USA > New York > The diocese of Western New York : a history and recollections > Part 11
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tions, altogether equalling the amount, appeared soon after; but the source of them was never revealed till many years after, when the Bishop told it in his last days to his son. (Brand, I. 178.)
* Journ. N. Y. 1835, p. 70. Frequent allusions to this "plan " appear in subsequent parochial and missionary reports.
t Journ. N. Y. 1835, p. 99. I attended these services (in a little hamlet about four miles from Canandaigua) occasionally as a child. But the congrega-
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burne (the Rev. Liberty A. Barrows) has a bell and rectory (the latter not yet paid for),and Norwich, under the same missionary, has finished a church which " for neatness and convenience is surpassed by few." The same is told of Bath by Mr. Bostwick, of Danby by Mr. (Lucius) Carter, of Christ Church, Lockport, by the Rev. Orange Clark, and of Constableville by the Rev. Edmund Embury. A brick church is "under contract " at Wethersfield Springs ; a " comfortable parsonage " is nearly finished at Avon, and a church at Lewiston; the "infant congregation " of Zion Church, Fulton, has been organized ; at Mount Morris a church is building ; at James- town a parish is organized (but was not really in active existence till eighteen years later); Geneseo is free from its debt ; the church at Guilford is ready for consecration ; that at Fredonia (under the Rev. Lucius Smith) is finished and paid for at a cost of $4,000 ; Sodus, (the Rev. Erastus Spalding) has its church paid for, while "Vienna " (Phelps) under the same Missionary, has " nothing peculiarly dis- couraging except the want of a supply of active and pious individuals of both sexes, who would engage heart and hand with the Rector." At Pierrepont Manor (a new station of which we shall hear later) and Greene, handsome and well planned churches are ready for conse- cration. This mere outline of externals in missionary work shows at least that the " Western District " was in some sort preparing to meet its new responsibilities .*
tion, parish and church building all passed away many years ago. The latter was sold, and the proceeds, now $600, form the "Centrefield Fund " belonging to the Diocese, but thus far, I believe, unused.
* Journ. N. Y. 1835, pp. 83-107.
CHAPTER XIX
EPISCOPAL WORK AND DIOCESAN GROWTH, 1836-7
ISHOP Onderdonk's Address of 1836 records another of those visitations of Western New York which may well be considered extraordinary in the amount of actual labour and fatigue involved, bearing in mind that in 1836 there was hardly a mile of railway communication in all this region .* There were in fact two visitations, the first from May 15 to June II, chiefly in the central counties, i. e., those on the east of the old diocese of W. New York, and the second from August 13 to Oct. 2, beginning at Brownville and Watertown, Jefferson county, extending to Buffalo and Lewiston, and ending at Harpersville, in the south- east corner. In both together he travelled nearly three thousand miles through twenty-six counties (every county in the old W. N. Y. except Allegany and Wayne), officiated and preached 129 times in 77 parishes, consecrated 13 churches (four in four successive days), ordained 5 clergymen, instituted 2, and confirmed 668 persons. I add one or two notes of interest from his journal.
" June I, consecrated Christ Church, Fayetteville [Guilford, Chenango Co.], and administered the Communion, and in the after- noon confirmed 24. These were peculiarly interesting services to me. I first heard of the zealous efforts of a small body of Episcopalians in this place about five or six years ago. Through means placed at my disposal by the Society for the Promotion of Religion and Learning, I was enabled to send them a small collection of books illustrative of the distinctive principles of the Church. These, with the occasional
* The "Mohawk and Hudson " between Albany and Schenectady, (now merged in the N. Y. Central,) opened in 1831, is the oldest railway under present conditions built in the State : but four years earlier a single-rail road was built in Canandaigua (half a mile long to a steamboat pier on the lake), from a plan invented by my father (whose drawings are in my possession), and successfully operated for some months. I have printed elsewhere a description of this "early experiment in railroads." The Cayuga and Susquehanna, between Ithaca and Owego (now leased by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western) was opened in 1834, using inclined planes and horse-power (stationary ) at Ithaca. But it used only horse-power till 1842, when it was sold under lien to the State and reconstructed.
