FIRST PRESBYTERIA
CHURCH P
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PATERSON, N. J. ^Mg^ *'''^"-'
HISTORICAL SKETCH
MACAR'I NEV
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Presented by \Aj.(b. VAJiWi
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BX 9211 .N57505 F506 1913
^f,^?ftney, Clarence Edward
Noble, 1879-1957.
A history of the First
Pre^bytjarian Church of
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N0Vy6 1913
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PATERSON PRESS PRINT
©o tl]e meraorg of ii\t »eiten pastors fci^o Ita6c
prrcebeb mt in tl|c ntmtotru of ii\t tl|urcly; anb to
iiTW fricnbs, £aitt|f«I snb logal, 6il]0 noixt comprise
tl]e congregatioTt.
THE PRESENT CHURCH BUILDING, ERECTED 1852
In 1813 the only church in Paterson was the Old Dutch
Church of Totowa. It was built in 1775 and stood on what is
now Rjle avenue, south of Matlock street. It was in this church
that Presbyterians then residing in Paterson had been accustomed
to gather for public worship. Paterson was founded as a city in
1792, and the town was only two years old when Miss Sarah Colt,
at the suggestion of her brother, Peter, gathered little children
together and formed a Sabbath School. The records of the
Sabbath School were destroyed in the lire in the lecture room
in 1886, and for its early history we must rely on tradition
handed down from one generation to another. The persistent
tradition that a Sabbath School was founded in Paterson in 1794
is upheld by Henry Clay Trumbull's Yale Lectures on the Sab-
bath School, where we read: "A Sunday School was organized
at the home of Mr. Thomas Crenshaw, in Hanover County, Va.,
in 1786. In January, 1791, at Philadelphia, the first Day or
Sunday School Society was formed. In 1791 a Sunday School
was started in Boston; in 1793 one was started in New York
by Katy Ferguson, a colored woman; in 1794 one was started in
Paterson." Robert Raikes opened the first Sunday School at
Gloucester, England, in 1780. The school founded in Paterson
by Sarah Colt was thus the first in New Jersey and one of the
first in the United States.
By the year 1813 the Presbyterians of Paterson considered
themselves sufficiently numerous to form a congregation. On
the 10th of March a subscription paper was signed by more than
fifty persons, the subscriptions varying from one to twelve dollars.
A quaint reflection of the industrial life of the day is found in
the entry, "David Auchinvole, ten dollars, & one dollar for each
apprentice." On the 19th of August, 1813, thirty-seven men con-
vened at the house of Mr. O. D. Ward and formed the "First Pres-
byterian Society in tlie town of Paterson." Samuel Colt, Brown
King, Oshea Wilder, Alvan Wilcox, John Gould, David Auchin-
vole and John Colt were elected trustees' and instructed to raise
5
money for a church building. At that time the trustees were
obliged to swear to support the Constitution of the United States,
and bear "true faith and allegiance to the Government established
in this state." Thej)apers of incorporation were filed in the Court
House at Newark on August 30, 1813. The ecclesiastical organ-
ization was effected two months later, when, at their "usual place
of worship," probably the Dutch Church, with the Rev. Mr. Hyl-
lier as Moderator and Oshea Wilder as Clerk, the following per-
sons, "humbly trusting in the grace of the great Shepherd and
Bishop of Souls," united together as a Christian church "under
the name and style of the First Presbyterian Church in Patcr-
son" : —
Samuel Colt and Phebe, his wife, from the First Presbv-
7 7 «/
terian Church in Newark.
Sarah, wife of Peter Colt, from the First Presbyterian
Church in Newark.
Miss Sarah Colt, from the First Presbyterian Church in
Newark.
John Clark and Jane, his wife, from Paisley, Scotland.
John R. Gould and Nancy, his wife, from the First Presby-
terian Church, Newark.
William Dickey, from Philadelphia.
Oshea Wilder and Cornelia, his wife, from the Brick Church,
New York.
Brown King, from Cedar street. New York.
David Auchinvole, from New York.
Widow Isabella King, from Philadelphia.
