USA > New York > Queens County > Jamaica > The origin and history of Grace church, Jamaica, New York > Part 12
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Two more useful and respected persons could not have been taken from the Church's life in Jamaica. The Vestry, who were intimately acquainted with Mr. Aymar, gave testimony entered upon their minutes, May 14, of his high worth and their affectionate regard:
"On the removal by death from the membership and from the offices of vestryman and treasurer of this Church, of Samuel S. Aymar, we recognize the loss of one whose life gave evidence of his unfailing devotion to the inter- ests of this parish. Always a Christian, he was diligent, prompt, and upright in business relations, and faithful to his many trusts. A gentleman in the kindness and courtesy of his dealings with those whom he met, he was pure in heart as he was in speech. Charitable in spirit, he was a friend to all. A communicant of the Church for nearly fifty years, and a vestryman for nearly thirty-five years, by the constancy of his faith and the innocency of his life he has left an example worthy of emulation."
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Miss Cornelia King was stricken by apoplexy the day preceding the first Thanksgiving Day of the rector with his people, and lay unconscious till her death a week after. She was the eldest daughter of Governor King, whose memory she venerated, and whose virtues she continued in her life in the Church and diocese. Her charities were constant, her influence positively Christian, her spirit lov- able, and its expression forcible and rugged. Her leader- ship among the women of the Church and diocese was accepted for its faith, wisdom, generosity and devotion to the Church, while her station in society gave her unques- tioned influence in the larger growth of its charitable in- stitutions and missionary work. Bishop Littlejohn said of her in his convention address:
"As President of the Board of Associates of the Church Charity Foundation and President of the Board of Man- agers of St. Phebe's Mission House, she labored inces- santly to increase the support and to extend the usefulness of both. There was no charity or mission in the diocese that did not command her sympathy, and when needed her active help. There was much in her work, her life and her character that recalled many of the Godly women who figure in the gospel narratives and in the epistles of St. Paul. She was called from us at a ripe old age, and after a brief illness, leaving behind a blessed memory and carrying with her the love and veneration of all who knew her."
A few months before this rectorship began (in 1896), Rev. Samuel T. Stocking passed away at the advanced age of eighty-six years. He finished his life in the large man- sion on Clinton Avenue where for some years he main- tained a boys' school in retirement from the duties of a parish priest in what is now Massapequa, Long Island,
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and of which church he was made rector emeritus. He and his devoted wife were prominent members of Grace Church parish, and kindly remembered by many pupils who had come under his training there, and in St. Mark's Hall, a school which he established in 1850, in West Orange, adjoining St. Mark's Church, where he was rector from 1851 to 1861. To the last he was a staunch defender of the faith, order and worship of the Church, of very positive convictions which he was fond of discussing with others, who were able to defend their own. Bishop Little- john said of him:
"His character, like his bodily frame, was solid, well- proportioned and weighty. It implied rather than ex- pressed decision of will and energy in action. The power to deal heavy blows and to lead feebler natures was evi- dently in it, but this power was by the innate gentleness and courtesy of his disposition subdued into a silent part- ner in the business of life.
"Though he lived well on towards the close of the nine- teenth century, his habits of thought, his view of the world about him, his criticism of conduct and manners, his bear- ing in society, his ideals of life and character, his theology and style of preaching, the books that he read, the authori- ties that he consulted, his pastorate of souls, his mode of working a parish, all belonged to the first half of the cen- tury. He died in the faith and fear of God's holy name, and he left behind him the memory of a char- acter and a career which those who knew him best will long cherish with loving interest."
The Rev. Beverley Robinson Betts, who passed the greater part of his life in Grace parish, entered into the rest of Paradise on Whitsunday, May 21st, 1899, in his
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72d year. He was born in Greenwich Street, New York City, the son of Justice William Betts. He was descended from Lord Stirling, who inherited his title from the Scottish Earl Stirling, and was major-general in the Army of the Revolution, having had command of nearly all the forces of the army under General Washington. His mother was a Miss Robinson, granddaughter of Col. William Duer, and her grandmother was a daughter of Lord Stirling. Mr. Betts' ancestor, Richard Betts, settled in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1642. Mr. Betts lived on a large ancestral estate in Jamaica, called Merriwood in late years, having married, October 6, 1892, Miss Emily Henrietta Nisbett, the daughter of an English clergyman, Rev. James Nisbett.
