8.94S Clark First church in Buffalo THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GIFT OF George M. Plough ®^ Jjirfit djltuith in guftltf. y/Jem>eiea oi mc ^i/enma o/ es^/. Ja, /(^^^. |ll) Mailer O^Iarhc, g. D. Mtof/colo: 7jS62 / 7 FRANKLIN STEAM PRINTING HOUSE, THOMAS, TYPOGRAPHER, ®abU of dfontentji Page. Introduction, 5 Half Cerftury Discourse, 11 Buffalo Gazette, 11 Young Ladies' School, 11 Ebenczer "Walden's ]\I arriage, 12 Organization of the First Church, 13 "Winne — Middaugh — EzekiolLane — Johnston 13 Palmer's, first tavern in Buffalo, 13 Asa Ransom, 13 Tax Roll in 1789, 11 Buffalo Village laid out in 1801, lo Samuel Pratt — fii"st frame house in Buffalo, 1 ."> Missionaries Bacon — Osgood — Holmes, etc., 17 Prayer meetings in Mrs. Pratt's parlor, 17 Buffalo contributions to missionary purposes in 1809, IS Number of houses in Bufialo 1812 19 Amos Callender — Goodell — Franklin — Sill — Atkins, 19 Habits of the Buffalonians, 1812, 21 Red J acket's opinion of Buffalo morals, 22 Adelphic Library founded 1811, 21 Irene Leech's school, 2.j First children baptized in Bufl[\ilo, 25 Names of original members of the First Church, 20 Retrospective view in front of First Church, 2s Piano Forte — only one this side of Canandaigua, 31 Deacon Goodell's Tavern, 31 Vessels on the Lake in 1812, 33 Mails to and from Buffalo, 34 Sister Churches near Bviffalo, 35 Burning of Buffalo, 30 Prices of Provisions, etc., in 1815, .' 37 Rev. Mr. Squier called 1816, 3.S The fii-st Pastor ordained in Ransom's bam, 38 The singers on that occasion, -10 Deacon Callender's tuning fork, 40 836G96 lY CONTENTS. Page. All the stores closed on the Sabbath, 41 James and David Remington, 41 Buffalo Female Bible Society, 1816, 42 First Episcopal Society formed, 1817, 42 President Monroe and Joseph Bonaparte, 42 First Superintendent of the Sunday School, 43 Flour two dollars a barrel, 1819, 44 First Methodist Church on the Holland Purchase. 44 Rev. Mr. Fillmore, its first Pastor. 44 First Mission School, established by Joseph Dart and Eunice Hosmer, 1821,... 45 First Church edifice, commenced December 24, 1822, 47 Its subsequent history — now used as a tenement house, 48 Surviving members of the First Church, from 181G to 1823, 50 Rev. Gilbert Crau-ford called, 1824, 51 Deacon Goodell's bequests, 52 The present Church edifice of the First Church, commenced June, 1826, 54 Dedication of the Church, 1827, - 54 Rev. Sylvester Eaton called, 1828, 55 Seamen's Chapel built, 1830, 57 Sailors' Home opened, 1841, 58 Free Congregational Church formed, 1832, 59 Re-organized, 1840, 59 Rev. Dr. Heacock installed, 1846 59 Miss Dennison's Female Academy, 60 Rev. Mr. Eaton removes, 1834, GO The first church bell inti'odued during Mr. Eaton's ministry, 61 Rev. Asa T. Hopkins installed, 1836, 63 Dutch Reformed Church, 66 North Church— Pearl Street Church. 66 Pecuniary collections and gifts from 1838 to 1847, 68 Communicants under Dr. Hopkins' ministry, 69 Death of Dr. Hopkins, 70 Shade trees planted in front of Church, 1847, 72 Rev. M. L. R. P. Thompson installed, 1848, 72 Proposition to build a new Church edifice, 1852, 73 AVestminster Church, 74 Dr. Thompson dismissed, 1860, 74 . The present Pastor installed, 1861, 76 The Sextons of the First Church, 77 Number of Christian ministers graduated from the First Church 77 Buffalo fifty years ago — and now 79 Conclusion, §1 Poem, by Rev. A. T. Chester, S3 Jfttririiictioiu At a meeting of the elders of tlie First Presbyterian Church, in Buffalo, held in the month of December last, Mr. Thomas Farnham reminded the body that the fiftieth anniversary of the Church would occur on the second day of the succeeding February. It was the unani- mous opinion of the members present, that steps should be instantly taken to secure a proper public celebration of that interesting and memorable event. A meeting of the congregation was therefore called, when the project was received with universal favor, and Messrs. Farnham, Sawyer, Butler, Miller, Glenny, Sherman and Coit were appointed a commit- tee to make all needful preparations for the coming anniversary. This committee invited the pastor to prepare a Historical Discourse, to be read on Sabbath evening, the second of February ; selected the following even- ing for a pubHc re-union of members of the congregation from within the city and without ; issued a circular addressed to former members residing now in other States or towns, inviting them to attend, or, if that were im- possible, to communicate such facts and memories as would give interest to the approaching celebration. The pastor, who had resided less than a year in the city, and had come hither a total stranger, acceded to the re- quest of the committee, and on the evening appointed, read to a large congregation, assembled in the First Church, the following Discourse. VI INTRODUCTION. On Monday evening another large assemblage was gathered in the same place, at which a Poem was read by the Rev. Dr. Chester, and interest- ing addresses were dehvered by Geo. R. Babcock, Esq., who presided. Dr. Bristol, Dr. Lord, Dr. Heacock, Dr. Smith, Lewis F. Allen, Esq., Henry W. Rogers, Esq., the Rev. Mr. Bingham, and the Rev. Mr. Cook, of Lewiston. The committee had received co«imunications from many of their correspondents, particularly from Rev. Drs. Squier, of New York, Thompson, of Cincinnati, Huntington, of Auburn, Beadle, of Hartford, Rev. Herrick Johnson, of Troy, Rev. W. DeLoss Love, of Milwaukee, Dr. West, of Brooklyn, Messrs. Williams, of Cleveland, Billings, of Lansing, Storrs, of Homer, Holton, of Milwaukee, and Major Chapin, of the army, expressing the most affectionate interest in the Church and in the occasion, and rehearsing recollections of former persons and scenes. Such mention was made of these, and such extracts read as the hour would allow. Immediate^ after the anniversary, the congregation instructed the com- mittee to procure and publish, with the consent of the authors, the Dis- course, the Poem, the Letters and the Addresses. The task has been delayed to give time for reviewing and perfecting the narrative, the committee being of opinion that no labor was too protracted to secure to the public a trustworthy history of the Church and the city. It was their intention at the first to publish the Discourse, adding to it an appendix, which should contain the Poem, the letters of correspondents, the addresses of Monday evening, and such notes, explanations and reminiscences of their own {is would make a somewhat copious and comprehensive history of the town during the first half century of its life. But as they pursued their pi-eparations, and saw the growing dimensions of their work, they found it entirely impossible to do justice to the appendix, and at the same time bring the volume within the compass of a reasonable size. They have at hand nearly two liundred pages of manuscript, received from correspond- INTRODUCTION. yii ents. They have made a list of more than fifty well known names of men who deserve mention in their notes, together with countless events and trans- actions, which they could not omit and be true to their trust as impartial historians. Embarrassed by this unexpected abundance of material, and unable to reduce it by excerpts or epitomes, the committee very reluctantly submitted to their necessities, and concluded to publish only the Discourse and the Poem. They are the more reconciled to this alternative, however, since the Buffalo Historical Society has come into existence, under auspices which ensure an instant demand for all that can contribute to a minute and perfect histor}'^ of early times. The committee particularly regret the necessity of leaving out of this memorial, the very interesting sketch of men and events communicated by Mr. Lewis F. Allen, partly at the re-union on Monday evening, and more fully in a manuscript which some of them have been permitted to read. That document is too valuable not to be secured and put in a permanent form by the Historical Society. The Discourse is now given to the public with the hope that, being found for the most part accurate and trustworthy, it may contribute to the good name of those who laid the foundations, the joy of their descendants, and tlie prosperity of the dear Mother Church in Buflfalo. THE 4^/ /^^£i^ii^'^ ^/^ O^//0k^. HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. al| ^ntt«rg Jijji:0ttni{. On Tuesday, the 14tli of January, 1812, Messrs. Smith H. & H. A. Salisbury, booksellers and printers, sent forth from their office on Main street, the six- teenth number of the Buffalo Gazette. That interesting sheet, reflecting all the changeful aspects of the time, contained certain prophetic hints from which a saga- cious reader would easily conclude, that at no distant day the village of Buffalo would give birth to a Christian Church. In a conspicuous place, headed by a platoon of grave capitals, stood the elaborate advertisement of Mr. Alanson Wheadon, who respectfully announced to the public, that he was about to open a school for the purpose of instructing young ladies and gentlemen in sacred music. And he desired that whoever wished to become acquainted with the aforesaid polite accom- plishment, or to encourage the intended school, would be kind enough to call at the office of the Salisburys, and sign a subscription that was waiting there, for that purpose. The publishers of the Gazette., mindful of 12 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. the growing demand for melody, added an advertise- ment in which they offered, at a reasonable price, gamuts for the use of singing schools. Moreover, the Rev. J. Alexander, missionary to the Indians, gave notice that those who inclined to 'so wise an in- vestment, could purchase at the Buffalo book store, which establishment was kept in an upper room in Pratt's unfinished house, on the corner of Main and Swan streets, the Child's Catechism, or a new help for instructing the rising generation in the first principles of the oracles of God ; a treatise which, being intended for babes, was cut up into small pieces, having, as the advertiser .was careful to say, seventeen separate sec- tions, to which was prefixed an earnest address to parents. In advance of all these signs, two zealous wranglers had enlivened the columns of the Gazette with an elaborate and unsatisfying debate upon the doctrine of original sin ; a