USA > New York > Queens County > Jamaica > The origin and history of Grace church, Jamaica, New York > Part 7
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A Church glebe was bought at a cost of £300, and £100 additional was invested in repairs. It had a small house and stable, and was rented at £24 a year. This land was on the Flushing road in the rear of the Town Hall. An effort was made to put the Church funds in a better condi- tion, interest having accrued on bonds unpaid for from ten to fifteen years. These bonds were settled and the funds increased by a legacy of £100 from Miss Sarah Depeyster.
The salary of Mr. Ratoon was $500, with the use of a glebe and the interest on about $4,500. The rector's
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home stood on the high land between Jamaica and Flush- ing, on the main road to Flushing, now occupied by one of the reformatory institutions of New York City, with extensive buildings erected nearly a century later. The rectory was then a new house, 44x30 feet, two stories and a half high. It was surrounded by 110 acres in farm land, with extensive orchards of fruit trees, among which were 1200 peach trees. The house commanded a view of New- town, Flushing, the Sound, Westchester and the Jersey shore, and was approached through a stately avenue of trees.
The Right Rev. Samuel Provost was then Bishop of New York, and Grace Church was represented by three dele- gates in the Diocesan Convention. There she stood as second only to Trinity Church, in age of organization, in the Diocese.
In the summer of 1799, the interior of the Church build- ing was painted entirely white, with top rails to the pews of mahogany color, and the steeple was raised. Blinds were put upon the exterior two years later, and with an able rector and renewed church building the century's work was hopefully inaugurated.
The original Stone Church of Jamaica built in 1699, a hundred years earlier, and over the possession of which were such hot contentions, was still standing in the high- way. It was in such good condition that it could be used on Feb. 22, 1800, for anniversary exercises commemor- ating the birthday and eminent virtues of the late Presi- dent, George Washington. In this celebration the Rev. Mr. Ratoon took part, and Mr. L. A. Eigenbrodt delivered the oration. He was the father of the Rev. Samuel R. Eigenbrodt, D. D., a professor of the General Theological
THE RECTORY BETWEEN FLUSHING AND JAMAICA, 1794.
Co Stave and co Sioro
Sinno
THE HEATHCOTE DEED OF THE CHURCH GROUND.
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Seminary, and the donor of its stately dormitory, Eigen- brodt Hall.
That Church was not taken down till 1818, when all the relics of burials within its walls were removed to the village cemetery.
The acceptable and prospering ministry of Mr. Ratoon was, unhappily to Grace Church, not long continued. He resigned his rectorship June 4, 1802, and went to take charge of St. Paul's Church, Baltimore. He subsequently became President of Charleston College, South Carolina, where he died of yellow fever in 1810.
The Church was much discouraged by Mr. Ratoon's departure. There were nearly a hundred names on the subscription lists for salary in the next eight years, but Grace Church did not thrive. Political contentions were rife, and reacted on religious conditions. There were £1,126 available funds, for the support of the Church. Offerings were taken for the support of the two Bishops, Right Reverends Benjamin Moore, and John Henry Hobart, and the Missionary Society of the Diocese. Yet there were only thirty baptisms in the ten years which began the century. The first confirmation service held in Jamaica was by Bishop Moore, who on Oct. 15, 1808, confirmed thirty persons. On July 3, 1814, at a visitation of Bishop Hobart, twenty-three were added to the com- municants of the Church.
In 1803 the Vestry adopted a resolution that the holders of pews in the Church should give a reasonable compensa- tion for the support of the Church, and that where sittings in a pew were not used by one family they should accom- modate another family or individuals, who would be
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agreeable. There were thirty-one pews besides four in the belfry for the blacks.
In Onderdonk's "Antiquities" are recorded the names of the pew holders at the beginning of the Nineteenth Cen- tury, through which with remarkable persistence and stead- fastness for a hundred years, their descendants, with but few exceptions, maintained their connection and promi- nence in Grace Church.
Among these families were the names of Welling, Hicks, Puntine, Betts, Troup, Waters, Eldert, Eigenbrodt, Nos- trand, Morris, Depeyster, Codwise, Christopher Smith, Rufus King, Hendrickson, Rowland, Underhill, Dunn, Oldfield, Valentine, Simonson, Kissam, Hewlett, Skid- more, Cortelyou, Lawrence, Mackrell. Pews were occu- pied by two schools, Mr. Eigenbrodt with tutors and students in front, and Miss Woofendale and scholars in the center of the Church.
