USA > New York > The centennial history of the Protestant Episcopal church in the diocese of New York, 1785-1885 > Part 32
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The seminary, while for sixty years it was greatly re- stricted in its scope on account of inadequate resources, was yet from the beginning the recipient of many benefactions. The donations with which it has been favored are as follows: Sixty lots of ground by Mr. C. C. Moore ; $60,000, legacy by Mr. Jacob Sherred ; $100,000, legacy by Mr. Kohne, of Phila- delphia, not realized for twenty-four years ; $20,000, legacy by Mr. George Lorillard, New York; $25,000, gift of Mr. Peter G. Stuyvesant, New York; $1,000, special gift to the library by Mrs. Margaret Pendleton ; $3,000, gift of Mrs. Pendleton for general purposes ; $4,000, gift to the library by Trinity Church ; $5,000, contributions for the library secured by Bishop Doane and Rev. Drs. McVickar and Anthon; $5,000, for library, by Society for Promoting Religion and Learning ; $25,000, endowment of Professorship of Pastoral Theology, by the late Samuel Verplanck Hoffman ; $25,000, by the alumni, to endow Professorship of Revealed Religion ; $25,000, by Miss Elizabeth Ludlow, to found and endow the
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Charles and Elizabeth Ludlow Professorship of Ecclesiastical Polity and Law; $10,000, raised by Dean Seymour for improvements in the chapel, library, and seminary generally. $8,000, legacy by Miss Elizabeth Ludlow; $100,000 by the widow and children of Samuel Verplanck Hoffman to endow Office of Dean ; $10,000 by Mr. George A. Jarvis, of Brook- lyn, to endow the Bishop Paddock Lectureship ; $50,000, by general subscription, to build Sherred Hall ; $57,000 by an individual donor, to build the new library building and fur- nish it; $30,000 by general subscription, to build Pintard and Dehon Halls, of which $7,500 was the individual gift of Anson G. P. Dodge; $25,000, to build the deanery now in process of erection ; $10,000 from Miss .Caroline Talman, to found the John H. Talman Fellowship ; $10,000 from heirs of Tracy R. Edson, to endow Instruction in Elocution, etc .; $10,000 from Miss Edson to add to the above; $50,000, William H. Vanderbilt legacy. The endowments yielding a revenue now amount to $387,698.54, invested in bonds and mortgages. The income from the Hoffman Foundation, endowing the Office of Dean, is by direction of the donors accumulating for the benefit of the seminary. Under the new system the trust funds are kept by a board of five trus- tees, and only the income is paid to the treasurer.
FUNDS NEEDED FOR THE WORK.
Let us estimate what the seminary needs to enable it to do its work with its present staff. In making this estimate it must be remembered that as a charitable institution it has no income from its students, but must rely entirely on the inter- est of its endowments. We should not put the salaries of the dean and professors at less than $4,000 each. In neighboring literary institutions they would receive about double this sum for the same amount of work.
Salaries of the dean and six professors .. $28,000
Scholarships (for aiding indigent students). 4,000 Supplies and repairs. 3,000
Care and increase of the library. 2,000
Employés and sundry expenses. 2,000
Taxes and charges on real estate. 3,000
Total. $42,000
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To meet these expenses it has at present :
Interest on endowments (less fellowship, lectureship, and prize
endowments) say. $12,775 00 Gross revenue from real estate last year. 10,016 49
Additional revenue if all the vacant lots were at present leased. 6,000 00
Total. $28,791 49
The seminary, therefore, requires, to pay its present staff of professors even the above moderate salaries and to carry on its work on the present scale, without any enlargement, upwards of $13,000 additional income per annum, or the in- terest of $300,000. Of course it must not be understood that such a deficiency is now annually incurred. The institution at present pays its professors only an average salary of about $1,800 per annum.
The following endowments, which may bear for all time the names of the donors or any names they may select, are those most needed :
For the Professorship of Systematic Divinity. $50,000 For the Professorship of Biblical Learning. 50,000
For the Professorship of Hebrew and Greek Languages .. 50,000 For the Professorship of Ecclesiastical History (now partly endowed). 25,000
For the Instructor in Reading the Church Service and Delivery of Sermons. 15,000
For five fellowships, each. 15,000
For lectureships each, at least. 10,000
For scholarships, to aid students without means, each from. .$2,000 to 5,000 Fund to increase and care for the library. Fund for general endowment.
