Chapter 2

In early days a part of the building was rented for use as a school. The rental was only nominal. At the time of the erection of the consistory building the sidewalks around the whole property were flagged and the iron fence erected.

In 1848 the upper floor was arranged for the Sunday school at a cost of $500. About 1871 doors were cut thru to the galleries of the church from the upper floor. For more than twenty years this had been urged.

John Crosby is recorded as "paying off the church debt of $10,542" in June, 1852.

Dr. Ferris left in 1853 to become chancellor of the University of New York, succeeding his friend, Theodore Frelinghuysen. The first chancellor had been Dr. Matthews, a trustee of the church, and the successors of Dr. Ferris were Howard Crosby, John Hall and Henry M. McCracken. So of six chancellors of the university, four were vitally interested in the Market Street church.

II

With the coming of Theodore Cuyler a new era opened up for the old Market Street church. Two years before Dr. Cuyler had spoken at a large temperance meeting in Tripler Hall, together with General Houston, Henry Ward Beecher, Horace Mann and other celebrities. It was his first public address in a city that was to know much of him.

In 1853 Mr. Cuyler was called and installed by the South Classis of New York, November 13, 1853. He says that while walking along Henry Street Judge Hoxie said to Mr. Lyles: "If our young brother will come and work in the Market Street church we might do something yet."

Cuyler lived at Pike and Madison Streets and later in Rutgers Street. His salary was $1,500, advanced later to $2,500. The church building was painted, and in 1855 a new roof was put on at the expense of the pewholders.

Opposite the church on the northeast corner was a large and select private school. At 11 Market Street later was a smaller one, headed by a German patriot, whose son-in-law was one of the great generals during the Rebellion.

In his address in the church at the Eightieth Anniversary, Dr. Cuyler called it "fighting the adversary of souls and geography," for even in Dr. Ferris's time there were indications of waning strength because of "the continued emigration of the more substantial class of church members from the down-town districts of the city uptown."

But the indefatigable Cuyler postponed the evil day, and for seven years of intensest activity he remained in Market Street.

To quote Dr. Cuyler: "I looked around me and saw there were a good many substantial families that could support a church and East Broadway swarmed with young men."

"Here was the lord of the manor, the nephew of Colonel Rutgers, Wm. B. Crosby. What a devoted Christian he was. His good old gray head moved up to the pew every Sunday, rain or shine. There was a deacons' pew, and in the center sat the best-known man in New York, Judge Joseph Hoxie. When we said the creed and nobody joined he shouted it, and in song his voice was heard above the choir. There sat Jacob Westervelt, the mayor of New York, and he boasted that he was the only member of the Dutch Church who could read a Dutch Bible."

The galleries were packed with young men. One, a young Irish boy, Robert McBurney, became the great secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association. Charles Briggs was another young member, and around him later raged the bitterest theological controversy of the century.

During the summer of 1854 the service was changed to 4 P. M., 7:30 being resumed in September.

In 1855 the seats in the gallery were changed from four rows to three rows, and the infant school was held in the "scholars' gallery" of the church. The low seats are still in the second gallery.

A stove was put in, too, as the heating was not satisfactory.

In 1855, A. D. Stowell came as Bible class teacher at a salary of $12 per month.

Dr. Cuyler rightly referred to it as a busy old hive, for from Market Street church emanated some of the greatest religious movements of the century.

Howard Crosby, son of William B. Crosby, and brought up in the Market Street church, was the first president of the Young Men's Christian Association. Cuyler became interested in it the second year of its existence in New York, and during his long lifetime he never ceased to work for it. But if the church had done nought else than bring Robert McBurney to the Association it would have been amply repaid. The master spirit in the Association for thirty years McBurney's name is written in golden letters in the city's history. Morris K. Jesup and William E. Dodge, life-long friends of the church, were early Association supporters.

