USA > New York > The diocese of Western New York : a history and recollections > Part 14
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A resolution offered in the Convention of 1839 for the appointment of "travelling missionaries," failed of any result simply for want of means, the Diocese having then and long afterwards all and more than all it could do to sustain the Missionaries who were in charge of parishes. It was renewed in 1844 and 1850, combined with a pro- posed amendment of the Canons which would have taken from the Board of Missions the appointment of all missionaries except itiner- ants ; the real reason for this last change being the desire to diminish or wholly destroy any influence which the Bishop might be supposed to have in the choice of rectors for the smaller parishes. The Bishop gave his views quite fully and fairly in his Address of 1851, and as the Diocese sustained him almost unanimously, the project came to nothing .*
The Bishop brought before the Council of 1839 the importance of providing a parsonage in every parish, and in the country, " a few acres of land attached to it " for a glebe. No action, beyond a reso- lution of approval, was taken by the Convention, but after several years the country parishes began to acquire rectories, and in 1847 the Bishop states that thirty are thus provided.
The subject of a Diocesan depository for Sunday School books was reported upon by a Committee appointed at the Primary Convention, but resulted only in a resolution recommending the clergymen in Utica, Geneva, Rochester, Batavia and Buffalo, to use their influ- ence to engage some bookseller in each of those places to keep on hand a supply of Church books and tracts.
* Journ. W. N. Y. 1851, pp. 44, 59.
CHAPTER XXIII
FIRST VISITATIONS : DIOCESAN FUNDS
N his Address to the Convention of 1840, the Bishop reported that he had visited 72 of the parishes (10 of them twice or oftener) and 20 places where the Church was not organized ; had ordained two Deacons and 5 Priests, admitted or received 5 Candidates for Orders, consecrated 2 churches, received 9 clergymen and transferred 4, and confirmed 441 persons ; that there were now 75 places calling for the service of Missionaries (54 of them organized parishes), but only 38 missionaries actually at work ; making “ the largest Diocesan mis- sionary establishment in the United States," with which "no mis- sionary effort in any Diocese except the neighbouring one of New York, could be compared either in number or prospects." He regarded Diocesan missions therefore as "the sheet anchor of the Church amongst us ;" a field immediately around us " white unto the harvest," in which could be seen before our eyes " the very finger of Providence pointing us to the sphere of duty ;" which had therefore a primary and higher claim upon us than any wider field. That the Diocese appre- ciated this was evident from the fact that in a year of almost unexampled scarcity of money and of wide complaint of financial pressure, the plan of monthly collections for Church objects had brought in $4, 130, more than four times the amount of the preceding year, although in nearly one-fourth of the parishes and missions no collections had been made,-more, as the Bishop thought, for the want of a clergyman to introduce them than for any other reason .*
* It was on this visitation that the Bishop had his first experience of Episcopal work among the hills of the " Southern Tier." Mr. Walker Bennett, whom I have mentioned above (p. 52) as a pioneer Churchman at South Danby, was con- veying him to that place "in the only possible way in those days, with a team through the forest. The horses were young, and the road was 'corduroy,' and they came to grief. When Mr. Bennett had picked himself up and gathered up the fragments, he looked around in great alarm for the Bishop, whom he found a little way off in the wood on his knees," doubtless giving thanks for his preserva- tion. The story is told me by Mr. Bennett's daughter, now the wife of Canon Ogden of Portland, Me. He himself tells how he became a Churchman in the admirable "Letters of a Farmer " in the Messenger of 1827. He d. Feb. 6, 1842.
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
During this year, by the cordial co-operation of the Diocese of New York, an arrangement had been completed by which Western New York, in assuming the whole charge of its missionary work, would re- ceive from New York, first, an annual contribution for four years on a sliding scale, -$4,000, $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000,-and secondly, the whole of the "Permanent Missionary Fund " of New York, amounting then to $10, 150, with an annual income of $660.50. By this generous provision the new Diocese was not only enabled to ad- just itself gradually to its needs, but also to begin with the nucleus of an endowment which has called forth gifts and legacies to increase it, and has from time to time been of great service-whatever may be thought of missionary endowments in general-in " tiding over " times of scarcity or disaster .*
The most notable work of the Convention of 1840 was the found- ing of " The CHRISTMAS FUND for Disabled Clergymen," in response to the Bishop's appeal in his Address, in which he deplored
" The utter want of any provision by the Church for her aged, infirm, or superannuated clergy, who, having borne the heat and burden of the day, are often, as age and debility comes upon them, cut off not only from the sphere of usefulness but even from the very means of sub- sistence. Christian liberality has provided no retreats for this class of persons. Comfortable asylums open their doors to the disabled soldier and sailor of the State ; but for the Soldier of the Cross, worn out in the service of the Church, or bowed down by disease arresting him sometimes in the midst of usefulness, nothing is provided. How long shall this reproach continue ? May God put it into the heart of some one to devise the plan, or to furnish the means for making this much needed provision in the Church at large, for the venerable brethren whom younger and more active men are crowding from the field of labour !
