The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II, Part 91

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345

USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II > Part 91

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In November, 1846, at the age of twenty-five years, he came to Brooklyn, and was installed as Pastor of the Church of the Pilgrims, the pioneer church of that denomination in this city. And in this congregation his whole great life-work has been accomplished. Though often urged to accept other important charges, he has preferred to remain in this city, in the steady performance of his duties towards the people of his early choice. His congregation, as is well known, has for many years been numerous, wealthy, strongly attached to its Pastor, and accustomed to devise liberal things. Com- prising a membership of marked intellectual ability, high so- cial influence and financial strength, it has-both by its in- na'e impulses, and by the direction which its Pastor has given it-developed the characteristic of systematic benevolence to a degree not often attained by congregations. Its influence upon the growth of Congregationalism, of Missions, of Free-

dom, and of every good word and work, has ever been de- cided and unquestioned.

In this, the Church of the Pilgrims but reflects the wide sympathies, the catholicity of spirit and the judicious labors of its Pastor. For the past thirty-eight years he has repre- sented a broad and unsectarian Christianity, and has been to many of the oldest families on the Heights the Pastor, the moral teacher and example of undeviating integrity, no man's enemy, but never swerving from the right line of duty to be any man's friend. Many, baptised by him in infancy, have been married by him in their days of love and gladness, and commended by him to God's mercy in the hour of death. He has stood by the graves of those whose cradles were blessed by his ministry. Gray-headed men and women be- hold him still in the full strength of his manhood, who wel- comed him when a mere stripling to his now famous pulpit. One can hardly conceive of a church with such a name hav- ing any but a New England Pastor ; and Dr. Storrs is still a New England man to the backbone; although his thoughts, like other men's, have been "widened with the process of the suns." He believes to this day in the ideal of the Puri- tans, a Commonwealth based on Christianity, not less than he believes in the distinctive principle of Congregationalism, that "any body of Christians, associated together, and statedly meeting for the worship of God and the administra- tion of Christian ordinances, constitutes a Christian church, is to be regarded as such, and is possessed of all the powers and privileges incident thereunto." Loving New England as the home of his fathers and the scene of his early life, while others traverse the seas and bring back the gods of other lands into the American Pantheon, Dr. Storrs spends his summer holidays on the Island, or in New Eng- land.

The record of the thirty-eight years, during which Dr. Storrs has filled the pulpit of this church, comprises the his- tory of Brooklyn; the growth of its churches, libraries, schools and hospitals; the transformation of nearly a whole county into a populous city; the connecting of this city with the great metropolis across the river, by a magnificent bridge; the passing away of an old era, and the grafting in of new life, through emigration from all lands; the ebb and flow of old and new enterprises; the inception and success- ful foundation of literary, artistic, scientific and religious centres-which all go to make up a great city. No man has more thoroughly inwoven his life with that of the commu- nity in which he dwells than Dr. Storrs; and the rounded periods of his golden eloquence have added the crowning grace to most of the events of civic importance which have signalized Brooklyn's growth.

He has been a Director of the Long Island Historical Society from its organization, and the Chairman of its Execu- tive Committee until his going to Europe in 1871. Upon his return, in 1873, he was elected its President, which office he still retains. He is also a Trustee of the Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital.

His oratorical and public efforts, in spoken as well as writ- ten productions, are always remarkable. His words are felicitously chosen; his imagery grand in conception and without a flaw; his diction stately and polished, yet infused

Rich and I Por.

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ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATIONS.

with energy and warmth. For a peculiar quality of sus- tained eloquence, which never for an instant forgets the dignity of his theme, he surpasses-in the opinion of the best judges-any living orator. Wherever the English lan- guage is spoken, his speeches are treasured as pearls of price, and his solid attainments in literature, as well as his broad sympathy with all that is best in the domains of Re- ligion, Art, Science and Thought, is recognized.