The male members of the congregation then proceeded to
elect deacons and elders. David Auchinvole and John R. Gould
were chosen deacons, and John R. Gould, David Auchinvole,
Samuel Colt, Zadock Brown and Oshea Wilder elders, and or-
dained at the same meeting by the Rev. Mr. Hyllier, At this
time the meetings of the Session were held at the home of Samuel
Colt. The first celebration of Lord's Supper was observed by
the new congregation on Nov. 14th, 1813, the Rev. James Rich-
ards officiating. During this period the church was served by
6
SARAH COLT
Founder of the Sabbath School
ministers in the Presbytery of Newark, Mr. Hyllier, Mr. James
Richards, Mr. John McDowell, and Mr. Hooper Cummings. The
latter minister was one Sabbath afternoon, in Jnne, 1812, on his
way back to Newark, when he and his bride of a few weeks
stopped At the Falls of the Passaic to view the cataract. In some
way Mrs. Cummings lost her footing and fell into the gorge. An
uncharitable suspicion arose at the time that the minister had
pushed his wife into the chasm.
The first installed pastor of the church was the Rev. Samuel
Fisher, D. D., who was called to Paterson from the First Presby-
terian Church of Morristown, one of the largest congregations
in the state of New Jersey. Dr. Fisher was born at Sunderland,
Conn., being the posthumous son of Lieutenant Jonathan Fisher,
an officer in the Continental Army, who died of fever in camp
at Morristown, N. J., March 10, 1777. His mother was a woman
of strong Christian character, and three of her four sons became
ministers of the Gospel. On the day of his birth Samuel was
adopted by his uncle. Dr. Ware, and when five years of age went
to live with him on his farm at Conway, Mass. In 1779 he was
graduated from Williams College, the total expense of his four
years being $642.32. During his college course he was convicted
of sin and made a public profession of his faith in the church
at Deerfield. In 1801 he became tutor in Williams College, at
the same time pursuing his theological studies. He was licensed
to preach by the Berkshire Association, in Lee, Oct. 3, 1804. In
1809 he was called to the pastorate of the First Presbyterian
Church of Morristown, N. J., where he labored until he came to
Paterson in 1814.
On the 18th of January, 1814, the trustees of the church
voted to give out the contracts for the new building. It was to
be of frame and to measure forty by fifty feet. This plan was
afterwards changed and a brick church erected. On the 2d of
May, 1814, the trustees met and staked out the church lot on
the property donated by the Society for Establishing Useful Man-
ufactures. The lot was bounded by Cross, Spring (now Oliver,
then named Spring, after the Dublin Spring at the corner of
Spring and Mill streets,) Ward street, and the Paterson and Ham-
burgh turnpike (now Main street). The cornerstone was laid
by Dr. Fisher August 5th, 1814. This stone bore the initials
of the church, the ^ate, and the name of the pastor. It was saved
from the ruins of two fires and is now in the wall of the vestibule
under the tower at the northeast corner. The building of the
church dragged through several years and was not completed until
1819, when the pews were built. The records of the meetings
of the trustees during this period speak of the ''School House"
as the meeting place. This was probably the Academy at the
corner of Market and Union streets. On Oct. 3, 1814, there was
a call for a meeting af the congregation ''at early Candle Light-
ing." Notices were posted on the tree in front of the Dutch
Church, where the congregation worshipped. We find the trus-
tees debating as to whether they shall build a pulpit 'Svith or with-
out a canopy." The Second Church, Newark, seems to have been
the touchstone of ecclesiastical architecture at that time, for the
trustees voted that the pews in the new church are to ho ''equally
as good as those in the Second Chvirch, Newark, provided the
cost is not more than $2.50 a pew." In October, 1819, we find
the trustees meeting in the church building, which must have
been dedicated some time previous to that date. Dr. Fisher was
the real builder and maker of the church. He worked in it him-
self, and with his colored man cut down trees in the woods and
hauled the logs to the village, as well as collecting funds. On the
evening of the 20th of June, 1822, the newly finished church was
struck by lightning and partially demolished. The Paterson
"Chronicle" of Wednesday, June 25, 1822, had this account of
the disaster: —
*'The Weather. For a considerable length of time previous to
Thursday last, vegetation, in this region of country, liad been suf-
fering under a continued dearth. Although the season of summer
had progressed to the usual ])eriod of occasionally refreshing
showers, yet the clouds seemed to lack moisture and the earth was
parched with thirst. The green verdure of the fields lost its hue,
and the products of agriculture sjinpathized in the general gloom.
8
N
V
OLD DUTCH CHURCH
Where the congregation first worshipped
Melancholy indeed were the prospects of the husbandman : but He
Vho hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations
of the earth' remembered us in mercy.