" Such a suggestion and such an effort will originate in our youth- ful Diocese with extreme propriety."t
The Bishop then goes on to suggest that each clergyman, or the wardens of vacant parishes, undertake to raise "at least " five dol- lars at Christmas for this object, to be appropriated by a Committee
* The portion of this Fund held by the present Diocese of Western New York was reported May I, 1903, as $32,592.40 ; that of Central New York in 1898 as $20,453.93.
t The Christmas Fund of Western New York appears to have been the ear- liest diocesan action of this kind. A similar fund was established in the Diocese of New York the next year, at the suggestion of Bishop Onderdonk.
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THE CHRISTMAS FUND
of Laymen to disabled clergymen of the Diocese, on the Bishop's certificate of disability and past service ; no beneficiary to receive " for the present " more than $200 a year .*
The plan was adopted at once by the Convention, precisely as out- lined by the Bishop, and continued substantially unchanged during his lifetime. The idea of such a provision for aged and infirm clergy had been suggested more than once by communications in the Gospel Messenger as early as 1834; but the Bishop himself in his Address of 1854 tells how it occurred to him. The Rev. Nathan B. Burgess, ordained in Connecticut in 1801, and a missionary of West- ern New York from 1835,
" Applied to me," the Bishop says, " in 1840, at the age of 70 years, for a missionary parish. I recommended him to three or four. He visited them. The next time I saw him he said to me, 'Bishop, they all tell me I am too old. They want a young man. I can get no parish. There is no provision in the Church for old clergymen. I and my family must go to the county poor-house. I must die there.' It was this sad case which in 1840 prompted my suggestion to the Convention, of ' the Christmas Fund for Disabled and Super- annuated Clergy,' of which this Reverend brother became at once a participant at $200 a year."f
The Bishop thought that " the sum of four or five hundred dollars " might be raised by the offerings of the first year ; but they amounted to $1007.79, of which $700 was at once appropriated to four benefi- ciaries. The annual offerings after this increased slowly, averaging for the first ten years from 1840, $1061.45 ; for the next decade, 1851-60, $1544.29 ; and for the last eight years of the undivided Diocese, 1861-8, $2002.38. During these 28 years the Fund received in all $50,810.51, of which a little more than $42,000 appears to have been from Christmas offerings, the remainder mostly from interest on unexpended income. The appropriations to beneficiaries for the same time were $37,800.00, leaving a surplus fund of $13,010.51. The average annual grant to each beneficiary during that time was $169.50, no clergyman receiving more than $200 a year up to 1864. The consequence of this policy was the gradual accumulation of a considerable permanent fund, and a corresponding diminution of interest and contributions on the part of the parishes. In the first
* Journ. 1840, p. 34.
t Journ. 1854, p. 27. Mr. Burgess died at Utica, March 20, 1854, aged 82 years.