Dr. Storrs' contributions to literature-in the form of ser- mons, orations, lectures, etc., have been numerous and valua- ble ; though not, as yet, collected in permanent form .*

That his sympathies are not confined to the circle of his own denomination, nor even of Protestantism, is well at- tested by the fact that so great a Catholic theologian as Car- dinal Newman wrote to him a few years since, in connection with an address on Roman Catholicism, delivered before the Evangelical Alliance in New York, by Dr. Storrs, thanking him for his kindly spirit, his wish to be impartial, and to do generous justice to Catholics; and asking if he could wonder that so many, like himself, had taken refuge in Catholicism when he looked at the endless discords of Protestantism. No higher compliment could be paid to one of the foremost of Protestant controversialists, by the greatest living defender of Roman Catholicism, than such acknowledgment of his learning, candor and magnanimity.

No greater evidence of the appreciation and affection in which he is held by his people, and the community in which he dwells, could be found, than in the substantial testimonial presented to Dr. Storrs, on November 19, 1881, on the com- pletion of the thirty-fifth year of his pastorate. This was in the form of a certificate of deposit for $35,000 (being $1,000 for each successive year of his ministry among them), pre- sented to him by the members, and former members, of his flock. This magnificent gift was induced by no necessity in the circumstances of the revered recipient (who has always enjoyed an ample salary); but by a strong sense, on their part, of the obligations under which his parishioners felt to him, for his life-long services to them.

In the few pertinent remarks with which Dr. Storrs re- ceived this touching expression of love, he said:

"A man stands pretty much on his own feet in this world, and. you and I understand each other; we have always done that remarkably well, and I believe we do now. I un- derstand perfectly that you intend me to receive this as a means of utter quietness of mind, in time to come, concern- ing worldly affairs, as a fresh inspiration to the work which I have tried to do before, and which I shall try to do better and better as long as I live among you ; and in that spirit and with that feeling I accept it, certainly with heartfelt

gladness and gratitude. I will treasure it; I will try to use it aright; I will try to leave it to those who come after me, that they may also remember the church to which I have ministered so long. I am reminded as I stand in these rooms, which have sacred and tender memories connected with them, and as I look into the faces of some here present, faces which I have seen wet with tears and clouded with agony, that there is an impulse here from those whom we do not see but who are still tenderly beloved; I feel that there is a touch of celestial hands upon this gift. It comes to me con- secrated by most holy and tender memories of my ministry among you in the thirty-five years that have passed. I shall speak of it with you, by and by; I shall speak of it with you again when we reach that state where all earthly possessions have ceased to be of interest to us, but where the affections that we have cherished toward each other on earth shall be consummated and made immortal. It comes to me with surprise, when I think of it, that, with the single exception of a clergyman of the Episcopal church in the Eastern Dis- trict, I am the oldest settled pastor in Brooklyn to-day. And I think, with the single exception of Dr. Bellows in New York, there is none there whose pastoral term equals my own. I pray that the blessing of God may rest upon these clerical brethren present, upon the churches to which they minister, upon all the churches of our land, and upon the city of our common regard, which sweeps out so widely from year to year that it has grown in my ministry from 65,000 to 600,000 inhabitants; which never had so bright a future opening before it as it has, I think, at this very hour. I pray that God's blessing may abide upon it. I cannot hon- estly say that I wish I was again 25 years old, for that would be to blot out an immense amount of happiness, at home and in public, and of joyful work and service, and to cut me off from many of the most intimate and tenderest attach- ments of my life; but I can honestly say that if I were 25 years old again, and an opportunity were given me, there is no city in the country to which I would go so soon as to Brooklyn, and there is no church in the country to which I would go so soon as to the Church of the Pilgrims. I pray that God's blessing may rest upon it, and upon the city, and upon you all, and upon all associated with us."

As a minister of Christ, as a citizen, and as a lover of his fellow-men, it may be truly said that Dr. Storrs, in his life- service in Brooklyn, has followed the injunction contained in the verse selected by him as the text (I Corinthians, iv., 2) of his first sermon to the church over which he still presides: "Moreover, it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful."

