1. ALBERT CLARKE: 2. L. C. MURDOCK : 3. H. N. VAN DEUSEN : 4. O. L. SEVERSON W. H. ALGER: 6. ALBERT VAN DEUSEN : 7. B B. LOOMIS: 8. B. P. RIPLEY. 1. H. M. CRYDENWISE: 2. T. B. ROBERTS: 3. EGBERT KILPATRICKj 4, J. C. LEACOCK : 5. A. S. CLARK: 6. A. J. COOK: 7. T. F. HALL: 8. J. H. LITTELL. Early Cooperstown and the Methodist Episcopal Church BY ALBERT CLARKE Pastor Methodist Episcopal Church Foreword The celebration of the Centennial of the Coopers- town Methodist Episcopal Church is my excuse for publishing this brief history. The first chapter is devoted to the early settlement of the village, and the second to a remarkable period of twenty years in which no church spire pointed heavenward. The third chapter tells of the origin of the first churches: and from that point the story is that of the Methodist Episcopal Church. I am indebted to Dr. Zachariah Paddock's "Memoir of Benjamin G. Paddock"; George Peck's "Early Methodism" and "Life and Times of George Peck"; the files of the "Otsego Herald," first published April 3d, 1795 ; James Fenimore Cooper's "Chronicles of Coopers- town," and his Leatherstocking story, "The Pion- eers"; Francis W. Halsey's "The Old New York Frontier" and "A Tour of Four Great Rivers"; Levi Beardsley's "Reminiscences"; "History of Wyoming Conference," by the Rev. A. F. Chaff ee; as well as the various Conference Minutes and the Cooperstown church records and papers. I have also gleaned valuable items of information from present and former residents of Cooperstown. I have tried to correctly represent everything here presented, but can not hope that I have entirely escaped error. I tender thanks to all who have so kindly responded to requests for help. ALBERT CLARKE. Cooperstown, N. Y., April 24, 1913. CHAPTER I COOPERSTOWN FROM EARLIEST TIMES THE first white men broke the silence of the Otsego forests nearly three hundred years ago. They were Dutch traders, who left Fort Or- ange (Albany) to buy furs from the Indians. They went up the Mohawk River, and followed the In- dian trail to the head of Otsego Lake, to connect with the Susquehanna River. The rivers were then the highways. Later English traders supplanted the Dutch, and in 1721 they asked King George I to erect a fort at the point where the river issues from the lake. One wonders what would have been the name of Cooperstown if the king had granted their request. The Rev. C. J. Smith, a Yale man, had an Indian mission at Oghwaga (Windsor) in the middle of the 1 8th century. In 1754 he transferred it for a while to the site of Cooperstown because of the scarcity of food at Oghwaga. The Rev. C. J. Hartwick, founder of Hartwick Seminary, made the first clearing at the foot of the lake in 1761. He supposed that his land grants extended to the lake: discovering his mistake, he abandoned the spot. Colonel George Croghan secured from the In- dians a conveyance of 100,000 acres of land at the south end of the lake in 1768, and the next year made a resolute effort to settle it. Richard Smith, on his way to survey the Otego patent, came to Croghan's 6 EARLY COOPERSTOWN AND THE M. E. CHURCH May 1 6, 1769: "Mr. Croghan is now here, and has carpenters and other men at work preparing to build two dwelling houses and five or six outhouses. His situation commands a view of the whole lake. We lodged at Colonel Croghan's." Smith's party were again at Croghan's from May 22 to 29, and three of the carpenters helped them make a canoe from a white pine tree. In the same journal, Rich- ard Smith says: "We met on their return (May 13, 1769) four wagons which had carried some of Colonel Croghan's goods to his seat at the foot of Lake Ot- sego." Either financial failure, or the devastation that came to the Susquehanna Valley during the Revolutionary War, defeated Croghan's plans. In 1779 General James Clinton, with a brigade of i, 00 men, camped on Croghan's land for about six weeks. They came from the Mohawk River to the head of the lake, down which they were trans- ported in 220 boats they had brought from the Mo- hawk. They were a part of the army Washington sent to destroy the Indian settlements after the massacres of Wyoming and Cherry Valley. Gen- eral Clinton made a building left by Croghan his headquarters: it was of hewn logs, about 15 feet square. Some of the soldiers reached camp by the end of June, and all were in their tented city by July 5th. The first religious service on record in Cooperstown was conducted by the Rev. John Gano, a New York Baptist minister and the soldiers' chaplain. On July 4th, 1779, the third anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and while the issue of the war was still in doubt, he preached to the brigade from the words, "This day shall be unto you for a memorial," etc. (Exodus COOPERSTOWN FROM EARLIEST TIMES 7 12, 14). Mr. Gano preached regularly until the troops left on August 9th, speaking on Sunday, the 8th, from the words, "Being ready to depart on the morrow." These soldiers found "rattlesnakes aplenty" here, as well as bears, wolves, panthers, and deer. In 1783 George Washington, on a tour of the lakes, visited Lake Otsego. Croghan had mortgaged his lands to William Franklin, son of Benjamin Franklin: and William Cooper secured titles to the property in 1785. That autumn Cooper came to look over the country, and this is what he says: "In 1785 I visited the rough and hilly country of Otsego, where there existed not an inhabitant nor any trace of a road. I was alone 300 miles from home, without bread, meat, or food of any kind: fire and fishing tackle were my only means of sub- sistence. I caught trout in the brook, and roasted them on the ashes. My horse fed on the grass that grew by the edge of the waters. I laid me down to sleep in my watch-coat, nothing but the melancholy wilderness around me. In this way I explored the country, formed my plans of future settlement, and meditated upon the spot where a place of trade or a village should afterwards be established. In May, 1786, I opened the sales of 40,000 acres, which in sixteen days were all taken up by the poorest order of men. I soon after established a store, and went to live among them, and continued to do so until 1790, when I brought on my family." Mr. Cooper was one of the most successful colo- nizers of new territory the young republic had. He does not mention the Croghan log house in the above 8 EARLY COOPERSTOWN AND THE M. E. CHURCH description, but his son Fenimore says it was in use for many years afterwards. Thus Cooperstown