USA > New York > The diocese of Western New York : a history and recollections > Part 29
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
* Journ. 1879, pp. 25, 54, 66; 1880, p. 23. The Act of Incorporation is given in full in Const. and Canons of W. N. Y., 1896, p. 101.
S. MICHAEL'S CHURCH AND RECTORY, GENESEO
1867
293
A CATHEDRAL LIBRARY
be the seat of city missions, and a spiritual home for the poor. In Advent and Lent, the best preachers of the Diocese should be called, in turn, to maintain courses of sermons, and to aid the Bishop in popular instructions which should be kept up almost every evening. In due time, a staff of city missionaries should be supplied for the poor, who should teach and minister from house to house. I would have choral services-not forced on the unwilling ear, but provided for those who are edified by the solemn music of the Church, and so I would banish the ditty-music that now captivates the popular ear, and train the mind and heart and taste of our people to the highest examples of our Mother Church, which possesses the richest store of services and anthems strictly ecclesiastical to be found in Christen- dom."
" To the Cathedral corporation has been made over, in trust, the property known as the ' See House.' Also, I have transferred to it, in trust, the Startin Fund ; and also $1,000 left me, with discretion- ary powers, by the late Judge Tracy. This last will be made the base for a fund, the interest of which will be devoted by the Bishop to the per- petual increase and repair of the Cathedral Library, already known as ' the Episcopal Library.' This will be entrusted to the Cathedral corporation, under the authority of my successors in office, who may reside in Buffalo. I shall make it a memorial of my obligations to that city, and to one of its most estimable citizens. I respectfully solicit gifts and bequests of books for the increase of this Library, with the understanding that all books contributed from Rochester and its vicinity shall be returned to that city, for the use of the Bishop and his Clergy, whenever it becomes a See City."
In the same Address the Bishop acknowledges thankfully the pro- vision in the building and endowment of S. Andrew's Church, Rochester, (by Mr. William B. Douglas,) " that it may be claimed for a Cathedral, if ever the Bishop of the Diocese in which it is situ- ated should need it for such a purpose"; so that "it may be turned to good account in case of the erection of the Diocese of Rochester, which is sure to come about before long."*
In 1883 the Bishop acknowledges various gifts to " the Episcopal or Cathedral Library," and much work done by the Rev. Mr. Van Dyck in " sifting and sorting" his store of periodicals and pamphlets for the same.t In 1887 he " has good hopes of seeing soon an efficient force of missionaries for city work daily employed" in the " nominal Cathedral provided by the Rector and Vestry of S. Paul's,"
* Journ. 1882, p. 42.
t Id. 1883, p. 63.
294
DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
and that this may " awaken such an interest among the Laity as must sooner or later secure a corresponding realization of architectural and ritual dignity." He asks for bequests and endowments, " that the noblest memorials of the faithful departed may be erected in every column and buttress and window of a Cathedral."* A committee on this Address reported in 1888 suggesting the immediate calling together of the Cathedral Chapter (which had met only three times in eight years, and taken no action except to receive the transfer of the See House from its surviving Trustee), "for the drafting of a Constitu- tion and By-Laws, and the election of officers for the control and direction of all missionary work in the See City, and its centraliza- tion under the chief Pastor." They also state that the title-deeds of five mission churches are awaiting transfer to the Chapter. t
This is the last allusion to a cathedral which appears in the Journal during the Episcopate of Bishop Coxe. By his Will of May 10, 1888, he requests his wife, to whom all his property is bequeathed, to trans- fer his " library and books of every sort," except that known as " our family library," to the Chancellor of the Diocese, in trust for the Cathedral Chapter. #
I have quoted thus fully the Bishop's own words to his Diocese, as showing beyond all question what were his wishes, intentions and plans in regard to the See Episcopate and the Cathedral System, till within a few years of his decease. One can only ask again and in vain why they all bore no fruit in his lifetime.
From the Cathedral I should pass on to the efforts of the Bishop in behalf of Christian education in those last years of the old Diocese. But that work, especially in regard to the College, extended into later years, and may be better noticed then.
