USA > New York > The diocese of Western New York : a history and recollections > Part 7
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S. LUKE'S CHURCH, ROCHESTER Consecrated 1826
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VISITATION OF 1826 : S. LUKE'S, ROCHESTER
important and flourishing congregations in the Western District, 50 persons. The following day, the 18th, I confirmed at Lyons, in the morning, 12 ; and at Sodus, in the afternoon, where a new and zeal- ous congregation has laid the foundation of a building for worship, I confirmed 10. The 19th, at Palmyra, 13. On the 20th, in the morning, at Canandaigua, one of those many beautiful villages that adorn the Western part of our State, I confirmed 59 ; and in the afternoon, at Richmond [Allen's Hill], 11. The next day, the 2 1st, at Geneseo, I confirmed 15, and the 22d, at Batavia, I consecrated S. James's Church, and confirmed 53 persons, and in the afternoon offici- ated at Le Roy. On the 23d, I pursued my journey to Buffalo, where the Church is rising from a depressed state, through the bless- ing of God on the faithful exertions of the Missionary there ;* and on Sunday, the 24th, in the morning, I confirmed 26 persons, and offici- ated at Black Rock in the afternoon. The road from Buffalo to the south-west corner of the State, on Lake Erie, not admitting of convenient travel in any other vehicle but a strong stage-waggon, I was compelled to travel all the night of Monday in the stage to Fredonia, [forty miles, ] where I confirmed, on the morning of Tuesday, 12 per- sons ; and the next day, at Mayville, 27. In this village, beautifully situated on Chatauque Lake, the head-waters of the Allegany, seven miles distant from Lake Erie, and elevated near 700 feet above it, a new church is erecting by an enterprising congregation, under the faithful services of the clergyman there.t On the 28th, I retraced my way to Buffalo, from whence, on the 29th, I proceeded to Roch- ester, where I arrived on the morning of the 30th, when I consecrated the elegant Gothic stone edifice of S. Luke's Church, in that prosper- ous village ; and the next day I was highly gratified in administering confirmation to 72 persons. My course of visitation closing at this place, I departed for my home, [nearly 400 miles more, ] which I reached on the following Thursday, with abundant cause of thankful- ness to Almighty God for my preservation during the labours and fatigues of the journeys of a year past, embracing in the whole between three and four thousand miles."
One feels like taking a long breath after reading such a narrative as this. But the Bishop adds some details of interest.
" On my journey from Rochester home, I left the State of New York, a few miles south of Owego, and entered the Beech Woods of Pennsylvania, which cover the exceedingly wild and mountainous dis- trict through which runs the boundary that separates these two States. On my arrival at the Village of Montrose in the evening, I was surprised with the information that Bishop White was at that moment preach-
* The Rev. Addison Searle, Dr. Shelton's immediate predecessor.
t The Rev. Rufus Murray. See Journ. N. Y. 1826, p. 33.
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ing in the Court House. I of course immediately hurried there, entered the room, and saw the venerable Father of our Church in the midst of the flock who had crowded around him ; and was struck with the clear and edifying words of truth from that voice whose benevo- lent tones had instructed and cheered my childhood more than forty years back. Little then did I think that I should hear them in what is still almost a wilderness, at a period when he who uttered them should have attained nearly the age of fourscore."
" Almost all the congregations which I visited in the country are comparatively of recent origin, and in these the persons confirmed were generally more advanced in life than in our city congregations. They consisted principally of converts to the Church,-and the enlightened seriousness with which I had every reason to believe they received this holy rite, gave evidence of the fidelity with which their Pastors had prepared them for it.
" In several places, too, I found strong evidence that the clergy can counteract the powerful course of religious fanaticism,* and not only preserve any of their flocks from being led astray, but secure accessions, without any departure from the primitive principles and sober institutions of our Church. The increase of our Church by any other means is not to be desired. Numerical strength might thus prove absolute weakness, by bringing within her pale those who will seek to change her character. Our Church in this diocese has hitherto increased by a faithful adherence to her principles. In new settlements, a few Churchmen,-in some cases hardly more than one zealous Churchman,- using the Liturgy for worship, and at last obtaining the aid of some missionary on Sunday, have often succeeded in establishing a respectable congregation and erecting a house for worship." He goes on to specify interesting instances at Moravia, Trenton (Holland Patent), Ithaca, Ogdensburg, Batavia and Roches- ter. In the latter place, " itself but a new settlement, the congrega- tion has been organized but six or eight years, and in that period they have erected two houses for worship; and the large stone edifice in which they now assemble, a beautiful specimen of Gothic architecture, is surpassed by none in the State. The small congregation at Water- loo deserve great credit for the singularly neat and commodious Church which they have erected ; ; and that at New Hartford is principally indebted for their convenient structure to the liberality of one venera- ble individual, who at the first generously endowed the Church, and has since continued his munificent benefactions. # In the handsome
* The Bishop is perhaps anticipating here the tremendous wave of religious excitement which swept over Western New York a little later.
