USA > New York > Dutchess County > Poughkeepsie > The records of Christ church, Poughkeepsie, New York, Vol I > Part 19
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Mrs. Buckingham's liberality has meant more to the parish than those things which meet the eye. It lifted from the congregation a material burden which had threatened to diminish its spiritual capacity, for it was property poor, and this handicap was dulling its percep- tion of its obligations of another sort.
In the century of construction that began with Dr.
1 The parish was without a rectory from 1880 to 1903. Dr. Ziegenfuss boarded at No. 61 Market street (next the church), at No. 58 Market (the former Ruggles-Hooker home), and at the Nelson House, and, in 1890, occupied No. 2 Eastman Terrace. Mr. Weikert lived in No. 299 Church street, No. 102 Academy and No. 50 Mont- gomery. Mr. Cummins rented, first, No. 21 Carroll street, and later boarded at the Morgan House.
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THE ALBERT TOWER, JR., MEMORIAL RECTORY Erected 1903 The Gift of Mr. A. Edward Tower
The Records of Christ Church
Reed's arrival in 1810, Christ Church has been sympa-> thetically receptive of successive developments in the- ology and Churchmanship, in ritual and vestments, and in methods of work; the energy of its members planted St. Paul's Church and the Church of the Holy Comforter, Poughkeepsie; for forty years it conducted a free school; it shared in the foundation and support of a free hospital; and its parochial ministrations are hallowed by tender and gracious memories. The weak spot in its record is the limited assistance it has given to the cause of foreign missions, the original source of which defect has been described in preceding pages.1
Today, it finds itself in the midst of changes taking place at large and locally, and, alive to its duties and its privileges, is doing all that in it lies to adapt itself to its environment. The Rector and congregation are at one in the belief that this church building, which they have inherited from the last generation, should be occupied by them as a sacred trust for the people of Poughkeepsie. Qualified by its size, its beauty, its location and its surroundings for a wide ministry, they would make of it a Church home for the unchurched. With no intention of proselyting, they are yet striving to practice a Chris- tian democracy, one evidence of which is the number of popular services provided each year, at which parochial lines are obliterated. To transcend sectarianism, to deliver a vital message, and to " act in the living Present," is the standard the parish has set for itself.
With enthusiasm renewed and strengthened, this Church is engaged in a growing work, but it still remains for provision to be made for her permanent usefulness. It is impossible for us, in 1910, to foretell what obstacles
1 See above, pp. 137, 174, 179.
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might obstruct her progress fifty years hence; a half century may shift the center of the best residence section of the city, which the church now occupies; it will have altered the character of the population, if signs already visible fail not; it will undoubtedly produce social and economic features different from those of our own time. Only a sufficient endowment can assure to the parish an indefinite continuance of her activity.
In the hearts of those who love Christ Church, is the earnest wish that she may long be an instrument in God's hands for good; that from her sanctuary may radiate the spiritual influence of a faith which shall rest men's souls in Him; and that, in her works, she may be glorified by that righteousness which is synonymous with Life.
"Glory of warrior, glory of orator, glory of song,
Paid with a voice flying by to be lost on an endless sea- Glory of Virtue, to fight, to struggle, to right the wrong- Nay, but she aim'd not at glory, no lover of glory she: Give her the glory of going on, and still to be."
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BIOGRAPHIES OF THE RECTORS OF THE PARISH, ASSISTANTS, CURATES AND MINISTERS IN CHARGE.
SAMUEL SEABURY, A.M. MISSIONARY TO DUTCHESS COUNTY 1756-1764 FROM THE VENERABLE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS
An account of the life and labors of the Rev. Samuel Seabury, Missionary to Dutchess County, properly precedes the biographies of the Rectors of Christ Church.
He was born in 1706, at Groton (now Ledyard), Connecticut, and when fourteen years old entered Yale College. While he was still an undergraduate, much confusion and excitement was created in the college, and in the community at large, by President Cutler's an- nouncement that he had renounced his former Puritan form of belief and become a convert to Episcopacy. To prevent the interruption to his studies which this great upheaval would have caused, young Seabury transferred himself from Yale to Harvard, where he was graduated in 1724, and whence he received his degree of A.M. three years later.
About 1727 he married Abigail Mumford of New London, and, for a time, before and after his marriage, officiated as a licensed preacher among the Connecticut Congregationalists. But, his wife being a relative of the noted Dr. McSparran of Narragansett, Rhode Island, Mr. Seabury's attention was again called to Church subjects, with the result that he determined to be Episcopally ordained.