* Amoog those which have been published, we may especially men- tion :- A Sermon, delivered before his own congregation, December, 1850, during the Fugitive Slave Law agitation, on The Obligation of Manto Obey the Civil Law, its Ground and Extent; an Address, at the Amherst College Commencement, 1852, on The True Success of Human Life; an Oration at the Semi-Centennial of Monson Academy, 1854, on The Relations of Commerce to Literature; a Discourse before the So- ciety for Promoting Collegiate Education, Providence, R. I., 1855, on Colleges as a Power in Civilization; Character in the Preacher, Theol. Seminary, Andover, 1856; an Oration on The Puritan Scheme of National Growth, before the N. Y. New Eng. Soc., 1857; Sermon, The Law of Growth in the Kingdom of God, Young Men's Chr. Assoc., 1858; "Things Which are Not"-the Instruments of Advancing God's Kingdom, before the Am. Bd. Com. Foreign Miss., 1861; The Preaching of Christ in Cities, before the Y. M. Chris, Assoc., 1864; Orations in Commemora- tion of President Lincoln, Brooklyn, June 1, 1865, and at the unveiling of the Lincoln Statue in Prospect Park, 1869; Diecourse, The Aim of Christianity, for those who Accept it, Princeton Theol. Sem, 1867; Ser- mon before the Ancient and Hon. Artillery Co. of Boston, 1868; Dis- course, Union Theol. Sem., 1869, The Incarnation, and the System which Stands upon it; Address before the Evangelical Alliance, New York,

1873, on The Attractions of Romanism for Educated Protestants; Oration before the New York Historical Society. 1875, The Early American Spirit, and the Genesis of it; Oration, July 4, 1876, in New York city, The Declaration of Independence, and the Effect of it; Oration be- fore the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Harvard College, 1880, The Recogni- tion of the Supernatural in Letters and Life; John Wickliffe, and the First English Bible, New York Academy of Music, 1880. Nor must we overlook his brilliant address at the opening of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, May, 1883; or his addresses before the Long Island Hist. Society, on Libraries in Europe (without notes), and upon the Life and Services of Gen. O. M. Mitchell, neither of which have been published.

Of lectures, Dr. Storrs has delivered several courses; in 1855, one of six, on the Graham Foundation, on The Constitution of the Human Soul; two on Russia and France, and their Long Ducl, in 1878, delivered in Brooklyn, New York and Boston; one, of eight lectures, before Princeton Theol. Sem., in 1879, on St. Bernard, His Times and His Work (to be published); and ten lectures on the Divine Origin of Chris- tianity, Indicated by its Historical Effects, before the Union Theoi. Sem., New York, and the Lowell Institute, Boston, 1880 (now in press). Dr. Storrs received the degree of D. D. from Union College in 1853; from Harvard College in 1859; and that of LL. D. from Princeton in 1874.

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

The Free Congregational Church was constituted June 16, 1845, by a vote of the Free Presbyterian Church, worship- ing on the corner of Tillary and Lawrence streets, by which they resolved to change their platform. In the month of September they gave a call to the Rev. Isaac N. Sprague, of Hartford, Conn., to become their Pastor, which he accepted. This church merged in the organization from which origin- ated the State Street Congregational Church.

Plymouth Church .- The ground upon which Plymouth Church stands was purchased in 1823, for the erection of an edifice for the use of the First Presbyterian Church. At that time Brooklyn Heights were cultivated fields, and the church thus built was remote from the settled portion of Brooklyn, the population of which was less than 10,000. A lecture-room, including a Sabbath-school room and study, was attached to the rear of the church, fronting Orange street, in 1831.

of the society. June 14, 1847, the church unanimously elected Henry Ward Beecher as Pastor ;. he commenced his pastorate on Sunday, Oct. 10, 1847, and on Thursday, Nov. 11, was publicly installed.

The church was so damaged by fire, Jan. 13, 1849, that it was determined to rebuild, which was done; and the new edifice was first occupied in January, 1850.

It is noteworthy that when the congregation were deprived by fire of their place of worship, the church buildings of nearly all the neighboring societies were generously offered, and these offers were gratefully accepted for a period of two months. A lot on Pierrepont street was offered for the purpose, by Lewis Tappan, Esq., and on this a temporary house of worship was erected in the short space of thirty days. llere the congregation worshiped till the completion of their new edifice.

PLYMOUTH CHURCH 18,43

PLYMOUTH CHURCH.