REV. CALVIN WHITE AND OTHERS.
The eight years which followed upon the resignation of Mr. Ratoon were a period of dissatisfaction with the six different clergymen who were chosen as ministers or rectors.
Rev. Calvin White was the first of these to whom the offer of the rectorship was made, with a salary of $500 and the use of the glebe. Much care had been taken in the selection of this clergyman. He was ordained Deacon June 28, 1798, and was asked to take charge of Grace Church in November, 1802. He had been a minister of the Presbyterian Church at Hanover, N. J., and was mar-
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ried to Miss Phebe Camp of Newark, during that ministry, on Oct. 28, 1792.
The terms of Mr. White's settlement occasioned consid- erable correspondence and discussion, and were finally made to conform to those of Mr. Ratoon's ministry, and he was formally inducted as rector July 21, 1803, by Rev. Mr. Hobart of Flushing and Newtown, and Rev. Seth Hart, of Hempstead, and Rev. Mr. William Harris, of St. Mark's, New York.
Mr. White, with all this careful inauguration of his min- istry, was not in harmony with the parish. He was an accomplished scholar and skilled in Hebrew studies, but was not sufficiently in sympathy with the doctrines of the Episcopal Church. He left Grace Church abruptly to take another Church, Aug. 17, 1804. He continued in the Episcopal ministry until 1822, when he was deposed at Derby, Connecticut, where he resided quietly as a layman near the Church to which he had ministered. He died at Derby at the age of ninety, leaving a son, the distinguished literary scholar and critic, Richard Grant White.
The clergymen who had short terms of ministry in Grace Church for the next six years were: Revs. George Stre- beck, Andrew Fowler, John Ireland, Edmund D. Barry, Timothy Clowes.
They were chosen for six months or a year, but some of them did not continue in their ministry for even the short periods for which they were invited.
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CHAPTER XII.
The Rectorship of Rev. Gilbert Hunt Sayres-1810-1830.
A period of twenty years was covered by the prosperous rectorship of the Rev. Gilbert Hunt Sayres, S. T. D., who received a unanimous election to the rectorship of Grace Church, May 1, 1810. Mr. Sayres was not then in priest's orders. He was a native of New Jersey, a graduate of Columbia College, 1808, and studied for the ministry with Rev. Dr. Lyell of New York. Having been made deacon by Bishop Moore, Oct. 6, 1809, he did not receive his priest's orders from Bishop John Henry Hobart until Feb. 27, 1812. In 1863 he was honored by the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology, from Columbia College. His ministry continued for the same period as the episcopate of Bishop Hobart, who was consecrated in 1811, and who died Sept., 1830, the year of Dr. Sayres' resignation. The prosperity of that episcopate seemed to be shared by Grace Church and parish, which were blessed with the ministrations of a studious, devout, sympathetic and char- itable man, with social tastes and companionships, which made him an acceptable pastor and friend.
Dr. Sayres did not cease his life of doing good after he retired from the rectorship. He lived in Jamaica, a be- nevolent, scholarly man, for thirty-seven years. He re- ceived his honorary degree at the age of seventy-six and died at eighty years, on April 27, 1867.
Mr. Sayres was brought up under the influence of a godly mother, who was a member of the Friends Society,
REV. GILBERT HUNT SAYRES, S. T. D., RECTOR 1810-1830.
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but he early sought the preachers of other churches in New York, and was so impressed by their eloquence and doc- trines, that he changed his views and forsook the religious convictions of his mother to take up the more evangelical doctrines of the Presbyterian divine, Dr. Milledoler, the pastor of the Rutgers Street Church. From these he passed on to more liberal teachings of the Episcopal Church. But his mother was a strict and conscientious Friend, and was so deeply grieved at her son's straying from her guidance in his religious views that "she could never attend his public ministrations, though otherwise she had all a mother's affection for him."
"Though a staunch, true and evangelical churchman, Dr. Sayres, in his ministry and private demeanor, em- braced the whole Christian family in the arms of charity, but was outspoken against intemperance, war, slavery and Romanism. He was emphatically the Christian gentle- man."-(H. Onderdonk.)
Grace Church engaged Mr. Sayres to officiate for them, when he was sought for by other churches. They agreed to pay him seven hundred and fifty dollars annually, in two equal payments, with provision for six months' notice, should a separation be desired by the Church or the rector.
