Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-04-28
Trinity Church.

Trinity Church, New York, wa organ
lied the year 1896, under Governor Ben
jamin Fletcher, an %aristocrat, who took q
deep hostility to the paramount impor-
lance of the Reformed Dutch Church in
this province. He had an evasive act
passed by the Assembly at Albany in
1893, which he construed to be a recogpi-
ton of the Protestant Episcopal instead
of the old Dutch Church, which was the
parent faith of this colony. He then
built Trinity Church, which remained
until the Revolutionary war, about
eighty years afterward, when the great
fire which followed the British occupa-
ton of the city burned it down. When
the British captured New York, in 1864,
they found n of the Dutch churches
standing inside of the fort at which is
now the battery. Confiscating this
church as a part of the conquest, they
changed its name to the Kings Chapel,
and put the Episcopal worship there.
This church remained for about a third
of a century the only Episcopal church
on this island, until Trinity was finished.
After Trinity was burned it was rebuilt
the year before New York became the
American capital. In the year 1910
this second church was pulled down,
and the present very expensive edifce of
brown stone was opened for worship in
1916.
Trinity Church is q Gothic edifce,
about 200 feet long by about eighty feet
wide, with a spire 284 feet high. This
church was endowed by Queene Anne.
1t is considered the mother of Episcopal
churches in America. A Dutch woman
named Anneke JAMS owned a farm on the
island, now covered with costly buildings,
which was conveyed to this church, and
is the source of its riches. About eleven
years ago the value of Trinity real estate
was considered to be $40, 5000, 900 to $780,
100000, and many of our streets are
named for renters and vestrymen of
Trinity corporation. From Trinity have
emanated such latter churches as st.
Paul's, half q mile further up, which was
dedicated in 1866; st. Johns, erected in
1907, the square before which was bought
by Vanderbilt for 81, 900, 900, and st.
Georges, dedicated in 1852, all three of
which were in the Trinity Parish. Later
Episcopal churches here have followed
the nomenclature adopted in England,
and we have the Church of the Holy
Apostles, of the Holy Innocents, of the
Holy Communion, of the Holy Martyrs,
of St. Adams, st. Ambrose, st. Andrew,
etc. Since 1922 nc burials have been al.
lowed in Trinity graveyard.
The Trinity Church farm lay north OF
Fulton street, on the west side of Broad.
way, and was cut up in lots about the
year Ito. This farm extended to Duane
street, and had been the property of the
Dutch West India Company. The infa
NOUS Lord Cornberry-a man who used
to dress in woman's clothes, and who in
ficted fine and imprisonment on a poo
Presbyterian preacher who venturned tx
preach in his private house-being very
Jealous for the Established Church, CAV,
this confiscated farm in 17O5 to the Trim
ity corporation. The old farmhouse
stood where the Astor House now stands
Trinity began to lease these lots in 1850
at ,f8 q year. With the growth of thi
city the Trinity Church property has be
come an enormous bonanza.
By the New York State census of 1877
I find that there are about $50 Episcopa
churches in the State of New York, will
only $4,000 members; but the value o
the church property is put down as con
siderably higher than that of any othe
denomination. The Methodists, Baptists
Presbyterians and Roman Catholics ar
more numerous, and have far NOR,
churches than. the E~piscopalians. In tn
city of New York, which is the strong
hold Of the Episcopal Church, there wer,
about seventy-four Episcopal Churches
with about $1,000 members .-GaM, Il
Cincinnati Enquirer.