Fund to erect a suitable chapel, a library building, a refectory and lecture-rooms and additional dormitories. (One or all of these buildings might be made memorial buildings, and bear the name of the donor or of one whose memory it is desired to preserve.)
And lastly, as the charter provides, a fund to found and maintain a home or retreat for aged and infirm clergymen of the graduates of the seminary.
If these needs of the seminary seem to any one to be large, let him remember that it can never receive, like other literary institutions, any income from its students. Its work being wholly eleemosynary, it is compelled to rely on the income arising from its endowments to support and educate
25
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at present about one hundred candidates for Holy Orders. In the near future it will probably be required to make provision for twice this number.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE PLANS FOR BUILDING.
With the erection of Sherred Hall was begun the filling out of a magnificent plan for a group of buildings, the com- pletion of which will give the General Seminary the best advantages of the present age. There will be accommoda- tions for two hundred students, also residences for the dean and each member of the Faculty, and a chapel, library build- ing, and refectory. Three sides of the block between Ninth and Tenth Avenues will be occupied by a continuous line of buildings forty feet in depth, leaving the southerly side on Twentieth Street open, broken only by three double houses for the professors, fronting on Twentieth Street, at intervals from each other. The chapel, whose chancel will be on Twenty-first Street, will be in the center of the line of build- ings on that street, and will divide the whole pile into two quadrangles. At the north-west angle will be the refectory, and at the north-east angle now stands the new library build- ing. The entrance to the whole will be by a fine porch on Ninth Avenue, having on the south the Deanery, now building. There are are at present completed Sherred Hall, having six fine recitation rooms admirably ventilated, with professors' rooms attached, Dehon Hall and Pintard Hall having students' rooms, supplied with every convenience and all enjoying a southern exposure, and the library building, perfectly fireproof, even the cases of iron. Three private library rooms, to be used when students wish to make espe- cial investigation, are on the same floor, and on the first floor suitable rooms are provided for the safe preservation of the archives and valuable documents of the General and Diocesan Conventions. The library, numbering 20,000 volumes, is one of great value, and has now the advantage of attractive and convenient quarters. There is need of larger resources for its maintenance, that, with its antique treasures, it may be able to offer to readers the most recent works in theology and
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Christian literature generally. It is open daily from nine to five o'clock, for clergy and others who wish to consult it. The plan includes for the chapel a ground floor, which is designed to be used for a large public lecture-room and for any suitable ecclesiastical meetings. The material used for these substan- tial and tasteful buildings is pressed brick and Belleville stone, with dark slate for steep roofs. The interiors of the library and lecture-rooms are finished with buff-colored brick, interspersed with black and red, and the chapel is to be treated in the same way. The style of architecture is that known as the English Collegiate Gothic. Many of the ar- rangements are due to the excellent judgment of the present dean, who takes the greatest personal interest in the progress of the work, as he has also in the gathering of the funds. The architect is Mr. Charles C. Haight, who was the archi- tect of the new buildings of Columbia College and is a son of the late Rev. Dr. Benjamin I. Haight, Professor of Pas- toral Theology for many years. When the proposed group of buildings are all erected the two old east and west semi- nary buildings will be removed, and then the block compris- ing the seminary property, standing in the heart of the city, convenient to all parts by many lines of public conveyance, will be a happy realization of an ideal theological school for the training of young men to take up the work of the Chris- tian ministry wherever duty may summon them, even in the most stirring centers of metropolitan life.
PROFESSORS AND OFFICERS.