t Of wood, predecessor of the present church.
# Judge Jedediah Sanger.
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VISITATION OF 1826 : S. LUKE'S, ROCHESTER
brick edifice at Batavia,* a large body of worshippers assemble, where, not many years since, I officiated in the Court House to an assembly, scarcely any of whom were acquainted with our mode of worship. I might apply the same remark to Ithaca."t
In the Christian Journal, IX. 345 (Nov. 1825,) will be found a detailed description (undoubtedly by the Rector, the Rev. Francis H. Cuming) of the newly built S. Luke's Church, Rochester, exceedingly interesting as exhibiting the point of view in which its architecture, and "Gothic" architecture generally, was regarded in that day, some years before the publication of the first work on that subject in this country, by John Henry Hopkins, afterwards Bishop of Vermont. The account is much too long to be transcribed in full, but some excerpts may be given. The church, it should be noted, has been very little altered to this day:
"The style of building is Gothic, which has been rigidly observed in every particular. The two windows in the tower are most strikingly beautiful, containing a proper number of spandrels and branching mullions, and ornamented with the richest and most deli- cate tracery. The tower is finished at the top with 8 pinna- cles, connected by a castellated or embattled balustrade. A similar balustrade, with similar pinnacles at each corner, runs round the roof of the whole house. This, the door and window-frames, the cornice, and indeed all the woodwork, have been made so strongly to resemble the red free-stone by a process termed smalting, as to require very close inspection to discover that there is anything but stone about any part of the exterior. The arrangement of the interior, either as it respects convenience, elegance, or the economizing of the room,
could not be improved. The pulpit and desk consist of a number of delicate Gothic arches of open shell-work, behind which, in rich folds, is a drapery of dark blue silk velvet. The chancel is in the form of an oval, placed in front of the desk, and so arranged, that though sufficiently large, it takes up but little room, while it gives a clergyman sitting in it, a good opportunity to see the one who may be in the pulpit. For the Communion table, there is an Italian marble slab, resting on four gilt and bronzed legs. The bap- tismal font is of the purest alabaster, placed on a pedestal of Italian marble. The gallery is supported by large cluster columns, painted in imitation of light blue variegated marble, thus forming a most
* Journ. N. Y. 1826, pp. 20-24.
t Which gave way in 1835 to the present (far from handsome) Doric stone church, the outcome of the Greek enthusiasm which Dr. Whitehouse (then of Rochester, afterwards Bishop) brought with him from a year abroad.
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agreeable contrast to the dead white with which all the other part of the interior of the Church is painted. The colouring of these columns has been most faithfully executed ; a better imitation we need not look for. The ceiling of this Church is finished with intersecting vaulted or groined arches, ornamented with stucco-work. There is no profusion of ornament anywhere about the building ; you dis- cover nothing in it that would be called extravagant, nothing that gives it a tawdry appearance ; elegance, neatness, and (for a Gothic build- ing) simplicity, are its obvious characteristics. It stands upon a spot where, a few years since, the trees of the forest were permitted to grow undisturbed. It was erected by a congregation, small as yet in numbers, and composed for the most part of those who, till within a very short period, were strangers to the forms and principles of the Church."
A very fair account on the whole, as any one will see on entering the now venerable old church. No wonder that the writer closes with a fervent "Non nobis, Domine !'
