USA > New York > Dutchess County > Poughkeepsie > The records of Christ church, Poughkeepsie, New York, Vol I > Part 10
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In behalf of the Vestry and Congregation of Christ Church of Poughkeepsie,
John Davis.
Poughkeepsie August ye 20, 1809.
Mr. Davis's report to the vestry in this matter stated that "he had left with the Bishop a Memorial, signed by himself, in behalf of this Vestry, to the Corporation of Trinity Church, New York City, stating the situation of our Church, and praying their assistance, and that he conversed with the Bishop and several Clergymen, and also with several gentlemen of the Vestry of Trinity, who gave him encouragement, and promised to be friendly to this church."
Early in 1810 a partial engagement was entered into with the Rev. Joseph Prentice of Athens, regarding the Rectorship; Mr. Prentice was to give one-third of his time to Christ Church from February to October, and,
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in October, 1810, to remove permanently to Poughkeepsie from Athens. He began his service here under this agreement on February 18th, but, by reason of his ill health, the plan for ultimate settlement was soon after abandoned.
At a vestry meeting held June 7th, "John Davis informed the Board that the Vestry of Trinity Church in the City of New York have granted a yearly donation of $250.00, for five years, towards the support of a clergyman in this Church," which is "to commence from the time when a clergyman shall be duly settled."
The account of the important result to this parish, of the help extended thus by old Trinity, belongs properly to a succeeding chapter.
Names of Pewholders 1800-1809
The pews were sold annually, at auction, except during vacan- cies in the Rectorship. The individuals, whose names are here given, did not all buy pews every year, but the list includes all those who did purchase from 1800 to 1809:
A. John Akin.
B. Ebenezer Badger; Valentine Baker; Ebenezer Baldwin; Mrs. Ann Barber; William Bard; Andrew Billings; Amaziah Blakesley; Abraham Bockee; William W. Bogardus; Jabez Bosworth; Joseph Bowman; David Brooks; William Broome; E. Brown; Elisha Brown; Joseph Brown; William Brown; John Brush; Jacob Bush.
C. Thomas Carpenter; Joseph Cornish; John Crooke; Gar- wood H. Cunningham.
D. William Davies; Daniel Davis; John Davis; Leonard Davis; Richard Davis; Warren DeLancey; Charles H. Duncan.
E. James Emott; William Emott.
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F. John L. Fonda.
G. John B. Gay; Robert Gill; John Gullon; Abel Gunn.
H. Stephen Hendricksen; Mrs. Gertrude Hoffman; Stephen Hoyt.
I. Duncan Ingraham; Mrs. Ingraham.
J. Samuel Johnson; John Johnston.
K. Gilbert Ketcham.
L. John Le Roy; Jonathon Lewis; Richard Lewis; Henry G. Livingston; John B. Livingston; Robert H. Livingston; William Lother.
M. Peter R. Maison; Levi McKean; Mathew Mesier; Peter Mesier; Stephen Mitchell; Thomas Mitchell; John Mott.
N. Bartholomew Noxon; Robert Noxon.
O. George P. Oakley; Jesse Oakley; Silas M. Orcutt.
P. Joseph Parker; Chester Parsons; William Pennington; David Phillips; James Pritchard.
R. John Reade; Eliza Rogers; Mathew Rothery; Philo Ruggles; Henry Rutzer.
S. John Sayrs; Thomas Sketchley; The Misses Sketchley; Samuel Slee; Gerard S. Sloan; Abel Smith; Granville Smith; Archibald Stewart; Randall Street.
T. George Taylor; William Taylor; T. Thacher; Abiel Thompson.
V. Garret B. Van Ness; John P. Vemont.
W. Robert Williams; ( ? ) Wood.
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PART II
PART II, 1810-1910 CHAPTER VI 1810-1845
THE RISE OF THE LOW CHURCH PARTY. BISHOP HOBART. HIS CHURCHMANSHIP. THE REV. JOHN REED. HIS LIFE-WORK IN CHRIST CHURCH. PERSONNEL OF HIS CONGREGATION. ORIGIN OF THE CONNECTION OF THE POTTER FAMILY WITH THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. THE FIRST CHURCH BUILDING AS IT WAS IN 1820. THE COMMUNION SILVER. THE FOUNDING OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. THE PURCHASE OF A BURIAL-GROUND. THE ERECTION OF THE SECOND CHURCH BUILDING IN 1834. THE SPREAD OF THE EPISCO- PAL CHURCH IN DUTCHESS COUNTY. DR. REED'S OLD AGE AND THE CALL OF AN ASSISTANT MINISTER. DR. REED'S DEATH. NAMES OF PEWHOLDERS, 1810-1832.