topic, which, whether it was suggested by the conduct of the neighboring Indians, or by the more familiar disclosures of life in the village, it is, perhaps, impossible now to decide. Finally, to give point and certainty to these conspir- ing omens, Mr. Philip M. Holmes, whose father, the Rev. Elkanah Holmes, had, on the Wednesday previous, made Ebenezer Walden happy by fastening the tie which boulid the young counselor to Miss Susan Marvin, daughter by an earlier marriage of Mrs. Comfort Lan- DON, — Mr. Philip Holmes, I say, issued in the Gazette a printed call, inviting all the inhabitants of the town, who desired to establish an ecclesiastical society and provide for the regular preaching of the Gospel, to HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 13 meet at the Court House at one o'clock in the afternoon of the 2 2d histant. Two weeks later the \\6ell known missionary, Thaddeus Osgood, being here, organized, on that memorable day, the 2d of February, 1812, the First Church of Christ, in Buffalo. Fifty years exactly have elapsed since that event. And we are together to-night to commemorate the birth of our beloved Church, and rehearse as best we may, the varied story of its first half century's growth. By all the tokens by which men judge of events and causes, it was full time to plant a church in this rising village. It had been a score of years since white men began to build their cabins and plant their gardens in sight of these shining waters. As early as 1791, a ti'ader by the name of Winne, was selling to the Indians, tobacco, trinkets and whiskey, from his log cabin near the present Washington street bridge. In 1798 there were eight white families here, living in a cluster of huts on the north side of the creek. The heads of these fjimilies were, Winne, the trader ; Middaugh, the Dutchman, cooper, hunter, idler, and wit, who, with his son-in-law, Ezekiel Lane, occupied a double log house a little south of Bonney's Hotel ; Johnston, the Indian interpreter, who lived a little south-east of the Mansion House ; Palmer, who kept the first tavern in Buffalo, renting the building of Johnston ; who afterwards, in 1801, petitioned Ellicott for a lot on which to build a school house ; whose widow dispensed hospitalities after her husband's death, at the old stand, opposite Exchange and west of Main streets ; Asa Ransom, 14 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. jeweler, whom we find at Scottsville, on the Genesee river, m 1789, who moved in 1801 to Clarence, to keep one of Ellicott's three taverns, whose daughter, after- wards Mrs. Merrill, was the first, and his son, now Col. Harry B. Ransom, of Clarence, the second child born on the Holland Purchase, who lived in 1798 in a log house just west of the Western Hotel; Maybee, another trader, whose store stood in the rear of Glen- ny's store on Main street; Robbins, the blacksmith, whose shop was between Swan and Seneca streets, on the west side of Main; — eight families, dwelling in seven log huts, — this was Buffalo in 1798. There was an Indian trail to Avon, on the Genesee river, but after leaving Buffalo the next house was Ganson's, fifty miles off, in what is now the town of LeRoy. These settlers hunted and fished and took care of their gardens, and when it was possible, drove a bargain with the Indians. They obtained game from the woods, potatoes from their clearings, and when they wanted bread, bought of the Senecas a string of dried corn, scooped a hollow in the stump of a tree, bent a neighboring sapling, attached to its top a deer skin strap, to this a smooth stone, and with this extempore pestle, broke the corn into grits which they called meal. This is the way the flouring. business was carried on at Lake Erie sixty-five years ago. The tax roll of that time reports the pecuniary con- dition of these patriarchs of the town : Middaugh, the most idle and most contented of all the settlers, was assessed nine cents, on a property of forty-five dollars ; Lane, his son-in-law, was better off, being put down HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 15 for two shillings, on an estate valued at 140 dollars, while the nabob Johnston, who owned half the land on which the city now stands, was esteemed worth 2,034 dollars, and taxed accordingly the sum of thirty shillings. Such golden eggs were found in this new nest in 1798. In 1801, the Holland Company having purchased the entire tract lying west of the Genesee river and be- tween Pennsylvania and the lakes, excepting only the mile strip and the four reservations on which the Indians built their wigwams, Mr. Ellicott, their agent, laid out the village, numbered the lots, and intending to make it his own residence, established it as a con- dition of sale, that each purchaser should clear, and build, and settle on his land. At that time the Holland Purchase constituted a single township on which there were perhaps as many as fifty families. For various reasons emigrants arrived slowly. In 1803, Samuel Pratt, a merchant from Westminster, Vt., a native of East Hartford, Ct., having caught the contagion of removal, visited this region, and being pleased with Mr. Ellicott's prospective city of New Amsterdam, bought the lot No. ^, where the Mansion House now stands, and the next year removed hither with his family. He brought his goods in two large covered wagons, and his family in a two horse coach, hung on thorough braces, the first vehicle of the kind that ever crossed the Grenesee; certainly the first that ever threaded the streets or fathomed the gullies of New Amsterdam. In 1805, Mr. Pratt erected the first frame house ever built in Buffalo. It was a large two story mansion on 16 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. the south-west corner of Main and Crow streets. The carpet which adorned one of its parlors was also the pioneer of its kind, being the first convenience of the sort which the village had seen. This hospitable family, and their spacious house, were for years the joy of strangers, who could find little comfort in Crow's coarse hut. It was also the home of missionaries, Bacon, Osgood, Holmes, Spencer, Cram, and others. In 1810, there were, perhaps, a hundred dwellings and five hundred people in the settlement. These had come from all directions: from Canada, from the valley of the Mohawk, from the far East, from Massachusetts, from Connecticut, from Vermont. They were of all varieties of character, too. Some had left behind ac- counts unsettled, and families unprovided for, and had fled hither to escape the sheriffs and the paydays. Others had been guilty of smuggling, or fraud, or some other crime, and setting a great value upon health, thought the air of the Western lakes superior to that of the Eastern prisons. Some were mere adventur- ers, roving, restless, looking for chances, who had drifted on the foremost wave from Cape Cod to the Hudson, from the Hudson to the Genesee, from the Genesee hither, and who were destined to float on with every changing moon till death, or the Rocky Mountains, should bid them to halt. Mixed up with these were men of another and better type, having in their composition some of the stuff of which heroes are built, — resolute, honest, courageous souls, — sifted out of a hundred Eastern towns, and sent here to be the architects of the coming metropolis. Such men as HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 17 Walden, and Potter, and Pratt, and Coit, and Chapin, and TowNSEND, and Grant, and Grosvenor, and Hodge, and Heacock, by their integrity, their intelHgence, their energy, and their well directed and persevering labor, laid the foundations of the then infant city. It appears, moreover, that there were as many ?is thu'ty professors of religion here, pioneers whom Provi- dence had sent before to open in the wilderness a highway for the ark and the sanctuary and the priests which should come after. These devout people did not forget the Lord in the land of their exile. Though they had no shepherd and no sanctuary and no table of fellowship, yet, they came together at regular periods, and in some cabin or store or private room, prayed and sang psalms and recited the catechism like the Hebrew exiles, who centuries before sat by the rivers of Babylon and wept when they remembered Zion. Mrs. Pratt, and her neighbor, Mrs. Landon, whose husband had succeeded Crow in the village tavern, early began to pray together, every evening at sunset, asking especially that God would send to the people a minister, and set up for his servants a church. Other good women, — Mrs. Callender, Mrs. Harrington, Mrs. Chapin, Mrs. Reese, Mrs. Gillett, Mrs. Pratt, the younger, Mrs. Ball, Miss Barker, Miss Granger, came in, till the two were nineteen ; and once a week they held a female prayer meeting in Mrs, Pratt's parlor. Nor did God forget his dispersed children who called to him out of their cabins and garrets and shops. As early as 1807 the missionaries of Connecticut and Berkshire and New York, began to visit at distant 18 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. intervals this remote and rising settlement. Bacon stopped on his way to Mackinaw ; Osgood came over from Canada ; John Spencer arrived from the Canan- dawa ; Mr. Holmes left his station among the Tuscaroras with a twofold purpose, to visit his son and comfort and instruct the people. Alexander, the missionary to the Senecas, and Hyde, their teacher, did what they could to keep alive the outward forms of worship. We have evidence also that the people appreciated the visits and labors of the missionaries. In 1809 the Con- necticut Missionary Society reported that Hev: John Spencer had received at Buffalo $8.83 for its treasury. That was apparently the first money contributed to the cause of missions by the town of Buffalo. Oswego gave that year $2.50, and Erie $18.20. The next year Buffalo gave $5.06, LeRoy $1.00, Warsaw $1.50, and Erie $2.00. In 1811 Buffalo contributed $1.58; in 1812 nothing. The next year Rev. Simeon Woodruff, missionary to New Connecticut, stopped here on his way westward, and spending a little time with the people, received for the Society $6.25. Who were the people that in that early day remembered the cause of missions, and out of their penury gave tithes to their Master's kingdom? Which of the twenty-one women who afterward joined the church, which of the eight men who bore the name of