A work typical of Market Street church was the Fulton Street prayer-meeting, started by Jeremiah C. Lamphier, who sang in the church choir. Dr. Cuyler credits this with being the first move in the tremendous revival that from 1856 to 1858 swayed the city, and went on to other cities, gathering momentum. Cuyler says: "In three or four weeks the revival so absorbed the city that business men crowded into the churches from 12 to 3 each day, and when Horace Greeley was asked to start a new philanthropic enterprise he said: 'The city is so absorbed with this revival that it has no time for anything else.'"

Market Street church gathered in 150 new members, and 1859 was one of the glorious ones in the history of the church.

Mr. Lamphier died December 26, 1898.

In the Temperance cause, Dr. Cuyler was also a ceaseless worker. From 1851 to 1857 he was in close alliance with Neal Dow, then at the height of his fame as a prohibition advocate.

Another organization that had an earnest supporter in Dr. Cuyler was the Christian Endeavor Society, tho Cuyler gives all the credit for its fatherhood to Rev. F. E. Clarke.

In a day when such things were not common Market Street church got deeply into matters civic. "The most hideous sink of iniquity and loathsome degradation was in the then famous Five Points," Baxter, Worth, Mulberry, Park Streets, not far from the church. An old building, honeycombed with vaults and secret passages, called the Old Brewery, was the center of a locality that boldly flouted the police. Indeed, for years the Old Brewery was a harbor of refuge for any criminal, for the law never reached him there, nor were the Five Points ever a safe place to walk thru. At night no one dared be seen there. For some years the Five Points had played a physical part in the elections, and many a riot had its inception there.

Then the city put thru Worth Street, formerly known as Anthony Street, after a Rutgers, and the Old Brewery Mission was establisht there. Thru Mrs. Pease, a member of the Market Street church, whose husband was the brave projector of the Five Points House of Industry, the church became interested in improving conditions. When Mr. Pease went south, his place was taken by Benjamin R. Barlow, one of the Market Street elders.

In his autobiography, Dr. Cuyler tells how he "used to make nocturnal explorations of some of those satanic quarters" to keep public interest awake in the mission work at the Five Points. New Yorkers who remember the House of Industry of thirty years ago and who now look at Mulberry Bend Park may well thank the old Market Street church that the Cow Bay, Bandit's Roost, the Old Brewery and Cut Throat Alley are things of the past, and that the Five Points are known to this later day only as a name. No second Charles Dickens will cross the ocean to tell us that "all that is loathsome, drooping and decayed is here."

Few men have been in touch with so many public movements as Dr. Cuyler. He was the personal friend of statesmen, churchmen, professors, lecturers, teachers, philanthropists, diplomats, poets and presidents. And as was the minister so were the people of the Market Street church: forward in every movement for the betterment of mankind, the coming of the kingdom. Some of the best families of New York were connected there, and as fathers bought pews for the sons when they married it was a family church. These names are frequent: Duryee, Crosby, Mersereau, Brinkerhoff, Poillon, Zophar Mills, Ludlam, Suydam, Westervelt, Waydell, Chittenden, Bartlett, McKee, Purdy and a host of others.

Small wonder that from among men like these great institutions should come, that the Park Bank and the Nassau Bank should be founded by Market Street church men. The annual pew rents were $5,000, then a large sum.

Perhaps it was their very farsightedness that made the people of the church think of moving uptown. The "brownstone front" was drawing people northward, and Dr. Cuyler started a movement "to erect a new edifice on Murray Hill, and to retain the old building in Market Street as an auxiliary mission chapel." Subscriptions were secured, William E. Dodge heading the list. But the new site at Park Avenue and Thirty-fifth Street did not find favor, and many were opposed to the whole project, so when in 1860 the consistory was to vote the first payment, the whole enterprise failed by one vote.

Dr. Cuyler said he would thank the good old man who cast that vote--Meade was his name--if he ever met him in the other world. He resigned from Market Street church, his ministry ending April 7, 1860, and accepted a call from the little Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn. His friend, Henry Ward Beecher, did not see how he could get a congregation there, but after many years of ever-increasing usefulness Mr. Beecher lived to say to Dr. Cuyler: "You are now in the center, and I am out on the circumference."