was permanently settled in 1786, several families locating here that year, when a tavern was also opened. Early in 1788 Cooper began to build his own house, and brought his family, including one-year-old James Fenimore Cooper, in 1790. By the winter of 1791 there were a hundred people in the village. The county of Otsego and the Ot- sego Circuit of the Methodist Episcopal Church both were formed in 1791. In that year, too, Coop- erstown became the Otsego county seat. From that time the village grew somewhat rapidly. In 1795 it had 200 people, and 349 by 1803. At the census of 1810 the population was 544, including 24 negroes, twelve of whom were slaves. Slaves were not only held here, but advertisements in the "Otsego Herald" show that they were occasionally offered for sale, and reward was offered for the cap- ture of runaway slaves. When Cooperstown became the county town, a building to serve as court house and gaol was erected in 1791 on the corner of Main and Pioneer Streets, where the Byard building now stands. The court house was on the upper story, and was entered from Main Street; while the lower story, built of logs, formed the gaol, the entrance to which was on Pion- eer Street. A whipping-post and stocks stood op- posite the gaol door, on the other side of the street. In 1791 the first physician who settled in the village, named Powers, was placed in the stocks and later banished from the village for mixing tartar emetic in some drink that was served at a ball at the Red COOPERSTOWX FROM EARLIEST TIMES 9 Lion tavern. The Red Lion stood on the Church and Scott corner, opposite the court house, and pro- jected half way across Main Street. A man named Porteous was whipped at the post and banished in 1795 for stealing ribbons. Public punishment of lawbreakers was considered wholesome in those days, and in 1827 a murderer was publicly hanged not far from the spot where Brady's mill how stands. People were imprisoned for debt, and when bailed out were placed on the village limits. Stones marked the limits: One, that still stands, near the athletic field; another, that only disappeared in recent years, near the Sunnyside corner of Chestnut and Elm Streets, a short distance down Elm Street; a third, where the river issues from the lake ; and the fourth somewhere near the southwest extremity of the lake. In those days there were few houses west of Pion- eer Street then called West Street. Within the memory of people now living in the village, the south side of Elm Street including Susquehanna Avenue, Eagle and Delaware Streets, was a large hop field. At the same time the last straggling houses on Chestnut Street were the Dr. Evans house and the house that is now the Methodist parsonage. Elm Street, from the point where Susquehanna Avenue now intersects it, was just a country lane. The lots where the Brewer and Watkins houses now stand on Chestnut Street formed the tenting ground for traveling circuses and county fairs. The first academy, for which a subscription of $1,500 was raised, was erected in 1795 on the site of the Universalist Church : before the academy was built, the court house was used as a school. A 10 EARLY COOPERSTOWN AND M. E. CHURCH Masonic hall was built in 1797, at the corner of Lake and Pioneer Streets. The village was incorporated in 1807, as "The Village of Otsego," and reincor- porated as Cooperstown in 1812: at the latter date there were 686 inhabitants. CHAPTER II CHURCHLESS COOPERSTOWN FROM the settlement of Cooperstown until 1806, a period of twenty-one years, it had no place of public worship. This is the more remarkable when we recall the fact that in 1791 it became the county seat of Otsego. For sixteen years the county capital was without a church ! It had a court house, an academy, a Masonic hall, a public library, a weekly newspaper, and a population of nearly 500 before it could boast of a church. What other New York village has such a record? As early as May 15, 1795, when the academy was being built, a correspondent in the "Otsego Herald" suggested "the propriety also of making some ar- rangements for erecting a meeting-house in Coopers- town"; but nothing was done. Prior to 1796 occasional services were held in the court house. After that date the "long room" on the upper floor of the academy a room 64 feet by 32 feet was used. During those earlier years itin- erant preachers of different denominations conducted services irregularly: on some Sundays two traveling ministers would preach at different hours, and then again no minister would appear for several Sundays. Describing "Templeton," a name that thinly dis- guises Cooperstown, Cooper says: "When an itiner- ant priest of the persuasion of the Methodists, Bap- tists, Universalists, or of the more numerous sect of the Presbyterians, was accidentally in the neighbor- 12 EARLY COOPERSTOWN AND M. E. CHURCH hood, he was ordinarily invited to officiate, and was commonly rewarded for his services by a collection in a hat, before the congregation separated. When no such regular minister offered, a kind of colloquial prayer or two was made by some of the more gifted members, and a sermon was usually read, from Sterne, by Mr. Richard Jones." This same Richard Jones "once or twice essayed to introduce the Epis- copal form of service on the Sundays that the pul- pit was vacant"; but the third time he did so he had but one auditor. The pulpit alluded to was a large unpainted box that stood at the side of the long room. Many of these early itinerant minis- ters were among the greatest heroes the country has produced : they literally gave their lives for the Gospel. The records some of them have left show that the "hat collection" was usually pitifully small. Of course some fanatics who owned no allegiance to conference or presbytery took advantage of the irregular conditions, and occasionally, as Levi Beardsley tells us, a man preached his way into politics. On Tuesday, Dec. 29, 1796, at a Masonic cele- bration, the Rev. John Camp, pastor of the Church of Christ in New Canaan, preached in the academy "to the brethren and audience, which together ex- ceeded 500 people." E. Phinney printed and pub- lished this sermon. Camp meetings helped to supply the lack of regu- lar religious ministrations. The "Otsego Herald" of June 25, 1807, contained an advertisement of a "camp meeting for religious exercises" to be held ""on the loth day of July next, near the house of Mr- CHURCHLESS COOPERSTOWN 13 Asa Harris, innkeeper, in the town of