In 1797 the new Republic was 21 years old. George Washington completed his second term as President and had turned the reins of government over to John Adams. The Governor of New York State (the second) was John Jay. Onondaga County and the Town of Manlius were three years old. It was only five years since the first white settlers had made their homes in the wilderness which became the Village of Manlius. On December 8, 1797, men and women in the Manlius-Pompey area banded together under the leadership of Elder Nathan Baker to establish a church.
Nathan Baker was born April 14, 1760, in Woodbury, Connecticut. He married Lucy Norton (born May, 1762). They had at least three sons and one daughter.
We are indebted to Carole L. Alden of Michigan Center, Michigan, who is doing genealogical research on the Baker family, for much of the information about the Baker children.
Lucy Baker’s tombstone can still be seen (2000) in Baker Cemetery on the west side of the Pompey Center Road, about three miles north of Pompey Center on Town Lot #30, Town of Pompey. Her epitaph can be plainly read: “In memory of Lucy Baker, only daughter of Elder Nathan Baker, who departed this life July 3, 1803, in the sixth year of her life.”
While three sons are indicated for Elder Baker, only one (Nathan) appears in the minutes of the church, which start on September 4, 1813, at which time Joseph would have been 28, Simeon 23, and Nathan 20 years of age.
The time that Elder Baker came to the Pompey-Manlius area is not certain. In 1796, according to information furnished by the Manlius Historical Society, he was buying property in the Town of Pompey. On May 31, 1796, he purchased 114 acres of land in the Southeast corner of Lot #9 in the Town of Pompey, close to the Town of Manlius. This may be the lot on which he built a home. On May 20, 1800, he purchased 50 acres in the Southwest corner of Lot #10 and 30 acres North of his purchase of May 31, 1797, and on September 11, 1809, 15 acres in the Southwest corner of Lot 49, close to the Village of Pompey. By 1797, Elder Baker appeared to be settled and ready to stay for a while, apparently committed to a relatively long tenure as pastor of the new Baptist Church in the Pompey-Manlius area. We do not know why Elder Baker came but his record of missionary work in the central and western part of the state during his stay in Manlius suggests that he might have been sent for the purpose of starting a church. We know of no other reason for his coming here.
There may have been some question in the beginning about where in this area Elder Baker was to establish a church. In the Onondaga Historical Association Collection of materials on the early Baptist gatherings in the Fayetteville, Manlius and Pompey area, there is a copy of one of the earliest records of the Baptist Church in Fayetteville (to confuse things called for a time the Manlius Baptist Church). Henry Knapp, an early clerk of the Fayetteville Baptist Church, wrote that “on a loose leaf in the Record Book is a letter or record slightly torn and faded ink but good handwriting, evidently the oldest minutes made by the clerk, or possibly a memo, made by a pastor, as follows: (The part concerning Elder Baker and the Fayetteville Church has been excerpted.)
“To accommodate the people we had our meetings in different places in which time Mr. Baker moved in and preached with us where our meeting was held. In the middle of the summer Mr. Baker left our meeting and preached in different places till he moved to Pompey. From the time he moved until he left us, we had a number of conferences to manifest a desire to join with us, but did not join or give any reason. After he moved to Pompey he set up a meeting in the place where he now lives. But we continued our meetings where they were before held, and there was some of our brethren that joined with him and we tried for a fellowship with them, and had a number of conferences, but could not attain to it. We desired to meet together at every fourth Sabbath, but we could not obtain that freedom.
After we had tried every reasonable means, we concluded it our duty to hold our appointed prayer for the blessing of God to attend to us (paper torn)… There being some minutes altho not in so correct a manner as they ought to be, having no former writings and still wishing for fellowship with our former brethren, we have not kept a record of all our proceedings til the year 1798, in which time God was pleased to condescend to visit with us his blessing, & approval for all, & as we hope, call some out of darkness unto light, & numbers manifested a desire to join in covenant with us.”
Since the first Baptist Church and Society in Pompey and Manlius has almost no meeting records until 1813, there is no information available on attempts to join the two groups. It is known that Elder Baker was very helpful when Brother Gershom Breed (one of the early leaders of the Fayetteville Church) was preparing for ordination in 1812, by baptizing new members and serving communion, two ordinances which only ordained ministers were allowed to conduct.