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services of neighbouring missionaries) were the means, by God's bless- ing, of keeping the little flock together, and gradually adding to their number, until they could be favoured with more frequent clerical ministrations ; and the result of the whole has been the erection and consecration of their beautiful church, and an increasing and well ordered parish, characterized by enlightened attachment to the Church, and blessed, in a good degree, with the renewing and sanctifying influences of the grace of God."
The Bishop says that at least ten thousand dollars a year should be given for Diocesan Missions, Education, and Bible and Prayer Book Distribution, in addition to what has been done already.
" The little stipend of $125 to each Missionary should certainly be increased, as well as the number of missionaries .* There is a great call for the services of our Church in all parts of the State ; large districts where there are no places of worship of any description ; and even the religious meetings, so called, in school houses, are too often of a description hardly calculated to produce either spiritual or moral benefit. The wildness and disorder which prevail in many sects around us, and the heresy and infidelity to which their procedures are giving rise, are alarming many of their more judicious and seri- ously-minded members, and giving them bitter experience of the necessity of some other religious system of principles and practice ; and this, in almost all instances in which the Church is brought to their notice, they find there. .
. There are in the State three counties in which we have no church ; seven in which we have but one each ; fifteen, but two, and five, but three ; and I have little hesitation in believing that a proper system of missionary operations would give us a church in almost if not quite every town in the State. Let me not be supposed to favour any system of ' proselytism,' or unchristian attacks or encroachments on other denominations ; or any trimming down of the principles, prescriptions, or usages of the Church, to meet the prejudices or gratify the humours of others. These would be unworthy of the sanctity and dignity of the Church. The desire to enlarge her borders ought not to be a sectarian feeling. It should not be excited by a wish to increase her numbers, but to bene- fit others. We would receive them for their good, not seek them for our aggrandizement. And long, uniform, and daily strengthening experience teaches that if we would truly promote that good, we must receive them into the Church as it is, not adapt the Church to views, feelings and opinions formed without its borders. The distinctive principles of the Church should be laid open in all their fulness, and
* It was not increased for more than thirty years after this.
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with an unreserved recognition of all their legitimate consequences."*
But I must refer the reader to the Journal itself for the remainder of this admirable missionary counsel.
Of Pierrepont Manor, a new parish in Jefferson county, he says that " a devout member of our Church " t had " determined to build a house for the Lord," which was consecrated Aug. 16, and was " one of the neatest and most commodious churches in the Diocese." It had been the means of assembling a congregation which had been duly organized, and to the corporation thus formed, the church and its site were given by the generous owner previous to the conse- cration.#
At his visitation of S. Clement's, Wethersfield Springs, (Sept. 5,) he found that
" The corner-stone of the church was laid but about six weeks before. By zealous industry, however, the brick walls had been raised, and the rafters placed upon them. The day proving favourable, it was determined to prepare for worship on a temporary floor, that the congregation might have the satisfaction of meeting within their own walls. We were all willing to hope that the bright beams of the sun through the unglazed windows and uncovered roof were symbols of the brighter and better emanations of the Sun of Righteousness."
Of S. John's Church, Medina, now completed and consecrated, §
" This is probably one of the chastest and best proportioned Gothic churches in the Diocese. The chancel consists of a platform running nearly across the church, and raised three or four steps. The Communion Table is against the centre of the wall in the rear of the platform ; and in front of the platform, on the extremity at the right of the altar, is the reading desk, and on the left, the pulpit ; the three standing on the same level, and the desk and pulpit exactly alike. The effect of this is the very proper one of presenting the altar as the chief place in the church, and the desk and pulpit as subsidiary to it-a plan every way preferable to the so common one of making the altar a mere appendage to the desk.
* Journ. N. Y. 1836, p. 28. I have necessarily condensed the Bishop's remarks somewhat, but a reference will show, I think, that I have given his meaning fairly.
t The late Hon. William C. Pierrepont, so well known in later years to all W. N. Y. Churchmen.
# And for many years after this it was constantly kept in most perfect order by the devout care of Mr. Pierrepont and his family.
§ And still substantially unchanged.