Otsego, to- continue four days." For funerals, dependence was placed on reaching a preacher as he traveled his circuit. Often the ob- sequies were delayed to secure ministerial service: sometimes they had no clergyman at all. When William Cooper's daughter Anna was thrown from her horse and killed in September, 1800, the Rev. Daniel Nash conducted the first funeral in the village with Protestant Episcopal rites. Judge Cooper sometimes officiated at weddings. Beardsley describes a marriage ceremony the judge performed in a log house at Richfield in 1791 the first in that township. "The judge was in his long riding boots, covered with mud up to his knees." He claimed a kiss from the bride as his fee, and would accept no other. The bride, who was Mr. Beards- ley's aunt, died within the year, and he thus de- scribes the funeral: "The neighbors assembled; we had no clergyman, for at that day there was none in that vicinity. Timothy Hatch read a chapter, and at the grave a hymn, 'Why do we mourn departing friends?' With these humble ceremonies the body was deposited in its narrow house, then 'earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust,' was pronounced, and a rough stonte was placed at the head." Prob- ably funerals took place in Cooperstown with as little ceremony during that early period. Before 1800 there was no regularly settled minister in the village. The Rev. Elisha Mosely, a Presby- terian, preached for six months in 1795, but was not settled under the presbytery: he preached the first Thanksgiving Day sermon in the village. The Rev. John F. Ernst, a Lutheran minister connected 14 EARLY COOPERSTOWN AND M. E. CHURCH with the Hartwick foundation, came to Cooperstown in 1797, and taught school while he tried to form a Lutheran Church: but his venture failed. The Rev. John McDonald, of the Scotch Seceders, was imprisoned for debt in 1799; then he was bailed and placed on the limits, and for part of a year preached, supporting himself by teaching the classics to a few pupils. I think it highly probable that he paved the way for the formation of the Presbyterian Church in 1800. Although there was no Sunday School in this churchless period, Oliver Cory, who taught school in the court house and later in the academy, gave religious instruction to his pupils on Saturdays. Was not this a "Sabbath" School? Several causes combined to keep Cooperstown waiting so long for a church. Dr. George Peck, in his "Early Methodism," mentions one. Many of the first settlers came from New England, where church attendance was compulsory. Naturally some who resented that requirement migrated west- ward : and they were a hard class to interest in church matters. Another reason was the sharp denomina- tional differences among the Christian villagers. A third reason, and the most potent, I think, was that Judge Cooper, the great landowner and leader in all public enterprises, was indifferent to church affairs. Otherwise the village named for him, and in which his own family was reared, would have had a church much earlier. Cooper's picture of Judge Temple, in "The Pioneers," is generally believed to be a portrait, softened by filial affection, of Judge Cooper: and Temple is not represented as zealous for the church. The baptismal records of Christ CHURCHLESS COOPERSTOWN 15 Church show that James Fenimore Cooper himself was not baptized until 1851, the year in which he died. It is only fair to add that when the first two churches were erected, Judge Cooper gave the land on which they stood. He died, however, a year before the consecration of Christ Church. CHAPTER III THE FIRST CHURCHES THE Presbyterians were the religious pioneers in Cooperstown. They formed the first church, called the first pastor, and built the first church structure in the village. When the Rev. Elisha Mosely was here in 1795 a Presbyterian society was formed; but the Presbyterian Church records show that their church was regularly organized in 1800. The church is fortunate in possessing complete church records from that time. One of the charter members of the church was George Roberts, who was also an original member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church here a dozen years later. This does not necessarily mean that he was fickle in his re- ligious belief: in a churchless community good Christians will get together in order to organize an evangelical church. The Rev. Isaac Lewis was called as pastor in 1800: throughout his five years' ministry he preached in the academy. The building of the Presbyterian Church was commenced in 1 805 : for in the "Otsego Herald" of February 25, 1806, notice was given, under date of February 20, to those who were in arrears "on their subscription for build- ing the meeting-house in Cooperstown that it is in- dispensably necessary that they make immediate payment," as the officials "are in arrears for the materials and labor, as far as the building has pro- gressed." By March igth Cyrus Clark and Cy- renus Clark, the officers of the church in charge of THE OLD ELM STREET CHURCH THE FIRST CHURCHES 17 the building operations, had become desperate, and they issued a further notice to "those who do not pay before the ist of April that they shall leave the names of all such delinquents with a justice, that they may be proceeded against for the same." On Tuesday, September 23, 1806, "the Rev. William Neill was ordained in the new meeting-house in this village, which, although very large, was much crowded." The ordination was conducted by the Oneida Presbytery. The "new and beautiful" church was formally dedicated on August 6, 1807. "The pews were rented for eleven months for nearly $900." Originally the church had no heating appara- tus: few of the earlier churches had. They used foot-warmers in the pews in the winter. When the first stove was installed, it was placed on a plat- form eight feet high, the supporting posts standing on each side of the center aisle. Thus the trustees solved the problem of having the heater in the center of the church without blocking the aisle ! On a cold Sunday the sexton would mount a ladder and tend the wood fire several times during each service. After the Presbyterians came the Protestant Episcopalians. The Rev. Thomas Ellison, of Albany, in company with the lieutenant-governor of the state, came to Cooperstown in 1797 to inspect the academy. Whilst here Mr. Ellison conducted the first Episcopal service in the village. The Rev. Daniel Nash, familiarly called Father Nash