Jesus, presented to the Lord those first fruits of faith and charity from the town of Buffalo ? By the labors of good men and women on the ground, and the visits of ministers and missionaries from abroad, the spark of godliness, otherwise sure to HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 19 be smothered, was kept aglow, till the time when a church should be organized, an altar set up, a fire kindled, and the incense of a perpetual worship go up to gladden the skies. At length it is 1812, and there are one hundred houses and perhaps five hundred people in the village. It is time there were a church here. And fortunately there is ample material for at least a hopeful beginning. Amos Callender, upright, accurate and decided, who knows how to train unruly school boys, and how to keep exact accounts, who can attend a funeral, or read a sermon, or pitch the tune in singing, who though educated a churchman and passionately attached to method, thinks more of his Saviour than of his sect, and would leap from any religious establishment to save religion herself; Jabez Goodell, who keeps the teamster's tavern, and while he takes care of his own affairs, is still a man of principle, ready to have part in the cause of Christ; Stephen Franklin, who keeps a tavern at Black Rock, and has the reputation of sound sense and incorruptible virtue ; Nathaniel Sill, forwarder, magistrate and merchant, of the firm of Porter, Barton & Co., a firm which, like some colossal giant, standing with one foot at Oswego and the other on the' shore of the Niagara, catches up the merchan- dise of the East and hands it over to the schooners and the wagons that wait here from the West, — Na- thaniel Sill, capable of much business, and correct in all his habits ; Samuel Atkins, keeper of a tavern on the road to Williamsville, and, though five miles distant, is yet too fond of the house of God to stay away; 20 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. John Seely, the carpenter, who resides two miles be- yond Black Rock, but comes in every week to recite the catechism to Mr. Hyde; Hyde the Indian teacher and ardent saint; — these, and Mrs. Comfort Landon, once Mrs. Marvin, a noble woman, full of all matronly traits and virtues, with Mrs. Esther Pratt, her associ- ate and equal, and Mrs. H-IRRington, wife of a hero, and mother of a more than hero, to wit, a missionary; and seventeen others who shone as lights in their several dwellings; here were people enough, here was worth and intelligence and power enough, for an instant and hopeful beginning, — out of this material it was easy to form a Christian Church. The only question was how to support it when formed. Pratt, who though not a member of the church, had told his wife that for her sake he would himself support a pastor, had just died ; Callender had intelligence and integrity and executive power, but he had no money ; Hyde was zealous and exemplary and devout, but exceedingly poor; GooDELL, afterwards so prosperous and so rich, was then earning only a comfortable maintenance from week to week in his log tavern ; Seely was a mechanic dependent on his trade; Atkins had a small farm adjoining his tavern; Franklin was poor; Sill just beginning to thrive. It would have been difiScult, I think, to count five thousand dollars as the aggregate of all that these men possessed the day they set up and undertook to support their long coveted and loved church. But they knew what they were doing. They understood who it is that takes in charge the churches which His people plant. And just as they had put HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 21 their seeds into the soil, and waited for God to quicken and sustain the growing corn, so they laid the founda- tions of the infant church, committing its future to the care of Him on whom, as their Head, all Christian in- stitutions do constantly depend. Moreover, there was very great and instant need of a church among the people at that time. The habits of the villagers were what might be ex- pected to prevail among a people thrown together from so many different sources, upon such an unculti- vated soil, and leading a rude, eager, frontier life. Away from restraints, unacquainted with each other, not knowing how long they might remain together, without fortunes, many of them without families, in a community where public opinion had yet to be formed, where laws and schools and customs were yet to be established, it is not strange that the people were un- scrupulous and careless, and gross. Profanity was rife on every hand. Society was held at taverns and gaming tables. The Sabbath was a day of pleasure or of toil, as choice or convenience required. On that sacred *day the streets were full of teams, the stores stood open for trade, and men made journeys to transact business, or view the country, or visit theii' friends. Trades were plied, and amusements conducted, as if in coming hither the mass of the people had left behind their Bibles, their consciences and their memories of sacred time. The children were without competent schools or general instruction, and to add to these disadvantages and snares, they met at every turn a company of obscene idlers, or saw by the way-side a 22 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. groujD of besotted Indians, Intemperance, too, that mother of all the vices, was prevailing to such an ex- tent that the Indians themselves had petitioned the Legislature to suppress the trade in drinji. It was not without a meaning that the Seneca prophet, in declaring one of his visions, rehearsed how in a trance the Great Spirit had opened his eyes, till he saw in the air over his own village, Canadesago, a flock of devils, hovering and descending, and seeking a place to ahght. But as that was a temperate village, and whiskey barrels and drinking places were wanting, the infuriate imps, finding no fit perch, directed their flight straight to Buffalo creek, where they alighted among the waiting casks, and found enough to enjoy and enough to do. Tradition tells us the savages had begun to discern that their white neighbors were in great need of a church. The missionary Cram had been among them, and asked permission to introduce the new religion of Christ. The chiefs, Red Jacket, Farmer's Brother, and the rest, after mature deliberation, are said to have returned for answer, that the Senecas had a religion already, but as it did not make them very holiest or very good they would be quite willing to accept another, if they could only first be certain that it would do the work. To test the power of Cram's religion, therefore, they recommended that he should go over to Buffalo, and try it for a few months upon the whites. If it made them honest and veracious and kind, he might bring it to the Reservation, and the Senecas would receive it. I am compelled to acknowl- edge, that, so far as I have been able to discover. i HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 23 history is silent on the question whether the missionary succeeded sufficiently to warrant his return to tlie Indians. But these shrewd savages must have formed another estimate of the religion which they were so willing at first to reject, when, six years afterward, in 1817, their corn was killed by a premature frost, and famine came among them, so that hundreds would have starved had it not been that Hyde obtained and dis- tributed more than five hundred dollars' worth of flour and meal and meat to their necessities. If Buffalo was ever to attain to influence and re- spectability in after years, a Christian Church must be planted in the midst of the people. Fifty years ago, the last week, Mr. Osgood made his fifth annual visit to the village. This devoted and indefatigable mis- sionary was accustomed once a year to start from Con- necticut, journey through Vermont into the Canadas, crossing at Niagara, and passing down to Buffalo, whence he went westward to Pennsylvania, return- ing by a southern route to Hartford. On these tours he made himself useful, in every possible way, to the settlements, where he was welcome. By visiting the schools and conversing with the children ; by going from house to house, instructing and comforting the people ; founding village libraries, and contributing money or books, to make a beginning ; organizing churches ; attending funerals ; preaching in private houses, or wherever a congregation could be gath- ered ; administering baptism to children, and the sup- per to saints, making .himself a bishop of souls and an apostle of Jesus Christ, he laid the foundations of 24 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. religious prosperity wherever he went. The Adelphic Library, which was the first institution of the kind in Western New York, and which was in existence here in 1811, was founded, no doubt, by the labors and gifts of this good man. Mr. Osgood arrived here from Canada late in January, 1811, and was the guest, I presume, of Mr. Heman B. Potter. He remained two weeks. In a journal written at the time, and preserved in the FanopUst of the following July, he says : — " There appeared more attention to religious in- struction and to divine things in general, in Buffalo, than I witnessed anywhere else in the new settle- ments. By the request of a number who had pro- fessed religion previous to their removal thither, I organized a church, consisting of ten members, to which were added, after a suitable examination, fif- teen others, who gave hopeful evidence of their being duly qualified for admission to a church. On the fol- lowing Sabbath we celebrated the Holy Supper, for the first time in that town ; on which occasion there were thirty who partook, five of whom were occasional communicants. A female praying society is established in that town, consisting of nineteen members. They meet weekly for prayer and almsgiving. There were, last winter, five schools taught in the town, all of which I visited, and was happy to find them in general well regulated. Two of the instructors offered prayers in their schools, morning and evening. A number of young people in the place appeared to be anxious to know what they should do to be saved." HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 25 The female prayer meeting of which he speaks was the one which originated with Mrs. Pratt and Mrs. Landon. Their ahns may have been bestowed in part upon the missionaries, and especially upon Osgood, who reports that he received at one time for his cause nearly fifty dollars from friends in Buffalo. The two schools that were opened with prayer were doubtless Mr. Qallender's, kept in the school house on the Fobes lot, and Mss Irene Leech's school for girls, which was held in one of the rooms of Mr. Pratt's house, on Crow street. Fifty years ago to-day, the First Church in Bufflilo was organized, and began its journey in the great march of the Churches. The services on that impressive occasion were held in the then unfinished Court House. There, behind the rail, in the judge's chair, was Os- good, the beloved missionary, his benignant face ra- diant with unusual love. And many a child who had, during the week, sat on his knee and listened to his stories, or read his books, or recited the catechism, wished that the good man would but turn a glance to them. And there, on their rough benches, sat the rustic but attentive audience. And when it was asked whether there were any children to be baptized, all eyes were turned to Mr. and Mrs. Callender, as they led forth their three daughters^ whom we have since known as Mrs. Ketchum, Mrs. Hamlin, and Mrs. Wil- cox, and the father holding them up, one after the other, the names of Louisa, and Charlotte, and Lydia, were pronounced, and the Sacraments of the Church were for the first time administered. 