Rev. Beverley R. Betts was a clergyman of marked literary tastes, and wrote articles for various church re- views. He had means to gather a large library, of special value in its biography and genealogical character. He left a voluminous genealogical history written in the clearest script. He was an authority also in heraldry. He was librarian of Columbia University for fifteen years.
As a clergyman he was self-denying, devout, and dili- gent, occupying the rectorship in Woodsburgh, Long Island, five years, and at Maspeth seventeen years, from which he resigned in 1865, and came to the old homestead in Jamaica, where he lived as a retired minister and an honored member of Grace Church and Parish. Mr. Betts was devoted to his father during years of his affliction, and gave a beautiful example of filial piety to the community. He was kind, gentle, loving, always seeking peace and was truly a Christian gentleman. Reverend Doctor Charles Olmstead and Rev. George Houghton assisted the rector in the funeral services at Grace Church.
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Two members of the King family should have their me- morial in this rectorship, yet they for many years were not residents of Jamaica. Hon. John Alsop King and his daughter, Miss Mary Rhinelander King, were connected with the Church of All Saints in Great Neck, L. I., near which was their home; but they visited Grace Church statedly at Christmas and Easter communions, thus re- newing their associations with their ancestors.
Their names are perpetually linked together in Grace Church, through the memorial sanctuary erected as the gift of Miss Mary R. King to the glory of God and the loving memory of her parents.
Hon. John A. King, the grandson of Rufus King, was born in Jamaica in 1817, was graduated at Harvard in 1835, studied law and was admitted to the bar, and for a while practised law in New York City. He was the Republican Presidential elector in 1872 and a State Senator in 1871-75. He was the President of the New York His- torical Society, a member of the St. Nicholas Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the American Museum of Natural History. Senator King, as he was called, was a generous and constant supporter of Grace Church, and he was buried in Grace Churchyard. The services, held in St. Thomas' Church, New York, were attended by Bishops Leonard and Worthington, and the Rev. Dr. George Williamson Smith, President of Trinity College. A prayer was offered by his rector, Rev. Kirkland Huske, at the committal, and a large number of Mr. King's family, relatives and friends in attendance in the churchyard cast flowers in profusion upon the grave of one of the most distinguished sons of Jamaica.
Miss Mary Rhinelander King emulated the virtues of her beloved Aunt Cornelia, through whose example she
4
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was early led to that wide and tender sympathy which made her one of the church's constant and most generous benefactors. She inherited a large fortune, which was distributed with a rare sagacity; a gracious readiness, an unheralded charity characterized her, and her lovely and far-reaching benevolence extended to friends and strang- ers, to educational institutions in her own and foreign lands, to hospitals and orphanages, to the poor and distressed, and to the farthest limits of the missionary fields of the world. Her cheerful spirit refused to yield to many pros- trations of health, and in her last wasting sickness of many months, she made one of the most remarkable wills that ever devised a large fortune. Miss Mary King was active in all the societies of the diocese in which women had the direction and a liberal supporter as well as wise manager of their executive affairs. She was specially beloved by the church and community where her religious life was begun and stimulated in the remarkable family to which she belonged.
Among her benefactions are the memorial to her parents in the building of the new sanctuary, vestry and choir of Grace Church in 1901, and the complete furnishings and surgical appointments of the operating room of Jamaica hospital. For ten or twelve years the archdeaconry of Queens and Nassau and the parish committees received her hearty support.
The tributes of her former rector, Rev. Doctor Smith, to both her father and herself at the consecration of the sanc- tuary may well express our gratitude for the service of God manifested in such lives.