In the spring of 1730 he went to England with letters of recommen- dation to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel from the Rector of Christ Church, Boston, and from Dr. McSparran. He was made Deacon and Priest soon after his arrival, and returned at once after his ordination to Connecticut, reaching New London December 9th, and, shortly after, taking charge of St. James's Church of that place.
He was Rector of St. James's until December, 1742, when he accepted a call to St. George's, Hempstead, Long Island. From Hempstead he extended his ministry to Oyster Bay, Huntington, and the countryside adjacent, in itinerant form, and, from 1755 to 1762, made several jour- neys on horseback to Dutchess County. In 1756 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel appointed him its Missionary to Dutchess County, and he held that office till his death in 1764.
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A description of Mr. Seabury's personal appearance was handed down by John Bedel, senior warden of St. George's, Hempstead (born 1771, died 1863), whose father (one of Mr. Seabury's parishion- ers) had given the same to him. Mr. Bedel said :- "My father de- scribed him to me, as, seated on a strong sorrel horse, he made his way to Oyster Bay and Huntington, with his saddle-bags strapped to his saddle. He was strongly built, but not tall, and he had a countenance which was intelligent and kindly, and showed decision and firmness. He wore a three cornered hat, and small clothes and top boots."
But, more illuminative of Mr. Seabury's personality than this, is a clause in the epitaph upon the stone at his grave in St. George's churchyard. After reciting certain biographical details, the inscrip- tion states that, "in gratitude to the memory of the best of husbands, His disconsolate widow, Elizabeth Seabury, Hath placed this stone." Many a man has been a success in his official career, who could not have been a comfortable household companion, and, to the reader one hun- dred and fifty years later, a very human quality is given the otherwise shadowy figure of this colonial clergyman, by the knowledge that he was not only an indefatigable worker and missionary, but a man, who,. in his home relations, won the tenderest affection.
His widow, who thus bore testimony to his personal character, was his second wife. His first wife, Abigail Mumford (the mother of Samuel Seabury, 2d, who became the Bishop of Connecticut), died in 1731, and in 1733 he married Elizabeth Powell of Newport, Rhode Island, who survived him many years.
Mr. Seabury died in 1764 after a protracted illness, during which he went to England for treatment. The New York Post Boy re- ferred to his death, saying, "Rev. Mr. Seabury died of a nervous dis- order and an imposthume in his side, June 15, 1764, aged 58; a gentle- man of amiable, exemplary character, greatly and generally beloved and lamented."
AUTHORITIES
Beardsley's History of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Vol." 1, p. 86.
Anderson's Church of England in the Colonies, Vol. 3, p. 426.
Moore's History of St. George's Church, Hempstead, pp. 80-106.
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The Records of Christ Church JOHN BEARDSLEY, A.M.
RECTOR OF CHRIST CHURCH, POUGHKEEPSIE AND OF TRINITY CHURCH, FISHKILL
DECEMBER 21ST, 1766,-JULY 13TH, 1776
John Beardsley was born April 23d, 1732, at Ripton (now Hunting- ton), in Fairfield County, Connecticut, a few miles from Stratford. He was baptized in infancy by the Rev. Samuel Johnson, Rector of Christ Church, Stratford, who exerted a leading influence over him, as he grew older, in shaping his career.
He prepared for college, and entered Yale at first, but, after two years, withdrew to King's, New York, of which Dr. Johnson was President, and where he should have graduated with the class of 1761.
Having decided, however, to take Holy Orders, he did not wait for commencement, but in the spring of 1761, in company with Thomas Davies and Samuel Andrews, he sailed for England. An honorary B. A. was conferred upon him by the college, when his class graduated in his absence. He received his degree of Master of Arts from King's in 1768, after he had been some years in the ministry.
Meanwhile, in 1760, the people of Christ Church, Norwich, had, by subscription, raised the money for his journey to England, and made an agreement with him, that, upon his return, after having been or- dained, he should become their minister. He had already "read prayers and sermons at Norwich and Groton," and was well known by the Rev. Mr. Punderson, Rector of Trinity Church, New Haven (who, some years before, had been Rector at Norwich and Groton), and who wrote to the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, recom- mending Mr. Beardsley for the mission.
At Lambeth, on August 23d, 1761, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Thomas Secker, ordained Mr. Beardsley, Mr. Davies and Mr. Andrews to the Diaconate and, the following day, to the Priesthood. It is one of the coincidences, linking together men and events, that the descendants of the Rev. Thomas Davies should, in later years, have been such earnest workers in Mr. Beardsley's parish at Poughkeepsie.