I have thus finished the story of the old Diocese of Western New York, errors (of which I hope there are few) and omissions (of which I fear there are many) excepted. I wished to add to this Part some mention of the Laymen of Bishop De Lancey's day whom I knew per- sonally, for the most part, as earnest and faithful Churchmen, who not only " seemed to be " but were " pillars " in their day and place,
* Journ. 1887, p. 56.
t Journ. 1888, p. 35.
& # The Will is given in full in " Memorials of American Bishops" in the Library of the De Lancey Divinity School.
295
LAYMEN
though with great differences, perhaps, in social and intellectual stand- ing. But the list extends to such a length that I cannot give even an approach to a catalogue raisonné of those men. To those who knew anything of them, and in many cases to their descendants, the follow- ing list of names will tell its own story ; to others I can only plead that they must not be left out of such a record of personal recollections. I give only those who have not been incidentally mentioned already, and who belong to the years before 1865 .*
Beginning where the Church was first planted, on the eastern bor- der, there were
Of Utica : Col. John E. Hinman, James Watson Williams, Isaiah Tiffany, Rutger B. Miller, Horatio Seymour, Ziba and Philemon Lyon, David Wager, Thomas Hopper; Thomas H. Hubbard, Edmund A. Graham, Charles S. Wilson, John J. Francis, George R. Perkins, Augustus A. Boyce, Augustine G. Dauby, Daniel G. Thomas, Truman K. Butler.
Of Camden : Artemas Trowbridge.
Of Holland Patent : Pascal C. J. and William W. De Angelis, Samuel Allen, D. Ward Clark, Jarvis Brewster, J. Henry Wetmore.
Of New Hartford : Zedekiah Sanger, Moses T. Eggleston, Spencer S. Eames, John K. Adams, Morgan Butler, James Cunningham.
Of Oriskany : Timothy Babcock. t
Of Rome : Jay Hathaway, George R. Thomas, G. N. Bissell.
Of Waterville : William and Amos O. Osborne, John A. Berrill.
Of Whitestown : S. Newton and Andrew Dexter, Philo White.
Of Hamilton : Charles Mason, Erastus Pearl, Nelson Fairchild.
Of Cazenovia : Charles Stebbins.
Of New Berlin : Horace O. Moss.
Of Oxford : Ethan and John R. Clarke, Henry W. Mygatt.
Of Sherburne : William Cook, Walter Elsbre.
Of Syracuse : Horace and Hamilton White, Amos P. Granger, John J. Peck, Archibald C. Powell, George F. Comstock, Daniel O. Salmon, George J. Gard- ner.
Of Fayetteville : John Sprague, Hiram Wood, Andrew T. Gilmor, Daniel Burhans.
Of Manlius : Dr. William Taylor, Joshua V. H. Clark, Elijah E. May, Henry C. Van Schaack, Illustrious Remington.
Of Jamesville : Thomas Sherwood.
Of Jordan : Henry Daboll.
* Some of the most notable Churchmen of the Diocese, therefore, are not named here. And it must not be supposed that I have selected those in the list as specially worthy of record, more than many others not mentioned; only I hap- pen to remember these.
t For many years a faithful and well-known agent for the Messenger, and Church colporteur.
296
DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
Of Oswego : Abraham P. Grant, George C. M'Whorter.
Of Pulaski : Andrew Z. M'Carty.
Of Auburn : Stephen A. Goodwin, John H. Chedell, William H. Seward.
Of Aurora : William H. Bogart, Jonathan Richmond.
Of Moravia : Rowland Day.
Of Weedsport : H. A. Weed.
Of Waterloo : William V. I. Mercer, Thomas and Levi Fatzinger, Sterling G. Hadley, Addison T. Knox.
Of Geneva : David Hudson, Gen. Joseph G. Swift, David S. Hall, Peter M. and George N. Dox, Alfred A. Holley, James Simons, S. Hopkins Ver Planck, Peter Richards, Alexander L. Chew, Edgar H. Hurd, Robert C. Nicholas, Dr. Gavin L. Rose.
