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Project Gutenberg's The Kirk on Rutgers Farm, by Frederick BrückbauerThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever.. Men and Women wh

Project Gutenberg's The Kirk on Rutgers Farm, by Frederick Brückbauer

This eBook is for the use of anyone

anywhere at no cost and with

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Title: The Kirk on Rutgers Farm

Author: Frederick Brückbauer

Illustrator: Pauline Stone

Release Date: May 2, 2008 [EBook #25293] Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK

THE KIRK ON RUTGERS FARM ***

Produced by David Garcia and The Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

The Kirk on Rutgers Farm

KIRK

on

Rutgers Farm

To the

Men and Women who gave

that the old church might remain at Market and Henry Streets

of theWallMinisters

MenWorkers atMarketStreetChurchWomenWorkers atMarketStreetChurchDied inServiceChurch

VIII

Students

at MarketStreetChurch,OrdainedLater

OfficersOld ChurchBuildingsEast SideStreetsBibliography

Transcriber's Note: The original of this work did not include a table

of contents.

The one given above has been inserted for the reader's

convenience.

"Thy saints take pleasure in her stones,Her very dust to them is dear."

The story of "The Kirk on RutgersFarm" is one of pathetic interest In itsfirst half-century it sheltered a

worshipping congregation of staidKnickerbocker type, which, tho blest with

a ministry of extraordinary ability andspiritual power, succumbed to itsunfriendly environment and perished

In its second half-century it became thehome of a flock of God, poor in thisworld's goods, but rich in faith, to whomthe environment even when changing frombad to worse, was a challenge to faith andvaliant service Those of us who in ourunwisdom said a generation ago that itought to die judged after the outwardappearance Those who protested that itmust not die, took counsel with the spiritthat animated them, saw the invisible andagainst hope believed in hope

Not the least impressive pages of this

book are the pages which record thenames of ministers and other toilers forChrist, who in this field of heroicachievement have lived to serve or havedied in service.

The author has very skilfully concealedhis personal connection with the history ofwhich he might justly say: "Magna parsfui." But for his wise and winsomeleadership the chronicle would haveclosed a quarter of a century ago

By putting in form and preserving thememories which cluster about the Church

of the Sea and Land, he is performing areal service to the Christian communityand earning the gratitude of fellow-laborers to whom it has been a shrine oftheir heart's devotion

George Alexander.

Nathan Hale Statue 19

First Presidential Mansion 20

Tablet in Church Vestibule 22

Philip Milledoler 23

North Dutch Church 24

Old Lecture Room Pulpit 30

Kindergarten 73

John Hopkins Denison 81

Fresh Air Children 84

Old 61 Henry Street 94

New 61 Henry Street 95

Staten Island House when

If there be one thing certain about NewYork it is that nothing remains unchanged.Not only do public works like the bridgeschange the face of things, but privateactivity effaces great structures to build upstill greater ones This march of progress

is as relentless as a modern army,levelling all before it

In other lands churches have beenspared tho other buildings went down, buteven these in New York havedisappeared, whole districts beingdeliberately deserted because churcheswere no longer able to maintain

themselves there financially This isespecially true of the great down-townsection of Manhattan, the Old New York,

in which only two churches remain thathave stood unchanged for a century.Trinity church let old St John's go, andsixty churches have disappeared in fortyyears on the lower East Side alone Welose much when old landmarks go, when

we can not make history more vivid forour children by pointing out where thegreat men of another day worshipt, men of

a day when other public assemblies wererare, and the church was the center thatradiated influence The old building is ofvalue because of the living beingsassociated with it that were the life of thecommunity

New York has hardly appreciated whatits great families have meant for it in thepast The members of the Rutgers family,for instance, always had a noble share inthe day and generation in which theylived Their ancestor came over in theearly days from Holland, spent some timeabout Albany, and then came to NewYork, branching out till Rutgersbouweries and Rutgers breweries werefound in more than one place.

