The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-03
NOTED CITY PREACHERS.
NEW ToRR,S CHURCHES FROM THE
ARR DUTCH ia rs.
tions Encountered By secta-Turmoii In tho
Churches During tho Revoiution-Men who
Have neen Celebrated ne Pnlpit Orators.

Tho New Yorker who, standing on top of any
sky-scraper in the lower section Of tho city on
q clear day, should weary of counting the
church towers or steeples rising on every side
might find consolation In tho fact that In the
year 1923 there was only one religious chapel
on Manhattan Island and that ono within the
confines OF a Dutch fort ut tho site now occu-
pied by Castle Garden. There otilciated the
Rev. Jonas Michaelius, n young minister from
Rotterdam. Along with Minuit, the Director
General sent out in 1926 to Niouw Amsterdam,
had come two subordinate clericals classed by
the semi-humorous namo OF Ziekenroosters,
which, translated from Dutch to English,
would signify "Comforters of tho Sick" They
bore the names of Krol and Huyck and were
commissioned to read the Scriptures in public
on Sundays. When Jonas Michaelius arrived
two years later, his first service was held In the
great windmill erected where now Is White
hall. When tho fort chapel became too con-
tracted 'tho Lutheran congregation built u
wooden chapel" says n chronicler. ION the
shore OF the river by tho cast and between
Broad and whitehall streets"
The Rev. Mr.. Michaclius so increased his
Hock that Nieuw Amsterdam in 1888 demanded
q second minister. who came from Holland in
the person of the Rev. Everardus Bogardus,
best known in our early local annals as Dom.
inie Bogardus. Nine years later the
wooden church was replaced by a small stone
ediflce, and n chronicler Of the period narrates
that 1t was u picturesque sight to see the wag-
ons Of the chu-chgoers stocked around the
Bowling Green while tho horses nibbled grass
on the sides of the little Hudson hills" Dom
anie Bogardus appears to have been n clergy
man in whom saintlincss and practical worldli-
ness were advantageously united. During the
closing years Of tho seventeenth century two
more dominies came from Holland having the
jaw-brcaking names Of Jonnncs Megapolensis
and Wilhelmus Van Nieuvenhuyuen. A new
and larger church soon became necessary, and
there was the usual discussion among the con-
gregation as to the site. A large number de-
sired 1t to be in Garden street, now Exhange
place. near the Broadway. A few thought
such a site too far uptown. but the believers in
the sure growth of the city prevailed. and the
Garden Street Dutch Church remained there
down to 1885, when it was burned in the great
fire, although spared in that of 1875, when the
first Trinity Church rose in flying embers.
When Nieuw Amsterdam had given way to
New York, Trinity Church became the religious
centre Of the island. and EpiscoDalianism,
under its style of Crown Church. dominated
with the aid OF the royal Governor. and be-
came despotically inclined. Gov. Nichols for
some time refused permission to the Luthcrans
to build a chapel at the corner of Rector and
Broadway. In after time that chapel, erected
VII III . taIuy AooclAt, "db u
placed BY Grace chapel under the protection of
Trinity parish.
Religious illiberality-and, indeed, persecu-
tion-had been encountered on Manhattan
Island previously. Gov. Stuyvesant, in Dutch
times, had not only refused permission to the
Jews to build a sy nagogue, but had forbidden,
under a penalty of e100 fine. any one to preach
without his license, and had fined one minister
who undertook to preach in a pri> ate house.
lie also fined some of the congregation for
being present, an ordinance providing a penalty
Of e25 for each listener to an unlicensed
preacher. In 1857 some Quakers expelled from
Boston reached Nieuw Amsterdam as exiles.
and undertook in it their mode of worship; but
one leader named Robert Hadshone was fined a
sum equal in our present currency to $64O and
sentenced to two years of wheelbarrow labor.
chained to a negro. But Stuyvesant had a
married sister, Nine. Bayard. who finally pre-
vailed upon him to remit the sentence. Early
in the eighteenth century the Quakers built q
meeting house on Little Green street, near
Crown street NOW Maiden lanel, and in 1775
another in Pearl street, near Oak, and in 1924
o third one in Rose street. Three years later
came the Hicksite schism. and another meeting
house arose in Henry street. Nova lays the
meeting house of the Friends on Stuyvesant
square points a moral to Gov. Stuyvesant's
persecution of the Quakers on early Manhattan
Island.
Gov. Stuyvesant also put prosecuting hands
on the Hebrew immigrants in 1855 by refusing
them permission to place their Ark OF the Cove
nant in any edifce; but Trinity Church infu-
ence under royal Governors magnanimously
secured them permission to erect a modest
wooden synagogue in Mill street-now South
William-which in 1880 was succeeded by q
stone ediace. Another later in the century
appeared in Crosby, street, and one more in an
east eide street. The magnificent Fifth avenue
BynaRogues of to-day also impress a moral in
regard to the bigotry Of Coy. Stuyvesant. The
memories of the early rabbis of English New
kcrt green in the Jewish annals OF the city.
1hs Second Lutheran Church was called the
er district. This quaint old Dutch building
at Frankfort and William streets was only re:
Luthcrans moved into Walker street, then re,
garded as uptown, and for many years st.
HH eafn removal EhT wss tn, fnef order %"s Of the e sees,asgh:
cal day, and another St; Ma,thew's arose at the
Messrs. Frederick W. Geissenhainer. father
ers OF the Lutheran sect in New York days conc
by. The elder Geissenhainer much rescmbled
the pictures of Martin Luther.
The first rector OF Trinity parish was the Rev.
John vesey, who came from London in 1864.
street that separates the Astor House from st.
Pauls Churchyard. A notable old-time rector
S Sr niahasy at Pathhfs e end %rS Of 'G 9hs k keviaiEsiion, i WA
IN this city, to die OF old age as late as 1885.
During the early Revolutionary period RECTOR
Tories during Lord Howe's occupation of the
city w . almost wholly, worshippers in the
English Established Church, whereof George III.
was the head; The average Wing, or sym.
pathizer with Gen. Washington and the patriot
cause worshipped with seets that the English
Established Church and Trinity parish styled
dissenters. Tho New York patriots We're
mainly attendants of the three Dutch Reformed
churches and the Luther an and Presbyterian
churches. When the Declaration OF Independ-
ence was promulgated the few patriots who still
preferred the English service in Trinity Church
and attended il demanded that the accus-
toned prayers for King and Parliament should
be omitted. Rector Inglis was n Tory and re-
fused.
He had the courage of his convictions, and
on the Sunday succeeding the patriot request
read the prayers for royalty with uncommon
fervor and emphasis. Thereupon a few OF the
attendants, women AS well as men, rose and left
the church. When the following sunday ar.
rived groups of New Workers, who were not
Trinity parlshioners, were In the church to con.
frnpI the Tory rartnr and m nIia ha1 ba