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S. LUKE'S CHURCH, ROCHESTER Consecrated 1826
CHAPTER XIII
DIOCESAN MISSIONS IN 1827 : THE GOSPEL MESSENGER
QUOTE from one of the Missionaries of that early day* a remark which has been echoed year after year by many a country Parson :
" I have been grieved to observe that the requisitions of the 45th Canon of the General Convention, enforced by the 4th Canon of this State of 1796, are much neglected. In more than one instance I have been unable to find in the hands of the Vestry a transcript of the parochial registers kept by the Ministers whom they had formerly employed. Having access to no record, or to those which were very imperfect, considerable time has necessarily elapsed before the exact number and condition of the parishioners could be ascertained."
The Rev. Norman H. Adams, so many years Rector of Unadilla (now in the Diocese of Albany) and Bainbridge, Chenango county, speaks strongly of the zeal and liberality of his little flock in the latter place, who had nearly completed their church. At Fredonia, the Rev. David Brown reports the prospects of the Church (in " Cha- tauque " county) considerably improved ; yet he " finds it necessary to leave the country this fall for want of support, having expended nearly the whole amount of his private property in the support of his family and for the Church." Sohe " thinks it best that his successor should have the honour and the advantage, if any, of organizing." One wonders what the prospects must have been before this year. t
In many places there is reported "far more religious seriousness prevalent " than in former years. It seems to be the precursor of the great " revival " which swept over the country in 1829-30, and which, in the mad extravagance to which it was carried, desolated
* The Rev. Palmer Dyer, Granville, 1826. Jour. N. Y. 1826, p. 35. The first proper Parish Register, prepared by the late Rev. Dr. Haight, was published about 1845. My own, which has been in general use since 1859, is mainly on the same plan.
t Mr. Brown, who had been for a number of years a most faithful and capable Missionary, became Principal of an Academy in Albany. He d. at Lambertville, N. J., Dec. 7, 1875, aet. 89.
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
many sectarian congregations (while it filled many more), and brought hundreds to seek shelter from its wild excitement in the communion of the Church.
The Rev. John M'Carty, afterwards a noted Chaplain in the U. S. Army, was at this time missionary at Onondaga and Syracuse, in which latter village the Church was not growing, for want both of a resident Minister and a church building, the congregation being too poor to finish the one they had begun .* In Otsego and Chenango counties Father Nash continues his patient labours, " everywhere received with kindness, and often with that Christian love which sweetens the toils of the weary Missionary." At Richmond (Allen's Hill) the Rev. George H. Norton says that " the recent introduction of an organ into the church has infused some little life into the con- gregation," and he perceives "indications of seriousness " which he hopes may " eventuate in increasing the number of communicants." In Skaneateles and Marcellus the Rev. Amos Pardee finds the con- gregation " greatly increased," " numbers settled in their views with respect to the Faith once delivered to the Saints." At Turin and Sackett's Harbour, under the Rev. Joshua M. Rogers, the Church " is annually becoming more firmly established in its fundamental doctrines." At Geneseo " the Missionary cause continues, through God's blessing, to prosper " in the hands of the Rev. Richard Salmon, who reports also "the greatest zeal manifested for the Church at Warsaw," where Divine service is performed in the Masonic Hall ; so " he sees no reason why he should not remain for the ensuing year," though apparently a little surprised that he has stayed so long already. The Rev. Orsamus H. Smith remarks " a growing interest in the doctrines and worship of the Church" in Moravia (only three years old, but with a congregation " generally respectable for numbers, and which always unites with hearty zeal in the Liturgy," and a neat Gothic Church just consecrated), and in various places in Cayuga county. From New Hartford comes one of the most interesting reports, by the Rev. Amos C. Treadway. " The Church [S. Stephen's ] is now com- pleted, and the service well attended. Two years since [on an acci-
* The first communicants at Syracuse were the father and six sisters of the Rev. William H. Northrup, who died at Charleston, S. C., in March, 1819, after an earnest ministry of only two years in S. Peter's, Auburn. (Rev. W. S. Hayward. See Christian Journal, III. 96.)
