FIRST PRESBYTERIA CHURCH P m'mx PATERSON, N. J. ^Mg^ *'''^"-' HISTORICAL SKETCH MACAR'I NEV ^m^m'^^ m'x^d'm m^iMii'-^^^ //.z£./i ^ PRINCETON, N. J. *^ Presented by \Aj.(b. VAJiWi \(7\v-nc5 BX 9211 .N57505 F506 1913 ^f,^?ftney, Clarence Edward Noble, 1879-1957. A history of the First Pre^bytjarian Church of ^o:, N0Vy6 1913 of of by n/ Clarence ^fojirb ^^acarhtcg ►^ ^ublisljeb \m tl]c QII|urcI| 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 ^' ^'M /-A '^'^ / > • >i. *■ 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 I o oc D I o z < UJ h > LU I H V-l |jfa,.'!L,;-,n;,.