Of Canandaigua : Charles Seymour, William S. Philpot, Henry K. Sanger, Ralph Chapin, Mark H. Sibley, Chauncey Morse, Alvah Worden, Frederick Bunnell, Orson Benjamin, Henry Howard, John S. Bates, Edward G. Marshall, Charles B. Meek, Ebenezer Hale, William G. Lapham, Charles E. Shepard.
Of Lyons : (See above, p. 143.)
Of Palmyra : George W. Cuyler, Truman Heminway, Martin Butterfield.
Of Sodus : Oren Gaylord, William S. Hayward.
Of Clyde : William S. Stow, J. C. Atkins, Charles Rose.
Of Newark : Fletcher Williams, Joel H. Prescott.
Of Bradford : Edgar and Jesse Munson.
Of Bath : B. F. Young, Henry Brother, William H. Bull.
Of Corning : Thomas A. Johnson, Nelson L. Somers, Seymour F. Denton. Of Hammondsport : Delos Rose.
Of Hornellsville : Martin Adsit.
Of Catharine : Heber Prince.
Of Watkins : Daniel Beach, Josiah Davis, James MacDonald.
Of Montour Falls : Constant and Charles Cook.
Of Branchport : John N. and Henry Rose.
Of Rochester : Henry E. and Nathaniel T. Rochester, Thomas C. Montgom- ery, Silas O. Smith, Edward Meigs Smith, Dellon M. Dewey, George H. Mum- ford, William Pitkin, Vincent Matthews, Samuel G. Andrews, Daniel B. Beach, Andrew J. Brackett, Delos Wentworth, George Arnold, Samuel F. Witherspoon, Seth C. Jones, Alfred Ely.
Of Pittsford : Abraham Vought.
Of Honeoye Falls : George B. M'Bride, Simon Oley.
Of Brockport : Daniel Holmes.
Of Geneseo : Allen Ayrault, Samuel Lewis.
Of Mount Morris : John R. Murray, Charles H. Carroll, Walker M. Hinman. Of Batavia : David E. Evans, Trumbull Cary, P. L. Tracy, William A. Seaver, Benjamin Pringle, Heman J. Redfield, Gad B. Worthington, Junius A. Smith, D. W. Tomlinson.
Of Le Roy : Elisha Stanley, Joshua Lathrop, D. R. Bacon.
Of Stafford : Richard Radley.
S. PETER'S CHURCH AND PARISH HOUSE, GENEVA
.
297
LAYMEN
Of Canaseraga : William M. White.
Of Angelica : Philip Church.
Of Wethersfield Springs : Ormus and Reuben Doolittle.
Of Dunkirk : Truman Coleman.
Of Fredonia : Jonathan Sprague, George Barker, Elijah and William Risley.
Of Jamestown : Robert I. Baker.
Of Westfield : Alpheus Baldwin, Daniel Rockwell, George P. York.
Of Lockport : Nathan Dayton, Henry B. Walbridge, Washington Hunt, Henry and Charles Keep, George H. Boughton, Sullivan Caverno, P. B. Peck- ham, Peter D. Walter, John H. Buck.
Of Albion : Zephaniah Clark, Sanford E. Church.
Of Tonawanda : G. W. Sherman.
Of Niagara Falls : Peter A. Porter, George W. Holley, Stoughton Pettibone, Daniel J. Townsend.
Of Buffalo : George B. Webster, Russell H. Heywood, William A. Bird, Edward S. Warren, John S. Ganson, Jacob A. Barker, Jerry Radcliffe, Henry Daw, Elijah Ford, De Witt C. Weed, Charles W. Evans, James M. Smith, James P. White, Julius Movius, John L. Kimberly, George E. Hayes, Milton Wilder, Henry F. Penfield, Samuel G. Cornell, William H. Walker, Elam R. Jewett, Asher P. Nichols.
Not a few of these were, by individual munificence, founders of parishes and builders of churches. Others gave themselves, devot- edly and unsparingly, to the work of lay-readers and (in their way) Evangelists, with absolute loyalty to the teaching and discipline of the Church. Many another was the unfailing comfort and " right hand " of his Pastor through all the sunshine and shadow of parish life. Of almost all, and of hundreds more who laboured and prayed with them, it may be truly said that they were faithful in their day and generation .*
I wish I could add the names of even a few of the noble. Church- women of the Diocese in Bishop De Lancey's day, whose work is not mentioned elsewhere ; but that is out of the question.