As has been mentioned, Drs. Jarvis and Turner were the first professors at the establishment of the seminary, the. former retiring for a Boston rectorship after a service of six- months, the latter remaining until his decease. During the brief sojourn of the seminary, Bishop Brownell proffered his services gratuitously, as a co-laborer with Dr. Turner. Dur- ing this period, Rev. Bird Wilson was appointed to the Chair of Systematic Theology. Meanwhile, in what may be styled the provisional New York School, organized by the indefati- gable Bishop Hobart, who assumed the Chair of Systematic
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Divinity and Pastoral Theology, Mr. Clement C. Moore was acting Professor of Biblical Learning and Interpretation of Scripture ; Mr. Gulian C. Verplanck, Professor of Evidences of Revealed Religion, and of Moral Science in its Relations to Theology ; and Rev. Benjamin T. Onderdonk, Professor of Church Polity and Ecclesiastical History. On the reopening of the General Seminary, Drs. Turner and Wilson were rein- forced by the members of the New York School ad interim. The Sunday services established in the seminary library by Drs. Wilson and Turner were the first mission work undertaken in the region where the seminary found its now permanent home, and became the germ of St. Peter's Parish. In 1835, Rev. William R. Whittingham was nominated to the Chair of Ecclesiastical History, which he filled until his elevation to the Bishopric of Maryland in 1840. He was succeeded by Rev. John D. Ogilby, Professor of Ancient Languages in Rutger's College, New Jersey. During this period, Rev. Hugh Smith, rector of St. Peter's Church, gave instruction for several years in Pastoral Theology and Pulpit Eloquence, and the Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D., in Christian Evidences and Moral Science, both receiving for their valuable services the thanks of the trustees. In November, 1841, Rev. Ben- jamin I. Haight, rector of All Saints' Parish, became Pro- fessor of Pastoral Theology and Pulpit Eloquence, and for several years, Dr. Edward Hodges, the distinguished organist and musical director of Trinity Parish, our first legitimate master in the characteristic music of the Anglican Church, was employed by the generosity of Trinity Parish to instruct the students in sacred music. In 1850, Rev. Samuel R. Johnson, D.D., was elected successor of Dr. Wilson, as Pro- fessor of Systematic Divinity, and about the same time Rev. George H. Houghton, then and now rector of the Church of the Transfiguration, was appointed Instructor in Hebrew. On the 10th of September, Rev. Milo Mahan, D.D., was elected to the Chair of Ecclesiastical History, successor of Dr. Ogilby, who had recently died abroad. Dr. Turner, for forty years Professor of Biblical Learning and Interpretation, died December 21, 1861, and was succeeded by Rev. Dr.
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Seabury; and in 1862, Rev. Dr. Eigenbrodt, who had given gratuitous services in this department for some years, was elected Professor of Pastoral Theology and Pulpit Eloquence, while Dr. William Walton became Instructor in Hebrew at the retirement of Dr. Houghton. In June, 1865, Rev. George F. Seymour, A.M., was elected to the Chair of Ecclesiastical History, on the retirement of Dr. Mahan. In 1869, Rev. Fran- cis Vinton, D.D., was elected to the newly founded Charles and Elizabeth Ludlow Professorship of Ecclesiastical Law and Polity, which he filled for three years, until his decease. His successor was Rev. William J. Seabury, D.D., the pres- ent incumbent. After six years' gratuitous service as In- structor in Hebrew, Dr. Walton was elected to the Clement C. Moore Professorship of the Hebrew and Greek Languages. He accepted the office, but his death very shortly followed, and he was succeeded by Rev. Randall C. Hall, D.D. In an effort to provide for the newly-established Office of Dean, Rev. Theodore B. Lyman, D.D., was elected. He, however, declined, and Rev. John Murray Forbes, D.D., was elected, and retired in 1872. The office remained vacant until the Rev. Dr. Seymour, Professor of Ecclesiastical History, was elected permanent Dean, in conjunction with his professor- ship. After a vigorous and successful administration, which was brought to a close by his election to the Bishopric of Springfield, he was succeeded in the Deanship by Rev. Eugene Aug. Hoffman, D.D., and as Professor by Rev. Thomas L. Richey, D.D. In 1871, the present learned Pro- fessor of Systematic Divinity, Rev. Samuel Buel, D.D., was elected and entered upon his duties. In October, of 1872, the Professorship of Biblical Learning and the Interpretation of Scripture, which was vacated by the decease of Dr. Samuel Seabury, was filled by the election of Rev. Andrew Oliver, D.D., in 1873.
THE NEW YORK PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CITY MISSION SOCIETY. 1831.
The City Mission Society was founded September 29, 1831, when its constitution was unanimously adopted, and the fol-
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lowing officers and managers chosen according to its provi- sions : Rt. Rev. B. T. Onderdonk, D.D., President ; Rev. Thomas Lyell, D.D., First Vice-president ; Rev. J. McVickar, D.D., Second Vice-president ; Jacob Lorillard, Third Vice- president ; Edward W. Laight, Fourth Vice-president ; James M. Pendleton, M.D., Secretary; William R. Wadsworth, Assistant Secretary ; J. A. Perry, Treasurer. Managers were chosen of the clergy, as follows : Rev. Messrs. Henry Anthon, Lewis P. Bayard, William Berrian, D.D., Thomas Brientnall, John A. Clark, William Creighton, D.D., Manton Eastburn, Augustus Fitch, John M. Forbes, Benjamin I. Haight, Fran- cis L. Hawks, George L. Hinton, James Milnor, D.D., Will- iam Richmond, J. F. Schroeder, Antoine Verren, J. M. Wainwright, D.D., William R. Whittingham. Managers were chosen of the laity: four, each, from Trinity Church, St. Paul's Chapel, St. John's Chapel, St. George's Church, St. Luke's Church, Zion Church, St. Clement's Church, St. Peter's Church, St. Michael's Church, Grace Church, Christ Church, St. Thomas' Church, St. Stephen's Church, Church of the Ascen- sion, All Saints' Church, St. Mark's Church, L'Eglise du St. Esprit, St. James' Church, St. Mary's Church, St. Ann's Church, and St Andrew's Church.
