of a portion of its constituency scattered the brands of discord all over the land,


UNION.


TiltuIco ale


UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. UNIVERSITY PLACE.


27


EARLY TRIALS.


kindling the flames of contention throughout the denomina- tion. . . . It was a year of deep discouragement, and passed away with but little relief. The second instalment of the sub- scription had produced less than eight thousand dollars, and the prospects for the following year were even less hopeful. From two of the warm friends of the Seminary, however, at the close of the year, loans amounting to twenty-seven thousand dollars, secured by mortgage on the grounds and prospective buildings, were obtained, and the work of con- struction resumed.1


It is worthy of note, that during this period of financial disaster and discouragement the invaluable Van Ess Library, of which I shall speak later, was purchased. The new Seminary building was dedicated, with appropriate ceremonies, December 12, 1838. On the 27th of March, 1839, the Legislature passed an act incorporating the institution under the name of THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK.2


The institution entered upon its fourth year by en- rolling fifty-five new students, the most of whom had


1 The Early Annals of Union Theological Seminary, pp. 12, 13.


2 Dr. Hatfield thinks that this name was "given it at Albany, to dis- tinguish it, probably, from the Episcopal Seminary of Twentieth Street, - a name not desired, much less chosen, by the Board, but prophetic of the position that the institution has ever since maintained." Dr. Hitchcock, on the other hand, in his Dedicatory Address, in 1884, expressed the opin- ion that it was sent up from New York, and "was meant to be a monu- mental protest against the unhappy rending of the Presbyterian Church in 1837, as also both a prayer and a prophecy against it." I am myself also of the opinion that the name originated with the founders; and, fur- ther, that it was suggested by that of the Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, which some of them were familiar with and had helped to establish.


28


THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.


to be provided with lodgings outside of the Seminary building. This was beyond the strongest hopes of its friends. Nobody could now say that New York was not at least a very attractive place to young men pre- paring for the sacred office. But while the number of students who flocked to the Seminary surpassed the largest expectation of its founders, the latter found themselves wholly at fault in their financial


plan and arrangements. Not more than fifty thou- sand dollars of the original subscription had proved available, while more than this amount had been expended at the end of the third year of instruc- tion. It was necessary, therefore, to resort to loans, for which not only the buildings, but the Van Ess Library, were mortgaged. The last instalment of the subscription would hardly suffice to meet the current expenses, and for the years beyond no provision what- ever had been made. In this exigency the Board of Directors appointed a financial agent, and then, call- ing together the pastors of the city and vicinity who were in sympathy with the movement, invited them to open to him their pulpits and to aid him in soliciting funds. They resolved to do so, and in the course of the winter a fruitless attempt was made to raise fifty thousand dollars. By February, 1840, the Treasurer, William M. Halsted, had advanced over and above the loans more than sixteen thousand dollars, while eight thousand five hundred dollars had been re- ceived from the sale of one of the four Professors'


29


EARLY TRIALS.


houses. So dark was the prospect, that even the ques- tion of abandoning the enterprise began to be agi- tated; and had not its friends been men of strong faith, abounding in hope, and determined in purpose, such would doubtless have been the result. For two years the salaries of the Professors had been mostly unpaid, and one of them, the Professor of Theology, Dr. Hatfield relates, " was compelled to borrow nearly a year's salary, then to convert his home into a board- ing-house, to become the stated supply of a pulpit, and at length to enter upon a voluntary agency for the solicitation of money to pay his very moderate salary." By the most vigorous efforts, a sufficient sum had been pledged by subscription, at the close of the term in May, 1840, to justify the Board "in continuing the Seminary in operation for the ensuing year." It was continued, however, with the utmost difficulty ; for the debt grew larger day by day, while the resources of the institution were every day growing smaller.


Toward the close of 1840 it was determined to raise, if possible, a permanent fund. For this purpose a sub- scription, payable on the attainment of pledges to the amount of $120,000, was opened. One subscription of $25,000, two of $1,250, eleven of $1000 each, and others, amounting in all to $90,000, were received, when, to the grief and dismay of the friends of the Seminary, the whole movement collapsed. Resort was now had to new expedients. In addition to an- nual collections in the churches, " agents were sent


30


THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.


out through the country, soliciting funds, in gifts of one dollar and upwards, from the people at their homes, in their warehouses and workshops, on their farms and in their factories." Thus the struggle for existence was kept up for two or three years longer. But at length it became quite evident that such expe- dients could not save the institution.