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"Another peculiarity in the construction of the church in Me- dina, in which, I believe, it and Geddes stand alone in our Diocese, is the surmounting of its spire with a cross. The conceding of the epithet Catholic to the Church of Rome, as in any peculiar way ap- propriate to it, and regarding the sign of the Cross as symbolizing its distinctive principles, I cannot but consider as serious errors, incon- sistent with sound Protestantism. It is generally granted by Chris- tians, in accordance with the teachings of nature, and the sanction of Holy Writ, that it is meet and right to have, in the construction of churches, a due regard to becoming ornament. Emblematic repre- sentations are frequently introduced into them. Why should one so full of deeply interesting meaning, and the very name of which is made in Holy Writ to represent the essence of the Christian's faith, and all that is well founded, holy, and true in the Christian's hopes, be discarded ? Why should it be given over to degrading association with heresy, corruption and idolatry ? Let it not be. Let the Cross stand on every temple devoted to the true Christian worship of the CRUCIFIED, as indicative of this its sacred purpose, and as symbolizing the holy faith in which that worship is conducted."*
I must give also his just tribute to FATHER NASH, as belonging to the history of Western New York :
" The venerable Daniel Nash, for nearly forty years a faithful Missionary in the counties of Otsego and Chenango, was, about four months since, taken to his rest. ; He received Deacon's Orders from the first Bishop of this Diocese, and went immediately to the exten- sive field of labour in which, with a perseverance and fidelity wherein he set to his younger brethren a most worthy example, he continued to the last. The face of the country, the state of society, the con- gregations which he served, all underwent great changes; but still the good man was there, faithful to his post, true to his obligations, and eminently useful in his labours. The young loved him, the mature confided in him, the aged sought in his counsel and example right guidance in the short remainder of their pilgrimage. Parish after parish was built up on foundations laid by him. Younger brethren came in to relieve him of their more immediate charge ; but still the
* Journ. N. Y. 1836, p. 40.
t He died at Cooperstown, June 4, 1836 ; was ord. Deacon Feb. 8, 1796. Com- pare the delightful sketch of his early ministrations at Cooperstown in Cooper's " Pioneers," in which there is very little of the license of fiction in the character of the Rev. Mr. Grant. Miss Susan Cooper's equally delightful book, " Rural Hours," (p. 294,) has an interesting note on him and his burial-place, in the churchyard of Christ Church, and, unknowingly on the part of those who laid him there, in the very spot which he had many years before desired should be his last resting place.
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good old man was there, labouring to the last among them ; and long after physical debility forbade very frequent public ministrations, he would go from house to house, gathering the inmates around the do- mestic altar ; giving great heed to that important branch of pastoral duty which he always loved, and in which he was eminently success- ful, catechizing the children ; and having some word of warning, en- couragement, reproof, consolation, or edification, for each, as each had need. It was so ordered that I was soon after his decease in the district of country which had so long been the scene of his faithful labours ; and truly gratified was I to witness that best of testimonies to the virtues of the man, the Christian, and the Pastor, which was found in the full hearts and tender and reverential expressions of the multitudes who had been bereft of 'good old Father Nash.' "*
While the Missionary and Parochial Reports of this year present the same evidences of work and growth everywhere as in previous years, the chief points of interest in them have been noted in the extracts from the Bishop's Address.
The Committee of the Convention to whom was referred the action of the General Convention of 1835, and the remarks of the Bishop on the Division of the Diocese, was continued for another year. The subject seems to have been laid over by general consent, and I do not find in the Church papers of this year the slightest allusion to it. An important step towards the erection of the new Diocese was however taken by the Vestry of Trinity Church by the addition of $30,000 to the Episcopate fund, with the proviso that on the division of the Diocese, this $30,000, together with one-half of the remaining portion of the fund, should belong to the Diocese con- taining the city of New York. As the fund was now increased by this addition to $ 100,000, this action was really a provision of $35,000 as the Episcopate Fund of the new Diocese.
One more event of this year deserving notice is the entrance of the Rev. BENJAMIN HALE, D.D., on the office of President of the College at Geneva ; an appointment which was the slow but sure beginning of a new career of usefulness and prosperity to the College.