* Seven or eight out of the two hundred and forty are still living.
PART FOURTH
THE PRESENT DIOCESE
CHAPTER XLIII
DIOCESAN WORK, 1869-79
HE story of the remaining years of Bishop Coxe's Epis- copate must be comparatively brief, and, I fear, unsat- isfactory ; partly because this book, outline as it is, has already grown to larger dimensions than I intended ; partly because this part of it is contemporary history, many of whose actors are living, and some of them more capable than I of writing it ; and partly because I was absent from the Diocese for twelve years from 1868, in charge of the Cathedral of Portland, Maine, and so knew little personally of its affairs.
The setting off of the new Diocese left Western New York with 87 Priests and II Deacons, 8 Candidates for Orders, 86 Parishes and 9 (unorganized) Missions, 16 of which had no churches, and about 9,600 Communicants .* It reported offerings for the year 1868- 9 amounting to $236,585.79, of which $23, 185.35 was for Diocesan and $7,398.81 for general objects. The Bishop had made 133 visi- tations during the year, and confirmed 1,076 persons in 85 parishes and missions, thus covering nearly the whole Diocese. The Episco- pate Fund was reduced to $27,200 ; the " De Lancey Fund " to $2,- 500, the Permanent Missionary Fund to $11, 127 ; the Divinity School Fund remained at $17,465, besides two scholarships for students of $2,000 each.t Again the Bishop, in his Address of 1869, pleads most earnestly for the support and enlargement of the Church Schools of the Diocese, and the founding of new ones. " The Heathcote School in Buffalo," he says, " has entered on a new and enlarged career ; a number of zealous men have purchased a proper house for
* Estimating for a few not reported in the Journal of 1869.
t For all these statistics see the appendices to the Journal of 1869.
299
HOBART COLLEGE FROM 1869
it, and purpose to obtain an act of incorporation, and make it a per- petual blessing to our See city." The enlarged plans of De Veaux College have been blessed with complete success. The " Jane Grey School " at Mount Morris is in a very prosperous condition, but ought to be enlarged and well endowed. The Cary School is revived and prospering, and admits girls as day-pupils, an experiment which the Bishop regards with evident (but not unhopeful) anxiety. He asks for a foundation on which he may place orphan girls and the daughters of the clergy, for free education, and which can take other girls at a "reasonable compensation ;" for means to show what he would do " for the liberal education of that sex, which the theorists of our age are trying to degrade to the low level of men citizens ; from which they would remove the glory and crown of womanhood." It is sad to think how little-if anything-has ever been done in the Diocese in response to the Bishop's earnest words, and how little remains now even of the work of Christian training which was going on then.
Hobart College had lost its brilliant-but, as it proved, unbalanced -young President * before he had fairly begun his work, and the Rev. Dr. Rankine had reluctantly given up the charge of the Train- ing School to fill this more important place, which he did, and most efficiently, for two years only, then returning to his former duty. He was succeeded by Dr. Maunsell Van Rensselaer (1871-6), Dr. (after- wards Bishop) William Stevens Perry (for six months only, 1876), and Dr. Robert Graham Hinsdale (1876-83), each of whom did a good work for the College in his time ; under the latter especially there was a notable advance in scholarship and discipline. The Bish- op says in his Address of 1870 that "it remains, as heretofore, the all-important and common concern of every man, woman and child in the Diocese ; there is no interest of the Church in Western New York that must not suffer if it languishes ; life and vigour and general improvement will be the result of its competent endowment and sup- port." At his suggestion the Bishops of Western and Central New York and the President of the College had been made a Committee to endeavour to increase the endowment to $500,000. A very consid- erable sum-about $50,000, as nearly as I can find, was raised
* The Rev. James Kent Stone, D.D., elected July 24, 1868, resigned Aug. 5, 1869. He was received into the Roman Church, Dec. 8, 1869.