T HE year 1810 marks a turning point in the history of Christ Church. It closes a period, reviewed in the preceding chapters, in which the parish had been buffeted and tossed about by the storms of war and of political revolution, and held back by pov- erty, conflicting interests, and untoward circumstances generally. That it had continued to exist, testifies that love for it had struck deep into the hearts of a few, but there had been little growth and progress of a lasting sort.
Now, a new era was begun. By the promise of Trinity Church, New York, to contribute two hundred and fifty dollars a year for five years, it became possible to settle a Rector with some hope that permanent conditions would be inaugurated, a hope destined to be amply fulfilled, for
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the rectorate of John Reed, which took its date from August 19th, 1810, lasted for thirty-five years, and wit- nessed the re-birth and upbuilding of the congregation.
On July 17th, 1810, James Emott, Thomas J. Oakley and John Davis were appointed a committee by the vestry to confer with Mr. Reed, he being then Rector of St. Luke's Church, Catskill; the committee offered him a salary of seven hundred dollars and the parsonage, and he accepted the call extended on those terms. This is the first call given by Christ Church in which Trinity Church, Fishkill, did not join, and the Vestry Minutes do not contain any explanation of why the parishes discontinued their alliance at this time.
Mr. Reed was thirty-three years old when he became Rector of Christ Church, but had been in Priest's Orders only a little while, as he entered college later than was usual. Except for two years at Catskill, his whole life in the ministry was spent in this parish, and the founda- tion of the Church, as we now know it, was laid by his labors. This can be said without in any way detracting from the faithfulness of the men, clergy and laity, who preceded him. Their will to do was equally good, but they had great difficulties to contend with, in the face of which the most they could accomplish was to keep the parish from dying out. The task which fell to them was one of protection and prevention.
With John Reed's coming, constructive work began; a fact which is but one instance of the awakening which took place in the Episcopal Church at large in this coun- try at that time. After its first heroic effort to organize itself at the close of the Revolution, the Church had undergone an utter stagnation of life and spirit; the leaders were men past their prime, and their strength
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was spent by their struggle for existence. It was in- evitable that lethargy should clog action, until the next generation should rise and occupy the stage.
In England, also, in the eighteenth century, a cloud had overshadowed all religious life, a cloud gathered from causes of another sort, it is true, but, in its effects, the same as that enshrouding the American Church. To dispel this deadness of spirit, a wave of new life swept through the Church of England, one result of which was the Methodist movement. Another result was the spread to America of the germ of the teaching of this battle for spiritual regeneration, and, here, this teaching took form, in the Episcopal Church, in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, in the tenets of what became known as the school of Low Churchmen. The Low Churchman was impressed with the moral depravity of men, and he preached the salvation of the individual; he belonged to the Episcopal Church and he believed in its organization; but his doctrines in regard to salvation were those of a literal hell, from which men were to be saved, and his attitude toward the organization of the Church was that, while it was the best he knew and he held to it, his adherence was purely voluntary. A true Low Churchman was therefore an ardent missionary (for no time could be lost in the work of redeeming souls from everlasting damnation), and he fraternized some- what closely with the several Christian Communions among which he lived. Roughly stated, the Low Church element among Episcopalians in the United States was in its strength 1800-1835, held its own 1835-1850, and thereafter declined as a distinct school. During the time of its influence, it founded and maintained the foreign missionary work of the Church.
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But, although the Low Church party was spreading widely when John Reed came to Christ Church, this parish did not become allied with it. In 1811, the year after he assumed the Rectorship, John Henry Hobart was consecrated Bishop, as assistant to Benjamin Moore of New York, and, in 1816, at Bishop Moore's death, Hobart succeeded him at the head of the diocese.
John Henry Hobart was a dynamic force in the Church in New York State. He was a man of much power and ability, which were made potent by his energy and en- thusiasm. In personality he is described as having been exceptionally lovable, and in presence one who diffused an atmosphere of joy and brightness.