Mr. Benjamin J. Brenton was a lay reader in Grace Church for nearly fifty years. A native of Jamaica, he
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belonged to a family who had been staunch churchmen and supporters of Grace Church from 1835, when their ancestor came from Rhode Island to Long Island. Mr. Brenton held a confidential business position in New York all his life, remaining in the same concern until he was retired a few months before his decease. He also assisted his father and brother in the conduct of the Long Island Democrat, and developed literary tastes in editorial work. He was an intelligent reader of books, and a guide, for many years, to others who were associated with him in the Chautauqua courses, and other reading circles. Mr. Brenton had a social disposition and many friends in the church and community. His hand was always ready to dispense a wise charity and to aid in church activities and improvements. He became vestryman in succession to his brother, waiting many years for his opportunity, and he died the oldest member of the vestry, where he had served the church twenty-seven years. Mr. Brenton sent to the rector, under date of Dec. 12, 1904, this statement of his connection with the establishing of missions of Grace Church, at Richmond Hill and Queens, which are now prosperous churches :
"I have no exact data to go by in relation to the estab- lishing of our mission services at Richmond Hill. It was in 1866 or 1867, that the Rev. Thomas Cook, first assist- ant minister to Rev. Doctor Johnson, and afterward for a while minister in charge at Grace Church, commenced services at Richmond Hill. They were first held in the station house of the L. I. R. R. I took charge in alternating Sundays, sometimes Theodore J. Cogswell, also a lay reader of Grace Church, took my place, while I went to help along the Queens mission, which Mr. Cook was car- rying on with the assistance of Mr. Cogswell. When Mr.
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Cook was appointed to the charge of missions in Suffolk County, I was left nearly two years in sole charge of Rich- mond Hill mission, whose services were then held in an upper room over a carpenter shop. The room was fitted up for our use like a chapel. In 1872 the Rev. George Williamson Smith was called to Grace Church, and he with me alternating kept up the services until they were strong enough at Richmond Hill to set up for themselves."
Mr. and Mrs. Brenton reared four children, two of whom survived their father, Mrs. MacDonald, and Rev. Cranston Brenton, professor of English Literature in Trinity College, a distinguished and eloquent preacher of the Diocese of Connecticut. He has very recently been called to the secretaryship of the Education Department of Church Missions in New York. His father died after a protracted illness in his home in Jamaica in 1911.
In the first six years of this rectorship there were five changes in the leadership of the choir: Mr. F. E. Hopkins was succeeded by Mr. Ernest T. Winchester. After him came Mr. N. Kimberley Ferris, who was followed by Alger E. Weeden and Henry G. Spiller of White Plains. There was an impetus given to the choir by each of these musi- cians, and the great musical compositions presented on feast days and at special seasons of Christmas and Easter- tide secured a remarkable attendance from the community, which not only filled the church but sometimes exceeded its capacity. This, however, was an annoyance to some of the conservative members of the Vestry and Church, who were rather exclusive in their ideas of the proper uses of a church building.
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The Altar Guild of Grace Church was organized in Nov., 1897, and a constitution and by-laws adopted as a perma-
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nent institution of the Church. The rector and six mem- bers were present at the first meeting, and the officers elected were Mrs. Philip K. Meynen, directress, Miss Vir- ginia Cogswell, sub-directress, Miss Annie K. Cooke, treasurer, Miss Elizabeth Brenton, secretary. All Saints' Day was adopted as their anniversary day for a Corporate Communion service, and regular monthly meetings were held. The following year, in July, 1898, Mrs. Meynen resigned, and Miss Cogswell was elected directress, which office she held for this whole rectorship, and continued into that of Rev. Mr. Homans. The care of the altar linen, vestry room, altar hangings, decorations and fur- nishing of needed articles and appointments devolved on this very important guild. An appropriation was annually made for their use by the Vestry, and many private gifts secured by the members for the enlargement and beauti- fying and perfecting of altar service, and an orderly and reverent celebration of the Holy Communion. All the saints days and greater festivals of the Church were main- tained by the members of the guild with other communi- cants. Among the associate members who became liberal contributors to the work were Mrs. Sarah S. Stocking, Mrs. Martin S. Rapelyea and Mrs. Philip K. Meynen.