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
year the offerings averaged 22.5 cents per communicant ; twenty years later, with greatly increased wealth in the Diocese, they had gone down to 14.5 cents, and the diminution has continued to this day, the offerings of 1902, and for five years past, averaging less than six cents per communicant, although the appropriations have been on a more liberal scale for a number of years past, and although the scope of the Fund was enlarged in 1865 to take in the widows and orphans of Clergymen. It is no more than just to the Trustees of Bishop De Lancey's time to say that their management of the Fund so as to leave a considerable annual surplus had his full approval ; for, generous as he was in giving from his own scanty income, he was careful and provident almost to a fault where any trust was concerned. There can be no question that the Churchmen of the Diocese would have given more freely both to the Christmas Fund and to Diocesan Missions, if their offerings had been expended more freely .*
In the Convention of 1840 a report was presented by the Rev. C. S. Hawks, as chairman of a Committee appointed the year before "to recommend a suitable plan for the foundation of new parishes." The real subject of the plan, however, was the building of new churches, and providing from them an income for parish support. The almost uniform practice up to this time was to " sell" the pews in the new church partly or wholly as an equivalent for sums given or promised towards its erection ; sometimes with a reservation of the right of the Vestry to " tax" such pews, to a certain or uncertain amount, for parish expenses (including the salary of the clergyman), sometimes without any such reservation. In the latter case the pew was supposed to be the property of the buyer in fee simple, whether occupied or not, and was actually in some cases rented by him for
* In 1864 (the last year of the Civil war, when three dollars in current money were worth one in gold) application was made to the Trustees of the Christmas Fund for an increase of the annuity (of $200) to $250, the amount allowed by the Canon, for the oldest clergyman of the Diocese, with a family of four persons dependent on him, and with little or nothing of their own except their house. The answer received (from the late Mr. William B. Douglas, himself one of the most generous givers for all Church work that the Diocese ever had) was a most kindly expressed and undoubtedly sincere regret that "the condition of the Fund would not allow of any increase of appropriations." That year the Trustees report as appropriated from the Fund to six clergymen, $1,200, and added to its principal $1,594.64. (Journ. 1864, p. 56.)
JOHN ADAMS OF LYONS
14I
PEWS AND PEW RENTS
his own benefit, or kept unoccupied at his discretion .* In one case it is said that the Vestry, finding themselves powerless to provide a revenue from the pews thus " sold," allowed the church to be seized and sold for debt, and so freed themselves from all obligations to the pew-holders, becoming by purchase the owners not only of their church but of its sittings.t There had been thus far no decision of the courts recognized, or generally known, preventing such virtual alienation of Church property, and the Committee in their report of 1840 admit that under such "sales" the purchaser did acquire a title in fee simple of which he could not be dispossessed. They only recom- mend that " new parishes be prevented from falling into this difficulty" by providing that on the erection of any church, a plan of the same shall be made with the value of each pew affixed " as the basis of all future taxation ;" that the sums subscribed for building the church shall not be considered as " given," but " as money loaned and to be refunded in pews in such manner and under such restrictions, and subject to the payment of such rents and charges as the wardens and vestrymen may direct." Such assessment never to go outside of a certain maximum and minimum, and if unpaid for two years, "the fee simple in the sitting to remit [revert] to the Corporation." The plan was adopted as reported, and remained as the recommendation of the Convention till 1852, when, as we shall see later, it was superseded entirely by action looking to the gradual adoption of free seats. It need hardly be said that at this time "free churches" were almost unknown in this country, as a principle or system. As a matter of fact, there were several small churches in the Diocese, in which the seats had been always free, # the clergyman's salary, such as it was, being provided by a subscription ; but more often such a subscription was the method of support where the pews were "owned," or sup- posed to be, and paid no tax.
The plan of support adopted in 1840 was therefore an improvement on the past, so far as it went. A few years later decisions were given in the Supreme Court of New York-one very notable one in
* This was the case, I remember, with a pew in Trinity church, Geneva (the present building), for some years.
t I say " it is said" because I am unable to give the authority for this instance ; but I have no doubt of its truth.
# See note on Trinity Church, Fayetteville, p. 110 sup.
.