It was strange that a man of the forceful type of Cuyler should leave a church because it would not move away, and that thirty years later he should preach in it, rejoicing in its continuing prosperity. Strange, too, that Cuyler left the Dutch Church for the Presbyterian, and that the old building "changed its faith" in like manner.

Rev. Chauncey D. Murray was the next pastor of the Market Street church, the classis installing him March 10, 1861, and he was succeeded in 1863 by Rev. Jacob C. Dutcher. William B. Crosby, of beloved memory, came forward with very liberal contributions to sustain the church, but the depletion went on. In Mr. Murray's time another attempt to move uptown had failed.

In December, 1859, the courts had already given permission for a sale, but on condition that another church be built uptown with the proceeds. This having failed, under a revised order of the court the building was deeded to Hanson K. Corning in 1866, another congregation having meanwhile inaugurated services there.

The old consistory lived on till June 2, 1869, when it held its last meeting at the home of R. R. Crosby, in Twenty-second Street. A committee had secured the necessary legal modifications so that the temporalities could be disposed of. The distribution was as follows:

To St. Paul's Reformed church on Twenty-first Street, $15,000; $8,000 to the Prospect Hill Reformed church on Eighty-fifth Street, and about $18,000 to the Northwest Reformed church on Twenty-third Street. A $500 United States bond was given by William B. Crosby to the Sunday school of the Twenty-first Street church. The baptismal font was presented to St. Paul's church, the splendid communion service to the Prospect Hill church. All these churches have past out of existence. The organ was presented to the Church of the Sea and Land; "the property right in the Henry Rutgers tablet was given to R. R. Crosby; the McMurray tablet to Henry Rutgers McMurray. A vault in Twenty-second Street was given to the Prospect Hill church. The bell, now loaned to the Church of the Sea and Land, was given in a revisionary right to the consistory of the Collegiate church, in case it ever ceases to ring for a Protestant church." It still rings undisturbed, tho it has not in the memory of man swung on its wheel. Only recently has it been given back one of its earliest powers: it is to ring the alarum if all modern means fail. It was cast in Troy in 1847, and the committee (Crosby, Conover and Lyles) spent $365.14 for it. The congregation thought too much of it in 1848 to allow its use by Engine Company 42 for fire alarms. The books of the Market Street church were left to the Collegiate church and are now at New Brunswick.

All this having been done, the president of the consistory, Mahlon T. Hewitt, handed out the remaining letters of dismissal to D. W. Woodford, Robert R. Crosby, William Lain, Dr. Veranus Morse, John Van Flick, Henry Taylor and Albert I. Lyon, and made a formal closing address in which he offered "a sincere prayer that its old walls may still stand, and that it may continue to be the birthplace of souls into the kingdom of Christ." The prayer has been answered.

Thus ended the Protestant Reformed Dutch church in Market Street after just fifty years.

III

While the Market Street Reformed Church was fighting its last fight, a little congregation had come to life in the parlor of a sailor's boarding house. It was intended chiefly for "seamen and others," the "others" referring mostly to those who no longer sailed the seas. The first meeting was held June 7, 1864. Those were the days of sailing vessels; the New York of the thirties had been the ship building center of the world, especially from Pike Street up. At every pier sail boats were moored, coming from all over the world, and as they dismist their crews on arrival it left the men on shore unoccupied until their meager wages were gone, when they were crimped for another voyage. Low dance halls and worse were all along the river front and the sailor was their prey. The American Seamen's Friend Society sprang into being to improve the situation, and erected a fine building in Cherry Street, to give the men surroundings that were clean physically and spiritually. With the present federal laws for the protection of seamen the condition in the sixties can hardly be appreciated.