26 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. The names of the original members, who came from other Churches, or who joined by profession of their faith, were: — Jabez B. Hyde, Amos Callender, Rusha Hyde, Rebecca Callender, Samuel Atkins, Comfort Landon, Anna Atkins, Esther Pratt, John J. Seely, Jabez Goodell, * Elizabeth Seely, Nancy Hall, Stephen Franklin, Ruth Foster, Sarah Franklin, Kesiah Cotton, Nathaniel Sill, Kesiah Sill, Kesiah Holt, Nancy Mather, Sally Haddock, Henry Woodworth, Nancy Harvey, Sophia Gillet, Sophia Bull, Mary Holbrook, Betsey Atkins, Lois Curtiss, Sarah Hoisington. Stocking was here, but was not yet a member of the Church. It may be interesting to remember, that on the suc- ceeding Thursday, that is, on the 6th of February, 1812, Newell, and Hall, and Judson, and Nott, and Rice, the first missionaries of the American Church to heathen lands, were set apart to their work in Salem, Massachusetts. Our Church is thus of twin birth with that great work of preaching the gospel to the nations. May it ever be a zealous, efficient and successful fellow- laborer in that glorious enterprise. There was now a Church in Buffalo, but no Pastor. HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 27 On the Sabbath the congregation met in the Court House, where, if a preacher chanced to be present, they heard a sermon; if not, they filled the time with such other exercises of prayer and praise and exhorta- tion as their own gifts and members could produce. Deacon Stocking sometimes led the singing. But his voice catching the mood of his mind, was over-modest, so th^t he always pitched the tune too low, while his friend Callender, who did what he did with a will, was in danger, on occasions, of commencing too high. It is not strange, therefore, that before his arrival, there was a felt need of some musical mediator, some leadei' like Ketchum, to direct the services of song in the house of the Lord. To these Sabbath meetings, held in the Court House, many a stranger directed his steps, as, journeying westward, and detained by storm, or weariness, or mud, he heard from his hostess, Mrs. Landon, or from Deacon Goodell, or Mr. Pomeroy, that there was a people here who worshipped God ; and while his jaded horse mused in the warm stall, and forgot three hundred miles of travel over the full and generous crib, the master, guided by some friendly hand, took his way to the house of prayer, to join, perhaps for the first time in many weeks, in the songs of the sanctuary, and the supplications of those who call upon God in the solitudes of the wilderness. We have seen the infant Church. Let us go forth and look at the infant village. It is the summer of 1812. We take our stand in front of the site of the present Church, and in the middle of what is now the public street. Here we can discern well nigh all 28 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. that there is of Buffalo at this period of its history. What do we see? Not the village — not houses — we must look a second time to behold these. Woods, openings, swamps, solitudes — this is our first impres- sion. We are looking northward. This wide open- ing, cut through the forest, and reaching to yonder distant hill, on which we s<^e here and there a low wood house or cabin, is Yan Staphorst avenue. It will, at some future day, shake off its shadows, and dry up its mud, and clear away its adjoining woods, the oaks on the east, the chestnuts on the west, and, dropping its Dutch name, will step forth into history, yes, and into fame, too, making itself known as the Main street of Buffalo. This other opening towards the north-west, extend- ing like a wide lane through the woods as far as the eye can reach, on which there is now but a single house, — this is Schimmelpennick avenue, to be called in a better age, and a less barbarous dialect, Niagara street. This broad highway, which runs southward to the creek, with Eli Hart's store on the west, and further down and on the other side the house and store of Mr. Lewis ; in the middle of which we see Metcalf's rude stage, and beyond it two huge covered wagons from Albany, floundering together in unfathomable mud, — this is Willink avenue. That high mound over which some school girls are clambering on their way to the creek, to gather blackberries and grapes, and from the top of which Mr. Landon is showing some of his guests the outspread and beautiful lake, is the Terrace. On the left of this avenue, and running eastward, are Swan i HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 29 and Seneca, and farther down, Crow streets. It is only a few years since Mr. Henry Chapin asked leave of Mr. Ellicott to enclose Seneca street and make a garden of it. That crowd of women gathered around the windows of the jeweler's shop, on the east side of the street, is a bevy of matrons and maids from the reservation, who are regaling their eyes with the sight of Mr. Hull's new trinkets and jewels. This other and less artistic group, on the corner of Seneca street, upon whom Mr. Cook is dashing buckets of cool and peace- producing water, is a knot of tawny vixens, made furious by jealousy and drink, who seek to relieve their rage by plucking at each others' flashing eyes and raven locks. These two avenues, opening westward, are Vollenho- ven and Stadtnitski. This spot on which we stand is the semi-circular front of Mr. Ellicott's favorite and princely lot. Here he intends to plant his own resi- dence. This sloping ground descending to the lake he expects to lay out and adorn in the most perfect taste. With a little labor they will make most beautiful mead- ows, he writes to Cazenove. And this spacious and beautiful lot, extending on the front from Eagle street to Swan, running eastward till it covers a hundred good acres, from which the woods are already cleared off two-thirds the way, so that that central hillock, crowned with its overhanging and imperial oak, under whose shade Farmer's Brother and Red Jacket, and Cornplanter, and Snake, and other chiefs, love to loll or hold palaver with the whites — can be clearly seen — this splendid site, on which so much of history waits 30 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. to be enacted; the United States Bank to be built — Rathbun's bubble to fill, and rise, and break — the Clarendon to burn — is Mr. Ellicott's selected home. Here he intends to erect a princely mansion. Out of his north windows he will look up the populous and peaceful Van Staphorst avenue. Prom his south piazza he will gaze on the bustle and the thrift of Willink street. From his front balconies he will catch sight of Black Rock, and Canada, and the Lake. But let us fix attention for a moment on the village. Here are nearly a hundred houses, all of wood, with one exception, and all low and small, and exceedingly modest. They have even a downcast look, as if they were never intended for exhibition. One might almost imagine that they had clambered up from the sur- rounding fens, to dry themselves for an hour on the sunny spaces and the little uplands, and get back again: and that we had caught them unexpectedly in this open daylight. Woods, clearings, houses, mud — this is Buffalo in 1812. Below the Terrace, on the west side, is a vast swamp, full of thorn bushes and alders, and pond lilies and frogs. Eastward there is another. There is an impassable swale, fringed with black ash trees, between Seneca and Swan streets, while beyond, towards the Reservation, is a marsh where the cows get mired, and a wilderness where the truants are lost. Woods, clearings, houses, mud. Not a plank on the sidewalk. Not a pavement in the streets. Not a lamp post from Deacon Goodell's to the Terrace and the creek. Let us go up Van Staphorst or Main street. Here, on the east side, above Eagle, and just where McAr- HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 31 thur's is now, stands the pride of the village, the brick mansion of counselor Walden, Within, there is a lady, and what can be said of no other dwelhng this side of Gregg's, in Canandaigua, there is a piano there as well. So that culture, hospitality and music combine to make Mr. Walden's abode the resort and the joy of his neighbors. We pass on, noting now only the buildings on the east side of the way. North of Walden's, in a clear- ing which is now the Park, stands the unfinished Court House. There the Church was organized. There the congregation worships. We go on, by woods, and over gullies, passing Oziel Smith's and Lovejoy's, which is destined to survive the general ruin, and remain a monument for half a century — by Lovejoy's, by Mrs. Bemis', by two other huts, which are to shelter Love- joy's son from the fire of the Indians when he flies for his life — by a Dutchman's hovel near Tupper street, till we reach Deacon Goodell's tavern, on the spot where Mr. Spaulding now lives. This is a little log house, very poorly furnished, the last in the village, and is known as the Teamster's