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
1849 on the enlargement of S. Peter's Church, Auburn-recog- nizing the old principle of English law that the Vestry of a parish were properly Trustees, not absolute owners of its real estate, nor in fee simple except for the definite purposes of their trust ; that they had no power to make an actual "sale" of a seat in church, but only the right of occupying such seat (whether perpetual or limited in time), subject to such conditions and assessments as might be imposed, and that a " deed " for a pew without reservation of power to assess the same was void in law; further, that the right so acquired by a pew holder might be destroyed, and without compensation, by the altera- tion or destruction of the building, unless protected by special agree- ment. All this, familiar and obvious as it seems to us now, was, I presume, utterly unknown to the Convention of 1840 ; and by most of its members, certainly, free churches were equally unheard of .*
The Consecration of Grace Church, Lyons, Wayne county, Jan. 14, 1841, deserves special mention as the successful completion of the first church in the Diocese of something like pure Gothic architec- ture of the latest (Tudor) period, at a cost of $11,000,-a great undertaking in those days for a small though prosperous village in which the Church had been permanently organized only three years, and now numbered but fifty Communicants. ¡ "It is a model," says the enthusiastic correspondent of the Messenger, "which every con- gregation possessing the ability would do well to adopt ; a simple Gothic structure of stone, presenting an appearance of massiveness and solidity peculiarly appropriate to a sacred edifice. The interior is beautifully arranged and completely finished, and the chancel, for elevation and spaciousness, deserves imitation." The constructive " chancel " was in fact arranged like that of S. Luke's, Rochester, with an immensely high pulpit against the wall, and doors both in and on either side of it opening into the vestry-room, in the rear, each
* See on all this subject, Hoffman, Law of the Church, 1850, pp. 254-8. The subject is also treated, but imperfectly, in his Ecclesiastical Law of New York, pp. 243-54, and in White's American Church Law, 1898, p. 164. Journ. W. N. Y. 1840, p. 44 ; 1851, P. 57 ; 1852 p,. 67.
t The designs were furnished, we are told (Gospel Messenger, Jan. 23, 1841) by Mr. James De Lancey Watson of New York. The late Mr. John Adams of Lyons told me that they were the result of careful study of country churches in England. The church had of course the faults of plan and arrangement belong- ing to its day (it has since been greatly enlarged and improved), but was certainly a long step in advance for Western New York.
I43
GRACE CHURCH, LYONS, 1841
one of which was on one occasion tried in succession by one of the most accomplished and most painfully bashful clergymen Western New York ever saw,* before he succeeded in reaching the exalted station of the Preacher of that day.
The Rector under whom this good work was achieved-the Rev. Samuel Cooke, later Rector of Trinity Church, Geneva, and S. Bartholomew's, New York, is still living, now (1903) the one survivor of all the Clergy of Western New York at the organization of the Diocese.t He was nobly sustained in this work by a little band of Churchmen who for years afterwards made Lyons almost a model parish ; foremost among them all JOHN ADAMS, who in example of personal character, home life, and devotion to the Church, deserved and gained the love and reverence of all who knew him. With him were such men as Ambrose Spencer, Gen. William H. Adams, Dr. Hiram Mann, A. D. Polhamus, and later, James C. Smith and De Witt C. Parshall,-names which can never be forgotten in the annals of Western New York. #
* Edward Bourns, LL.D., then a College Tutor in Geneva, afterwards many years President of. Norwich University, Vt .; an Irishman, affectionately called "Teddy" by his students, as noble and genial in character and disposition as he was quaint and singular in person and manner.
t Now, by the decease of Bishop Clark, Senior Priest in the United States. (Sept. 7, 1903.)
# In the next number after the description of the new church at Lyons, the Messenger gives (from the Boston Christian Witness) a long and exceedingly inter- esting letter from the Bishop of Vermont (John Henry Hopkins) describing minutely the arrangements of " Mr. Newman's Chapel " at Littlemore, apropos of a "good natured controversy " then going on about the use and position of the " reading desk," which was just beginning to be felt as neither useful nor ornamental, and was soon after removed from several of the churches in the Diocese, leaving the altar, still in front of the pulpit, as the place for Morn- ing and Evening Prayer as well as the Holy Communion. The Littlemore chapel had evidently made a strong and favourable impression on the Bishop, although he does not commit himself to approval of all its details. Per contra, the next page gives part of a sermon on "Clerical Robes" by a former W. N. Y. clergyman (and very thorough-going Churchman),-the late Dr. F. H. Cuming,-in which he dilates to his heart's content on the appropriate symbol- ism of the black gown-" the emblem of sin, and the badge of mourning " --- for him whose business it is " to remind transgressors of the blackness of dark- ness into which the finally impenitent will be plunged." These instances may at least show how little these matters of vestments and chancel arrangements had to do then with doctrinal teaching.