"Ou Thursday morning it commenced raining, and continued
mostly through the day, with a cool air. Near night the clouds
broke, and the air partially cleared, at evening, however, a dark
cloud hung over the western horizon, and soon gave appearance of
a heavy shower. It came, and between the hours of 10 and 12,
this town was visited with a most a\vful display of divine magni-
ficence. The whole atmosphere seemed enveloped in one general
electric blaze, while loudly repeated peals of thunder rolled
through the air, and man, feeble man, with fearful heart, trem-
blingly beheld the majestic scene.
''During this period of awful grandeur, while the vivid light-
ning played harmlessly around our dwellings, the Brick Presby-
terian Church in this village became the devoted object of its
terrible attack. A sudden stroke fell upon the steeple, the timber
part of which was materially injured. Passing down to a level
with the floor of the gallery, a branch of the electric fluid seemed
to bend its course for the stove pipe below; and, as is believed,
was conducted by the diverging branches through each opposite
window of the building. A part of the gallery floor and its sup-
porting timbers were removed — some sashes and about 370 panes
of glass were broken. The whole damage is estimated from 500
to 800 dollars.
"A subscription has been opened and the amount already
obtained, we understand to be very respectable, and highly char-
acteristic of Christian liberality."
Under the same date we find an effusion by a local bard who
signs himself "Aristarchus." Aristarchus had been much moved
by the storm, and among the innumerable stanzas in which he
pours forfh his soul is the following, referring to the church: —
Among its victims, waiting stood,
A sacred Temple, firmly bound ;
Darting amid the falling flood,
Totter'd the fabric to the ground.
9
Here pause my soul ! why was I sav'd,
When threat'ning vengeance hover'd round :
'Twas th' Almighty hand that sav'd,
A trem-bling sinner from the ground.
Then in obedience to his call,
I^et us adorn his sovereign sway;
That the same hand that sav'd our fall,
May save us at the judgment day!
On the Sunday succeeding the calamity Dr. Fisher preached
in the ruined church on the text, "Judgment must begin at the
house of God." The sermon was followed by an outpouring of
the Holy Spirit and a revival of religion such as more than com-
pensated for the material loss and disaster. The reconstructed
church faced on Oliver street and was known as the ''Brick
Church."
During Dr. Fisher's ministry of twenty years the church con-
tinued to grow in numbers, although laboring under constant debt.
''The present necessities of Dr. Fisher" is an item of business ever
before the trustees and notes are continually being given to "set-
tle" obligations. In 1834 the women took hold of the financial
situation and permission was granted to Mrs. Berry to form a
"female association" to raise money for the indebtedness. This
was the first woman's organization in the church. The Session
records of that period of the church's history afford an interesting
study of the manners and life of the people and the human nature
of the saints. Strict supervision was exercised over the lives of the
members of the church and no rumor, "Common Fame," as the
minutes have it, concerning the conduct of a communicant was
allowed to pass uninvestigated. Purity of doctrine, too, was care-
fully guarded. On one occasion we find Robert King before the
Session for examination. Finding "that his mind was laboring
on several important points and that he had not set up the wor-
ship of God in his family" the Session refused to receive him inta
membership. At a subsequent meeting the difficult points were
10
SAMUEL FISHER
The First Pastor of the Church
SYLVESTER EATON
The Second Pastor of the Church
cleared up and he was admitted to the coramunion. Mrs. Mary
Simpson was brought before the Session for having joined the
''Shaking Quakers." Not satisfied as to her "renunciation of that
fanatical and heretical sect," the Session suspended her. Other
offences with which members are charged range all the way from
intoxication to "attending the Episcopal church." Lydia
was compelled to make public confession of "guiltily taking a
gown from one of her sisters in the Lord and unlawfully appropri-
ating it to her own use," Another is charged with "walking on the
Sabbath"; another with "unlawfully taking a Merino shawl"; an-
other with "playing cards ;" another with "spending an evening in
dancing at General Godwin's Hotel, when the lecture prepara-
tory to the communion was held in the church." But the most
common offence was intemperance. The Session was no respecter
of persons and men most prominent in the early history of Pater-
son were haled to its bar of judgment. The Sessional indictment
makes interesting reading; sometimes it is "excessive use of ar-
dent spirits," sometimes "immoderate use," sometimes the "in-
toxicating use," but always spirits and always ardent. Then,
as now, intemperance was one of the chief obstacles to the work
of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men.