He will be rated historically, however, not so much as a worker, and a man who commanded affection, but as a man with a message, and a message differing in large part from the teaching of the prevalent Low Church party. He preached the same doctrine of the redemption of the individual, but, with equal insistence, he presented the conception of the divine origin of the Church. Men must be saved; yes, but they must be saved within the sacred institution which Christ, Himself, had founded. "My Banner," Hobart said, "is Evangelical Truth and Apostolic Order." Hence, one of the greatest aspects of his service to the Church was his bringing it to a realizing sense of its own history and claims, and posi- tion in the ecclesiastical world, none of which were taken account of by the Low Churchman. He infused into it a consciousness of its own entity and organized existence.
When he was made Bishop the Church in New York was not yet aroused from its stupor, but, at once, when he poured into its veins his own abundant life blood, it became filled with a fresh vitality, which manifested
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itself in many forms of activity. For, in their practical application, his principles re-created the Church in his diocese. His compelling influence revived old parishes, founded new ones, sponsored mission work among the Oneida Indians, and established such institutions as the New York Bible and Prayer Book Society, the Protestant Episcopal Tract Society, the Churchman's Magazine, and the Protestant Episcopal Theological Society, which last evolved itself soon into the General Theological Seminary.
Bishop Hobart. was a prolific writer as well as organi- zer, and the titles of some of his publications show the trend of his thought, such as Companion for the Altar, Festivals and Fasts, Companion to the Book of Common Prayer, Apology for Apostolic Order, Redemption, &c. His fearless advocacy of what he believed to be true brought upon him criticism from some Episcopalians, to whom his evangelical characteristics were unpleasantly suggestive of Methodism, and from Presbyterians, who were irritated by his disregard for their ordination and ministry. His most strenuous intellectual opponents were, nevertheless, warmly attached to the man, himself, and his real greatness enabled Bishop Hobart to rise above all criticism and to lead the Diocese of New York to large accomplishment.
Between Bishop Hobart and the Rector of Christ Church was the bond of personal friendship. They were very nearly the same age, they corresponded frequently and freely, and were in entire sympathy in their theologi- cal and ecclesiastical views, so that this account of the Bishop's teaching serves also for that of Dr. Reed, and it becomes evident that (strange as it may seem today) Christ Church, under the latter's leadership, was one of
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the first parishes in the diocese identified with High Churchmanship.
In 1810, when John Reed came to Poughkeepsie, he found himself in charge of an insignificant cure, for, in 1811, he reported to the Diocesan Convention but seventy communicants in his care. The last report made by him to the Convention before his death was in 1844, when he claimed two hundred and fifty communi- cants, which increase must be considered in the light of quality as well as of numbers, as, from that viewpoint, the substantial character of Dr. Reed's life-work will be better appreciated than from that of figures.
His rectorate occurred between the dates of the in- corporation of the Village of Poughkeepsie and of the charter of the City, and benefited by the growth which took place to effect the change thus indicated. Pough- keepsie was then a legal and political center, and many men prominent in that day in the State were brought into Christ Church through the influence of its Rector.
While Dr. Reed has been classed with Bishop Hobart in Churchmanship, he was unlike him in all other ways, for, where Hobart was brilliant and energetic, and, per- haps, aggressive, John Reed was deliberate, steady, even and tactful. He had the patience to go about the es- tablishment of a congregation by slow, painstaking, but sure and reliable methods, securing a deep and abid- ing personal hold upon the people, and thereby winning many into the Church. On the parish register are found many adult baptisms by him, and the lists of wardens, vestrymen and pewholders include the names of some of the ablest men of the day in Poughkeepsie. The bar was represented by such men as James Emott, Sr., Philo Ruggles, James Hooker, Richard D. Davis, Leonard
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Maison and Stephen Cleveland. Of these, James Emott, LL.D., whose career was distinguished as a mem- ber of Assembly and of Congress, as County Judge and as a Judge of the Circuit Court of New York State, was warden of Christ Church thirty-three years, Trustee of the General Theological Seminary 1826-1850, and elected by the diocese to represent it at the General Conven- tions of 1826, 1829, 1832, 1835, 1838, 1841 and 1844. Philo Ruggles, Surrogate and District Attorney, was vestryman and warden, 1807 to 1825; he built, about 1800, a double frame house on Market street (with a fine example of a dignified, carved doorway and fan light), which was known by the present generation as the Hook- er house, and he occupied the same until his removal to New York City in 1826. James Hooker, who later came into the possession of this house, which was torn down to make way for the new building of the Young Men's Christian Association, was regarded as one of the safest and most conservative counsellors; he was a Presidential Elector, 1836, Canal Commissioner, Surrogate, and was a member of Christ Church vestry from 1817 to 1858. Richard D. Davis, member of Congress, and long asso- ciated with public affairs, a man of marked ability, was continuously in the vestry from 1826 to 1853, and many years secretary to that body, although it is regretfully to be added that afterward, for a time, he was a Spiritual- ist. The same fact is true of Nathaniel P. Tallmadge in his later life, after his removal in 1844 from Poughkeepsie to Wisconsin, but who, while in Poughkeepsie, was a faithful member of the Episcopal Church, and served this parish in its vestry from 1821 to 1836. Tallmadge was a Senator of the United States, 1833-1844, and prior to that was a State Senator; he was a lawyer, a
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leader of the oft-quoted Poughkeepsie Improvement Party in the thirties, and was identified with most of the banking and freighting enterprises of the town; the house he built for himself is that on Delafield street, more recently occupied by Mr. Irving Elting.