Tavern. On the way we have met several groups of Indian children at their sports, and been glad to hear, that, though their fathers are so grave, and their mothers so silent, and the old ones are grown voiceless and glum, the young ones are still the children of nature, having ability to leap, and laugh, and shout. Returning from Deacon Goodell's, we mark, on the west side of Main street, a log house, in front of where Mr. Barton now lives. This is for the present Judge Campbell's residence. He will soon 32 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. establish himself lower down, and on the other side of the street. Near to Campbell's is Roop's, and farther south, at the corner of what is now Tapper street, we pass Judge Tupper's house, taking note especially of the fine orchard behind it. Near Chippewa street stands Henry Ketchum's house. From behind his barn the British will fire on poor Lovejoy when he comes down from Black Rock, to look after his family, in that day of rout and fire and terror. And the dis- tracted father will be compelled to turn and fly, though he is in sight of his house, and knows not the fate of his wife and children. At the corner of Huron street is Elias Ransom's tavern. On the other side of the way he intends to erect a barn, which we shall hear of when it is done. Below this, between Mohawk and Court streets, are St. John's Tavern, then Townsend & Curtis' store, near the present site of the Savings Bank, then Dr. Ebenezer Johnson's, then John Had- dock's, then Samuel Pratt's, which brings us back to Eagle street. Below, on the west side of Main, we pass Eli Hart's store, and Dr. Chapin's, and on the other side of Swan, Samuel Pratt's store, then Draper & Daly's grocery, then Robbins' blacksmith shop, Cook's barn, and finally his tavern, which brings us to Seneca street, below which are Davis' store, and Gil- lett's. On the east side of Main street, between Swan and Seneca, are Lewis' house and store, Grosvenor & Heacock's, Forward's house, the post ofl&ce, Stocking & Bull's hatter's shop, and Pomeroy's tavern. Be- tween Seneca and Crow streets are Vincent Grant's store and Timothy McEwen's shoe shop. On the south HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 33 side of Crow street are Mrs. Pratt's and Landon's, with Johnson's log house still standing at the east end of his garden ; while on the north side are Le Cou- TEULx's drug store, Hull's jeweler's shop, Foster's saddlery, and Juba Storrs' store. Judge Barker's house, Despard's bakery and Reese's blacksmith shop are on what is now Washington street, between Crow and Swan. On the east side of Pearl street, and south of Swan, Callender lives. North of him, and on the other side, in the angle of Pearl and Erie streets, stands the school house, south of which is Folsom's, while farther north, and near Niagara, is the house of Heman B. Potter. Dr. Cyrenius Chapin, who tried to buy the whole township, and who was forward in so many endeavors for the public good, lived near where Dr. Trowbridge now lives, on Swan street. This is the village of Buffalo in 1812. There are four or five little vessels on the lake car- rying merchandise to Erie or Detroit, and bringing back whiskey to Grosvenor & Heacock, or whitefish to Sill, or furs to the as-euts. Mi\ Peter Colt informs the readers of the Gazette^ that the new sloop Friend Goodwill runs from her wharf at Black Rock to De- troit and back, having good accommodations and a well-furnished cabin, at the moderate sum of twelve dollars for passengers, and one and a half per barrel, for merchandise. The eastern mail, by way of Batavia, arrives once a week, unless the roads prevent, being brought in a covered wagon by Mr. Ira Metcalf, an energetic and 34 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. honest man, well esteemed of all who know him. The western mail goes out once a fortnight, under the charge of brave John Edwards, who travels now on foot, or now on horseback, as his burden and the .state of the roads may chance to suggest. The nearest post offices are Erie on the west, and Niagara on the north. Not less than twenty families per day pass through the village on their way to the West, halting here, some- times to rest their jaded horses, sometimes to restore their sick, sometimes to bury their dead. A mother, with her children, stops at Landon's. They are going to New Connecticut to join the husband and father, who has at last cleared his acres, and put up his log hut, and awaits the arrival of the loved ones from the East. The oldest boy has fallen sick on the road, or the daughter, or perhaps the mother herself, worn out with care and labor. And good Mrs. Landon must go to the grave with her stranger guests, and send for- ward, next day, the mother bereft, or the children motherless. Occasionally the village is astir with tidings that a Sheriff has arrived from some city or town in the East, when certain of the more sensitive sort, finding that they have pressing business in Canada, quit their cups at Landon's, or their gaming tables at Cook's, and make haste to reach the safer shore of the Niagara. Such is Buffalo in itself Now, if we take a wider glance, and view the Church which Osgood had just set up, in its relations to the surrounding territory, and to sister churches, we find that in 1812, there were upon the Holland HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. . 35 Purchase, that is, upon that portion of the State of New York which lies west of the Genesee river, 25,000 inhabitants, nine-tenths of whom were poor, and ninety- nine-hundredths of them living on little clearings, in log houses. To illumine this vast wilderness, there were, at that time, four little churches in the territory — one at Warsaw, fifty • miles east, founded in 1807, and having thirty members, but no pastor; one at Og- den, ten miles this side of Rochester, founded in 1811, with ten members; one at Pomfret, founded in 1810, with twelve members; and our mother Church, with her twenty-five members. These were the luminaries that in that early night shone down on a domain of more than four millions of acres. A clergyman who passed through this region in the Spring of 1813, wrote to the Payioplist : — ''In the Holland Purchase there is a wide field for missionary labor. This tract is about ninety miles square. In the southern parts of it, there are a vast number of people, and I think but two churches formed, and these small. In some places, I hear, lately, there is a degree of religious excitement in the minds of the people." As I said, the infant Church in Buffalo had begun to exist, but had no pastor. The people celebrated worship on the Sabbath and during the week as best they could. So passed the first year of their history, — the first, and eleven months of the second, when the village was invaded, its inhabitants put to flight, its houses burned, and the Church, seemingly riven into fragments, was swept by the sudden tornado into 36 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. the wilderness for a retreat. On that terrible winter night, the 30th of December, 1813, when mothers and daughters, and men, some in wagons, some on foot, rushed over the frozen ground into the sheltering woods, and, looking back from the nearest hill-tops, saw the village on fire, while through the darkness came the yell of the victorious savages, — who that has ever read the story will forget what the exiles of Buf- falo suffered in those few hours of terror and flight? Hyde hurries away in a one-horse wagon, to the reser- vation, to take shelter with the Indians. Callender goes to Batavia. The others disperse, some to Ham- burgh, some to Willink, some to Clarence — opening ofl&ces and stores, and trying to tide over till Spring, when they hope to return and rebuild their desolated village. In the Spring they begin to come back. House after house goes up. By the first of June there are in the village twenty-three dwellings, occupied by families, three taverns, and four dry goods stores. So soon as a sufficient number of the members of the Church are here, they commence worship again. But the Court House no longer stands, and till that is re- built, they must convene sometimes in Townsend & Coit's new store, sometimes at Ransom's tavern, or in the attic of Mr. Callender's house on Pearl street. By the Summer of 1815, the town is fully restored. But calamity and war, and the consequent interruption of travel and paralysis of traded have made money scarce and provisions dear, and the people, though re- stored to their homesteads, are hard beset to meet the wants of their families. As there are not beds enough HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 37 for the lodgers, each house must accommodate board- ers. Flour is $15 a barrel, potatoes $1.50 per bushel, butter 50 cts. per lb., milk 12 cts. per quart, cheese 42 cts. per lb., meats 12|^ cts., fowls $1.00 a pair, shirting 5s. 6d. per yard, tea 12s. per lb., coffee 3s. per lb., sugar 3s. per lb., a hat $8.00, a plug of tobacco 2s., nails 2s. per lb., powder 8s. per lb. But the peo- ple struggle on, and now that prosperity begins to dawn, and the Church is more than three years old, it is time to look in earnest for some one to take charge of them, and be pastor of the restored and enfeebled flock. Atkins and Seely are dead, but the Church must have a shepherd. Where shall he be found? Whom will the Lord send to take charge of this flock in the desert? At Utica there has been formed a young people's Missionary Society for Western New York. This Society, in the year 1815, employed a young licentiate from Vermont, a student of Andover, to travel through the western settlements and obtain information and organize auxiliaries. This young man, then in his twenty-fourth year, arrived in Buffalo early in August. Mr. Callender, who had been clerk in Grosvenor & Heacock's store since the buraing of the town, had erected and covered a small house on Pearl street, and without waiting for the plasterers, had brought his family from their log house, at the Cold Spring, and in January, 1816, commenced housekeejoing, hospitality, a school on week days, and on the Sabbath, meetings for the worship of God. To this point the stranger directs his jaded horse, and on a warm August morning. 