CHAPTER XXIV
EARLY CONVENTIONS : BISHOP'S ADDRESS OF 1841
HE Fourth Annual Convention of the Diocese was held in Trinity Church, Utica, Aug. 18, 1841, two months earlier than heretofore. That summer month, which the vacation habits of later years have made an almost impracticable one, was continued as the time for the Convention until 1871. Upto 1867 the opening services were always the same, Morning Prayer, Litany, Sermon and Holy Communion, with a full church and a great number of communicants. The Bishop's Charge sometimes took the place of the sermon. One need not be wholly laudator temporis acti to recall those services as far more dignified and impressive, as they certainly were better attended, especially by the laymen of the Diocese, than those which have taken their place in later years. "One thing," says Dr. Rudd of this Convention of 1841, " struck us with peculiar force in the services of this morning ; the fullness of the responses, evincing the power of our Liturgy, when those who love it join in it with the fervour which we remarked on this occasion. We are very sure that all must have perceived a thrilling and powerful emotion through the whole audience. Why should it not be always so?"
The Sermon that year was by Dr. Hale, who did not yield to Dr. Rudd's wish to publish it in the Messenger ; and we can give only his text, I. Cor. I. 23, "We preach Christ crucified."
The Bishop reports his Diocese (after a residence in it of little more than two years) as "advancing in devotedness to the service of Christ, by increased cultivation of the graces of His blessed Gospel, and by firmer devotion to the conservative principles of His holy Church. The harmony and unity of feeling and action have not been disturbed." There were now one hundred clergymen in actual resi- dence, an increase of one-third since the organization three years before, and eight candidates for Orders. Forty-three of the clergy were Missionaries, officiating in 61 parishes and 23 unorganized con- gregations. Nine churches were building, several others in process of enlargement. There had been 509 confirmed, making 1432 since
BENJAMIN HALE, D.D.
145
VAN WAGENEN FUND
the Bishop's beginning of visitations. Ten new parishes had been founded, making 107 in all, in addition to Missionary stations not yet organized .*
The Bishop had mentioned in his Address of 184of the bequest by the late Gerritt H. Van Wagenen to the vestry of S. George's Church, New York, of land in Saratoga county (1000 acres, as after- wards described#) in trust for the support of a Missionary in Chen- ango county. In the Address of 1841 (Journ. p. 30) is given a certi- fied extract from the will, with the statement that the vestry declined acting as Trustees. We hear nothing more of this bequest till 1849, when Mr. Joseph Juliand of Greene reports that the lot has been conveyed to him as Trustee. The next year $1,000 was added to this bequest by Mr. Van Wagenen's heirs " for the purpose of more effectually carrying out his design."§ In 1852 the land, which appears to have been of little value, was sold for $400, of which one- half had to be paid for taxes. As the Fund was too small to be used to advantage, it accumulated from year to year, and at the division of the Diocese in 1868, when it became the property of the Diocese of Central New York, it amounted to nearly $4,000. | In 1871 the sum of $1,200 was added by two members of the Van Wagenen family. In 1872 a bequest of Cyrus Tuttle of $1,000 is reported, with $300 more from the Van Wagenen family. In 1873 $1,000 more from the family, making the Fund $10,885.00. In 1874 $2,000 more from the family ; in 1875 $3,650 (given in 1874); in 1876 a Missionary is employed (the Rev. Russel Todd) at a stipend of $900, which appears to be the first use of the income of the Fund for Missionary work. Mr. Todd resigned in 1880, and the work was suspended to 1885, from which time a Missionary was employed at M'Donough and parts adjacent at $600 a year. In 1887 a further bequest was received from Catharine Van Wagenen, "the last member of the family," of
* It will be remembered that until more than forty years after this, there was no way in which missions could be organized except by legal incorporation as parishes.
1 Journ. 1840, p. 24.
# Journ. 1849, p. 50.
§ Journ. 1850, p. 49.
Il Journ. 1868, p. 80. Mr. Juliand continued to be the faithful and efficient Trustee of this fund till his decease, Feb. 18, 1870, when Mr. John R. Van Wagenen was appointed in his place.
.
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
$2,000. In 1898 the whole amount of the Fund is reported at $30, 088.61, having increased $1,364.5 1 during the year ; its income $1,566.66 ; no considerable appropriation for missionary work since 1889 .*
The Bishop earnestly exhorts the clergy "in county towns or in the neighbourhood of poor-houses," to visit statedly "these scenes of woe, not only with a view to distributing Bibles, tracts, and Prayer Books, but for the purposes of Christian consolation, instruction and devotion ;" "to regard the prison and alms-house as part of their cure, and report their visitations to them," as "a field of labour in which they will not probably be interfered with, and to which they are called as well by the wants and woes of the inmates," as by the voice of their Master.
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