From the medical profession the congregation included Dr. John Thomas and his nephew, Dr. William Thomas, Dr. Elias Trivett and Dr. John Cooper, whose son, Dr. John Reed Cooper, was the Rector's namesake, and · whose son-in-law, Dr. Walter Hughson, was baptized by Dr. Reed in 1841 when just beginning practice here. Henry Davis, who was president of the Dutchess County Bank and whose brick dwelling house on Market street has been remodelled as the present Fallkill National Bank, Walter Cunningham, business man, banker and leader of the Improvement Party, and Captain Frederick Barnard of the Poughkeepsie Whaling Company are examples of the class of men in commercial life whom Dr. . Reed had in his pastoral care.
One accession made in Dr. Reed's day had a lasting and widespread influence in the Episcopal Church in this country. There was living in the part of the township of Beekman, Dutchess County, that has since become the township of La Grange, a farmer, Joseph Potter, a member of the Society of Friends and the father of several sons. The eldest son, born in 1784, and given a name peculiarly suited to the Friends, that of Paraclete, came to Poughkeepsie about 1805-1808, established himself in the book and printing business, married, in 1809, a daughter of one of the wardens of Christ Church, and, in 1810, became a pewholder. In 1815 he bought The Poughkeepsie Journal and Constitutional Republican, which he edited and pub-
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lished for a great many years, during which he was connected with almost all the educational and business interests of Poughkeepsie. Paraclete Potter was a conspicuous member of the Improvement Party of 1835, but his service to the town through that channel was short in time as compared with the long years his book store was a center of influence. That was in existence by, or before, 1814, and continued until 1841, when its owner removed to Wisconsin. Throughout that period it was used much as a literary and political club. All the lovers of literature in the place gravitated there, and read and discussed the contents of the shelves, while influential politicians assembled to debate current issues. The late Isaac Platt, editor of The Poughkeepsie Eagle, became an apprentice to Paraclete Potter in the office of The Poughkeepsie Journal in 1821, and, in reminis- cences once published1 by him, he described the reading- room attached to the rear of the book store, and the gatherings in it of leading citizens. In referring to the prominent men accustomed to meet there, he mentioned twenty-four names, eighteen of which are found on the pew and vestry lists of Christ Church, which is a striking illustration of the position the parish had come to occupy in the community.
By the marriage and settlement in Poughkeepsie of Paraclete Potter, an opportunity was afforded two of his brothers to obtain a better education than was within their reach in Beekman. Accordingly, about 1812, Alonzo Potter, born 1800, and Horatio Potter, born 1802, entered the Academy, on Academy street, Poughkeepsie, opposite the parsonage occupied by Dr. Reed. No evidence has been found to determine whether they were
1 The Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, April 30th, 1867.
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boarding pupils or lived in their brother's home, but the latter is more probably the fact. In either case they became attendants at Christ Church, and the son of one of them once made an interesting statement in regard to this. In the present Christ Church, on December 2d, 1900, the day of the institution of the Reverend Alexan- der G. Cummins, Jr., as Rector of the parish, Bishop Henry C. Potter spoke of his father and uncle, and said that "their love for the Church, and their connection with it, dated from the day that they, two Quaker lads, wandered into the old first Christ Church, and felt the charm of its services."