In 1846, John T. Howard, then a member of the Church of the Pilgrims, obtained the refusal of the premises, which were for sale, at the price of $20,000, and the contract was completed on June 11, 1846. The purchase money ($9,500, the rest being on mortgage) was furnished by Henry C. Bowen, Seth B. Hunt, John T. Howard, and David Hale, and paid on Sept. 9, 1846. The first meeting of those interested in the establishment of this church, was held at the house of Henry C. Bowen, May 9, 1857, and was attended by David Hale, of New York, Jira Payne, John T. Howard, Charles Rowland, David Griffin, and Henry C. Bowen, of Brooklyn. On Sunday morning, May 16, 1847, divine service was com- menced by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, then Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis.

On Friday evening, June 11, 1847, twenty-one persons united in the formation of the new church. On Sunday evening, June 13, 1847, the church was publicly organized, and The Plymouth Church was adopted as the corporate name

The church building is 105 feet long, 80 feet broad, and 43 feet from floor to ceiling; seating in the pews and choir gallery about 2,100 persons; while, with the seats by the walls and in the aisles, it accommodates about 2,800. There has never been the least cause for regret that the building was made so large.

Until 1857, visitors were provided with ordinary chairs or stools in the aisles. But, in that year, the present fixed aisle seats, attached to the pews, were invented and introduced into the church.

The lecture-room, built at the same time, was 80 by 50 feet on the outside; with a school-room above it, 64 by 24 feet, and parlors of the same size for the social circle. In 1859, these parlors were added to the school-room ; but, even then, the accommodations were so deficient that, in 1862, an en- tirely new lecture-room and school-room were erected. A new organ was purchased for the church in 1866, at an ex- pense of $22,000. Rev. Mr. Beecher has continued in the pastorate until the present time.

ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATIONS.

1019

REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER.

Rev. HENRY WARD BEECHER .- Although Brooklyn ranks but third among the cities of the Union in point of population, for many years the "City of Churches " has stood indisputably first in respect to pulpit talent. The fame of her great preachers has spread over the civilized world. Among her galaxy of brilliant names, one of the first, brightest and farthest-shining is that of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. For forty years, Sunday after Sunday, year after year, eager thousands have crowded the streets leading to the plain brick edi- fice, Plymouth Church. Within, arose and stood upon the platform the imposing form of a man, tall and erect, inclining to be stout; with hair pushed plainly back, once dark brown, now silvery-white; a full, smooth face that is gentle and peaceful in repose, but mobile, varying with every emotion; a mild blue eye that will never grow old, that shines with love, flashes with scorn, dances with merriment or dilates with feeling, even as the mountain lake mirrors the sunshine, the cloud or the storm. Such the figure of Henry Ward Beecher, familiar to thousands; such the face, now mellowed by the softening influences of time, from which the man's soul speaks out his love of humanity, of justice and of God.

Litchfield, Conn., the ancestral home of the Beechers, was the place of his birth, which occurred June 24th, 1813. He was the third son of Rev. Lyman Beecher, who occupied the pulpit of the Congregational Church there, and was afterwards president of Lane Theologi- cal Seminary, near Cincinnati, a famous man in his time.

The child of parents eminent for godliness, brought up in a family who were the creatures of an atmosphere as unworldly, as religious as not often comes into the world. The fact of his being a minister was settled from his birth, and under this impression of destiny he grew up. Accordingly, he was sent to Amherst College, graduating in 1834, and then studied theology under his father, in Lane Theological Seminary.

A sensitive, blundering, imaginative, good-natured, mischievous, unstudious boy, he represents himself to have been; but his sight must have been quick for nature, whether in the fields and woods, or after birds and ani- mals, or among his fellows. His school and college days did not seem to be notable for anything, save that at college he paid especial attention to the arts of elo- cution. That Mr. Beecher is an easy master of these arts is patent to every one who has heard him speak; though it may be said, in passing, that, favorite as he is on lecture platforms all over the land, he is never heard at his best out of Plymouth Church, his own pulpit-platform; and the lofty themes which he there

treats, inspire him and fill him with a power over his three thousand auditors that he gets and gives nowhere else.

His first charge was a little Presbyterian church at Lawrenceburgh, Ind., where he eked out the scant salary by tilling a farm, remaining from 1837 to 1839. In the latter year, he settled in Indianapolis. There was a more suitable field for the abilities which had already manifested themselves in the young minister, so that he came to be heard of in other States. Mean- while he had tried his hand at editing, first a journal in Cincinnati, in 1837, and a few years later, an agricul- tural publication in Indianapolis; his articles in the latter were afterwards published as "Fruit, Flowers and Farming."