because of the apostolic simplicity of his faith and life, soon after this time was a sort of circuit preacher, organ- izing and shepherding all the Protestant Episcopal churches in the upper Susquehanna valley. Christ Church was dedicated by Bishop Benjamin Moore I 8 EARL.Y COOPERSTOWN AND M. E. CHURCH July 8, 1 8 10, and Mr. Nash was settled as rector the following year. Cooper, in his "Chronicles," says the church was built in 1807: if it was commenced in that year, Cooper's story in "The Pioneers" may account for the delay in its completion and conse- cration. He tells that the church was built "by the aid of what was called a subscription, though all, or nearly all, the money came from the pocket of the landlord." It was reared "under an implied agree- ment that, after its completion, the question should be fairly put to the people, that they might decide to what denomination it should belong." Judge Temple could not be moved to express an opinion in the matter, and no one attended a meeting Mr. Richard Jones called to determine the question. The difficulties and delays occasioned by Jones's efforts to make the building an Episcopal Church without daring to declare his purpose, are amusingly portrayed. Cooper himself is as interesting in what he omits as in what he includes. For on the night of the Rev. Mr. Grant's Christmas service, when "the rays of a full moon" caused the structure des- tined to be Christ Church to throw "a long shadow across the fields of snow," the Presbyterian Church was in full view of all who entered the academy : but it came at the precise point of Cooper's blind spot. Hence the readers of "The Pioneers" are led to infer that there was no Presbyterian Church overshadow- ing the academy at that time. The old church, a model of which may be seen in Christ Church vestry, was severely simple both in its decoration and furniture and in its services. Like the Presbyterian Church, it has been greatly improved since its erection. Indeed, it is today one THE FIRST CHURCHES 19 of the most ornate village churches in the state. The location of the church was fixed by a cemetery, the site of which was chosen in 1792, when a son of Joseph Griffin died. Other burials took place there, and when the church was erected, it was placed by the burial ground, which then became the church- yard. In this case the church came to the grave- yard, and not the graveyard to the church. It is well known that the members of the Cooper family are buried in this yard. The Methodist Episcopal Church was the third to organize and to build. After these three came the Universal ists, who organized in 1831, and church erected 1833; the Baptist Church, formed January 21, 1834, and the church built 1835-36; and the Roman Catholic Church, organized 1847. Origin- ally every church had its own burial ground. CHAPTER IV METHODIST CHURCH BEGINNINGS METHODIST preachers had conducted oc- casional services in Cooperstown from the time it was a small hamlet. Indeed, the itinerant Methodist ministry was well adapted to the needs of a newly-settled country. The preacher rode his circuit, along roads that were simply bridle- paths, and held a service wherever a few people could be gathered. Schoolhouses, barns, and pri- vate houses served for churches; and in summer, like their Master, they preached out-of-doors. Once in a while they held service in a tavern. But Dr. Z. Paddock, in his "Memoir of Benjamin G. Paddock," tells of an experience that discouraged Robert R. Roberts, later Bishop Roberts, from hold- ing tavern services. Invited to preach in the pub- lic house, he found the bar-room his church, and a number of the regular patrons well primed before the service began. When Mr. Roberts was preach- ing, one maudlin fellow called for a grog. Mine host was proceeding to fill the order, when the min- ister politely requested him to wait until the service ended. The landlord, however, turned to him with a quizzical smile and said, "Mr. Roberts, you appear to be doing well; I would thank you to mind your own business, and I will mine." The pioneer preachers on the Otsego Circuit in 1791 were Philip Wager and Jonathan Newman. They worked so well on the newly-formed circuit 21 that at the year's end there were eighty members. No doubt they and their successors conducted oc- casional services in Cooperstown. The Rev. William Colbert, presiding elder of the Albany dis- trict, rode through the circuit in 1802. He passed through Cooperstown on his way to Middlefield Center, where a Methodist class was formed in 1791. Here was the home of Luther and Annis Collar Peck, who gave five sons to the Methodist ministry, in- cluding Bishop Jesse T. Peck and Dr. George Peck. Mr. Colbert thus refers to this trip : "March 20, 1802. Rode on to Cooperstown, handsomely situated on the south end of Lake Otsego, 'Susquehanna's ut- most spring.' Stopped there a while, and rode on to Daniel M'Allum's, where a few people were wait- ing. I preached to them with satisfaction from Amos 5: 6." Again he notes on November 13 of the same year: "Rode about six miles before sunrise. The morning, though cold, was very pleasant. As Cooperstown came in view, the rising sun had clothed the surrounding mountains with his golden light. The landscape was truly delightful to the eye of the traveler." In 1803 Mr. Colbert was for several days at Joseph Blair's, at Middlefield Center, replenishing his wardrobe. He makes no reference to any service in Cooperstown, then a village of several hundred people. In 1806 Benoni Harris was one of the preachers on Otsego Circuit. Dr. George Peck, then a boy of nine, saw him baptize by immersion in Red Creek only a short distance from Cooperstown Benjamin G. Paddock and two other persons. Mr. Paddock a few years later was pastor of Cooperstown Method- ist Church. What impressed young Peck about 22 EARLY COOPERSTOWN AND M. E. CHURCH the baptism was the diminutive size of Mr. Harris: he was about five feet in height. He "marveled at his physical strength." Dr. Peck distinctly remembered the Otsego Cir- cuit preachers of 1810. They were William Jewett and Seth Mattison, and both were repeatedly en- tertained in the Peck household. The Rev. Seth Mattison six years later presided at the meeting in Cooperstown schoolhouse that took steps to build a Methodist Episcopal Church. When Dr. Peck was editor of the "Christian Advocate," he secured of Mr. Jewett a plan of the circuit as it was served in 1 8 10. Among about forty preaching places were