From the fragmentary records of this period we glean
that a hearse was purchased in 1827 and a cemetery on
Market street in 1830. In 1831 a Session House was
built on the church lot. C. Brower is the first sexton
on record. In 1831 the trustees fixed his salary at $40.00
a year and defined his duties as follows: "To ring the bell;
sweep the church once a month and dust it the following day;
to trim and clean the lamps." In 1840 Christopher Brower had
evidently grown lax in his duties and was dismissed. His suc-
cessor was Matthew Jackson, who reigned in Israel, with occa-
sional prayers for an increase in salary, until 1867, when he
was succeeded by one who rejoiced in the name of Jeremiah Pye.
The job was then worth $150.00 a year. Mr. Pye combined the
offices of collector and sexton, probably that of grave digger also.
The trustees were about to dismiss him when he sent the keys
11
to the Secretary with the statement that he had secured a better
job in Hoboken. This was in 1875. There were numerous can-
didates for this high office of the keys, and out of this number
was chosen Georger Webster, colored, at $5.00 per week. Mr.
Webster had assigned to him the disagreeable duty of "examin-
ing the falling in of the soil of the Old Cemetery & in case of
the exposure of the remains of the Dead at once have them care-
fully buried." He was compelled to go out to the cemeteries
twice a week. Evidently George did not relish his job, for in
May, 1877, the Grand Jury brought a Presentment against The
First Church, the Market Street M. E. Church, and St. Paul's
Protestant Episcopal Church for permitting their cemeteries to
become a public nuisance. It is amazing that churches, munici-
pality, and relatives permitted this abomination of desolation to
lie undisturbed until the administration of the present Mayor
of Paterson changed these howling wastes into a beautiful park.
Webster gave up the keys and the spade in 1881 and was suc-
ceeded by Kobert Wilson. Mr. Wilson lasted for a year and was
followed by Freeman Strait at one dollar per day. He served until
1887 and was succeeded by John Faux. In 1905 John Faux was
succeeded by William Spreen, and he in 1912 by the present effi-
cient and amiable sexton, Ezra Kalle.
During the pastorate of Dr. Fisher the cholera raged in Pater-
son and more than eighty persons died of the plague. The faith-
ful and courageous minister waited on both soul and body and
prepared the dead for their graves. In 1830 Dr. Fisher took a
census of Paterson. The document contains these interesting
facts : —
"Total population, 9,085 ; Presbyterians, 384 ; Reformed, 323 ;
Unitarians, 2 ; Deists, 4 ; 20 pay schools, and one free school for
poor children ; 40 groceries and 5 grogshops, where little else but
ardent spirits is sold; 163 widows; 19 manufactories of cotton."
The Colt family were interested in the manufacture of cotton
duck, at that time the principal industry in Paterson. Many a
fast sailing American clipper spread the cotton sails made in
Paterson on the seven seas, and many a Conestoga wagon,
12
JOHN FLAVEL CLARK
The Third Pastor of the Church
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THE REVEREND MATTHEW ALLISON
The Fourth Pastor of the Church
rumbling over the Alleghanies, displayed the canvas covers made
in Paterson in the remote settlements of the Ohio valley.
After twenty years of service, during which time he had
built two churches and seen his congregation grow from twenty-
four persons to five hundred and twenty-four, Dr. Fisher resigned
the pastorate of the church and removed to Ramapo, where he
served as missionary. He afterwards was pastor of a church at
Greenbush, opposite Albany, IST. Y., until 1850. He died at
Succasuna, N. J., Dec. 27, 1856, in the seventy-ninth year of
his age and of his ministry the fifty-second. In person Dr. Fisher
was of large frame and commanding presence. Princeton College
conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1827, and
in 1838 he was chosen as the first moderator of the General As-
sembly of the "jSTew School" Presbyterian Church. On Nov.
27, 1908, a memorial tablet, given to the church by the descend-
ants of Dr. Fisher, was unveiled with impressive ceremonies.
The address was delivered by a grandson, Alfred P. Kimball,
Esq., of New York. The tablet is on the south wall of the church
and bears the inscription which was placed on Dr. Fisher's tomb
in Laurel Grove Cemetery : —
In Memory Of
Samuel Fisher, D. D.