In 1847 he was in New York, speaking at meetings in behalf of the American Home Missionary Society, and was invited to preach, May 17th, for the newly or- ganized Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, which he did, both morning and evening. At the close of the services, the church felt that their future Pastor had been thus providentially sent them, and unanimously elected him to that office June 14th, 1847. He accepted, and com- menced his pastorate Sunday, October 10th, 1847. As soon as he came to Brooklyn, he began to write for the Independent, and was its editor from 1861 to 1863. His signature-a star-made the title for a volume called the "Star Papers." From 1870 to 1880, he was the editor of the Christian Union. For twenty-five years his sermons have been printed in the Plymouth Pulpit. He is the author of "Lectures to Young Men," "Life Thoughts," " Yale Lectures on Preach- ing," "Industry and Idleness," "Sermons on Liberty and War," "Eyes and Ears," " Norwood," "Plymouth Hymns and Tunes," and many fugitive pieces.

Mr. Beecher is a rapid but not easy writer. He com- plains that he feels the bondage of the pen, and never can evolve his thoughts so clearly or so well on paper as he can when " thinking on his legs." But he does a vast deal of writing for all that, and there are few men who have so large an amount of current printed matter constantly setting forth the labors of their minds. He preaches every Sunday two sermons, which, not written out, but thought out in his study, come fresh and alive from his lips, and are phonographically reported for publication, week by week, in Plymouth Pulpit. This would be a tremendous test of the fruitfulness of any man's mind in extempore talk, and yet the test is tri- umphantly borne-witness the thousands who hear him, and the many other thousands who read him throughout America, England, and the islands of the sea. But he also has his Friday night prayer-meeting

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

to lead, at which his familiar "lecture-room talks " on themes of Christian experience bring immediate help to many; and these again are taken down as they issue from his mouth.

Such abundance can not come from any mind or any genius, however great, unless it be one stored with great wealth of material from without. This is Mr. Beecher's case, however; for in addition to his constant and careful study of mankind and the affairs of the world, he is an omnivorous reader of good books, and has an ever-growing library of the best literature in every possible direction. He is a great lover of art, and has, besides books and histories in that department, a choice collection of paintings and engravings. His love of flowers and out-door nature finds food on his little model farm at Peekskill, N. Y. And indeed, whatever is the realm from which he draws an illustra- tion, it will generally be found that he knows what he is talking about, and has learned it by observation or study. He is not a superficial talker or thinker; he goes to the roots of things.

His early labors and an experience of severe poverty, privation, and double work of farming and preaching during ten years in the West, developed in him very fully the natural courage, toughness of backbone (both physical and moral), independence of opinion and free- dom of utterance that have characterised his more emi- nent years. Since the day when, in 1847, he came to be Pastor of the newly-formed "Plymouth Church " in Brooklyn, N. Y., he has been a living, growing power in the land. The pulpit, the press, the lecture- platform, the political arena, the social gatherings of public bodies, the focal points of all great developments of public sympathy or discussion or action, have been made not only brilliant with his genius, but hot with the ardor of his earnestness.

The foundation principle of Mr. Beecher's public ca- reer seems to be the worth of man, as a beloved child of God; he believes that this earth, with all its human in- stitutions, its civilizations, its states, its ecclesiastical organizations and their forms of ordinances, were made and developed by God for man, to serve as man's edu- cators, as instruments of man's instruction, and eleva- tion-not necessarily that man may be " happy " here, but that he may be fitted to live and work for God after he had left this little school-house, which, like the lesser school-house of the boy, seems the all-important thing just now.

Seeking always the best means of inspiring individ- ual men to train themselves toward the perfect man- hood set forth in the example of Jesus Christ, Mr. Beecher is peculiar among preachers for his eager fol- lowing up of the scientific developments of the day; promptly accepting such portions or principles of science as seem to him fairly established by investiga- tors, and making good use of them in his philosophy and teaching. He finds no danger in the general line

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The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II, Part 91

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co Number of Pages: 1345

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345