The total income of the Church during the first year, 1811, including interest on invested funds, was $904.84, of which only one-third was paid in subscriptions and collections.
There was an average of about sixty pew holders during Dr. Sayres' ministry from the whole township of Jamaica, for there were no other Episcopal churches then to divide the attendance of Churchmen with Grace Church.
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The Church building was much out of repair, and early in his ministry there was much discussion in the Vestry, of measures to enlarge it and put it in order. It had served the congregation a good part of a century. The more courageous of the pewholders desired a new Church build- ing to be erected. Those who had survived the struggles of Grace Church before and after the period of the Revo- lution, when they had been dependent on the co-operation of other Churches in Long Island and in New York, ad- vised another appeal for help. Subscription lists at home were at first discouraging, and nothing was done in Church building beyond necessary repairs.
In the Spring of 1820 the Vestry voted to repair and enlarge the Church, adding fourteen feet to the west end, and building a new steeple. A memorial was drawn up and read to the congregation by the rector. A gift of $1,000 was received from Trinity Church Corporation and a subscription of nearly $3,000 more was made for building a new Church.
The Vestry then voted to use funds invested in the hands of Trinity Church and elsewhere, and make a loan of $750 for this purpose.
Of the subscriptions there were two for $500 each, two for $300, one for $150, and three for $100. The rest were in smaller sums from $50 to $10, so that to the Diocesan Convention in 1821, Bishop Hobart could report:
"The congregation of Jamaica, with a commendable zeal for the Gospel and Church of Christ, are now engaged in erecting a new commodious, and very neat edifice on the site of the old one demolished for this purpose. It is expected, if the Lord will, to be ready for consecration early in the ensuing Spring."-(H. Onderdonk.)
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There was no architect employed in building this Church, but three of the most prominent of the congrega- tion, Messrs. Rufus King, Timothy Nostrand and L. E. A. Eigenbrodt, assisted the carpenters in making the plan and directing the construction.
GRACE CHURCH, JAMAICA. Consecrated July 15. 1822.
The new Church covered some graves, the tombstones of which were set up under the Church. The building, "remarkably neat and handsome," as Bishop Hobart de- scribed it, was consecrated by him on July 15, 1822. It was particularly recommended as having "a chancel, desk, and pulpit so conveniently arranged as to accommodate all the worshippers with a full view of the chancel."
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Mr. Sayres was instituted rector Oct. 30, 1819. He had shown himself to be a man of large views as to the religious needs of the world. He was one of the founders of the American Bible Society. This was a notable evi- dence of his liberal spirit. He also was a strong upholder of the Church's influence, from which he had received his ordination to the ministry of the Gospel of Christ. Early in that ministry, on June 29, 1815, there was a meeting in Grace Church, of the clergymen and laity of the Protes- tant Episcopal Church, called to form a Society to dis- tribute the Bible and Common Prayer Book. The remark- able record of this Society, which has entered so largely into the missionary work of the Church in the whole world, was widely made known at the centenary celebration in Trinity Church on April 14, 1909, in which bishops and priests of the Church in the United States and in the Greek and Armenian missionary fields, and high dignitaries of Oriental churches, participated. For her part in its or- ganization, Grace Church was represented near the head of the procession, by the rector acting as one of the Chaplains to Bishop Courtney, the representative of the Bishop of London.
Under Mr. Sayres, there was a larger number of bap- tisms than had previously been recorded, and the services of a Bishop to administer the rite of confirmation were quite frequently employed. It was a time of growth in neighboring churches in Long Island. On the day pre- vious to the consecration of the new Church at Jamaica, Bishop Hobart confirmed sixty persons in St. George's Church, in Flushing.
Two especially notable churchmen, during the ministry of Dr. Sayres, were active in the affairs of the Church and parish, the Hon. Rufus King and Lewis E. A. Eigenbrodt,
HON. RUFUS KING.
(From Portrait by Gilbert Stuart in Woodrow Wilson's "History of the American People." By permission of Harper & Brothers.)
THE KING MANOR HOUSE, JAMAICA, 1840. (By permission of the American Architect Magazine.)
-
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LL. D. Both of these gentlemen died during Mr. Sayres' pastorate. Mr. King died April 29, 1827, and Mr. Eigen- brodt, August 30, 1828.