We pass now to the second period of our early financial history, namely, that of tentative, partial endowment. In September, 1843, a public meeting of the friends of the Seminary was called, and an appeal made for the sum of $25,000 to endow the chair of Theology. The success of this appeal gave the institution its first permanent fund. But to col- lect the subscriptions to this fund, to pay off a floating debt of nearly $20,000, and to meet current expenses, required very strenuous exertions for years to come. Early in 1844 it was proposed to transfer the insti- tution to Brooklyn. Several residents of that city, on condition of such transfer, offered to contribute ample funds to erect there a Seminary building and three dwelling-houses for the Professors. The Board of Directors declined the generous offer; but the fact of its having been made indicates in what straits they found themselves.


During this period of struggle for existence the friends of the Seminary were cheered by the legacy of Mr. James Roosevelt, which they regarded as a special favor of Providence. "A grandson of this


31


EARLY TRIALS.


eminent citizen had been carefully trained for the priesthood of the Episcopal Church, and duly or- dained. Having served in the ministry, first at Har- lem, N. Y., and then at Hagerstown, Md., he became so thorough a ritualist that nothing would content him but the Papacy, which presently he espoused. After a brief novitiate at St. Sulpice, in Paris, he was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1842 by the late Archbishop Hughes, whose secretary he became in 1846. Shortly after this latter date his venerable grandfather died, and it was found that, in consequence of this change of faith, the inheritance, valued at about $30,000, originally designed for the grandson, had been devised to Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York. This bequest was contested, successfully at first; but the provisions of the will were finally sustained by the Court of Ap- peals. The contestant is now the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Baltimore, Most Rev. James R. Bay- ley, D. D., and his forfeited patrimony has done excel- lent service in sustaining this Protestant seminary." 1


Before passing from our early financial trials I will give, even at the risk of some repetition, the following vivid reminiscences, kindly furnished me by the Presi- dent of the Board of Directors, Charles Butler, LL. D., our only surviving founder.


The period from 1837 to 1850 was one of extraordinary financial difficulty and vicissitudes, - unparalleled, indeed, in


1 The Early Annals of Union Theological Seminary, pp. 18, 19.


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THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.


the history of the country. The existence of the Seminary during all these years was a struggle with poverty and the difficulties inseparable from poverty. The silver lining to the cloud which hovered over us, dark and threatening, es- pecially from 1837 to 1842, was visible only to the eye of faith ; and while faith with some was weak and often wearied, yet with others in the Board at this time it was not only hopeful, but brilliant even in the darkest hour. I can recall in memory, but cannot describe, the feeling which pervaded and was reflected in the countenances of members when called together to consider what could be done to meet im- pending exigencies. These meetings were generally attended by the Professors as well, and were always opened and closed with prayer. There was a close bond of union between the Faculty and the members of the Board. The tender sym- pathy which comes ever from sharing one another's burdens marked their deliberations, and was evidenced in all that was said and done. Prayer and supplication for Divine support and guidance were not wanting. Nor were they fruitless.


At a period of the greatest darkness, on the 4th of Janu- ary, 1842, the Directors were in session, and a communication came to them from Mr. James Boorman, in which he agreed to contribute the sum of two thousand dollars annually for three years, to support a Professor, and offered further im- mediately to pay two thousand dollars, which he desired, irrespective of the conditions imposed by his subscription, should be applied at once to the salary of Dr. Robinson, then largely in arrears. This was the first and largest annual subscription ever made for the support of the Seminary by any one of its friends up to this time, and the effect was most encouraging alike to Directors and Professors. Six years later, Mr. Boorman initiated the movement for the ap- pointment of Dr. Skinner to the chair of Sacred Rhetoric, and by personal effort secured the means to cover his salary of $2,000 a year for a period of five years, in advance of the


33


EARLY TRIALS.


appointment. Toward this he himself subscribed $1,000 a year for the period named, and the balance was made up by three other persons, all members also of the Mercer Street Church ; viz. Anson G. Phelps, Sen., $500 ; Eli Wainwright, $250; Mrs. Arthur Bronson, $250.




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