During the first five years some of the most active, con- stant and efficient members of the guild were Miss Eirene Ladd, Mrs. F. T. Martin, sub-directress, Miss Josephine Stehlin, and Mrs. Theodore R. White. Miss Ladd con- tinued an indefatigable member through the whole rector- ship. Miss Elizabeth Brenton became till her last illness the efficient and zealous secretary of the Guild.
One of the most important efforts of this guild was to get stated gifts of flowers through the year, memorial of departed communicants and friends. Mr. C. C. Napier,
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Mrs. Beverley Betts, Mrs. S. S. Stocking, Miss Nesbitt, Mrs. Andreu, and several others were the first regular con- tributors in this way, under the direction of the guild, to the services of the church, and a handsome white altar vestment, a pulpit hanging, a litany desk and a private communion service for the use of the rector in his visita- tion of the sick were gifts, the products of their handiwork or incited by the early efforts of the members of the Altar Guild.
The St. Cornelia Flower Guild was organized on the 17th of June, 1897, with 14 members. It was named in memory of Miss Cornelia King, a lifelong member of Grace Church and a conspicuous friend and promoter of charities in the diocese. It was intended to interest very young girls in charitable work, and train them for larger activities of this kind. The special purpose at first of this guild was to send flowers to the tenement districts in the crowded city, taking a little sunshine to the lives of the people there. The members met and made flowers into bouquets which were sent to the Fruit and Flower Mission connected with St. Michael's Church, Brooklyn. From its first organization till Oct. 28th, the first year, 1043 bouquets were sent.
Then a Christmas box full of clothing, candy and toys was sent to Tennessee and Virginia, to schools for colored and white children. During Lent a box was made up of night-dresses, scrap-books and bedding for the little pa- tients of St. Giles the Cripple, Brooklyn. For several years such work was continued, and programs of music and recitations and talks carried out for the interest and instruction of the workers and older people of the parish. The membership increased to thirty-five or forty, and the members became active in the older guilds. The officers
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in charge were Miss Florence Detheridge, the Misses Simon- son, and other members of the Kings Daughters. Misses Edna N. Baker, Ethalinda Jackson, Florence and Frances Andreu, Miss Lillian Smyth, and Anna Margaret and Isabel Morris were some of its most active members.
The Sunday School had at this time two efficient officers in Albert B. Purchase, secretary, and Clarence A. Purchase, librarian. The former was an active member of those organizations which looked towards a larger influence of the Church, and continued a valuable help in its extension for several years, until, broken in health, he removed to Arizona with a young wife, only to return a few years after to die in Jamaica, his native town. He was a lawyer by profession and a progressive and earnest communicant and citizen.
The assistance of Mr. Roeliffe H. Brooks, who was appointed Oct., 1897, as lay reader and superintendent of the Sunday School, and a visitor representing the rector in the homes of the people, contributed largely to the re- vived activities and guild work. Mr. Brooks was a stu- dent in Columbia University, and gave part of his time to these ministrations. He undertook, at the rector's request, the organization of the Parish Sunday School Guild, having the interests of the Sunday School as a special care, while also in charge of the Cathedral mission at Dunton. This. guild was organized in and held its meetings at the home of Miss Hester Boyd, who became for several years its recognized leader, assisted by committees of young women, and young men also, who provided entertain- ments of a literary and historical character, with tableaux and short plays, followed by refreshments. The Christ- mas and Easter festivals took on a new life and popularity under their management, and also the annual excursions
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of the scholars and members of the parish. The school filled to its entire capacity the school building in the third year of this rectorship. Mr. Brooks continued for several years to assist the rector. After taking a full course of study and graduating from Columbia University and the General Theological Seminary, he became a popular as- sistant at the Church of the Messiah in Brooklyn, and after his marriage was elected to St. Paul's Church, Albany, where he is still a loved and successful rector, with a large and increasing influence, especially among men.
The Sunday School Guild to which he was devoted in its first and most difficult years, became in the course of this rectorship the Grace Parish Social Guild, which, with nearly one hundred members, grew to be the most import- ant guild for all the social and material growth of Grace Church, with a systematic organization, and a responsible official board.