I find also towards the end of this year the first proposal of a free church (in Utica), free not only from pew rents but even from the
* Journ. N. Y. 1836, p. 46.
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
pew doors which for years after this were an almost universal feature of our churches .*
The Bishop made a somewhat shorter visitation than usual in August and September, 1837, in twenty-one counties, consecrating three churches, and confirming 268. The most interesting feature of this visitation is the organization of a second parish, Trinity Church, in Buffalo, t which, the Bishop says, " had its origin in a movement on the part of the Rector and Vestry of S. Paul's. It appeared to them that more than one church was needed for the advancement of the interests of Primitive Christianity in their flourishing and rapidly growing city. They therefore proposed the formation of a new parish. The result was the organizing of Trinity Church, which is in an eminently flourishing condition, while S. Paul's continues also to prosper well. The most delightful harmony subsists between the two parishes, the younger being encouraged and strengthened in its good work by the Rector and members of the elder."#
The new parish began its services early in 1837, occupying after the first few weeks a disused theatre on the corner of S. Division and Washington Sts., with the Rev. Cicero Stephens Hawks, after- ward Bishop of Missouri, as its first Rector-one of the most brill- iant preachers and energetic pastors who ever came to Buffalo. It very soon became a strong parish, and its subsequent history is inter- woven with all the work of the Church in Buffalo. §
It will be remembered (though by few now from personal knowl- edge) that 1837 was the year of the first great financial " crisis " in- volving almost the whole country in its disasters,-the result of a wild fever of speculation of the preceding year in the new lands opened to settlement in the West. Its full effects were not felt indeed till two or
* In some little country churches (e. g. Trinity Church, Fayetteville, Onondaga Co.,) the doors may have been left off as a matter of economy. But I think that the seats in that church were always free.
t Properly the third within the present city limits ; but Grace Church, organized in 1824, was at this time in the adjoining village of Black Rock.
# Journ. N. Y. 1837, p. 44.
§ I need hardly say that it has been fully and well told in Mrs. Mixer's admirable little " History of Trinity Church," and the earlier part of it is pleasantly sketched also by Mr. Welch in his " Recollections of Buffalo," p. 232. The Parish was organized Oct. 12, 1836; Mr. Hawks began his services May 14, {Whitsun Day) 1837. (Journ. N. Y. 1837, p. 66.)
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FINANCIAL CRISIS OF 1837
three years later ; in Western New York they were just now depleting this comparatively new country by the enormous emigration to a still newer one, " anywhere, anywhere," out of the present home. It is only a wonder that the growth of the Church in this part of the State was not for the time entirely at a stand-still. And there can be no doubt that this state of things increased greatly the fears of many Churchmen as to the possibility of sustaining a new Diocese, and the consequent acrimony of the contest waged over this movement during all the first part of the year 1838.
CHAPTER XX
THE NEW DIOCESE ORGANIZED, 1838
T the Annual Convention of 1837 (Oct. 5) in New York, the Committee of 1835 reported by their chair- man, Dr. Milnor, two resolutions :
I. "That this Convention approve of the proposed amendments to the Constitution on the subject of the Division of Dioceses.
2. " That it is expedient that this Diocese be divided into two Dio- ceses, and that the necessary measures be taken preparatory to such a division,in order that it be accomplished as soon as the Constitution and Canons of the General Convention will admit thereof."
The first resolution was speedily passed with an amendment di- recting the notification of consent to the General Convention. On the second a " long and highly interesting discussion " was continued through the Friday evening and Saturday morning sessions, till at I P. M. the resolution was adopted " by a very large majority."
The Bishop then " officially announced his consent to the measure."
" He had repeatedly given his opinion," he said, " that division of the Diocese was the only proper remedy for the impracticability of its being served by a single Bishop. But as to when division should be made, and whether it was expedient now to take measures for im- mediate division, he begged there might be no reference to himself ; he did not wish that for his sake the Diocese should either be divided or kept together. The action of the Convention had therefore his heartfelt sanction and consent."t
Two further resolutions were adopted on motion of Dr. Milnor ; requesting the Bishop to call a Special Convention before the General Convention of 1838, "to bring the subject fully matured " before that body ; and appointing a Committee to designate the boundary line between the two Dioceses.