Alonzo Potter remained at the Academy in Poughkeep- sie from 1812 to 18151, when he entered Union College. After his graduation he prepared for the ministry, and was made Deacon in 1821, and Priest in 1824. Mean- while, his brother, Horatio, two years his junior, re- mained in Poughkeepsie (probably until 1822, as he graduated from Union in 1826), and, after he left the Academy, served as a clerk2 in the book store of his brother, Paraclete. During a summer vacation from college, on August 10th, 1823, Horatio Potter was baptized by Dr. Reed, and so is even more especially a spiritual child of Christ Church than his brother, Alonzo.
The late Bishop of New York, Henry Codman Potter, always held in the tenderest regard the parish which he considered the cradle of his family's life in the Church. With certain of his kindred he gave the chancel-window in memory of his father and uncle, when the third church was erected in 1888; he rarely, if ever, failed, when he
1 Potter Genealogy, Part 10, pp. 37-38.
2 Reminiscences of Isaac Platt, The Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, April 30th, 1867.
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made his visitations, to dwell upon the associations with the past which were clustered here for him; and the preparation of this volume is, in part, due to his desire that a history of Christ Church should be written. Just before his last illness came upon him, he sent the writer an urgent message that this labor of love should surely be accomplished.
At the time that Alonzo and Horatio Potter were thus first brought into touch with the Episcopal Church, the building on Market street, in which they worshipped, was still the one that was erected in 1774, and which stood until 1833. It is our great good fortune that a detailed account of that building, as it appeared in 1820, has been procured.
Mr. Henry J. Ruggles, late of New York City, de- ceased, a son of Philo Ruggles, was born in Poughkeepsie in 1813, and lived opposite the church until 1824, when he went away to boarding school. Mr. Ruggles was a man of much intellectual ability combined with an unusual memory and habit of observation, and, in 1903, at the age of ninety, with his mental clearness unimpair- ed, he took unlimited pains to give the writer a complete and accurate description of the church as he knew it about 1820. This description is presented here, partly in quotations from his letters, and partly from notes taken in conversation with him, the notes being after- ward examined and approved by him.
Replying to the first inquiry made of him, Mr. Ruggles wrote: "If by Christ Church you refer to the church that stands, or stood, on the northeast corner of Market and Church streets, Poughkeepsie, I may say that I knew it in boyhood very well, for I was born in a house nearly opposite (my father's), and saw the building, I may say,
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every day of my life from my first year till my eleventh, that is from 1813 to 1824, in which latter year I went to live at Dr. Allen's boarding school at Hyde Park; but I never heard the church called by any other name than 'The English Church.' It was a brick building, and had stone casings around its windows, which were long and pointed, and reached from the level of the pews to the roof, so as to light both the first floor and the gallery. Dr. Reed (I believe he was a 'Doctor'), who lived at the corner of Academy and Cannon streets, was the parson at that time. My father was a member; I generally accompanied him to church, and many of Dr. Reed's eloquent sermons have fallen on my unappreciative ears. *
* I was in Poughkeepsie about eighteen years ago and there was then upon the corner of Market and Church streets a church, but it was not the old church as I recollect it. When you speak of my father's grave to the north of the baptistry, I do not know to , what you refer. My father, who died in 1829, was buried in a cemetery, which many years ago was laid out on a piece of land adjoining the village on the south, which was known in my boyhood as 'The Common,' and, at the time of his interment, there was no church building (according to my recollection) near the spot."
The old church stood upon a knoll, and, when Church street was cut through from Market, it was left upon a bank, which created, in the angle formed by the two streets, a terrace, with a flat top that was wide enough for two to walk upon abreast. The terrace sloped away from the corner in either direction until it merged with the grade of the street. Along the Church street side of the church lot ran a high board fence, painted red, and on the Market street front was a lower wooden fence
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with round pales and a brick sidewalk. North of the church, a gate in the Market street fence admitted funerals, the graves being mostly at the east and south sides of the church.
"The exterior of the building was plain; it was a rectangular parallelogram, longer than it was broad; a neat enough little church, without pretension to archi- tectural beauty." The east end was flat, with a large window of clouded glass, set, as were all the windows, in red sandstone casings; at the west end, over the en- trance, was the tapering spire of wood, painted white, resting upon a four-cornered base, also of wood, but painted a darker shade than the spire, and forming the belfry. The weather vane on top of the spire was tri- angular.
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