A Rutgers was on the jury in the greatZenger trial that establisht the freedom ofthe colonial press,—"the germ ofAmerican freedom." The Rutgers wereSons of Liberty and the Rutgers farm nearGolden Hill was one of their meetingplaces A Rutgers was a member of the

New York Provincial Congress and also

of the Stamp Act Congress AlexanderHamilton was engaged in a famous casewhen a Rutgers defended herself against aTory who had taken possession of herproperty during the Revolution

It was a Rutgers who drained themarshes west of the old Collect Pond and

so laid the foundations for the Lispenardfortunes: a Lispenard married a fairdaughter of his neighbor Rutgers Thatstream still runs into the BroadwaySubway at Canal Street apparentlyuncontrollable

One Rutgers fell in the Battle of LongIsland, and while the old father died inAlbany, the British revenged themselves

on the younger brother by making a

Henry Rutgers

hospital of his fine house in New York.The owner kept on fighting for freedomduring the whole Revolutionary War,distinguishing himself at White Plains

This wasHenry

Rutgers, inwhom

culminatedmany of thefinest

characteristics

of a nobleancestry Hisbreadth ofview in an agenot quite so broad, is well shown in hisattitude towards churches and schools

When he decided to open up his farm inthe Seventh Ward for building purposes hegave land at Oliver and Henry Streets, atMarket and Henry Streets and at Rutgersand Henry Streets for churches, and therewas more for the asking, tho only theBaptists, the Dutch Reformed and thePresbyterians took advantage of the offer.The Rutgers Street site became thebirthplace of the Rutgers Presbyterianchurch, beginning May 13, 1798, in aframe building 36×64 In 1841 the presentstone church was built, and in 1862, asdid others, this organization moveduptown A Mr Briggs, who was holdingthe property for a Protestant denomination,finally tired of waiting and sold thebuilding to the Roman Catholic church, inwhose hands it remains.

In 1806 Rutgers gave the land for thesecond free school, and he succeededGovernor Clinton in 1828 as president ofthe Free School Society Before that dayeducation was not a state matter, but left toprivate enterprise, and the free schoolsthen establisht were for the poor Rutgersmore than once paid salaries and otherschool bills out of his own pocket Hewas a Regent of the University of the State

of New York for twenty-four years, and aTrustee of Princeton

Rutgers was not above mixing in withthe political life of his time: he was amember of the legislature four times andtook a prominent part in the election ofThomas Jefferson as President of theUnited States

In 1811 he raised funds for the firstTammany Hall, then a benevolentorganization.

During the War of 1812, Rutgerspresided at a large mass meeting callingfor the defense of New York when theport was blockaded and it seemed as if theBritish would attack it He was a largecontributor to the fund from which fortswere hurriedly erected to keep the enemyout

Rutgers was a member of a committee

of correspondence formed in 1819 tocheck slavery He lived to see the day, in

1827, when slavery was abolisht in NewYork State

His services to the Dutch church and his

munificence brought about a change ofname of the college at New Brunswickfrom Queens to Rutgers College It is truethe sum given was only $5,000 andRutgers was one of the richest men inNew York In our day when only billionsseem to count we may well hark back tothe days of simpler things.

For many years Henry Rutgers gave acake and a book to every boy who called

on him on New Year's Day The childrengathered about his door and he made anaddress "of a religious character."

Rutgers MansionColonel Rutgers lived in "a large,superbly furnished mansion," on Rutgers

Place, "for many years a capitol offashion, where met all the leaders of theday." Here was given "the most notablereception of the time to GeneralWashington and Colonel Willett," after thelatter's return from his mission to theCreek Indians, the most powerfulconfederacy then on our borders Here,also, in 1824, Lafayette was entertained

"like a prince," so the great Frenchmansaid

The house was built in 1755 by theColonel's father, with brick brought fromHolland It stood on Monroe Street till

1865 But it was none too fine for theowner to give his fences for firewood onehard winter when fuel was scarce andtrees in the streets were cut down to burn

Next summer the Rutgers orchard wassaid to have been safer than if the fencehad been there.