38 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. Mr. Callender makes acquaintance with his destined pas- tor, the Rev. Miles P. Squier. Mr. Squier becomes the guest of Mr. Potter, remains in town two weeks, preach- ing in an unfinished hall in Landon's tavern. When he left, he had in his pocket a written request, signed by many of the people, asking him to remain a year, on a salary of one thousand dollars. Three months later he re-visited Buffalo, preaching in Kibbe's tavern, which, either because it soared above all the others or had reasons which it did not divulge for its name, took the somewhat lofty and remarkable sobriquet of the Eagle. In December the people united in an ecclesi- astical society, appointed Holt, and Sill, and Harrison, and Stocking, and Frederick Miller, and Heman B. Potter, trustees, assumed the title of the First Presbyte- rian Society of Buffalo, and on the 16th of January, 1816, called the Rev. Mr. Squier, on a salary of one thousand dollars, payable entirely by private subscrip- tions. How they were ever made to believe that they could raise that sum, or what assurance the young pastor had of their extravagant, and as they proved, uncertain pledges, does not now appear. On the 31st of the same month, Mr. Squier signified his acceptance of the call, and was ordained on Friday, the 3d of May, 1816. The interesting ceremony of inducting into office the first pastor of the first church of the then infant town, took place in a new barn belonging to Elias Ransom, standing on the east side of Main street, just north of what is now Genesee street, and nearly opposite to Ransom's tavern, which stood on the lot occupied now by Sidway's store. The Court House HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 39 was not completed; Mr. Callender's attic was too small ; so was the school house ; so was the room in the Eagle tavern. There would be a large attendance ; people would come from adjoining towns ; there was no other alternative, Ransom must fit up his barn, which had been raised and covered, but never used ; must make it a sanctuary, before it could become a hostelry. The good-natured taverner, moved by his own kindness, moved even more, perhaps, by the entreaties of his daughter Sarah, who had just come from Miss Pierce's school, at Litchfield, and joined the church on a letter of recommendation fi'om Dr. Beech- ER, consented. Extempore benches were made, a little platform built, and Ransom's barn was for a time a temple, which neither God nor his people despised. That 3d day of May, 1816, was a day to be remem- bered in Buffalo. The place of meeting, the congrega- tion, the ministers present, the singers, the services, all were of a character to leave a deep impression upon the minds, even of the children, who attended. There, among the ministers, was noble John Spencer, who, having been in Buffalo to look after Christ's sheep every year since 1809, had come over now, from his residence on the Canadawa Creek, to charge the new shepherd to take heed to himself and the flock en- trusted to his care. And there was Dr. Axtell, the able and well-known pastor of the church in Geneva, who was here to preach the ordination sermon, and three others the ensuing Sabbath. Hubbard, from Warsaw, was present too, to deliver the charge to the people. But look at this noble group of singers on 40 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. the east side, and north of the platform. There are Deacon Stocking, and Mr. Coit, and Gen. Potter, and Glen. Storrs, and Mr. Grosvenor, and Mr. Pratt, and Mr. Cutler, now of Rochester, and Mrs. Heacock, and Mrs. Marshall, and Mrs. Kibbe, and Mrs. Fields, Mrs. Haddock, and others, led by Deacon Callender, who will be sure not to flat the key to-day. They have learnt two new tunes for the occasion, St. Asaph's and Pleyel's Second. And the hymns happily we have two of them. Must it not have been with an emphasis and a meaning that those servants of song, full of the memories of other days, chanted together, In each event of life, how clear, Thy ruHng hand I see. And was there not something prophetic in their melody, when, with power and earnestness, and up- lifted voice, they told the rafters, and told the people, and told to passers by on the street, yes, and sent the echo to the ears of the savage and the stranger, that Jesus shall reign where'er the sun, Does his successive journeys run. It was observed that Mr. Callender took care to bring his tuning fork to church that day. The ordi- nation services were held in the forenoon. In the afternoon Mr. Smith, a strolling preacher, of the Uni- versalist order, having given notice of his intention, in the streets, held forth in the same barn, Mr. Cal- lender was requested to be present and lead the singing, a service which he very resolutely declined. HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 41 Having received charge of the congregation, Mr, Squier devoted himself at once to his proper work He preached sermons, and dehvercd addresses, and pubhshed articles, exhorting the people to all due endeavors to enforce order and set a curb on vice, and erect a vir- tuous, loyal and happy community. The people valued his labors and were prompt to second them. They formed a so(^ety to promote public morals, engaged to abstain themselves, and so far as they had influence or power, to hinder others from Sabbath-breaking and the vices to which it so commonly leads. The next Sabbath, all the stores in the village were closed. Eight persons, of whom one was the ever-to-be-remem- bered Deacon Joseph Stocking, joined the church in 1816. The next year thirty-seven, and the next thirty-four, were added. Of these were the two broth- ers, Ja]\ies and David Remington, who entered and hon- ored the christian ministry. David Remington, was a young man of superior talents, affectionate temper, and devoted piety. He was therefore a great favorite among all who knew him. Having finished an educa- tion by the aid of the church, and especially of the ladies of the church, he was married in 1821 to Miss Esther Low, a teacher among the Senecas, and receiv- ing an appointment from the American Board, went forth as a missionary teacher to the Choctaws, in Georgia. The distance to that far-off country was then so great, and the delays and perils of travel so ex- treme, that the parents and friends of Mr. Remington took an affectionate leave of him, never expecting to see his face as-ain on earth. 42 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. Three years afterward, his health failing, he returned, completed his education, was licensed and became pastor of a church in Rye, in this State, where he died suddenly of disease of the heart. His brother, the Rev. James Remington, is well-known in this region, being now the honored and venerated pastor of the church in Alden. In September, 1816, the Buffalo Femalg Bible Soci- ety was organized, with Mrs. Heacock for President, and Miss Campbell, Secretary. This Society collected the first year, one hundred and fourteen dollars, and spent ninety; distributed one hundred and thirty- two Bibles ; two thousand and five hundred tracts and cate- chisms, and had on hand thirty Bibles and thirteen hundred tracts and catechisms. In August, 1817, the Buffalo Sunday School Society was formed. In February, 1817, the first Episcopal Society was organized in this village. In August, of the same year. President Monroe was here, and in the succeeding September, Joseph Bonaparte. It was during this summer of 1817, also, that the Senecas suffered so extremely from famine. There were fourteen deaths in Buffalo during the year 1818. Of these, three were strangers, ten children, and four adults. In July, 1818, Mr. Henry R. Seymour joined the church; a man, whose simplicity, sincerity, integrity, accompanied as they were, by unceasing liberality towards every good cause, do lasting honor to his memory, as they did enduring good to the church. Matters were wearing a prosperous look in the young church, except that in November of this year, •1818, HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 43 the trustees found themselves compelled to announce that the subscription for Mr. Squier's salary was quite inadequate to the use to which it was to be put. A new subscription was ordered, and Heman B. Potter, and Deacon Stocking, and Mr. Sill, and Jasper Corn- ing, and Holt, who joined the church ten months before, were commissioned to circulate and enforce it. They did their work thoroughly, reporting the names of one hundred and five subscribers, and an aggregate of $820 a year pledged to the Society's account for salary. It speaks well for the character of the then leading men in Buffalo, that three-fourths of this sum was contributed by persons who were not yet members of the church. But eight hundred and twenty dollars promised, are not eight hundred and twenty dollars in hand, and if .they were, they could not pay a salary of a thousand dollars. We shall look for trouble, therefore, from the subsequent meetings of such ac- complished trustees as Potter, and Stocking, and Sill, and Corning, and Holt. Certain other events, however, have a more favorable look. There is a prospect that Mr. Ellicott will acceede to the request of the people, and give them a lot on which to build a house of worship. Perhaps he will add, as he has done in Batavia, a gift of a thousand dollars towards the building, if it be of wood, or fifteen hundred if of brick. Moreover, two years ago, Jasper Corning, brother of Mrs. Townsend, took up his residence here, and in 1816 was appointed first superintendent of the Sunday School. On the whole, 1819 opens with somewhat cloudy 44 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. prospects. Money is so scarce that purchasers are unable to pay, in cash, two dollars a barrel for flour, though it is offered for that in market. But there are courageous and generous souls in Buffalo, notwithstanding. The Methodists have built a house of worship, the first on the Holland Purchase, in the brief space of forty-eight days. This house, thirty-five feet by twenty-five, stood on the west side of Pearl street, a little south of Niagara. At this time there were supposed to be two thousand Methodists on the Purchase. The Rev. Mr. Fillmore, the first pastor of the Metho- dist Church in Buffalo, is now a resident of Clarence, engaged in the work of the ministry. At the present time there are, in this. city, seven Methodist