Cooperstown village, Bowerstown (Raxford's), and "Piertown" (Knowlton's). This shows that in 1 8 10 there was a Methodist service, with preaching, once in two or three weeks in Cooperstown; but it does not absolutely prove that the society was formed by this time. The Rev. D. W. Bristol, who was pastor in 1838, says the church was organized either in 1810 or 1812. In 1812 Ebenezer White and Ralph Lanning were the Otsego Circuit preachers. Father White, Peck says, "was almost idolized by the members of the church, young and old." He attracted large con- gregations wherever he preached, and the church was greatly strengthened. He died before the close of the Conference year. Seth Mattison wrote an elegy on the occasion. If the Cooperstown Method- ist Episcopal Church was not organized in 1810, it was certainly in existence before the Conference of 1813. From 1816 we have full minutes of the annual corporate meetings and of the trustees' meetings. CHAPTER V THE FIRST METHODIST CHURCH AT a meeting held in the Cooperstown school- house, October 22, 1816, the church was in- corporated. The Rev. Seth Mattison, the circuit minister, presided, Daniel McLeland being associated with him in the presidency, according to the custom of the time. The corporate name adopted was "The First Incorporated Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Cooperstown," and the following trustees were elected: George Roberts, Daniel McLeland, Joseph Perkins, Arthur Canfield and Justus Hinman. On the 3ist day of the same month James Averell, Jun., covenanted "to convey or cause to be conveyed by deed of war- ranty one hundred feet square of land from the north-east corner of my pasture lot lying on the road leading from Cooperstown to Hartwick." This land was deeded for no other purpose than the erec- tion of a Methodist Episcopal Church, and when it ceased to be so used was to revert to Mr. Averell. This lot was not far from the present church, on the southeast corner of the high school campus. The road from Cooperstown to Hartwick passed along Elm Street and Chestnut Street. From what has been already said about the bounds of the village, it will be seen that this lot was outside the limits. The meeting decided to build in 1817 a church 35 feet by 45 feet, 16 feet from plate to sill, with a front gallery. A further meeting held January 7, 24 EARLY COOPERSTOWN AND M. E. CHURCH 1817, took steps to circulate subscription papers cash subscriptions to be paid one-half on the first of May and the remainder the first of October, and gifts of material and labor were to be delivered on or be- fore the first of May. A number of meetings of the trustees were held in the next few months, and ul- timately, on September iath, this peculiar arrange- ment was made: "Resolved that Joseph Perkins be our agent in all things relative to the building the meeting-house, and that he, from the beginning to enclosing, and building the pulpit and front steps, do all the work and find all the materials, in considera- tion that he have all the property that is subscribed and has been paid towards said house, said house to be finished by the first of December next the lay- ing of the lower floor included." The same meeting appointed George Roberts and Joseph Perkins a committee to lay before the next quarterly confer- ence "the propriety of building a steeple on said house." The work lagged: for when Mr. Paddock took up his residence in Cooperstown in 1818 the church was not yet completed. There are minutes of a trustees' meeting September loth, apparently 1818, at which it was resolved "to circulate three subscriptions for the purpose of raising money and material to apply to the finishing the meeting- house." A trustees' meeting on March 27, 1819, accepted a gift of timber from Samuel Cooper and William Cooper, sons of Judge Cooper, for the use of the church; appointed David Fairchild to con- tract to get the saw logs to the mill and to get them sawn; and chose Reuben Whipple to superintend the building of the fence. The next corporate meet- ing, on October 21, 1819, at which the Rev. B. G. THE FIRST METHODIST CHURCH 25 Paddock presided, was held in the church. The society was evidently poor, and had a hard task to raise funds to complete the first church. It was used for services in 1818, and a burial ground was made around it. One of the subscriptions taken for completing the first church brought on an un- pleasant controversy in 1824. Some half-dozen people asserted at that time that they made con- tributions on condition that other denominations were to have the use of the church when the Method- ists were not using it. On this ground the church was claimed for a regular Universalist service, at a different hour from the Methodist service. This demand the trustees refused. A letter was received from the Rev. B. G. Paddock, who Supervised the subscriptions, sweet in spirit and temperate in tone, stating that what was promised was that on any special occasion, as a funeral or the passing of a traveling preacher of another denomination through the village, the church might be opened; "but I am decidedly of the opinion that it was never asked or expected that a part of the time, more or less, as a regular appointment," the church should be "given for any denomination." The Rev. Abner Chase followed the Rev. Seth Mattison on the circuit in 1817. Mr. Chase lived at Cooperstown, as did probably Mr. Mattison. Dr. Paddock's "Memoir" of his brother shows that when Benjamin G. Paddock came to the circuit, in 1818, it was the established custom for the senior preacher to live at the county seat. Which was the first minister to make his home here I can not determine. Abner Chase was a man of beautiful and winsome character, and a preacher of freshness and power. 