And another followed(by Dr. Potter)#unanimously adopted, express-
* Gospel Messenger, Vol. XI. No. 37 (Oct. 14, 1837). The Journal only says that "the resolution was adopted."
t For this Address in full see the Journal, 1837, p. 57.
# Which of the two (both then in the Diocese) who subsequently became the Bishops of Pennsylvania and New York, the Journal does not say.
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ing " a deep and grateful sense of the manner in which the Bishop has acceded to the division of the Diocese, a measure which, though ex- pedient, must, by separating him from a beloved portion of his charge, be a source to him personally of great pain."
It was the debate in this Convention which brought out the remark- able speech of Dr. Whittingham already alluded to, on Primitive Dioceses. I can only give the argument of it very briefly.
" It is one thing," he says, "to possess a valid ministry, and another to have that ministry as instituted by the Apostles. We might decide that all our ministers should be bishops, and so break down what separates us from many who bear the Christian name. Why not do it then? Because our Episcopacy would no longer be Scriptural and Apostolic. But again, Episcopacy may be materially if not essentially effected by the limits assigned to each
Bishop. His duties are not merely functional ; they are liter- ally the ' care of the Churches.' The Ordinal has established the spiritual character of the office, rather than the ecclesiastical. . Yet this character may be destroyed by the enlargement of his dio- cese ; it is the tendency of such enlargement to destroy it. Those boundaries have been enlarged ; there are few now corresponding in extent or number of souls with those of the first ages. [This fact is traced through the history of Episcopal jurisdictions in Europe, as due to Roman and worldly policy. ] . . Increased facilities of travel and intercourse are no ground for a departure from primitive usage which destroys the spiritual oversight of a Bishop. Men have not changed, if roads have ; their spiritual wants are the same as in Apostolic days. Episcopacy is a different thing in a diocese of three hundred parishes and one of thirty. In the former, the bishop is the overseer of the clergy, not of the Church ; his intercourse with his flock is indirect ; he cannot be their Pastor. The crisis has arrived when we must decide between the primitive simplicity of the Church in the first ages, and the hierarchical character which her ministry assumed after its alliance with the civil government."
We are almost too familiar with such arguments in this day to realize the sort of shock which they gave to the average Churchman of 1838, or the conviction which their bold utterance carried to the minds of many who had perhaps been unconsciously groping their way to some such conclusion.
But the battle was by no means won. The columns of the Gospel Messenger and the New York Churchman for the first half of 1838 teem with communications pro and con, of great spirit and sometimes
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of much ability. The historical interest of these articles would be much greater if we could know their authors ; they are mostly hidden un- der the signatures of " A Western Churchman," " Young Presbyter of the West," " Presbyter of the West," " Amicus Ecclesia," " Latimer," "Ridley," "Honestus," "Nolens," "Cui Bono," and all the letters of the alphabet. The great argument in opposi- tion is of course (as it is to this day, in most cases) the money argu- ment ; that to separate the poor missionary parishes from the wealth of the City of New York was all but suicidal. This apprehension of evil was entertained of course chiefly by laymen, but by many of the clergy also. The centre of this fear was on the Eastern border of the proposed new Diocese, and on the decisive vote in the Special Con- vention of 1838, 13 of the 18 lay votes against division (to 64 in favour) were from the four " border " counties, Oneida, Jefferson, Chenango and Broome ; two from Onondaga and one each from Chemung and Tioga ; one from Otsego (east of the line), and not one from the present Diocese of Western New York. The clerical vote (67 to 32) was naturally less affected by localities. After the vote was taken, Madison, Tompkins and Tioga counties pleaded in vain to be left in the "Eastern Diocese ;" and later still, at the ad- journed session of the Special Convention (held after the General Convention of 1838) two parishes in Jefferson county were allowed to record their solemn protest against being included in the new Diocese, on the grouud that " coercion of the Church's members against the honest conviction of their own judgment should not be attempted " in a case like this ; * not seeing, doubtless, that the logical outcome of their argument would make it impossible for the new Diocese to have any Eastern boundary line.
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