The First and For Twenty Years
Pastor of This Church
1814^1834
An Orphan
Whose Father Fell In The Revolution
lie Rose to Eminence As A Scholar
By His Own Efforts
A Minister Of Christ
For More Than Fifty Years
His Record Is In The Hearts Of Hundreds
Converted Under His Ministry
His Memory Is The Precious Inheritance
Of The Churches To Whom He Ministered
Born June 30, 1777
Died December 27, 1856
Erected By His Grand Children
13
Ou the IGth of June, 1834, the Rev. Sylvester Eaton, pastor
of the First Presbyterian Church of Buffalo, New York, was
called to be the second pastor of the First Church. Sylvester
Eaton was born August 12, 1790. He was educated at Williams
College and Princeton Theological Seminary. For five years ho
was pastor at Norwalk, Conn., and after that supplied the pulpit
of Dr. Sprague's church in Albany, N. Y. He was installed as
pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Buffalo, New York,
April 9, 1828. His contemporaries speak of Dr. Eaton as a man
of unusual eloquence in the pulpit and a strong character. On
the 9th of November, 1836, Mr. Eaton resigned the pastorate
and removed to Poughkeepsie, where he served a church for four
years. His health then failing, he returned to Paterson, and
thence went to Troy, N. Y., where he died on the 14th of May,
1844, in the fifty-third year of his age and of his ministry the
twenty-sixth. In 1844 the congregation of the First Church in
Paterson subscribed generously for the relief of their former
pastor, who was then in his last illness at Troy. The record of
the subscription is a tribute to both pastor and congregation.
Mr. Eaton was followed in the pastorate by the Rev. John
Flavel Clark. He was born in New Brunswick, N. J., Dec. 10,
1788, when his father, Joseph Clark, D. D., one of the most
prominent ministers of New Jersey, was pastor of the Presby-
terian Church at that place. He was graduated from Princeton
College in 1807. After studying theology for a time at Andover,
he entered the Theological Seminary at Princeton. On June
15th, 1815, he was ordained and installed pastor of the Presby-
terian Church, Flemington, N. J. In 1837 he was called to
Paterson, where he served until May, 1841. From Paterson he
went to the Presbyterian Church of Oyster Bay, Long Island, and
from there to the Presbyterian Church of Fishkill Village, N. Y.,
where he died in 1853, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and of
his ministry the twenty-eighth. His person was large and portly,
with a beaming countenance. His church honored him by mak-
ing him a director of the Theological Seminary at Princeton.
14
WILLIAM H. HORNBLOWER
The Fifth Pastor of the Church
DAVID MAGIE
The sixth pastor of the church
During tlie pastorate of Mr. Clark the Presbyterian Church
in the United States was disrupted by the great schism known
as the "New School" movement. In 1802 a Plan of Union was
consummated between the Presbyterian Church and the Congre-
gational Church, at that time alike in teaching and doctrine, and
differing only in minor details of church polity. By this ar-
rangement Presbyterian ministers could serve Congregational
churches and vice versa. But not many years had passed before
confusion and dissatisfaction began to appear. From New Eng-
land came new interpretations of Christian doctrine and new
methods of administration which were resented by the more con-
servative. Slavery, too, began to agitate the church. The New
School felt that the church must denounce the institution ; they
were the Abolitionists. The "Old School" felt that duty did not
require the church to pronounce on the subject. Albert Barnes
and Lyman Beecher, father of Henry Ward Beecher, were tried
for heresy and the whole church was rent with the "rabies theo-
logorum." In 1837 the General Assembly exscinded three Pres-
byteries. This led to the organization of a distinct ecclesiastical
bodv known as the "New School." The first moderator of the
"New School" Assembly was the first pastor of this church, Dr.
Samuel Fisher. Paterson was not exempt from the storm. In
November, 1836, we find a prophecy of it in a minute recording
the dismissal of a number of persons to form the First Free In-
dependent Presbyterian Church of Paterson. The Presbytery of
Newark, which had authority over the First Church of Paterson,
cast in its lot with the "New School," but the staunch conserva-
tives of the congregation called a meeting and on April 13, 1840,
the First Church voted to continue its connection with the Svnod
of New Jersey, "Old School," and applied for admission to the
Presbytery of Elizabeth Town. This action had been expected
by the adherents of the "New School," who, to the number of
twenty-seven persons, of whom three were elders, Aaron King,
John Bensen and Caleb Munson Godwin, seceded from the First
Church on May, 1840, to form the Second Presbyterian Church
of this city. The seceders met first in a building used by the
15
Methodist Protestants on the corner of Hotel and Smith streets,
in what is now the garden of the Agnew residence. In Novem-
ber, 1869 the great schism was healed and "Old" and '"New"
Schools became one'ecclesiastical body, the union being consum-
mated at Pittsburgh.