The first records we have of the early church are Incorporation Papers from July 1, 1812, when the church declared itself an official corporation. The papers were recorded in the Onondaga County Courthouse. The County Clerk, Jasper Hopper, on November 21, 1821, certified that
“The First Baptist Church and Society in the towns of Pompey and Manlius, considering themselves under the necessity of being incorporated as the law directs, and after notice being given according to the Law, the said Church and Society met on the first day of July, Eighteen Hundred and Twelve at the School House in Pompey where said Church and Society met for Public Worship and Elder Nathan Baker and James Warren were elected to preside at said meeting; the said Church and Society then elected the following persons to serve them as Trustees, (viz) Elder Nathan Baker, Isaac Ketchum, Joseph Williams, Willoby Millard, Samuel Edwards.”
Signed, Elder Nathan Baker
James Warren Presidents
The document was recorded on November 23, 1812, by Jasper Hopper, Clerk of the Onondaga Courthouse. The incorporation was not mentioned in any church notes or written history. There was no record of the Board of Trustees or any further action taken by that Board after the Incorporation. The Incorporation may have been required by law in preparation for building a church home, but that was put off until 1826. The church as a copy of the Incorporation Papers.
The first records of early church meetings and services are found in a leather bound ledger entitled POMPEY CHURCH RECORDS. The first entries are the Articles of Faith and the Church Covenant. The Articles of Faith told the early church members what they were to believe in if they were to be Christians and Baptists. The Covenant, which was an agreement entered into “in the presence of God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, angels and men”, told them how to behave if they were to please God and live in Christian Fellowship with their Brothers and Sisters in the Church. These guideposts were given to us by the leaders of the new church in Manlius and probably reflect what was being taught in Baptist Seminaries at that time.
Both documents are reproduced at the conclusion of the record of Elder Baker’s ministry. The early writers did not capitalize God, which we do, but capitalized other words, i.e., Special Lusts, Tavern Haunting, and Jesting, which we do not. They used very little punctuation and as a result the documents are difficult to read.
After the Articles of Faith and the Church Covenant there was a list of church members. The men and women are listed separately. There were 55 men and 105 women. The list was accompanied by a disclaimer by Nathan Weston, Clerk, entered on March 2, 1818, that “the above is no longer considered to be the list of the members of the Church.”
The first entry to record a church meeting was dated September 4, 1814. “Church met in love and union. Hannah Dickson Related her Experience and was fellowshipt by the church Polly Mack Related her Experience & fellowshipt”. The first Church Clerk was Thomas H. Gridley.
The early church met in barns, homes, and schoolhouses in the neighborhoods of Watervale, Oran, Eagle Village, and in the stone Academy Building in Manlius. There is some confusion about the location of some of the schools. The first schoolhouse mentioned was “the schoolhouse in Pompey”, the second one “by Brother Edwards in Pompey,” to be used one quarter of the time commencing November 8, 1813. Many school locations were identified by the name of the church member it was nearest to, i.e., the school by Brother Dodge in Pompey, the school near the home of Asa Brace, or the school next to Brother Hubbard. On August 18, 1816, it was voted that Brothers Cheesebrough, Weston and Hitchcock apply to the Trustees of the School in order to procure the Schoolhouse to hold meetings in the ensuing winter.
We believe the church was organized on December 8, 1797, for several reasons. The year 1797 is generally accepted by local historians. The month of December is probably correct since from 1797 to 1955 all annual business meetings were held in December. It was noted that a preponderance of the meetings took place on December 8, regardless of the day of the week. From 1830 until 1890, 41 of 50 annual meetings for which we have records were held on December 8. We feel that our ancestors were commemorating a special event at their annual meetings, the birth of their church on December 8, 1797.
Schools seemed to be the most popular locations for Sunday Services since they had more open space than homes and could be heated (as opposed to barns). Services were much longer than today’s churchgoers are used to. There was a morning service of approximately two hours, followed by a noon meal. After dinner there was socializing, another sermon, another meal, and an evening sermon. Many of the men must have had to go home between services and do chores. Many families walked but some of the people came in a horse and buggy (the schoolhouses, however, would not have had large facilities to shelter horses).
The congregation did use some common sense and tempered their zeal for all day Church Services at times. At the February 1817 Church Meeting the members voted to attend but one exercise each Sabbath Day in the winter. In the early days they met on the Thursday before monthly Communion Services for a Covenant meeting. The members prayed, confessed sins, and prepared themselves to receive Communion.
The Church also met at least monthly for what were called “Stated Church Meetings.” These “Business” meetings were held during the day at a member’s home. The meetings were moderated by the Elder of the Church or one of the trusted male members of the congregation. The members took care of the business of the Church, which in the early years involved searching out and reforming openly sinning members, raising money, spending money, voting for Elders, appointing Deacons, choosing members to attend Association Meetings or Councils or to serve on Church committees, and anything else that might be of concern to the Elder or the Congregation.