Mr. Brooks also reorganized the Boys' Club of Grace Church, in March, 1900. This he conducted for several years, awakening the interest and enthusiasm of the boys, who were wisely led by him in their athletic sports and assisted in their literary and musical entertainments.
The rector had instituted during the first year a parish paper, Grace Church Chimes. Assisted at first by the Vestry in the expense of its publication, it was afterwards mainly supported by village advertisements. The Sun- day School Guild undertook for two years the cost of printing and the distribution of the Chimes, which was edited and conducted by the rector. Afterwards the entire responsibility of this paper returned to the rector, who, being assisted by Misses Eirene Ladd and H. V. Cogswell, published it till the close of the rectorship in 1909, and
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made it self-supporting through subscriptions and adver- tisements. The Chimes was published monthly ten times a year, and made when bound a large quarto volume.
The Chimes was a valuable instrumentality of this rectorship, and continued to its end. The rector was aided in its publication by the secretaries of the guilds, who contributed their annual reports, and among the special contributors was Miss Phebe Hagner, whose papers on past events in the parish, the Ladies' Missionary Society and the Sunday School preserved valuable material for this history of Grace Church. Miss Elizabeth Brenton, a woman of fine literary taste, sent interesting reports of the Altar Guild work. The rector furnished the principal part of each issue, preserving the current history of the parish life, with special sermons and addresses affecting its spiritual and material activities.
By January 1, 1899, a Directory of Grace Parish was completed and published by the rector in the Chimes, and afterwards as a separate manual for free distribution.
The communicants had increased so as to number 315. Besides these there were names of 100 other single persons or heads of families connected with the parish. There were 65 pew-holders, some of whom had but one or two sittings. The Sunday School numbered 19 officers and teachers and 175 scholars.
But a year after, Jan., 1900, the number of communi- cants whose names had been thoroughly revised and iden- tified was 320. The families represented in the congrega- tion numbered 325. The number of baptized persons in the parish was 660, and the Sunday School had a total of 163 members. The income for all objects of Church expenditures, including charities, was $6,095.80. Included
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in the work and influence of this long established church, whose parish limits were so largely extended in its original foundation, were now eight Episcopal churches and mis- sions holding regular services, gathered and organized from Grace Parish since 1872.
On the last Sunday in the century the rector of Grace Church said to his congregation:
"The century closes on this its last Sunday with a hopeful vista opening up before this Church as before our nation and the world. From the efforts and failures of the past we have learned some wisdom concerning what shall pro- mote the prosperity of this Church of Christ. It is not only staunch churchmanship, but self-reliance; not only steadiness but activity; not only piety but progress; not only conservatism but liberality; not only steadfastness and patience, but faith and enterprise which laying hold of opportunity, put forth the requisite energy to gain the con- fidence of men and the blessing of God.
"We have come to a new century of human achieve- ment, the fitting and necessary preparation for which by the Church must be material enlargement and intellectual and spiritual energies commensurate with the greater capacities of mankind and the development of aggressive forces for the conflict of sin with righeousness."
Grace Chapter of the Daughters of the King, organized Nov. 20, 1899, with seventeen members, the Junior Daughters of the King, and the Crown Circle of the Kings Daughters, were, during the whole of this rectorship, guilds which were specially active and faithful to their principles. The first two were organized in Grace Church to promote personal devotion and give aid to the rector in influencing strangers and others to attend the Church ser-
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vices. They held meetings for prayer and instruction in Christian living, and put their Christian motives to test in aiding charitable work. The Juniors were under the di- rection of some of the older guild, and were brought to their sense of responsibility and duty in keeping their vows of baptism, and confirmation. Thus those who were sponsors could draw their spiritual charges to the avowal of their own faith and obedience to the word of God. Under a few faithful ones who kept their membership in view in all their Church relations, these guilds flourished. Their influence extended to other activities. They were tried and faithful and successful teachers in the Sunday School. Miss Port, Mrs. Martin, Misses Augusta and Sadie Simonson, Miss Comellas, Miss Gertrude Gale, Miss Aline and Miss Bessie Oborne, Miss Pauline Cogswell, and Miss Amy Wiltsie were most efficient workers.
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