On the 30th of December, 1841, the Eev. Matthew Allison was
called to the pastorate of the church. Mr. Allison was born the
28th day of July, 1794, at Windy Edge, Strathaven, Lankshire,
Scotland. He matriculated at Glasgow University and was grad-
uated in 1814 at the age of nineteen. In 1817 he was graduated
from the Divinity Hall and licensed to preach by the Relief Pres-
bytery of Glasgow. On the 4th of August, 1818, he was installed
pastor of the church at Kilbarchan, about twelve miles from Glas-
gow. Here he labored with eminent success for twenty-three
years, when his love of civil liberty and his admiration for the
government of the United States led him to demit his charge in
Scotland and come to this country in May, 1841. A few months
later he was called to the First Church of Paterson. Owing to
ill health in his family he resigned his charge in Paterson on the
first day of May, 1843, and returned to Scotland. The next year
he returned to America and became pastor of the churches of
Mifilintown and Lost Creek, in the Presbytery of Huntingdon,
Pennsylvania. There he labored until his death, July 8th, 1872,
in the seventy-eighth year of his age, and of his ministry the
fifty-fifth. He was buried in the Presbyterian Cemetery at Mif-
flintown in a spot which he himself had chosen, overlooking the
beautiful valley of the Juniata.
Dr. Allison was a living example of mens sana in corpore sano.
He wrote his sermons with great care, but delivered them from
memory. He was strictly orthodox and very evangelical in his
preaching. He was particularly gifted in prayer. Those who
knew him say that he was "remarkable for his fluency, pathos,
conciseness, comprehensiveness in prayer. His prayers were the
utterance of the heart's desires and the appeals of a helpless,
needy soul, to our Heavenly Father with filial confidence."
The financial condition of the church seems to have grown
16
THE WESTMINSTER CHURCH
Founded by a colony from The First Church in 1831.
THE CHURCH OF THE REDEEMER
Founded by a colony from The First Church in 1886.
worse as the century advanced, for shortly after the resignation
of Mr. Allison the church property and the cemetery lots on Mar-
ket street were sold at sheriff's sale. The property was bought in
by the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures and recon-
veyed to the church with sundry restrictions. The premises were
not to be liable for any debts of the church and to be used at all
times as a church and not as a place of residence, or for carrying
on any trade, business, or occupation. If at any time the con-
gregation passed from under the control of the General Assembly
of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, com-
monly known as the Old School General Assembly, or if the doc-
trines of the Presbyterian Church should no longer be taught and
inculcated, the property was to revert to the Township of Paterson
for the use of Free Schools in which the Holy Bible should l)e
used as a text book. Although the property was given to the
church in the name of the Society for Establishing Useful Manu-
factures, the real benefactor of the church was Roswell L. Colt,
who had purchased practically all the shares in the Society. In
1830 Mr. Colt built a mansion on Colt's Hill. This mansion
with its beautiful grounds stood directly opposite the church and
for many a year was one of the sights and boasts of Paterson.
Even now the faces of the older residents will glow with enthu-
siasm as they tell of its walks and drives, its arbors and conserva-
tories, its "Tarn O'Shanter" and "Souter Johnny," and divers
wonders.
On the fourth of January, 1844, William H. Hornblower,
a licentiate of the Presbytery of ISTew Brunswick, was called to
the pastorate at a salary of $700.00. The coming of Dr. Horn-
blower marked the beginning of an important epoch in the history
of the First Church. He was born in Newark, N. J., March 21,
1820, of a distinguished family. His father was a chief justice
of New Jersey, and his great-grandfather, Josiah H., was speaker
of the Assembly and a state senator during the Revolution, and
a member of the Continental Congress. William H. Hornblower
was graduated from the College of New Jersey, now Princeton
University, in 1838, when he was eighteen years of age. He then
17
studied law for a year in his father's office. A tract written by
Dr. Archibald Hodge, of Princeton Seminary, was the means of
his conversion, and he then consecrated himself to the ministry
of the Gospel. Jle studied theology at Princeton Theological
Seminary, from which institution he was graduated in 1842.
After a year of labor in the ''Pines," then and now the most im-
moral and unenlightened section of ISTew Jersey, he came to Pat-
erson and took the part of an assistant in the First Church, the
acting pastor. Rev. Sylvester Eaton, being in poor health. After
the resignation of Mr. Allison he was at once called to be pastor
of the church, and began his long term of faithful, brilliant and
successful service. He came to Paterson at a time when the
town was entering upon an era of great industrial prosperity, and
the prosperity of the town was not unnaturally reflected in the
church.