26 EARLY COOPRRSTOWN AND M. E. CHURCH The year before he came to Cooperstown, Zachariah Paddock was converted under his ministry. The Rev. B. G. Paddock occupied the Petty house on Chestnut Street, now the Dr. Evans house. His residence at Cooperstown convinced him there was prospect of a good work here. Although only thirty years old, he was already breaking down through the rigors of a circuit-rider's life. So in 1819 he became a supernumerary, and was appointed as the first exclusive pastor of the Cooperstown church. He thought the year, compared with the labors of the circuit, would be one of rest; but he made it a year of very hard work. He found in the Rev. John Smith, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, a man of kindred spirit, and under their joint efforts Cooperstown had what was probably the greatest revival of its history. This work of grace did much to overcome the ill effects of the churchless years on the village. I have had the privilege of examining the Presbyterian Church records, and find that from June i, 1819, to March, 1820, 107 members were added to that church; and at the year's end Mr. Paddock reported the Methodist Church member- ship to be 155. Probably the two churches were equal gainers by the revival. The population of Cooperstown in 1820 was 783; so that a body of adults equal to more than one-fourth of the entire community came into fellowship with these two churches within a few months. Some of the con- verts were from the surrounding territory. Fifty- three years later Dr. Horace Lathrop, son-in-law of Mr. Paddock, wrote that these two godly minis- ters "were the instruments in God's hands of work- ing a great change in this vicinity for the better." THE FIRST METHODIST CHURCH 27 At the end of this year Mr. Paddock "located," pur- chased a farm in Columbia, Herkimer county, and retired to it for physical recuperation. Farm life so improved his health that before the year's end he was again preaching at Cooperstown, rilling out the year of the Rev. Elias Bowen, who had been called to Utica to fill a vacant pulpit. Benjamin G. Paddock, who was a good solo singer and wrote some hymns, gave two sons to the Christain minis- try, and has several descendants now living in Coop- erstown. Mr. Paddock was succeeded in 1821 by the Rev. Dana Fox, and then for sixteen years Cooperstown formed a part of the Otsego Circuit with the excep- tion of one year (1829), when the Rev. Henry F. Rowe was pastor. These were not prosperous years for the church. First, I suppose, there was a reaction following the Paddock-Smith revival . Then the situation of the Methodist Church was disad- vantageous: it was too far out of the village. In spring and fall people had to walk through so much mud to reach it that they were in peril of being mired, whilst in winter they often had to break their way through snowdrifts. By 1837 the Methodist serv- ices were so ill attended that for a while the church was closed, and services again held in the schoolhouse and in private houses. CHAPTER VI THE CHURCH ON ELM STREET THE Rev. D. W. Bristol, a capable man, became pastor at Cooperstown in 1838, and negotia- tions were at once opened for the purchase of a new church site. A committee was appointed to select a lot, which seems to have been deeded De- cember 6th by Ellery and Holder Cory, for $250. It was a part of the land on which the old church stands, and had 60 feet frontage. The church was, however, removed to the new site in the late sum- mer of 1838, for the accounts show that on Septem- ber 1 2th Abram Fling was paid "for superintendence in moving church." Miss Susan M. Hews, then a girl of eight, remembers watching the men move the church as Abram Fling shouted his orders to them. The cost of removal and site was $535.75. To this must be added other sums for the re- moval of bodies from the old burial ground. Two receipts are preserved from Nathan Weeks, totaling $18, "for removing the dead from the burying- ground," and there is a gruesome detail added "To H. Clark for box to remove bones, $0.75." The following summer Jacob Edson, on a contract that still exists, almost rebuilt the church, making an addition 35 feet by 8 feet, renewing the clapboards and shingles, putting in new windows, and remodel- ling the pulpit, altar, and pews, which were to have doors. "The front is to be finished with four pilas- ters, and a tower and cornice." The floor for two- THE; CHURCH ON ELM STREET 29 thirds its length was to be made "an inclined plane." The total cost of the change, including removal and site, was $1,619.49. It was a very creditable under- taking for the church at that time. A subscription list with over 200 names is preserved, the largest subscribers being Henry Knowlton, Thomas Eddy, Romeo Bowen, Marvin Handy, and Benedict Woodard. The name of Reuben Nelson, who was then teaching in the second academy, occurs on the list. The Rev. D. A. Shepard, presiding elder, preached when the church was reopened. The trustees were Zadock Fitch, Russell Brownell, Henry Knowlton, Romeo Bowen, and David Mar- vin. Mr. Bristol served a second term as pastor in 1848-9. Some alterations in the church, including the construction of a basement, were begun before his return, when the Rev. B. W. Gorham was pastor, and were completed in the summer of 1848. Ad- ditional land was bought of the Corys for $200, and one item in E. and H. Cory's bill of $201.11 for ma- terials would indicate that the church was moved farther back from the road at that time: if so, it must have been flush with the sidewalk at first. A detailed bill of Loomis Brown of $308.28 for labor and materials shows that a day's wages for a skilled carpenter at that time was $1.25. The largest sub- scribers at this time were Robert H. Weeks, D. W. Bristol, G. W. Holmes, W. C. Smith, J. G. Bush, Lyman Smith, and H. and E. Bowen. R. H. Weeks, L. Smith, G. W. Holmes, Horace Fish, and Joseph Lippitt, Jr., were the trustees. There was an ac- cumulated debt in the winter of 1849-50, and in order to clean it up, Mr. Bristol spent seven weeks 30 EARLY COOPERSTOWN AND M. E. CHURCH among the chief Methodist churches of New York City, obtaining over $400 towards the funds. Dr. Bristol was later pastor of the Centenary Church in Binghamton, at the time their noble edifice was erected. When the centennial of American Methodism was celebrated, in 1866, the Rev. I. D. Peaslee be- ing pastor, improvements were made in the church, including the displacement of kerosene lamps by gas, the removal of the pew-doors, and the first pa- pering of the church-walls. The trustees were E. Bell, J. M. Moak, Z. Fitch, J. G. Bush, and L. J. Burditt. In 1875, under the leadership of the Rev. Alger- non S. Clark, the last considerable change was made in the building whilst it remained a church. The basement was eliminated, a larger tower built, and a lecture room added at the rear. Memorial win- dows were introduced, a large rose window being placed in the tower by men who had entered the ministry from Otsego County. On Novemver 10, 1875, the church was reopened, Bishop Randolph S. Foster preaching from the text, "His name shall be called Wonderful." The sum of $3,000 was ex- pended