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dental, or Providential, visit by the missionary] he found the peo- ple utterly unacquainted with our forms, and the ground wholly occupied by those whose views and principles are in discordance with the doctrines of the Church." The handsome and substantial old Church still in use was built mostly by Judge Sanger, the original proprietor of New Hartford. He was not a Churchman at the begin- ning of the work, and had been a liberal benefactor of another congre- gation which till now had had entire control of the little village. The " intrusion " of an " Episcopal " minister was strongly resented, and vigorous efforts were made to prevent the Judge from helping the movement .* The story is a long one ; but the final result was the coming in of the whole Sanger family, with many relatives and friends, to be pillars of the Church for several generations,-the building of the Church in New Hartford, and its endowment by Judge Sanger, at first with 130 acres of land, and afterwards with a perpetual annuity of $250.1
The Bishop also confirmed in July of this year 19 at New Hartford, 43 at Utica, 12 at Rome, 25 (Indians) at Oneida Castle, 9 at Holland Patent (where he consecrated the church) 13 at Turin (since known as Constableville, Lewis county), 9 at Sackett's Harbor ; and officiated at Brownville, where the Church was not yet established. In this year began the exodus of the Oneidas to Oneida (Green Bay), in Wis- consin, a few only leaving at this time with their former teacher, Eleazar Williams (ordered Deacon by the Bishop July 18,) Mr. Solo- mon Davis succeeding him as Catechist at Oneida, and giving a good report of the condition of the Mission. #
* " It was said," Mr. Treadway told me many years after, " that ' the Episcopal Church had no right to be in New Hartford.' 'Well, if you come to that,' was the answer, 'you have no right to be anywhere.' "
t " And thereby [by the 130 acres of land] hangs a tale" of endowments. After a few years this land (in an unsettled part of the county) was exchanged by the vestry for two lots in Utica; these again for a lot in New Hartford for a rectory, which was not built ; this again for a house and lot which was occupied but not paid for wholly, so that in course of time the unpaid mortgage and interest forced a sale of the property which left about $200 in all. The ladies of the parish wanted just this sum to complete the purchase of an organ for which they had been working ; so that in the end the 130 acres of land was absorbed by one- third of a small organ,-a very good and useful one, I may add. The annuity was capitalized in 1863, and this endowment has since been enlarged.
# Journ. N. Y. 1826, pp. 38-49.
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DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK
" The Bible and Prayer Book Society of Central New York," with a Depository in Utica, which for many years later was a most useful auxiliary to the General Society in New York, reports this year a per- manent fund of one thousand dollars. The first Commencement of Geneva (now Hobart) College was marked by the election of the Rev. Jasper Adams, D.D., (Brown Univ. 1819,) President of Charleston College, S. C., as the first President .* The College at this time established "an English course for the practical business of life, " the first such course in this country.
In the following year (1827) the Central New York Bible and Prayer Book Society reported 366 volumes distributed, making 2,457 since its organization. This year also witnessed the first " Convoca- tion " in Western New York (under the title of the " Monroe County Episcopal Association"), organized at Rochester, for the purpose of supplying vacant parishes with services, and founding new parishes and Sunday Schools. Bishop Hobart made another partial visitation of the " Western District," consecrating churches at Le Roy, Bain- bridge and Syracuse (where he confirmed 79), and visiting also Wind- sor, Binghamton, Coventry, Oxford, Sherburne, Otisco and Perry- ville. New parishes or services are reported at Angelica, Big Flats, Ludlowville, Liverpool, Candor, Watertown, Canaseraga, George- town, Nunda, Lyons and Montezuma.
On the day following the consecration of S. Mark's Church, Le Roy, the Bishop
" took a passage in the steamboat for Green Bay, to visit the Rev. Eleazar Williams, and the Oneida Indians under his charge. But finding it exceedingly doubtful whether I could accomplish the journey consistently with my necessary duties in my diocese, I was induced to postpone this visit to the ensuing summer, and to remain at Detroit, where I enjoyed the gratification of witnessing the effect of the meritorious and faithful labours of the Rev. Mr. Cadle.i I laid
* He rendered most efficient service, but for only two years, returning in 1828 to the presidency of Charleston College, and in 1838 becoming Professor of Ethics at West Point. He was author of a work on Moral Philosophy, 1837, and of other scientific and political works. He d. Pendleton, S. C., Oct. 25, 1841, aet. 48.
t The Rev. Richard F. Cadle, ord. deacon by Bishop HobartApril 27, 1817, was for a number of years Missionary at Detroit, and afterwards at Green Bay and Prairie Du Chien, rendering excellent service both to the whites and to the Indians in what was then the territory of Michigan. He was later (1844-9) Rector of S.