Returning from England early in 1762, Mr. Beardsley entered upon his Connecticut charge. This consisted of Christ Church, Norwich, and St. James's, Poquetanuck village, in what is now the township of Ledyard, but was then in the township of Groton, a little south of Norwich. Here Mr. Beardsley spent about four years, removing in 1766 to Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where, for ten years, he ministered to Christ Church and to Trinity Church, Fishkill.
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His well known Tory sympathies, in the early days of the War of the Revolution, provoked an order from the Council of Safety of New York for his removal to New York City, then in the hands of the British, and, December 13th, 1777, this removal took place.
He became Chaplain of Beverly Robinson's "Loyal American Regi- ment," the muster rolls of which are in the possession of his great-great- grandson, the Rev. W. O. Raymond, LL.D., Rector of St. Mary's Church, St. John, New Brunswick. Dr. Raymond has much family information and manuscript data regarding Mr. Beardsley, and to him is due most cordial acknowledgment for valuable letters and for inter- est in this present work.
At the close of the Revolutionary War a great exodus of Loyalists took place to Canada. Five thousand of them, in the summer of 1783, were gathered on the bleak, bare rocks at the mouth of the St. John River, sheltered only by tents or the merest huts, on the spot where they were to build the city of St. John.
It is here, among these homeless ones, we next find John Beardsley resuming the work of the ministry. He was the first clergyman to officiate at St. John, and, in that first year of the exile, he frequently visited the settlers at Kingston also.
Late in 1784, he accepted the Rectorship of Christ Church, Mauger- ville, New Brunswick, in which he continued eighteen years. He was also Chaplain, 1793-1802, of the King's New Brunswick Regiment.
Although a man of fifty when this new chapter in his life opened, he threw himself with a fresh baptism of enthusiasm into the exigencies of the situation. He not only fulfilled his functions as a missionary, caring for the congregation under his immediate charge and making difficult journeys into the interior to preach and to baptize, but he worked laboriously as a frontiersman, helping the colony to establish living conditions for itself in its new abode.
Mr. Beardsley's distinctive personal traits are well illustrated in this period, as also in the years in which he was organizing the mission cin Dutchess County, New York. Beyond all question, he was a man of great energy and industry, of persistency and of a spirit un- daunted by obstacles. He was strong-willed and always determined to carry his own point,-sometimes without regard to the injustice this might work. It is a pity that his management of the business matters connected with the glebe and charter at Poughkeepsie was so lacking in clearness and accuracy as to have created a cloud of uncertainty which it is now impossible entirely to dispel.
The force and intensity of his personality must have found agreeable expression in the main, for, while he was resident at Poughkeepsie, it is
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evident that his personal popularity and influence extended quite widely in the community, beyond the limits of his own congregation. He was a prominent and active Free Mason, organizing the first Ma- sonic Lodge in New Brunswick, of which he became Worthy Master, and having been Junior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of New York.
September 8th, 1798, Mr. Beardsley wrote from Maugerville to John Davis at Poughkeepsie,-"As my Children are desirous to have my old picture I must request you to Send it with ye maps, if they can be conveniently put up in a box together." Nothing is known in New Brunswick of this, or any other, likeness of Mr. Beardsley, diligent enquiry for one having been made among his descendants.
Of Mr. Beardsley in his private life, his descendant, Dr. Raymond, has said that he was "evidently a firm believer in the fact that 'It is not good for man to be alone;' " he is known to have married four times, and there is ground for thinking there was a fifth venture, though date and place of ceremony are wanting.
His first wife, Sylvia, was a daughter of the Rev. Ebenezer Punder- son, his predecessor at Norwich and Groton. She died soon after they settled at Poughkeepsie. He then married (at a date prior to Feb- ruary 12th, 1775, when the parish register of Christ Church mentions "Gertrude Beardsley" as sponsor at a baptism) Gertrude, daughter of Bartholomew Crannell of Poughkeepsie. Whether she lived to accompany him and her father to Canada in 1783, is not known; but, February 6th, 1786, John Beardsley and "wife, Anna," conveyed land at St. John, as shown by a deed on file. June 11th, 1800, at Gagetown, New Brunswick, Mr. Beardsley married for his fourth wife, Mary Quain, a widow.
The later years of his life, after giving up his Church at Maugerville in 1802, he spent at Kingston, New Brunswick, being granted a pension by the British Government.
In 1805, he made the then fatiguing journey from Kingston to Pough- keepsie, although seventy-three years old; and, at Poughkeepsie, he conducted his own negotiations with the vestry for the settlement of his claim to a title to part of the original glebe.
Mr. Beardsley died on the anniversary of his birthday, April 23d, in 1809, aged seventy-seven years. His body was interred beneath the chancel of Trinity Church, Kingston.