300
DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
at this time, mostly from Western New York, and this effort largely took the place of the plan proposed for the increase of the Episco- pate Fund, so that in point of fact the Bishop sacrificed that interest of the Diocese as well as his own personal advantage to what he deemed the more important needs of the College .* In Central New York, on the other hand, the Episcopate Fund was largely increased, and but a small amount, comparatively, given to the College, although Bishop Huntington had made a strong appeal to his Diocese in its behalf in a joint letter with Bishop Coxe, in which it is urged that the College belongs as much to the whole State as to Western New York, and has also special claims upon the Churchmen of Central New York.
In the Gospel Messenger of 1871 (pp. 65, 73, 93, 113) will be found four letters of great interest from the venerable Thomas D. Burrall of Geneva, an early and lifelong Trustee of the College, from whom I have given on p. 55 above an account of its founding by Bishop Hobart. In these letters Mr. Burrall reviews at some length the whole history of the College in its relations to Trinity Church, New York, and the Society for the Promotion of Religion and Learn- ing ; and it was, apparently, on the facts there given that Bishop Coxe based his earnest and long-continued appeal to those Corpora- tions for a large increase of the scanty aid which they had for many years bestowed. In his Address of 1872 he says that an important negotiation with the S. P. R. L. in behalf of the College is pending, with reason to expect favourable results. In 18/3 the Society has increased its grant, but not to the extent expected. He is not with-
out hopes that Trinity Church will complete her original purpose of giving the income of $100,000, in place of the half of that sum which the necessities of the College had compelled Bishop De Lancey to accept for the time being. But these efforts, protracted through sev- eral years, all came to nothing in the end, for the reason, apparently, that the S. P. R. L., under the leadership of Bishop Horatio Potter, had practically substituted S. Stephen's College as its beneficiary for the work for which Hobart had been founded, and which up to this time at least it had earnestly endeavoured to do. Bishop Coxe claimed that the Society was founded for the Promotion of Religion and Learn- ing in the State of New York, and that each Diocese of that State
* See statement in Gosp. Mess. XLV. 126. (Aug. 3, 1871.)
CHURCH HOME, ROCHESTER, N. Y.
30I
THE MEMORIAL CHURCH
had an equal right to its benefactions. This claim the Society repu- diated, and has maintained its ground to this day, whether rightly or wrongly I am in no position to determine ; but, so far as I have been able to find, its managers have never answered in any way the state- ment and argument of Mr. Burrall in the letters referred to. In fact, their communications to the Trustees of that time simply decline to discuss the subject at all. The College still receives from the S. P. R. L. $1,200 a year as the income of certain scholarships founded in its early years, and from Trinity Church the $3,000 a year accepted by Bishop De Lancey in 1851-2. In the meantime its endowments from all sources, chiefly individual munificence, and including its buildings, library and grounds, have increased to about $750,000, of which two-thirds is in funds producing income .*
The new Church Home opened in Rochester, Nov. 10, 1869, and built mainly by two munificent Churchmen of that city, George R. Clarke and George H. Mumford, at a cost of $20,000, was a long step in advance in the Christian work of the Diocese. But a more important one still was the completion and consecration in May, 1870, of S. Peter's Church, the memorial of Bishop De Lancey in Geneva, and the fruition of Dr. Rankine's patient labours for five years. Its . cost, about $40,000, had been given by more than five thousand per- sons, mostly of the old Diocese of Western New York, but included some large gifts from beyond its borders. Four Bishops (Coxe, Huntington, Neely and Bissell) and fifty-seven Priests and Deacons were present at the consecration. Services were continued for sev- eral days, and sermons and addresses, mostly memorial, given by Bishops Coxe and Bissell, and Drs. Haight, Shelton, Bolles, Jack- son, Ayrault, Rankine and Van Ingen. The beautiful church, no unworthy monument of the great and good Bishop, became under Dr. Rankine the centre of a large and beneficent parochial work. The noble detached tower and spire-equalled in architectural effect by very few in this country-with the chime of ten bells, were added some years later ; in 1902, under the present Rector, Dr. John Brewster Hubbs, a Parish House was built and endowed in memory of Dr. Rankine by his family, at a cost of $30,000, and a Rectory will in
* A brief statement of the claim of the Diocese and the College on the S. P. R. L. will be found in the Report of the Committee of the Council of 1870 (Drs. Van Rensselaer and Perry, and Judge Johnson) in the Journal, p. 64.