S. PAUL'S CHURCH, ROCHESTER Consecrated 1829
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THE GOSPEL MESSENGER
the corner-stone of the new church of S. Peter's [S. Paul's, it should be] in that remote, but ancient town, on Friday, the roth of August, preached on Saturday, and on Sunday morning confirmed eleven per- sons. The excellent and active Bishop [Stewart] of Quebec was at this time on the opposite shore, in Upper Canada. At his particular request, I preached for him on Sunday afternoon."*
In his address at the laying of the corner-stone, the Bishop speaks of the church as " the first to be erected in a Territory which will ere long exchange its forests for cultivated fields, and the solitude of its wilds for the bustle of busy towns.". But it was not till eight or nine years later that the full tide of emigration began to flow from New England and New York into Michigan. i This was the first visit of a Bishop to " Michigan Territory."
The most interesting event of this year, as it seems to me, is the beginning at Auburn, January 20, 1827, of "THE GOSPEL MESSEN- GER," by the Rev. John Churchill Rudd, D.D., at that time Rector of S. Peter's Church in that village. For forty-five years it contin- ued to be, in reality as well as in name, " The Church Record of Western New York," and, like its predecessor the Christian Journal (1817-30), an invaluable store-house of Western New York history. In this respect, I can safely say that no periodical since its day has begun to take its place. But it was much more than this, not only in Western New York, where nearly every intelligent Church family took it in as if it were their daily bread, and read it from end to end, but, as years went on, through many a State and Diocese in the West and South to which such families had gone. Dr. Rudd was not a forcible original writer, but he had a rare faculty of selection, both in Church news and in didactic, pastoral and devotional writings, which made the paper always interesting as well as profitable. Then it told, surely if slowly, of all that was going on of interest in parochial work ; it had the hearty support and constant help of successive Bish- ops and Clergy of the Diocese, who were frequent contributors to its pages ; its Church teaching was thoroughly sound and reasonably
John's, Sodus, and Missionary at Pultneyville and Sodus Point, W. N. Y., and afterwards Missionary in Vermont and Delaware. He died at Little Creek, Del., Nov. 9, 1857.
* Journ. N. Y. 1827, p. 15.
t When (in 1836) I used to see what sometimes seemed almost a continuous procession of emigrant teams "for Michigan" passing our Canandaigua home on "the great Western Road."
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progressive, slowly but constantly elevating the tone of thought and teaching in both Clergy and Laity. Later, it brought to the Church- men of this country the very best thought of the Oxford Movement so stirring the hearts of their English brethren, in a form always persua- sive and never offensive. Altogether, it was, I have always thought, the best, though not the ablest, weekly Church paper we have ever had in this country ; and there are yet living hundreds of Western New York Churchmen who will agree heartily in this opinion .*
In the summer and fall of 1828 the Bishop again visited a consid- erable part of Western New York, including twenty-six parishes (sev- eral of them twice), consecrating churches at Brownville, Mayville, Sheldon, Skaneateles and Harpersville (formerly Windsor, sometimes called Colesville, and far back of that " the Oquaga Hills"), and con- firming 2 12 persons. Of Brownville he says that some of the respect- able inhabitants had requested him two years before to come there, " having become dissatisfied with certain religious views and extrava- gancies which prevailed in the principal denomination of the place, and turned their attention to our Church, as exhibiting religious truth, and exciting religious feelings in a manner scriptural, rational, sober and yet fervent." The great body of that congregation had conse- quently attached themselves to the Church, and at this time several heads of families were confirmed, and thirty persons received the Holy Communion. On this tour he visited the Bishop of Quebec at Stam- ford, C. W., and went " by steam boat " to Detroit, where he conse- crated S. Paul's Church, whose corner-stone he had laid the previous year, and held a confirmation. Niagara Falls (then " Manchester ") received its first visitation at this time. At Rochester the new con- gregation of S. Paul's (the first instance as yet of a second parish in the same town) were erecting " a large and elegant Gothic church," and S. Luke's enlarging their almost newly consecrated church. At Hunt's, Allegany County (now Livingston County), having mistaken the road, he came into the unfinished church when Evening Prayer was nearly through, but in time to preach and confirm twelve persons.
" The present," the Bishop says, "is undoubtedly a period of great religious excitement, and is marked, as all such periods are, by a great mixture of error and evil with truth and good. Let us seek
* The 45 volumes (1827-71) are in my possession, and without them, I need hardly say, this history would be a barren chronicle.
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