Two sons survived him. The elder, John Davis Beardsley, born at Poughkeepsie, February 4th, 1771 (the child of his first wife, and the namesake of a member of the vestry of Christ Church), died at Wood-
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stock, New Brunswick, in 1852, leaving many descendants living in the valley of the St. John River.
His younger son, Bartholomew Crannell Beardsley, was born at Poughkeepsie, October 21st, 1775, and named for his maternal grand- father. Bartholomew Crannell Beardsley was a distinguished Cana- dian lawyer, and a member of several Provincial Assemblies; he died in 1855, and, like his brother, has, today, numerous descendants in New Brunswick, of well-known position.
AUTHORITIES
Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. 1, p. 207.
Records of Columbia University.
Beardsley's History of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, Vol. 1, p. 204.
Jarvis's Church Life in Colonial Connecticut, pp. 41-52, 101- 102, 175.
Records of Christ Church, Poughkeepsie.
Minutes of the Council of Safety of New York.
Sabine's American Loyalists, p. 153.
Kingston and the Loyalists of 1783, by Walter Bates. Edited by the Rev. W. O. Raymond, St. John, 1889.
Private papers of the Rev. W. O. Raymond, LL.D., St. John, N. B.
HENRY VAN DYCK, A.M., D.D.
RECTOR OF CHRIST CHURCH, POUGHKEEPSIE AND OF TRINITY CHURCH, FISHKILL
MAY 27TH, 1787,-APRIL 10TH, 1791
On the 3d of August, 1785, the first ordination by a Bishop within the limits of the United States was held at Middletown, Connecticut.
The Right Reverend Samuel Seabury, first Bishop of Connecticut, . had, in June preceding, returned to America from Scotland, after having been consecrated at Aberdeen by Scotch nonjuring Bishops, on November 14th, 1784.
Four candidates for Holy Orders presented themselves before Bishop Seabury at Middletown. One of these (he whose name stands first on the list) became, soon after, Rector of Christ Church, Poughkeepsie.
Henry Van Dyck was born in 1744 in New York City. After grad- uating from King's College in the class of 1761, he studied law, and in 1764 received his Master's degree from his Alma Mater.
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In establishing himself in the practice of his profession he removed to Stratford, Connecticut, where, August 9th, 1767, he married Huldah Lewis. A month after their marriage he and his wife became com- municants in Christ Church, Stratford, whose Rector, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, had been President of King's College when Mr. Van Dyck was a student there.
Until about the time of the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Mr. Van Dyck continued his practice of law, although not with financial success. His interest in the Church increasing, he began to serve as a lay reader, being mentioned in that capacity at Milford in 1776. Dur- ing the war his residence and occupation are somewhat uncertain, but, in 1784, the year after peace was declared, he visited Poughkeepsie, held service in Christ Church, and entered into negotiations with the vestry regarding the Rectorship of the parish.
Having been ordained Deacon by Bishop Seabury, at Middletown, August 3d, 1785, and, on September 16th following, having been ad- mitted to Priest's Orders also, he was about to enter upon the charge of the Poughkeepsie and Fishkill congregations, when difficulty arose over the so-called Trespass Act of New York State. Mr. Van Dyck was in debt to a man named Arden of New York City, who pressed his claim and invoked the above law in his behalf. By means of this, should Mr. Van Dyck become a resident within the state, Arden could cause his arrest and imprisonment. A tedious delay followed, which ultimately was terminated when the New York laws were amended; under which change in the code, and through the good offices of the vestry of Christ Church and of the Hon. Egbert Benson (former Attorney-General), a settlement was effected with the creditor.
This delay lasted, however, from the summer of 1785 to the spring of 1787, in which interval Mr. Van Dyck accepted the care of the Churches in Milford and West Haven, Connecticut, and was in residence at Mil- ford from May, 1786. At the end of a year in this charge, he came to Poughkeepsie and took up the joint Rectorship of Christ Church and of Trinity, Fishkill, on Whitsunday (May 27th), 1787. The call extended to him provided that he should divide his labors equally be- tween the two parishes.
He remained at Poughkeepsie until April 10th, 1791, when he preached his farewell sermon before removing to Perth Amboy, New Jersey. There he succeeded the Rev. George H. Spierin as Rector of St. Peter's, at the same time having Christ Church, New Brunswick, in his care.
The year 'of this settlement, 1791, he was made a Trustee of Queen's (now Rutgers) College, New Brunswick, continuing on the Board until
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his death. Queen's conferred upon him in 1792 the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
In July, 1793, he accepted the Rectorship of St. Mary's Church, Burlington, but in 1797 went to St. James's Church, Newtown, Long Island.