302
DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
due time complete the group of buildings. By the conditions of its erection the church is perpetually free, and the property of the Diocese.
The system of Diocesan Missions built up with such pains by Bishop De Lancey through thirty years, called now (1869) for new efforts to maintain and enlarge its work. Of the 86 organized Par- ishes in the Diocese, 36 were in charge of clergymen receiving mission- ary stipends. The offerings for this purpose in the first year after the division amounted to $3.625.86, to which the remaining half of the Permanent Missionary Fund added $666.77. Ten years earlier, the old diocese, with only a thousand more communicants, had given $6.375.85. There was an evident decline in interest in the work. due in part. no doubt. to what might be called a want of elasticity in the adjustment of its details. Every missionary parish which had the full services of a clergyman received, for him. $125.00 a year : if it had half his duty, $62.50 ; no more, no less. This inflexible rule had been in force from Bishop Hobart's time (see p. 59 supra), and it was the one great mistake of Bishop De Lancey's Episcopate, as it seems to me, that it remained unchanged. In his last years his earnest Pas- torals in behalf of Diocesan Missions were read in the churches, but not enforced by the clergy nor answered by the people in any large proportion, and, in some cases, avowedly for that reason .*
In 1869 Bishop Coxe suggested two important changes, the crea- tion of a Missionary Board distinct from the Standing Committee, and the adoption of a "pledge " system for diocesan missionary offer- ings. Both of these were adopted the next year, (as they had been already in Central New York,) and resulted in a great increase of interest as shown by the contributions reported in 1871, $6,243, a gain of over 70 per cent. One obvious advantage was that the new Missionary Board (of eight clergymen and eight laymen), represented all parts of the Diocese, instead of being. like the Standing Commit- tee, mostly in Buffalo. They " substitute for the old plan of a uni- form stipend, a special consideration and specific appropriation for the individual field," and suggest giving extraordinary aid where a church is building. In 1871 they report the offerings as $6,243 ; in 1872, $6,058 ; in 1873; $5,403 ; in 1874, $5,624 ; in 1875, $5,277 ;
* As Bishop Neely, when Rector of Christ Church, Rochester, had the bold- ness to say to Bishop De Lancey himself.
3º3
MISSIONARY PLANS, 1869-79
in 1876, $5,894 ; the last three years showing a loss of $909, or about $300 a year. The Missionaries of 1876 are 30 instead of 23 in 1870, the stations 48 instead of 36. At this time the Missionary Board modified their working plan materially, by asking the Mission- ary Parishes to give all their offerings for clerical support directly to the Board, receiving them back with the addition of the stipend ; in other words the Diocese, as represented by the Board, undertook the whole support of the Parish Priest, receiving towards that object its whole income aside from contingent expenses. The plan was cer- tainly based on sound principles, and in their next year's Report (1877) the Board say that "its practical working has demonstrated its value and efficiency ; the engagements of the Parishes, with few exceptions, have been fully met, and the missionary clergy have been regularly and promptly paid."* The stations however are reduced to 26, and the Missionaries to 22, and there is a falling off of one-third in the offerings from self-supporting parishes. The next year they are $400 less, and "it is painfully evident that a continued lack of inter- est in the missionary work obtains among many of the clergy and laity."t In 1879 they report only nine Missionaries continuing in service, as they cannot fill vacancies " in view of a continually over- drawn treasury," and think that "new plans and methods are de- manded to secure increased efficiency and general interest." They therefore recommend the system of Rural Deaneries adopted with good results in Central New York. A special Committee of the Council, of which the Rev. John G. Webster was chairman, reported that this plan would meet the wishes of a large portion of the Diocese, and after an earnest debate occupying most of the day's session, a Canon embodying it was adopted by a vote of 36 to 4 of the clergy and 24 to 10 of the Parishes. t
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.