Where Fulton had built his first steamboat fifty years before huge yellow dry-docks now rose. Additional land had been gained so that Water, Front and South Streets grew out of the river. All along the river front sailing vessels pushed their bowsprits and gilded figureheads far over the streets almost into the windows of the sail-lofts that were numerous along South Street.

For these men then the Presbytery of New York on December 29, 1864, at 52 Market Street, organized the Presbyterian Church of the Sea and Land, with thirty-two members. Dr. Phillips, Rev. Rice and Rev. A. E. Campbell, and Elders A. B. Conger and A. B. Belknapp, were Presbytery's Committee, and John Simmons and John H. Cassidy were the first elders.

Rev. Alexander McGlashan was installed as pastor, February 2, 1865, serving for a little more than a year. Ill health was the reason for his leaving. He died in 1867. The deacons were Henry H. Smith and Henry Harrison; also Philip Halle, who served for only a short time.

On December 26, 1865, the following trustees were chosen: John H. Cassidy, John Simmons, Henry H. Smith, Henry Harrison, David Robb, John Neal, and Jas. McGlashan. At this time there were 74 members and the year's receipts were $2,372.67.

The Sunday school was organized January 1, 1865, 25 being present, soon growing to 80. It had a library of 400 volumes, costing $122.25. John H. Cassidy was superintendent and T. M. May secretary. Wm. McCracken was president of the Temperance Meeting and Joseph W. Cassidy president of the Band of Hope.

But the man that was most prominent at this time in the church's history is never mentioned in the official records.

Hanson K. Corning was a shipping merchant, who knew from his own business connections the helpless condition of seamen when in port.

He was born in 1810 in Hartford. The Cornings conducted a large South American import business, with offices at 74 South Street. Three generations were active in it.

Hanson K. Corning lived in Brazil for a few years, paying special attention to the rubber business and also acting as United States Consul.

On his return to the United States he became a member of the firm, and the business prospered greatly. Altho Mr. Corning in later life became an invalid, he went to his South Street office until 1860. Thereafter he gave his time completely to religious and philanthropic work.

When, in the early sixties, the decline of the Market Street church became evident, Mr. Corning conceived the idea of making it a sailors' church.

He entered into negotiations with the consistory and on May 1, 1866, he became owner of the property, paying $36,500 for it. The Church of the Sea and Land moved into the building about this time. The congregation occupied the premises rent free, and in October, 1868, the property was transferred to the Presbytery of New York, to insure greater permanence. Mr. Corning sold it for $25,000, which meant a gift of some $10,000 from him, the church itself giving about $1,500. James Lenox contributed $1,000.

The deed was a peculiar one, making the Church of the Sea and Land a third party, and giving it the right of occupancy as long as it was in ecclesiastical connection with the Presbytery, "or until in the judgment and by vote of three-fourths of the members present at any regular meeting of the Presbytery it shall be decided to be no longer expedient to continue or sustain religious services or missionary work in that church or locality."

It was also stated in the deed that all seats should be free, whereas in the Dutch church the pews were private property except that one-tenth of the pews were to "be free forever for the use of the poor and of strangers," and such pews were marked on the doors as free.

This is why the new church boldly painted "seats free" over the doorway.

Mr. Corning was a member of the Brick Presbyterian church, to which he gave considerable sums. He contributed liberally to many objects, but not indiscriminately, and the mission fields in Brazil, the American Bible Society and many other organizations were stronger for his munificence and wise counsel. Mr. Corning died April 22, 1878. A gift of Mr. Corning that the church still cherishes is its pulpit Bible.

Mr. Corning's interest in the church that practically was founded by him has never ceased, for after his death his daughter and son again became interested, and the third generation is still represented in the officers of the church and among its givers.

Rev. S. F. Farmer supplied the pulpit for a little while till John Lyle was installed June 25, 1867. Next January the session met almost continuously for the reception of members. The records show that in 1867 and 1868 133 members were received after examination and 80 by letter.

In November, 1868, Mr. Lyle was deposed by Presbytery. He died in 1881.