While he was in Burlington the death of his mother, who had long made her home with him, occurred, and, also, in that short period, he lost two daughters.
His Rectorship at Newtown was his last; he held it for five years, having no settled parish from 1802 until his death in 1804.
The New York Evening Post of September 17th, 1804, published the following obituary of Dr. Van Dyck:
Died, early this morning, the Rev. Henry Van Dyck, aged sixty, one of the clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and formerly rector of St. James' Church, Newtown.
He was possessed of an affectionate heart and excellent understanding. He discharged with zeal, fidelity and ability, the duties of his calling. In private life he was esteemed by ali to whom he was known.
Funeral this afternoon at five o'clock from his house, No. 4 Cedar street, New York, where his friends and acquaintances are invited to attend.
The parochial manuscripts of Christ Church show that Dr. Van Dyck was a man of education and ability. His handwriting is ex- cellent, and he expressed himself with ease. In temperament, these same manuscripts would indicate him to have been a man of positive make-up, warm hearted and kind, but also warm tempered. In con- tact with men in the vestry, possessed of similar characteristics, there were occasional conflagrations, which, however, burned out as quickly as they ignited. The poverty of the times was always the root cause of difficulty for both.
A pen-picture of Dr. Van Dyck is afforded by a reference to him made by John Davis, a chance traveller through Newtown, who published an account of his journeyings :
I was fortunate enough to procure lodgings at Newtown under the roof of the Episcopal minister, Mr. Vandyke. The par- sonage house was not unpleasantly situated. The porch was shaded by a couple of huge locust trees and accommodated with a long bench. Here I often sat with my host, who always wore
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the cassock. Mr. Vandyke was at least sixty; yet if a colt, a pig, or any other quadruped, entered his paddock, he sprang from his seat with more than youthful agility and vociferously chased the intruder from his domain. I could not but smile to behold the parson running after a pig and mingling his cries with those of the animal.
If "the parson" wore his cassock when making these forays, the men- tal picture of him thus presented will draw a smile from others beside John Davis.
Two children of Dr. Van Dyck survived him, a daughter, who died unmarried, and a son, Richard Van Dyck, who died in 1856, leaving a large family.
AUTHORITIES
Address by the Rev. Dr. E. E. Beardsley, published as part of the proceedings of The Seabury Centenary, pp. 123-128, Pott & Company, 1885.
John Davis's Travels of four Years and a half in the United States, (1798-1802), p. 155.
Hills's History of the Church in Burlington, p. 339.
Records of Christ Church, Poughkeepsie.
GEORGE HARTWELL SPIEREN, A.M.
RECTOR OF CHRIST CHURCH, POUGHKEEPSIE AND OF TRINITY CHURCH, FISHKILL
NOVEMBER 13TH, 1792,-DECEMBER 9TH, 1795
Mr. Spierin's ecclesiastical biography begins at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, where, in June, 1788, while he was serving as lay reader and also teaching school, St. Peter's Church called him to be its Rector so soon as he should have received Holy Orders.
Accordingly, on the 9th of July, 1788, he was ordained Deacon by Bishop Provoost of New York, in St. Peter's Church, Perth Amboy, this being the first ordination in the Protestant Episcopal Church to take place in New Jersey. His admission to the Priesthood followed, on July 18th, in St. Paul's Chapel, New York City.
He held the Rectorship of St. Peter's, Perth Amboy, from 1788 to 1790, accepting in the latter year the united parishes of St. George's, Newburgh, and St. Andrew's, Walden, N. Y. During this incumbency, he founded and conducted the Newburgh Academy.
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From Newburgh he came to Poughkeepsie, assuming charge of Christ Church as Rector on November 13th, 1792. He probably officiated on the first two Sundays in November, for, on October 31st, the vestry voted to ask him to give notice to the congregation on the two succeed- ing Sundays that, on the second Tuesday in November, the pews would be sold at auction for a year. This sale was held at the church, and, immediately after it, the "Vestry adjourned from the church to the house of Thomas Poole, where they met the Rev. George H. Spierin, who was introduced by the Wardens to Vestry, and Inducted as Rector of this Church & took his seat accordingly." "A paper was read by Mr. Emott, containing the Terms of Mr. Spierin's Settlement, which was agreed upon." The agreement provided that Mr. Spierin should officiate in Christ Church two Sundays out of every three, and that he was to receive a salary of £80 a year, plus "the farther sum of £20 a year, provided payments by individuals to the Corporation for the sup- port of the Rev. George H. Spierin amount to £100 a year."
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