Dr. Hornblower had been pastor for six years when the
church building was destroyed by fire. On the 5th of October,.
1850, a tinsmith was at work on the roof, when his charcoal fur-
nace was overturned and the church set on fire. The volunteer
fire department was quickly on hand and began to pump water
from the Dublin Spring. But their efforts were unavailing and
the building was completely destroyed. On the 21st of October,
at a meeting held in the lecture room of the First Reformed
Church the congregation voted to rebuild the church and erect a
lecture room also. The lecture room appears to have been com-
pleted first. The new church, the building now standing, was de-
dicated on the 16th day of November, 1852. Dr. David Magie,
pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Elizabeth, the Rev.
Nicholas Murray, and two former pastors, John Flavel Clark and!
Dr. Samuel Fisher, and Dr. Hornblower participated in the ser-
vices. The cornerstone which had been saved out of ruins of two
fires was placed in the wall under the tower as noted above. In
1859 the church which only a few years before had been sold
under the hammer reports a balance in the treasury of $119.00.
For ten years the church was without a bell, but in I860,,
largely through the efforts of Mr. Edward Clark, the present bell;
FRANKLIN E. MILLER
The Seventh Pastor of the Church
was placed in the reconstructed tower of the church. The bell cost
$1,500.00 and weighs three thousand pounds. Ever since that
time the bell with its rich musical tones has called men to worship
G-od. In 1884 neuresthenics in the vicinity of the church com-
plained about the ringing of the bell, and the trustees instructed
the sexton to cover the clapper with leather in order to soften the
sound. When the Gamewell fire alarm system was introduced in
1872 the alarm was attached to the bell. At a meeting at which
the request of the city was being discussed some objected on the
score of annoyance during divine service, when Socrates Tuttle
interposed that Dr. Hornblower had been giving them a fire alarm
for the last twenty-five years and this new alarm would be no
annoyance.
When the first congregation gathered in the first church
building in 1819 they sang the Psalms of David without the as-
sistance of any musical instrument. In 1834 the Session granted
the Singing Society permission to use a bass viol in the church.
This instrument was afterwards introduced into the Sabbath ser-
vices, much to the disgust of some of the congregation, among
them John Bensen, who said it was all right in a dance hall but
not in a church. Mr. Benson's daughter, Mrs. Clundell, now
ninety-one years of age and probably the oldest person living who
worshipped in the church destroyed in 1850, sang in the choir
when the bass viol was in use. She relates how on Christmas
morning the chorister, Mr. Wilder, would fling his bass viol over
his back and take the choir to the Falls of the Passaic, where,
with the accompanying roar of the cataract, they sang the h}Tnn
"Hail to the brightness of Zion's glad morning". This same Mr.
Wilder was in 1839 engaged to train the choir at a salary of
$25.00 a year.
In 1845 Mr. Eoswell Colt gave a lot worth $300 and $150
in cash for the purchase of an organ; $750 was raised and the
'Organ set up in the church. This organ was burned in the fire
19
of 1850. A new organ was undoubtedly purchased for the new
church. In 1860 Mr. Field appears as chorister and Miss Jane
Van Saun as organist. Mr. Charles Atherton had charge of the
music from 18G2 until his death in 1870. He raised the funds
for the new organ which was installed in 1866. This organ was
moved from the gallery and placed in the arcK back of the pulpit
when the church was repaired in 1894. In 1907 it was replaced
by the present instrument. The old organ now sounds the
TeDeum in the Holy Communion Protestant Episcopal Church
on Park avenue. Mrs. John S. Tylee, recently deceased, was en-
gaged as a singer in the choir in 1872 and was the soprano soloist
for quarter of a century. On the 28th of February, 1897, her
silver jubilee was observed by a special service of music in the
church. Other singers that I find mentioned in the records of the
church are Mrs. Lovv^, Mr. Smith, Mr. Samuel Tasney, Miss Mc-
Call, the Misses Lizzie and Carrie Orchard, Miss Frost, Miss
Graham and Horatio Snyder. Florian Oborski was a notable
musician and for many years the organist of the church. Among
other organists have been Mr. Opitz and Mrs. John E. Tylee.
The present organist, Mr. George Benz, has served since 1907.
Mr. Samuel Barbour, bass soloist, has been associated with the
choir for nineteen years. Mrs. Peter MacDonald, the present
soprano soloist, has served for six years. In November, 1908,
Mr. O. Mortimer Wiske was appointed chorister and organized
the large chorus choir which now leads the singing. Mr. Wilder
scraping away at his bass viol would be a strange sight in our
church today.