In April, 1833, the Legislature of the State of New York passed an act incorporating Messrs. Gideon Lee, Ogden Hoff- man, and William Bard, and their associates and their succes- sors, a body politic, by the name of the "NEW YORK PROT- ESTANT EPISCOPAL CITY MISSION SOCIETY." (This act was amended March 16, 1866.) The objects of the said society are declared to be: "To provide, by building, purchase, hiring, or otherwise, at different points in the city of New York, churches in which the seats shall be free, and mission- houses for the poor and afflicted ; and also to provide suitable clergymen and other persons to act as missionaries and assis- tants in and about the said churches and mission houses." Act- ing under this charter, the City Mission Society led the way in the establishment of free churches for the middle and poorer classes of the city population, although it was not the very first in the field, for St. Mary's, Manhattanville, was the oldest
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free church, and the Church of the Nativity the next in order. So great, however, was the success of the society in gather- ing large congregations, and in sustaining during the period of its first active operations, the Churches of the Epiphany, the Holy Evangelist, and St. Matthew, that the attention of the large and richer parishes was arrested by it, and they were led to establish free chapels of their own. These have multi- plied, till, at the present day, there are about thirty places for church-worship, open every Sunday, free to all who choose to come; and nine of these are commodious and some even elegant buildings, in which large congregations are gathered. After the field at first marked out had been so successfully occupied, the City Mission Society was led, by the providence of God, to take up the public institutions of the city and ad- jacent islands, and minister to the thousands upon thousands found therein. Out of this work have grown many of the best benevolent institutions of the diocese, like the House of Mercy, St. Barnabas' House, Midnight Mission, New York Infant Asylum, Sheltering Arms, Shepherd's and Children's Fold, Bethlehem Chapel, Guild of St. Elizabeth, House of Rest for Consumptives, Fruit and Flower Mission, etc. In the early part of its work the society purchased the dwell- ing houses, Nos. 304 and 306 Mulberry Street, and fitted them, as far as possible, for use. Ere long, these were found to be too small and inconvenient, and, accordingly, the cor- ner-stone of a new building, 25 feet wide, 5 stories high, and 80 feet deep, was laid by the Rt. Rev. Horatio Potter. This sub- stantial edifice, now in use, with most of its furnishing, was the gift of Mr. J. J. Astor, and cost about $19,000. In the autumn of 1868 the society bought a piece of land, 50 by 100 feet, on the Ninth Avenue, between Eighty-second and Eighty-third Streets, and erected a temporary structure, called Bethlehem Chapel. It was opened on the Feast of the Epiphany, 1869, but in the following year it was removed, and a new chapel (the building now standing) took its place. On the 15th of December, 1870, the chapel was opened with an English service by the bishop of the diocese, eight other clergymen being present. Since then the services of the Church have
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been steadily carried forward under the auspices of the society. The principal fact of permanent historical interest worthy of being put on record, is found in this which follows : In 1871 the City Mission Society had become so embarrassed in its finances, that it was decided to cease all further opera- tions. Notice was sent to each missionary that his services would not be required after thirty days. All the real estate of the society had been mortgaged to the full extent, $22,000. The expenses exceeded the income by some $10,000 to $12,000, and there was a floating debt of $14,000. A new system, however, was adopted, and in ten years' time the society was rescued from its peril, and was practically free from debt. Truly, "man's extremity proved to be God's opportunity ! "
THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING RELIGION AND LEARNING IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 1839.