"The well-beloved citizen" diedFebruary 17, 1830, in the mansion inwhich he had lived nearly eighty years OnFebruary 28, a great memorial servicewas held in the Market Street church Dr.McMurray, the pastor, whose tablet isopposite that of Rutgers in the church,preached the sermon, which was printedlater, speaking of his "unimpeachablemoral character, his uniform consistency,"and saying that there was "scarcely abenevolent object or humane institutionwhich he had not liberally assisted."Colonel Rutgers spent one-fourth of hisincome in charity, many of his

an orphan Among the provisions of theRutgers will was one that bespoke thetestator: Hannah, a superannuated negress,was to be supported by the estate for therest of her life This while slavery wasstill legal in 1823.

William B Crosby was a colonel in theWar of 1812 He died March 18, 1865 Ason of his was Howard Crosby, more than

a generation ago one of the best-knownpreachers of New York, a man greatphysically and spiritually He wasmoderator of the Presbyterian GeneralAssembly and one of the revisers of theBible He died in 1891 Another Crosbywas in the State Legislature

The direct line of the Rutgers familydied out, but they were intermarried with

about every prominent family of the city.The daughters were more numerous thanthe sons and appear to have had areputation for good looks and good works.They were the wives of rectors, bishops,postmasters, mayors, secretaries of state,judges, and so on.

On November 25, 1816, Rutgers haddeeded five lots for a Dutch Reformedchurch

The neighborhood in which the MarketStreet church was to be located wasredolent with historic associations TheBritish provost marshal hung Nathan Hale

on "an apple tree in the Rutgers orchard,"the exact spot adjoining the churchproperty Nearby on Cherry Hill, in theFranklin House, the first President of the

United States lived for a time, as did JohnHancock and members of Washington'scabinet on the inauguration of the FederalGovernment.

In the immediate vicinity was theWalton House, referred to in parliament

as so richly furnished that the coloniesneeded no relief from taxation

Close by the church lands, on July 27,

1 7 9 0 , Rutgers on his own groundsparaded the militia before PresidentWashington, Governor Clinton andvisiting Indian chiefs, and thereafter hewas Colonel Rutgers Gilbert Stuartpainted Washington's portrait at that timeand it was a prized possession in theRutgers mansion

Nathan Hale Statue

Just north on the Bowery was the oldBull's

the Astor fortunes were laid, and Astorwas not very popular with the otherbutchers either, because of his businessmethods.

In Cherry Street a hundred years ago asea captain and his wife made the firstAmerican flag of the present type: thirteenstripes and an ever-expanding starry field

First Presidential Mansion

At the foot of Pike Street,—the riverthen was nearer the church than now,—Robert Fulton built his first steamboat in

1807, and in May, 1819, just one hundred

years ago, the Savannah docked in thesame place, after the first steamboat tripacross the ocean, made in twenty-twodays.

Not quite so pleasant a memory is thefact that Market Street was the new namefor George Street, of not very favorablerepute, until the quiet Quakers built finelittle houses there, surrounded by gardens,driving out denizens of a less sedatedisposition

A fine story is told of an old lady, whowas advised not to go to the Market Streetchurch because of the neighborhood it was

in She replied that Colonel Rutgers wasgoing there "and where Colonel Rutgersgoes any lady can go."

In 1819 wolves were still killed on the

"outskirts," that being the presentGramercy Park

After the establishment of the FranklinStreet church in 1807, no further attemptwas made by the Dutch church to extendits work until in 1817 the offer made byHenry Rutgers was taken up About thesame time the Houston Street and BroomeStreet churches were added

Tablet in Church Vestibule

To make the Market Street buildingpossible Rutgers gave a large sum, and henamed the trustees "under whosesuperintendence" the building was to beerected They were a noble group:

Rev Philip Milledoler, D.D.; Rev.James M Matthews, Peter Wilson, LL.D.;Isaac Heyer, Matthias Bruen, Peter Sharpeand William B Crosby.

Dr Milledoler was one of the greatmen of the time He was born inRhinebeck, September 22, 1775, andeducated in Edinburgh He was one of thefounders of the American Bible Society,and Secretary of the Board of Trustees ofthe Presbyterian Church In November,

1803, he became colleague pastor of theFirst Collegiate church, and in April,

1809, on division by Presbytery, solepastor of the Rutgers Presbyterian church

He remained here until 1813, when heentered the Reformed Church He waspresident of Rutgers College from 1823 to