Hon. Rufus King was early distinguished as a delegate to Congress from Massachusetts in 1784. He had a short military service in the Revolutionary War, and took a leading part in the political measures and discussions which sustained it. He was a prominent member of the Consti- tutional Convention in 1787, and of the Massachusetts Convention, 1787-1788, which ratified the Federal Con- stitution of which he was one of the signers from Massa- chusetts. Under the administrations of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, he was Minister to the Court of St. James, and represented New York as Senator in Congress for two complete terms.
The New York Evening Post at the time of Mr. King's decease lamented the departure "of another of our oldest statesmen, the favorite of Washington; one whom his soul loved; one in whom he wholly confided; one who rendered the most invaluable service in organizing and sustaining the early and difficult measures of the government: one who has been rarely equalled for talents equally profound and brilliant: and who, in his meridian, was numbered among the brightest stars in the galaxy of his country's glory."-(H. Onderdonk.)
Mr. King died at seventy-one years of age, in New York, and was buried from his mansion in Jamaica, without pomp, but in the presence of many distinguished associates.
The nation scarcely fifty years old might well take note of the departure from earth of one who valiantly supported its Declaration of Independence, shared its struggles and battles to make that declaration stand to all the world, and
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all generations. The ample grounds of the King Manor were filled with an impressive concourse of people. The customs of those days permitted without comment the distribution of segars, tobacco and wine for the refresh- ment of those who came from long distances over unpaved roads. The solemn scenes of such a burial may have been relieved of their sadness and yet no more sincere regrets were ever felt or expressed by a community for a distin- guished citizen.
He was a Warden from 1805 to 1812, a number of years successively, of Grace Church, and for twelve years also Warden of Trinity Church, New York. To him was largely due the interest and repeated aid of that church which so materially affected the condition of Grace Church. His son, the Hon. John A. King, distinguished as a Governor of New York, was also, after the death of his father, a communicant and active member of Grace Church before the long rectorship of Dr. Sayres was ended.
Mr. Lewis E. A. Eigenbrodt was also Warden, at the same time with Mr. Rufus King. He was an accomplished teacher of youth in Jamaica, and the founder of a noted family long connected with Grace Church and supporters of its ministry, and activities.
His son, Rev. William Ernest Eigenbrodt, D. D., was professor of pastoral theology in the General Seminary, New York City, and the donor of the elegant Eigenbrodt Hall, of that institution.
The elder Mr. Eigenbrodt was not only Warden for eleven years, but for some time Clerk and Treasurer of Grace Church. For thirty-nine years he was principal of Union Hall Academy, and by his elegance in writing and
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OF GRACE CHURCH
speech, impressed his scholars with his learning, wisdom and also by his exemplary character.
The resignation of the rectorship by Dr. Sayres was occasioned by increasing physical infirmities which pre- vented him from conducting the services acceptably. The necessity of this approaching separation from his work was made apparent some years before, and a mutual agreement was entered into by rector and parish for a term of years when the relation would terminate.
When it transpired, the Vestry made an appropriation of $100 annually for five years towards his support.
It was the thoughtful care and generous aid of the rector who followed Dr. Sayres, which mitigated the great trials which the cessation of his ministerial offices brought upon this venerable successor and servant of Jesus Christ. After the death of his successor there was revealed the sacrifices which had been made by him in behalf of this brother in the ministry, for whose sake he endured undeserved criti- cism in the use of his salary.
The Rev. Doctor Sayres long survived his rectorship. He died at the advanced age of eighty years, during the rectorship of Rev. William Lupton Johnson, D. D., suit- ably honored for his services as a minister of the Gospel, as an exemplary Christian citizen, and as a long-settled rector of Grace Church. The commendations publicly given by the distinguished clergy of New York who were present at the funeral services, and by the Wardens and Vestrymen of Grace Church, were remarkable testimonials to his character and the value of his services to the Church. The funeral was held at Grace Church on May 1, 1867. The day was stormy, but there was a large concourse of clergy and citizens. The Rev. Dr. Johnson, rector, was
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assisted by Rev. Mr. Pearson of Rockaway, and Rev. J. Carpenter Smith of Flushing. Episcopal clergymen and two Church Wardens, Ex-Governor King and Judge Cogs- well, were pall-bearers. Six Vestrymen, Messrs. Brenton, Napier, Denton, Johnson, Vandeverg and Valentine car- ried the plain mahogany coffin in which their aged rector lay clothed in his clerical vestments. The stores and busi- ness places in Jamaica were closed and the Church draped in mourning.