The Society for Promoting Religion and Learning was founded in the year of our I.ord, 1839. The act of incorpora- tion was dated April 4, 1839, and was amended May 6, 1844. The society has no structure or building devoted to its use. Its property consists of certain lots in the city of New York, which were granted to it by the corporation of Trinity Church by deed of endowment, dated November 20, 1839. It is made by canon the agent of the diocese for distributing all funds for theological education, and it consequently calls for and receives contributions from the parishes of the diocese. The objects of the society, as stated in the act of incorpora- tion, are "to facilitate to young men, designed for the holy ministry, the means of literary and theological education, to aid in the support of missionaries among the destitute poor, or in the remote settlements within this State, and otherwise to promote religion and learning within the same." Accord- ing to its last report to the Convention (1885), it had given aid to 34 candidates for orders, and it announced that for the current Conventional year it would need the sum of
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$5,700. Its funds have been liberally used in aiding pro- fessors and students of the General Theological Seminary.
THE FUND FOR AGED AND INFIRM CLERGYMEN OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE DIOCESE OF NEW YORK. 1841.
This fund was established in 1841 by a resolution of the Convention after a favorable report of a special committee, appointed upon the suggestion of the Rt. Rev. Bishop B. T. Onderdonk (See Journal of Convention, 1840, p. 52, and of 1841, p. 31.) Canon XVI., in relation to this fund, was adopted in 1842, and the trustees, consisting of three laymen, annually elected, with the bishop, were incorporated by special acts in 1853. Every congregation in the diocese is required to make annually a collection "to be applied in re- lief of clergymen disabled by age or disease." In accordance with the provisions of the canon, the trustees of the fund assist, by quarterly allowances, such aged and infirm clergy- men as are canonically connected with the Diocese of New York. The treasurer's report for 1885 shows that the total amount of invested fund at date is $93,591.88. The present number of beneficiaries of this fund is five. The Convention of the diocese had before it (1885) several important sugges- tions in regard to enlarging the scope and usefulness of this fund; but no definite action has yet been taken. (See Journal of Convention, 1885, pp. 100-104.)
PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY FOR SEAMEN IN THE CITY AND PORT OF NEW YORK. 1843.
This society was founded in 1843 by the "Young Men's Church Missionary Society," which had a floating chapel at the foot of Pike Street, East River. The present society was incorporated by an act of the Legislature of New York, under the above title, April 12, 1844. Only the names of the Rev. Smith Pyne, Messrs. George N. Titus, J. R. Van Rens- selaer, Pierre E. F. McDonald, and Augustus Proal were
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· mentioned in the act. To this society the "Young Men's Church Missionary Society " gave up its chapel and its mission work. The members of this society are clergymen residing in the city of New York, or the city of Brooklyn, canonically connected with the Diocese of New York or of Long Island ; persons having paid to the treasurer not less than thirty dol- lars at one time, and annual subscribers of not less than one dollar. The society elects annually a Board of Managers with necessary officers, the Bishop of New York being ex officio president, and the Bishop of Long Island ex officio vice-president.
The work is for the benefit of seamen; to protect them from their voracious enemies; to draw them from wild and reckless ways; to attract them to becoming and civilized habits; to raise them, as a class, to respectability ; and to bring them, as individuals, under the influence of the Gospel. For this purpose the managers attend the services and take friendly interest in the seamen. There are three stations in New York and one in Brooklyn, each with its missionary. Services on Sundays and the chief Holy Days are held in the chapels, and there are prayers and lectures on certain week-day even- ings in the mission houses. Reading-rooms also are provided, to which thousands of seamen, in the course of the year, resort ; and the society's Sunday-schools are well attended by the children. Many baptisms and confirmations of sailors, of members of their families, and of persons living in the vicinity are administered. Bibles, Testaments, Prayer Books, and other books in various languages are presented to seamen and boatmen.
In 1846 the society had two floating chapels-one on the East River, and one on the Hudson River. These becoming decayed and unsafe were disposed of, and a very pretty one built since now lies at the foot of Pike Street, on the east side of the city. In 1852 the society had its attention called to the vacant field on the water front between Wall Street and the Battery, where large numbers of canal boats and sailing vessels filled the slips and were moored at the piers. On in- vestigation it was decided to appoint a " missionary at large,"
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who should labor more especially in that locality. As it was thought desirable to hold " open-air services," Coenties Slip was settled upon as the center of operations. A " Service for the Docks" was prepared, taken wholly from the Prayer Book, with selections of appropriate hymns. This was printed in tract form, so that it could be distributed for use among the congregation ; and the compilation met the approval of Bishop Wainwright. Large numbers of this service have been scat- tered in different directions, and it has exerted a most bene- ficial influence along the line of the Erie Canal and in the vicinity of Coenties Slip, in promoting quiet, order, and decency of behavior on the Lord's Day.
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