on the improvements, and $1,200 of this was lacking at the time of the rededication. After the bishop's sermon the congregation subscribed $1,500; and at night, after a sermon by Dr. Henry Wheeler, the presiding elder, another $500 was raised. This paid for all the imp'rovements, and enabled the trustees to purchase a pipe organ for $800 from a Schenectady church. The work was done by John Pank. The trustees were Dr. D. E. Siver, John Pank, James Ismond, Zadock Fitch, and G. W. THE CHURCH ON ELM STREET 31 Holmes. The improvements in all cost about $4,000. During A. S. Clark's pastorate there was a good re- vival, and the church membership was doubled. In 1885 the trustees voted to give the Rev. A. F. Chaffee a silk hat for his work in paying off an ob- stinate debt of $600. The church on Elm Street was so closely flanked by other buildings, that a stranger, having his at- tention attracted by the well-located churches across the street, might pass it without seeing it. It placed Methodism at a disadvantage in Cooperstown. But some remarkable men ministered within its walls. Bishop Kdward Gayer Andrews, whose acute intel- lect and gracious spirit charmed annual conferences all over the world, preached there for two years (1850-1). In 1852 the Rev. John P. Newman, then a young pastor at Cherry Valley, spoke in revival services that stirred the town. The ability of the great Bishop Newman, friend, pastor, and funeral orator of President U. S. Grant, was already manifest in him at that early period of his ministry. The Rev. Dr. B. B. Loomis and Loomis Brown were brought into the church in these services. Bishop Jesse T. Peck and Dr. George Peck both spoke in the church one Sunday in 1873, when on a visit to the old homestead at Middlefield Center. A number of men who were later presiding elders or members of the General Conference served the Cooperstown Church during the sixty -five years of the Elm Street location, including William Bixby, Silas Comfort, Joseph Shank, W. M. Hiller, W. L. Thorpe, and other men still living who have done great service for the church. One pastor, the Rev. Isaac D. Peaslee, found his wife here Miss Martha Brown, 32 EARLY COOPERSTOWN AND M. E. CHURCH daughter of Loomis Brown, many years an official member. Mr. Peaslee's body lies in the beautiful Lakewood Cemetery. We have already seen that B. G. Paddock lived on Chestnut Street in 1818. The house at No. 24, Elm Street was occupied by a number of the pastors, and, although not the property of the church, came to be regarded as the parsonage. It was late before the church owned a pastoral house. A project for building a parsonage was launched when the Rev. W. L. Thorpe was pastor, in 1870; but it remained for the Rev. H. M. Crydenwise to carry it through. In 1871 a fine lot was purchased of Luther I. Burditt, on Eagle Street, for $500, and here a house was built which, with the lot, cost about $2,500. The whole sum was raised by subscription, the principal con- tributors being E. D. Hills, James Ismond, H. and G. S. Van Deusen, D. E. Siver, Zadock Fitch, H. F Phinney, Horace Fish, O. Reynolds, James Bullis, Warren C. Smith, Mrs. Lorenzo White, L. I. Bur- ditt, Elihu Phinney, Cornelius Teachout, D. J. Borst, W. H. Averell, Edward Clark, and S. Nelson. The trustees at the time were Zadock Fitch, E. D. Hills, James Ismond, Edwin Bell, and Dr. Siver. Mr. Bell was the man who laid out Lakewood Ceme- tery. All the pastors lived in this house until the purchase of the Chestnut Street property in 1902; the Rev. T. F. Hall, who occupied the house from 1888 to 1890, now owns it. For some years the presiding elder lived at Coop- erstown, one occupying the house at the corner of Chestnut and Delaware Streets, and another resid- ing at 24 Elm Street. A scheme was set afoot by the quarterly conference in 1856 to get the district THE CHURCH ON ELM STREET 33 interested in the purchase of a home for the presiding elder in this village; but it came to naught. CHAPTER VII THE PRESENT CHURCH AND PARSONAGE TO the Rev. J. H. Littell belongs the honor of leading in the project that gave to Methodism the present handsome brick church and pic- turesque parsonage. On March 10, 1902, the trus- tees purchased of John Pank the Craft house on the corner of Chestnut Street and Glen Avenue, with its ample lot. The purchase price was $4,600, Mr. Pank accepting as part payment the Eagle Street house at $2,500. The house, with the pastor's family in residence, was removed farther north, and had one of its wings removed, to make room for the church: it was also set thirty feet farther back from Chest- nut Street, so as to be on a line with the Sill residence. The enterprise was a large one, and great praise is due for the excellent choice of location, and the faith, courage, and sacrifice manifested in carrying the project through. Everybody helped, and members of other churches showed their interest in a practical way. Father Early, the Roman Catholic priest, gave a subscription as an expression of his good will. The Alfred Corning Clark Estate, which has always liberally supported enterprises for the betterment of Cooperstown, gave generous assistance. The pastor told the writer, soon after the work was com- pleted, that never did laymen work more harmoni- ously with pastor than the men who financed this enterprise. When the time came for the consecration of the THE PRESENT CHURCH AND PARSONAGE 35 church, it was felt most fitting that Bishop E. G. Andrews should preach the dedicatory sermon. This the worthy bishop, now quite aged, readily consented to do. He preached a favorite sermon of his for such occasions, on "God is a spirit" (John 4, 24). The services took place on March 25, 1904. Dr. T. F. Hall, the presiding elder and a former Cooperstown pastor, dedicated the church. The Board of Trustees at the time the church was built was: Dr. D. E. Siver (president), William H. Michaels (treasurer), D. E. Gilmore (secretary), Andrew McLean, Edwin Lewis, Hubbard L. Brazee, C. A. Francis, G. B. Winne, and J. C. Peaslee. The Building Committee consisted of Dr. Siver, A. Mc- Lean, W. H. Michaels, G. B. Winne, and C. A. Francis. The committee for the purchase of organ and bell was H. L. Brazee and J. C. Peaslee. The pastor was of course on all committees. Fayette Houck had the contract for building the church. The old church on Elm Street was sold to L. F. Steere for $1,500, the organ, pews, windows, etc., not being included in the sale. The value of the new property is $25,000. In the list of subscribers appears the name of Dr. Henry D. Sill, one of the noblest men God ever gave to His church. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, but was often in the Methodist prayer meeting. Because the property adjoined the Sill family residence, a rumor was circulated that the doctor was displeased at the thought that church sheds might disfigure it, and make his own residence less desirable. When Dr. Sill heard of this he said: "You tell them that if they will build church sheds right along their property line, and fill them 36 EARLY COOPERSTOWN AND M. E. CHURCH every Sunday, Dr. Sill will throw up his hat." Dr. Sill's life was an unanswerable argument for Chris- tianity. Two subscriptions were taken for the building of the church, one in 1902, to be paid by March i, 1903, and the other at the time of the dedication of the church. Combining the two lists, the following subscriptions were paid: $1,100: Mrs. Jacob G. Bush. $1,035: Dr. D. E. Siver. $1,000: Mrs. Emily A. McLean. $700: Ladies' Aid Society. $500 each: William H. Michaels, Mrs. Henry C. Potter, Edward Severin Clark, Fayette Houck and family, Dr. Henry D. Sill. $250: A Friend. $200 each: F. Ambrose Clark, Miss Sarah E. Marsh, George I. Wilbur, Samuel M. Shaw. $150 each: Miss Sarah Powers, George S. Van Deusen. $100 each: Charles L. Root and wife, L. Blanche Root and Kenneth Root, Mrs. Lucy B. Harris, Mrs. Thomas Laidler, J. Lynn Barnard, Church Choir; Bundy Bros, and Cruttenden, A Friend, A Friend. $60: Miss Ida M. Van Deusen. $50 each: W. H. Martin, H. L. Brazee, Lewis and Burdick, Edwin Lewis, Mrs. A. Gallup, Mrs. E. Delavan Hills, B. L. Murdock and Sons, Fayette Houck. $25 each: Mrs. A. H. Brazee, Mrs. Wm. McLean, Miss Belinda Chase, Junior League, Emerson B. Rogers, Lettis and Saxton, D. J. McGown, Frank Mulkins ; Austin, Bolton, and Bronner; Velma M. Smith, G. M. Grant and Co., Simon Uhlmann, Mrs THE PRESENT CHURCH AND PARSOXAGE 37 Ethel Blakeslee, J. A. Doan, W. D. Burditt, James Austin, Elmer Mattison, Col. Stewart, Mrs. F. H. Haskins, Boston Clothing House. $20 each: Harry E. Lewis, Miss Mary A. Stickles, Miss Flora Peck, Sidney Osterout, Mrs. Helen A. C. Church, W. P. K. Fuller. $15 each: Rev. A. F. Chaff ee, A. J. Taylor. $10 each: Seven sums of $10 each per Rev. J. H. Littell; Rev. J. H. Littell, Walter R. Littell, Howard Littell, Mrs. T. F. Hall, Miss Jennie Gould, Miss Maude Martin, Mrs. Thomas Laidler, W. H. Bundy, A. S. Potts, S. J. W. Reynolds, M. E. Lippitt, W. Cory, Mrs. Charles A. Scott, E. E. Palmer, Harry Killer, Wm. W. McLean, M. R. Stocker, Mrs. F. M. Philley, E. D. Boden, Mrs. William North, Wm. M. Strait. And 51 subscriptions of less than $10, totaling $207. In March, 1911, when the Rev. Nathaniel Harris was pastor, there was an accumulated indebtedners against the church of $3,500. A subscription, to be paid monthly for three years, was taken which it was thought, with a bequest of $1,105 from Mrs. Bush, would liquidate the debt. But, as the sub- scription was shrinking by reason of deaths, remov- als, etc., a determined effort was made to wholly clear the church of debt before the Church Centen- nial Celebration, June ist to 5th, 1913. A "Cen- tennial Bazaar," held March 25 and 26 in the Village Hall brought in $420 to this fund. CHAPTER VIII A ROMANTIC STORY THAT is TRUE I HAVE reserved a separate chapter for a story as romantic as ever imagination created. It had to do with the financing of the church-building scheme. As the Rev. J. H. Littell was going to the Conference of 1902, at Waverly, Pa., someone told him that Mrs. Laura S. Bush, an elderly widow liv- ing at Waverly, was formerly a member of the Coop- erstown Church, and might give some financial help. During the Conference Mr. Littell was sent for to the home of Mrs. Bush. Her husband, Jacob G. Bush, who ran a shoe shop in this village, was a trustee of the church: some of the records in the trustees' minute-book are in his handwriting. Mrs. Bush herself at the same time conducted a millinery store at Cooperstown, and was equally interested with her husband in the church of her choice. Mrs. Bush led Brother Littell on to tell of his plans, and eagerly listened to his story. Before he left she asked him to send her his subscription list. With a delicacy that a brother minister can appreciate, Brother Littell did not send a list with the largest subscriptions, but one containing several $100 prom- ises. Very soon the list was returned with two $100 subscriptions, one for Mrs. Bush and one for her niece, Mrs. Charlotte Laidler. Of course the pastor wrote a letter of thanks ; and a little later he received a letter in Mrs. Bush's own handwriting she was then ninety-two years old telling him of a provision A ROMANTIC STORY THAT IS TRUE 39 in her will of $1,000 for the Cooperstown Methodist Episcopal Church, to be used whenever extensive alterations were made in the church, or when a new church was built. "Now that the church is being built, I will pay the $ 1,000 while I am alive: then I will know they have it." A few weeks later the $1,000 came. Resolutions of thanks, passed by the Official Board, were forwarded to Mrs. Bush. About the time the church was enclosed, Mrs. Bush wrote and asked Mr. Littell to ascertain the cost of an organ for the church, and also of a bell. He got the organ-builders here, and they estimated that with the use of a part of the old organ they could build an organ suitable for the church for $1,200. A price was also secured for a bell. The pastor, with some fear lest he was overdoing matters, sent these figures to Mrs. Bush. She wrote back that she did not want any old materials in the organ: "Get a price on an entirely new organ, and I will give it in memory of my daughter, Mrs. Wilcox," who was for some years organist of the church. Then she bade Mr. Littell secure a larger bell, for the one proposed would not be heavy enough, and she would give that in memory of her husband. The organ and bell cost nearly $2,000. Next she wrote and urged Brother Littell to get the ladies of the church interested in the church furnishings and she would start them with $100. Within a year after the opening of the church, Mrs. Bush gave another $1,000 subscription to help pay the debt: and on her decease left the tritstees $1,100 for the same purpose. As an incident, she sent the officials $100 to be pre- sented to Brother Littell in gold in her name, in ap- preciation of his work in the church-building en- 4O EARI