The First Church was born amid the throes of the War of
1812 and three times since it has heard the tramping of armed
men going forth to war. Of all these days of war by far the most
stirring were the days of the Sixties. On the 22nd of April, ten
days after Fort Sumter was fired on, Paterson was placarded with^
the following summons: —
20
CLARENCE EDWARD MACARTNEY
The Einhth Pastor of the Church
To Anns!
"The undersigned wish their fellow citizens of the City of Pat-
erson and vicinity, without regard to past political opinions or
associations, to meet tomorrow, Tuesday afternoon, at 2 o'clock,
in front of the City Hall, to express their sentiments on the pre-
sent crisis in our national affairs, and their determination to
uphold the Government of their country, and maintain the au-
thority of the Constitution and its laws."
The prominence of the men of the First Church in the affairs
of the city at that time is shown by the fact that almost all of
the names affixed to the call to arms were members of the con-
gregation. Among them I note : Daniel Barkalow, Philip Kaf-
ferty, Henry Low, A. J. Sandford, D. G. Scott, John Brown,
Samuel Smith, J. A. Canfield, E. T. Prall, A. A. Hopper, Aaron
Pennington, A. B. Woodruff, John Hopper, H. A. Williams and
George Wiley. Mayor Prall presided at the public meeting, and
Dr. Hornblower, H. A. Williams, and other members of the con-
gregation addressed the assemblage. The Captain of one of the
first companies to leave Paterson for the war, E. J. Ayres, was
a member of the First Church. Andrew Derrom went out as Col-
onel of the Twenty-fifth New Jersey Volunteers and rendered a
good account in the Peninsular Campaign in 1862. Dr. Fred-
erick Weller, surgeon of the Ninth New Jersey Volunteers, was
drowned at Hatteras Inlet, January 15, 1862, and the Rev.
Francis Butler, a brother of Mrs. Hornblower, and chaplain of
the Twenty-fifth Volunteers, was wounded in action May 3, 1863,
and died the next day. Robert Brainerd Redman, a teacher in
the Sabbath School, was taken prisoner and confined at Ander-
sonville. After his release he died from the effects of the im-
prisonment at Vicksburgh, April, 1865. Edwin Birley, Ser-
geant Company I, First Regiment, was killed at Williams-
burgh, Va., May 5, 1862. These last two are remembered by
memorial tablets on the walls of the lecture room. During the
early days of the war the flag of the nation waved from the tower
of the church. There the gifted and eloquent pastor of the church
21
])reached sermons which strengthened men's hearts in the Union;
and there the people of the city met together to pay their final
tribute to the young men who had gone forth and given the "last
full measure of dovotion."
On the 21st day of August, 1871, after twenty-seven years of
service, Dr. Hornblower resigned the pastorate to accept a call
to the chair of sacred rhetoric and pastoral theology in the
Western Theological Seminary at Alleghany, Pennsylvania. It
was with deep and unfeigned regret that the congregation con-
curred with him in the request that the Presbytery dissolve the
pastoral relation which had bound them together so long. Dr.
Hornblower proved as successful a professor as he was preacher
and pastor. No member of the faculty was more beloved and the
fragrance of his prayers yet lingers in the memory of those who sat
under him in the seminary. On the 16th of July, 1883, Dr.
Hornblower died at Alleghany, Penna., in the sixty-third year
of his age and of his ministry the fortieth. His funeral was held
in this church. Among those who participated in the services
were the Rev. Dr. Imbrie, Dr. Charles Shaw, Dr. David Magie,
Dr. Stevenson, Dr. A. A. Hodge and Dr. Benjamin Warfield, the
last two his associates in the Seminary at Alleghany. Dr. Imbrie
spoke of him as follows : "I have known him in every relation.
I have been entertained by him ; I have seen him in the pulpit as
a preacher of the Gospel, and out of it as a presbyter and pastor ;
I have met him in the social literary circle, and in all he was
ever the same gifted, cultivated, wise, kindly, courteous Christian
minister, gentleman and friend." On October 25, 1909, a tablet
to his memory was unveiled on the north wall of the church. The
tablet was the gift of his son, William B. Hornblower, of 'New
York. At the services when the tablet was unveiled addresses
were delivered by William B. Hornblower, the Rev. David Magie,
D. D., Dr. John Patterson and the Rev. Clarence Edward
Macartney. The tablet bears this inscription:
22
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