churches, under the care of five pastors, having an aggregate of about a thousand communicants, three thousand attend- ants upon worship, and fifteen hundred children in the Sabbath Schools. In March, 1819, in the midst of great pecuniary privations, the ladies of the First Church, made their pastor a Life Director of the West- ern Education Society, by a donation of fifty dollars. The trustees, willing to attempt any generous, or even impossible deed, appointed a committee, this year, to provide a house of worship for the congregation, and a parsonage for the minister, neither of which could be accomplished. Baffled in their endeavors, and unwilling to incur responsibilities which they were unable to meet, these faithful men laid the matter before the congregation, when, on the 5th of December, 1819, it was unanimously voted that the Rev. Mr. Squier have leave to missionate twelve Sabbaths of the ensuing 'year HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 45 for his own benefit, upon his reducing his salary the sum of five hundred and fifty dollars. During this, the third year of Mr. Squier's ministry, twenty-two persons joined the church, one of whom was Henry HoisiNGTON, afterward the well-known missionar}^, a diligent minister, a thorough scholar, whose memory and his works remain, though, alas, he has departed. Mr. Hiram Pratt, another of the pillars of this congre- gation, whose house was ever open, and his hand ever ready to help the cause he loved ; who could contribute, or counsel, or toil, or do anything that needed to be done, to set forward the growing church, was received to fellowship in September, 1.820. This year, 1820, brought with it the trials, the suc- cesses and the doubts, which its immediate antecedents were so certain to produce. Thirteen persons were added to the church, but the subscriptions were inade- quate, and the trustees perplexed, so that at their meeting, December 21st, they could do no otherwise than vote that the committee be instructed henceforth, to offer the pastor only what money should be received from the subscriptions. In 1821, eleven joined the church, one of whom, Mr. Joseph Dart, is still a member. lii the summer of this year, 1821, Mr. Dart and Miss Eunice Hosmer, who was then the teacher of a day school in the village, and who afterwards be- came a missionary to the Indians, in the North West, commenced a mission Sabbath School, the first of its kind in our history. It was held every Sabbath after- noon in a log school house, at what is now the junc- tion of Genesee and High streets, near the tollgate. 46 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. But as Genesee street had not then been opened, they could reach the school house only by a bridle path which ran along the ridge where Allen street is now. They gathered together from twelve to twenty untaught children, kept the school alive for three years, were permitted to witness some saving results, when the roads being opened, the school was transferred to the church. At the end of the year 1821, the clerk reported that four members had died, ten had been dismissed, and one suspended: twenty-six babes had been baptised, and there were one hundred and nine- teen communicants then in the church. In 1822, twenty-nine united with the church, among whom were Abner Bryant, received on profession of his faith, Moses Bristol, by certificate from the Pres- byterian Church in Manlius, and Lemuel Johnson, an elder of the church in Auburn. Mr. Johnson, was soon invited to act as one of the elders of the church, whose session then consisted of Messrs. Goodell, Stocking, Callender, Hyde and Johnson. Four of the members died, twenty-three were dismissed, twenty- eight had been baptised, one suspended, and the whole number of communicants was one hundred and twenty. Up to this time the people had no fixed place of worship. Wherever they could find a convenient and available room, whether at Callender's, or at Ran- som's, or the school house, or in the court room, they convened. For a time, they had worshiped in Ran- som's barn, then in the hall of his tavern, then in the Court House, till the Supervisors becoming uneasy, they removed to a rickety school house, which stood HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 47 north of the present church, on the other side of Ni- agara street. The pastor became cliscourag-cd now, and was making up his mind to leave, when the judi- cious and gentle Mrs. Squier, finding a fit text, re- quested her husband to preach, the next Sabbath, from Hag. i: 8. He consented, and when the Lord's day arrived, the people heard a very timely exhortation, no doubt, from the words of the prophet: "Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build tlie house, and I will take pleasure in it. and be glorified, saith'the Lord." The next Sabbath Mr. Squier exchanged, or had assistance ; and the preacher, not knowing what had taken place the week before, opened to the first chap- ter of Haggai, and read again, with simplicity and much emphasis, the admonition to go up to the moun- tain, and bring wood, and build a house for the Lord. When Monday morning arrived, it saw a subscription paper flying from house to house, and hand to hand, and soon the trustees had assurances which said agaiu. Get the wood, and build the house. They came together to deliberate. EllicotT' liad given them a lot, but no money. Nor did they need any. This church has never been obliged, from the day it was formed, to ask aid from abroad. On the 24th of December, 1822, the committee were author- ized to contract with John Stacy, for a house of wor- ship, forty by fifty feet, to be erected on the north cor- ner of their lot, at a cost of $874, deducting the price of a pew which Mr. Stacy desired to build for his own use. In May, the edifice was finished, and the pews 48 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. sold for one hundred dollars more than the building had cost. The house fronted eastward, was entered by two doors, between which stood the pulpit, and over against it, on the west end of the audience room, a platform for the singers. The pews were square, and the house was lighted at evening by candles, sup- plied by the worshipers. The choir was led by Mr. Hamlin, and consisted of Mr. Coit, Mr. Dart, Mr. Wilcox, Mr. Pratt, Mr. Seymour, Mr. Ketchum, Gen- eral Stores, Mr. Allen, Mr. Heacock, Mrs. Kibbe, Mrs. Seymour, Mrs. Heacock, Mrs. Marshall, Mrs. Hol- LisTER, Charlotte and Lydia Callender, Mary Cot- ton, Miss Pratt, and others whose names I cannot certainly command. This first house of worship served the congregation till 1828, when it was sold to the Methodists, and moved to Niagara street. Afterwards it was sold to the Germans, and taken to Genesee street, whence it was at length removed to Walnut street, where it is now used as a tenement house. There were, in 1823, three houses of worship in the village — that of the Methodists, on Pearl street; that of the Episcopalians, on their lot, south of ours; and that erected by this society. j^ During the year 1823, it had become evident that no effort, not even the resolute and well nigh resistless appeals of Reuben Heacock, who went around with the subscription paper, and to whose solicitations, on any subject, few were accustomed to say No, could redeem the pledge of a thousand dollars, and pay arrears, and interest, and salary, and expenses. In HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 49 November, therefore, Mr. Squier concluded to lay down his charge, and the trustees made a .final endeavor to cancel their dues to him. He relinquished his post January 1st, 1824, having filled the pastoral ofiice seven and a half years. During that time he had ad- mitted to the church one hundred and fifty-eight mem- bers, and witnessed the beginnings of a new order of existence, of intelligence, of virtue, of thrift, of promise. He and the people were especially fortunate, in having the aid and the counsel of those noble men, whom Buffalo will not soon forget, the elders of the church, and the trustees of the society. The urbane and courtly Holt, who presided at the board, where sat the systematic Potter, the judicious Sill, Stocking the faithful, and Callender the strong, with the fervid and powerful Heacock, and Walden, the meditative, and taciturn, and wise, — who but such as these could have carried an infant and helpless church through seven years of severest trial, collecting from voluntary contributions, and paying out, in all, an aggregate of more than ten thousand dollars? And whenever Mr. Squier met his session, he looked on men, the like of whom it is not easy to find in any of the churches. Bryant — do I need to describe him? — a man to whom sacrifices and good works were welcome as was existence; who could watch sixteen successive nights with a sick neighbor, and neither tire nor complain ; and Stocking, who carried the heart of the church^ inside his own lieart, and could never distinguish which was his, and which the church's ; and Hyde, the zealous Christian, and the 50 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. skillful teacher; with Callender, who could counsel, or sing, or attend a funeral, or do any other good thing that was needed; and Goodell, and Johnson, and Bristol, who bears fruit still — well may Mr. Squier, in his seventy-first year, write, as he does, re- membering his early associates, that never had a pastor a more reliable body of advisers; and that, for eight years, there was never a divided vote in that session. But where are the men and women who associated and worshiped in those early assemblies? A hundred and ninety-seven persons, more than sixty males, more than one hundred and thirty of the other sex, had en- tered into covenant with the church in the twelve years since it was founded. What has become of them? How many remain? Looking at the cata- logue, of the twenty-nine who formed the church at its origin, but one is living. Of those who joined in 1816, all are gone. So of the twenty-seven who joined in 1817. Though several of them survive, no^t one is now connected with this church. So of the thirty-four who joined in 1818. Mrs. E. D. Efner alone, of those who joined in 1819, retains her place. Miss Mary Cotton and Miss Ann Field are the sole remaining members of 1820. Mr. Joseph Dart, of 1821; Mrs. SiLA.s Fobes and Dr. Bristol, of '22 ; none of '23. That is to say, of the one hundred and fifty-eight whom Mr. Squier received to the church during his pastorate, six, and only six, are members still. The rest, like sheaves of the harvest, have been removed from the hands of the reaper, — some of them to the garner on high, some to the waiting seed fields of the West- HALF CENTURY DISCOURSEl. 