Edward Hopper came in 1868 and on June 29, 1869, he was installed as pastor.

Mr. Hopper was born on February 17, 1816, graduating from Union Seminary in 1842. He was pastor at Greenville, N. Y., eight years, at Sag Harbor, L. I., eleven years. After a short time at Plainfield, N. J., he accepted the call to New York. In 1871 Lafayette College conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity on him.

Dr. Hopper wrote a number of poems that were publisht in three volumes. During his Sea and Land ministry he was brought in contact with seamen and this finds expression in his later works taking character from life on the sea. Many of his verses have found place in Christian hymnology, notably such a lyric as "Jesus, Savior, pilot me over life's tempestuous sea," with that sweet verse "as a mother stills her child Thou canst hush the ocean wild." Another hymn was "Wrecked and struggling in mid ocean, clinging to a broken spar."

During the Civil War Dr. Hopper had written some stirring verses, one on The Old Flag being especially noted.

He was of fine literary taste and culture, proud of his Knickerbocker ancestry. Physically as well as intellectually he was every inch a man, with his bright eye, fine face and, in later years, a snow-white beard. Even in his three score years and ten a decline was hardly perceptible until in the fall of 1887 the companion of his lifetime and partner of his literary pursuits was taken from him.

On April 22, 1888, his text was: "Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." Next day at noon his niece found him in his study chair, his pencil dropt from his lifeless hand. Before him was a poem: "Heaven."

He left to his nieces a rather large estate, consisting principally of railroad stocks, with legacies for home and foreign missions. His investments had been made on the advice of his friend, John Taylor Johnson, the railroad president, who presented to the church the communion service that was in use for over fifty years.

IV

In Dr. Hopper's time the work of the church for seamen reached its highest development, and that was due to Christian A. Borella. He was a missionary of the American Seamen's Friend Society for twenty-one years, stationed at the Sailors' Home in Cherry Street, and surely a man of God. Borella never came to church or prayer-meeting alone: he always had men in tow.

There was an upper room at the Sailors' Home that meant much to many men, and there Borella did a work that resulted in great acquisitions to the church. It is true that many "going down to the sea in ships" were never heard of again, and years afterwards nearly 400 names of seamen were at one time removed from the roll by the session. But again and again word came from all parts of the earth and in many languages from men that called the church blessed. It was only an exemplification of the wide scope of Sea and Land when a generation later one of its ministers chanced across one of these men in Western Australia.

A feature of the prayer-meeting in those days was the reading of these seamen's letters, giving account of themselves to Borella. They always stirred the man, who would add words of Christian admonition that lacked nothing in definiteness.

He was the right hand of Dr. Hopper, re-wrote records and generally made himself useful.

But in his olden days he became restless and as no mission board would take a man of sixty-four years he went, after Dr. Hopper's death, to Africa at his own expense. He soon attached himself to Bishop William Taylor and with his master's certificate ran the missionary boat _Anne Taylor_ on the Congo.

Bishop Taylor says of his end: "One Sunday morning we walked together to a preaching service at Vivi top. Captain Borella was suddenly taken ill and on my return there Monday morning was very low with fever. On August 12, 1891, he fell asleep in Jesus, and we buried him under a huge baobab tree at Vivi top."

Physically he was stockily built, well knit and evidently a strong man, always neat, but exceedingly plain in dress. He was born in Southern Denmark, of Spanish ancestry. His modest fortune he had made in California in '49, and his conversion was under Father Taylor when Borella came under his influence in Boston. It was Father Taylor of whom Walt Whitman said that he was "the one essentially perfect orator" he had ever heard.

After several voyages Borella became "cold and a backslider," and an eye disease nearly blinded him. "The Lord cured my blindness, physical and spiritual, and I promist him then that I would serve him the rest of my life," and he did it with the virility and sternness of an Old Testament prophet.

Borella was succeeded by Captain William Dollar, a dear old saint, who was stationed at the Sailors' Home for twelve years.