The resolutions of the clergy in their meeting, of which Rev. Wm. M. Carmichael was Secretary, gave thanks to God, that their venerable and beloved brother, Rev. Gil- bert H. Sayres, D. D., was enabled through grace to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior, as a wise, prudent, learned, holy, faithful minister for more than half a century; that while naturally of a meek and unobtrusive temperament, he was ever the bold, firm, decided, uncompromising advo- cate of righteousness and truth; that although he was laid aside from the active duties of the ministry for nearly forty years, yet he was always ready to counsel the weak and erring, as well as to sympathize with the poor and needy to the best of his ability; that he has left behind him a record, not only of untiring faithfulness and devotion to his work, but a multitude of witnesses to attest the power and value of his ministrations in winning souls to Christ; in short that he has passed away, as we can testify, amidst the tears and regrets of the entire community in which his life was spent, and has finally fallen asleep in Jesus, full of years and honor, to receive a crown of glory eternal in the Heavens."
The Vestry resolutions gave expression to their un- feigned sorrow and regret for the "loss of one of the oldest and ablest ministers of the Church, to bear their grateful
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testimony to the pure and gentle character of a clergyman, venerable for his age, eminent for his learning, his piety, and for the soundness of his church principles." The sim- plicity of his life and manners was ever in unison with the Gospel he preached, and during a long life of varied health won for him the affection and confidence of this congre- gation and of every true Christian.
Doctor Sayres was buried in Grace Churchyard. He was born Dec. 13, 1787, in Westfield, N. J. He married Eliza Maria Brown, May 30, 1810. He died April 27, 1867, having lived to see most of their large family come to maturity. Their children were Jane Hewlett, Rev. George, Gilbert, John Tillotson, Isaac, Rev. Samuel Wood- ward, formerly Rector St. John's Church, Far Rockaway, L. I., Lydia Stewart, wife of Dr. Charles H. Barker, Wil- liam Johnson, and Eliza Maria.
Of these, Rev. George Sayres, Eliza Maria, Jane, and Gilbert Sayres, Esq., of the New York Bar, lived and died citizens of Jamaica. Two of Gilbert's family also con- tinued to represent their grandfather in Jamaica for many years with his widow, Anna Leah Sayres. These were Elizabeth, the wife of James R. Lake, and Gilbert Barker Sayres, Vice-President of the Metropolitan Bank, New York.
The older son, Rev. William Seaman Sayres, was a graduate of Dartmouth College, 1876. He also received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from this college. He went to China as a Missionary of the Board of Missions, having been ordained Deacon by Bishop Niles of New Hampshire. He took the Chair of Mathematics in St. John's College, Shanghai, and remained in China until
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May, 1885. Returning in 1885 to America, Doctor Sayres became General Missioner of the Diocese of Michigan.
The rest of this family were Mary Regina, Annie Eliza, and Lydia.
James Jahleel Brenton, prominent in the vestry of Grace Church, was descended from William Brenton, a representative of Boston from 1635, Lieutenant-Governor of Rhode Island before 1660, and Governor from 1666 to 1669, who died, 1674, at Newport. He came to Jamaica in 1835, where he established the Long Island Democrat. In 1854 he was chosen Vestryman, and in 1868 he suc- ceeded John A. King as Warden. He was also Treasurer of the Church for some years.
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CHAPTER XIII. The Long Rectorship of William Lupton Johnson, D. D., -1830-1870.
The most important period of the history of Grace Church during the second century of its life, is marked by the ministry of the Rev. William Lupton Johnson, D. D. It was twice as long as that of Rev. Dr. Sayres, which preceded it, and was the most extended and fruitful in its results of all of the rectorships of two hundred years. It began in February, 1830, and ended in his death, Aug. 8, 1870. These forty years were also the most momentous part of the Nineteenth Century to this nation. It was a time of political agitation and intense moral struggle in the minds and hearts of this people. Then followed the war for state rights and to establish slavery and oppression on one side, and to maintain the constitution and the Union on the other side. During this rectorship were the greatest religious movements of modern times and the development of education in our country in the great West and South, and to raise millions of slaves to an intelligence worthy of the freedom and civil rights conferred upon them. The most unselfish patriotism found expression, the largest missionary efforts were put forth, and the most extensive philanthropy attended upon the unequalled scientific, commercial and industrial progress attained after the Civil War. There were in the first ten years of Dr. Johnson's ministry only eighty-eight different pewholders in Grace Church, from the whole parish and township of Jamaica, where now there are ten Episcopal churches and
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