51 Leaving BuiFalo, Mr. Squier became connected, in one capacity and another, with the home missionary cause, and that of Christian education, till, a few years ago, he was elected to a professorship in Beloit College, a post which he fills with honor and efficiency to the present time, though he has passed his seventieth year. Mr. Thaddeus Joy, who had been in Buffalo two years, made haste to inform the people of the virtues and abilities of the Rev. Gilbert Crawford, whom he had heard and known during his residence in the town of Le Roy. Mr. Crawford was born in Scot- land, in 1792, was educated in Edinburgh, and had been a student of theology at Princeton, in this coun- try. A genuine Scotchman, devout, able, and bearing in his nature the peculiarities and the strength of his inflexible race ; impetuous, and perhaps a little impa- tient at times, he was, nevertheless, a serious, exem- plary and powerful man, a saint honored of the church, a minister approved of God. He soon accepted the call of the people, and in May, 1824, at the age of thirty- two, was installed, on a salary wisely adjusted to the abilities of the people, and reflecting, no doubt, many of the remembrances of former times — a salary, that is, of six hundred dollars. During his stay of a little more than five years, there were added to the church one hundred and twenty-three new members, among whom are the names of Marshall, and Potter, and Corr, and Allen, and Babcock, and Russell, and Hamlin, and Pratt, and Grosvenor, and Joy, and Taintor. In 1824, Mr. Squier had left one hundred and twenty resident members still in the church. At the 52 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. departure of Mr. Crawford, the list had swollen to two hundred and three. The annual accessions, under the first pastor, averaged twenty, the losses seven. Under the second pastor, the yearly increase was thirty, while the annual removals had amounted to ten. Du- ring Mr. Crawford's pastorate, Russell, and Clary, and CuRTiss, and Scott, and Miller, and Marshall, and TowNSEND, and Pratt, and Ketchum, took their places in the board of trustees, while Bryant and Bristol were added to the bench of the elders. In July, 1825, the church was made sad by the intelli- gence that Deacon and Mrs. Goodell had determined to remove to New England. Letters were made out, and pastor, and session, and people were getting ready to say their adieus, w' of this church, if I failed to mention the names of a somewhat numerous list of young men, who, with oi- without assistance, have gone from membership in tins 78 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. congregation into the Christian ministry. In 1818, the Presbytery of Buffalo undertook to aid indigent young men belonging to its feeble churches, in pursuing an education with a view to the ministry. The extent of the assistance it could offer will be appreciated on dis- covering that, in September, 1821, eight churches con- nected with the Presbytery contributed in all $32.20, of which sum the church in Buffalo furnished $24.00. In 1823, James Remington, of this church, commenced his studies under the care of the Presbytery. Six months after, his brother David, also a member of this church, entered upon his studies. The same year Jabez Hyde was licensed to preach -the gospel. Besides these, Joseph Donald, Henry Hoisington, John C. Lord, Joseph M. Gambell, Philos G. Cook, Albert Bigelow, John Coit, Joshua Cook, Grosvenor Heacock, Her- RiCK Johnson, and Charles L. Hequemburg have en- tered the ministry. Mr. Hyde had charge of a church in Chautauque county. Mr. Hoisington was missionary to Ceylon, then pastor in Williamstown, afterward in Essex, Connecticut, where he died a little time since. The history of the others, especially of Dr. Lord, Dr. Heacock, Mr. Coit, Mr. Bigelow, Mr. Cook, and Mr. Johnson, is too In.miliar to need mention. In the protracted investigation which I have been obliged to make, to obtain the history to which you have so patiently listened, I have not failed to find evidence of human ft'ailty in the conduct of individual members of the church, and I may add, perhaps, in current opinions and usages, and modes of advancing the cause of the Redeemer. But I have not thought HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 79 it necessary to exhume buried infirmities, oi- o-ive a secojLcl life to faults that have had their day already. Let the pall of forgetfulness cover all the frailties which the past has witnessed, and let us be eager to preserve and embalm only the virtues of the lionored and the dead. Reflecting upon this history of half a century, the first thing that strikes the mind is the amazing con- trasts of the present and the past. Fifty years ago, there were five hundred people in Buffalo. To-day, there are nearly one hundred thou- sand. Fifty years ago, there were five day schools in the town, with less than a hundred pupils. To-day, there are thirty-three public schools, in charge of nearly two hundred teachers, with an attendance of nearly thirteen thousand children, and at an annual cost of about a hundred thousand dollars. The school property in Buffalo is valued at a little less than tlircc^ hundred thousand dollars. Fifty years ago, there was one church in the village, with a membership of twenty-nine, and a congregation of less than a hundred. To-day, there are forty-two Protestant and thirteen Roman Catholic churches in the city. Of the former, seven are Presbyterian, eight Methodist, eight Episcopal, three Baptist, one Bethel, and eleven German. Fifty years ago, there was one Sabbath School, with one teacher, and eight or ten pupils. Now, there are in the Presbyterian churches alone, thirteen schools, with three hundred teachers, and nearly two thousand pupils. 80 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. Fifty years ago, there were four or five vessels on the lake, whose value might have been ten thousand dollars. There are now fourteen hundred vessels, with a tonnage of six millions, employing one hundred and forty-five thousand seamen, and valued at thii'teen and a half millions of dollars. Besides these, there are more than three thousand boats on the canal, having a tonnage of more than five hundred thousand, and an estimated value of three and a half millions of dollars. Fifty years ago, not a bushel of grain, of any kind, was brought into Buffalo. This year, there have been landed at your docks, twenty-six and a half millions of bushels of wheat, twenty-one of corn, and nearly two and a half of other grains. Fifty years ago, the value of our exports was noth- ing. This year, it is $57,834,888. Sixty years ago, the assessors' roll put down the taxable property of the village at $2,229. The as- sessed value of real estate in Buffalo, this year, is nearly forty-two millions of dollars. At the center of all this activity, and in the heart of all this growth, is the religion of Christ embodied in these churches, and kept alive from generation to generation, by the labors and the prayers of the faithful. Looking again upon the history of these fifty bygone years, we cannot but remark upon the assistance ren- dered to the church and to the city, by the churches in the East. More than half of those who have sus- tained and carried forward this society have come to us from beyond the Hudson. Those eastern churches in Connecticut, in Massachusetts, in Rhode Island, in HALF CENTURY DISCOURSE. 81 Vermont, are not living in \-aiii. They are Clirist's schools, where young men are trained for usefulness and power in distant and destitute fields. May God prosper them, and make them nurseries of a sanctified manhood, for many generations to come. Reflecting still upon the history of these fifty years, how clear it is, that the churches in this city are doing a constant and mighty work in States and cities further west. In fifty years, this church has sent out as many as six hundred men and women to assist in founding or building up young churches and cities in the West. Of how much consequence to a people in such circum- stances, is a high standard of integrity, a standard and a style of culture that shall furnish able, consistent and holy men — men who shall be to the cities where they reside what Callender, and Bryant, and Seymour, and Stocking, were to us. Nor can we conclude our survey of the histoiy of these fifty years, without remarking upon the character and power of that religion which has had a place in this church from the beginning. The religion of the Presbyterian Church, the religion of Calvinism and the Covenant has often encountered the reproach of those who can see no divinity in Christ, and no depravity in man. You have lately been told that it was found necessary, a quarter of a century ago, to set up even in this city a standing protest against the doctrines and inhumanities of Calvinism. But Calvinism, as taught and illustrated in the Presbyterian Church, has had an experiment of fifty years in this community. It began its work when there were none to compete, I 82 THE FIRST CHURCH IN BUFFALO. and none to complain. It planted a churcli. It pub- lished the gospel. It fostered learning. It cherished virtue. It inspired manliness. It instigated thrift. Gathering around itself in these fifty years twenty thousand souls, men, and mothers, and children, it has guided, and admonished, and helped these, while it has adorned sixteen hundred of its own disciples with the virtues of a regenerate and holy life. In doing this, it has accomplished a work, which whoever passes by may easily behold. It has had an ample trial — let it have judgment according to its fruits. :P O E Is/L: READ AT THE ^^^^;^^^ - ^^^^^/r^^^^^/ t^^^^^a/^^//. MONDAY EVENING, FEB. 3, 1862. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. THE LIBRARY UNIVErbjity op caijfohiJA um angeles PAMPHLET BINDER Martufocturwi t^ G.«,YLORO BROS. Inc. SyrocuM, H. Y. Stockton. Collf. AA 00 ' 252 235 PLEASf DO NOT REMOVE THIS BOOK CARDS >SlLIBRARY6/^ "- m ^ r, U1 > c H Z O