The congregation had felt the need for their own church home as early as August 27, 1814, when they voted “to come into some agreement for building a meeting house.” According to Yettie Harris and reported by others as well, Azariah Smith, an influential and wealthy merchant in the village of Manlius, offered to build a house of worship in the village for the Baptists. Elder Baker, fearing that pride might be engendered by a village church, prevailed upon the members to remain in their schoolhouse quarters.
In February 1817, the subject was mentioned for a second time and the church voted to circulate subscription papers for the purpose of raising money to build a meeting house. No mention was made of the amount raised. In December of 1818 the church voted to meet on the Sabbath at the Schoolhouse by the old mill half of the time and then the other half at the west Schoolhouse.
While the first few gatherings of the Church for which the proceedings were recorded, the congregation was said to have met in love and unity. These words, unfortunately, became an inappropriate description for many subsequent meetings. One cannot read the minutes without being shocked and surprised by the seemingly endless number of members in trouble with the Church because of their sins. While most of the people were trying to obey the Church rules for personal behavior, as presented in the Articles of Faith, others must have found the strict rules offensive to their pioneer spirit, which they may have felt allowed them to think and talk and act as they pleased.
In following the Church Covenant the members agreed (among other things) to “deny ourselves of all undue worldly gains, mortify our evil affections and Lusts, Forsake all revellings, Tavern Haunting and vain Company Keeping, Idle vain and foolish Jesting and all other things contrary to the Doctrine of Christ.”
The members not only had to follow these rules themselves, but were obliged to help their brothers and sisters to live up to them also. The members agreed to “carefully watch over their brethren for good and not suffer evil to rest upon them.” This charge was probably why there was so much attention given to the sinners. One person’s sin soon became everybody’s business.
When a member was thought to be breaking the rules of the Covenant or expounding beliefs contrary to the Articles of Faith, the Congregation was obliged to undertake with the alleged sinner the Steps of Gospel Labor:
Sins included neglecting religion, refusal to attend church services or “travel” with the Church, lascivious conduct and conversation or other covenant breaking. Later as new religious cults sprang up in the region, members were expelled for disagreements with the Articles of Faith and their strict Baptist interpretation of the Bible.
The first “out of fellowship” member mentioned in the Minutes was Sister Oles. Brothers Ford and Gridley were “to inquire the reason for her long absence from church.” Then Sister Mary Dodge was not acting properly. Brothers Cleveland, Ketchum, Jobs and Weston were sent to find out what her difficulty was.
In the early days of the Church many of the Elders were self-educated. The Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church always encouraged would-be Elders and gave them opportunities to practice preaching in regularly scheduled or special services. (With at least three services on Sunday the Church Elder must have welcomed some help in preaching.) If the aspiring Elder did well the Church would give him a letter which explained his standing in the Church and recommended his gift to the public, which could result in his being asked to preach in other Baptist Churches. With further improvement, both in preaching ability and understanding of the Bible and the Baptist interpretations of the Bible, the Church could issue a License in recognition.`
The final step in achieving the status of Elder was ordination. Licentiates were ordained by a Council of Elders from nearby Baptist Churches called for that purpose. They would meet formally, examine the candidate concerning his knowledge, understanding and commitment to the Bible and Baptist doctrines. They would then deliberate and vote. If the candidate were approved, a congregational service would be held. One of the distinguished Elders would preach a sermon and the new Elder would be welcomed into the ranks.
On September 4, 1813, Brothers Warren Scranton and Jonathon Hoit were recognized by the Church as having a talent for preaching and were voted to be allowed to “Improve their gift in the Church.” Brother Hoit left the Church, but Brother Scranton apparently did well and was given a letter recommending his gift of preaching to the public. Soon after, however, a complaint was made against him in a Church Meeting, accusing him a lascivious conversation and conduct. He acknowledged his guilt and was asked to give up his letter of recommendation. He was subsequently found to be a “disorderly walker” and the Right Hand of Fellowship was withdrawn from him. The “doings of the meeting” were read in public assembly on the Sabbath. Unlike many expelled or about to be expelled members, Brother Scranton repented his sins and asked for forgiveness. He later made a comeback. A Council of Baptist Churches helped restore him to the membership of the Pompey and Manlius Church. He was again voted to have gifts that were useful. On May 12, 1821, he was given a letter to join another church and he became a member of the Pompey Center Baptist Church. He appeared at a meeting with the Pompey and Manlius Churches as clerk of the Pompey Center Church.
Although Elder Baker was pastor of the First Baptist Church and Society in the Towns of Pompey and Manlius, he was at heart a missionary and spent a surprising amount of time on missionary trips to the western part of New York State. There was a meeting at Elder Baker’s home in Pompey, Onondaga County, on August 2, 1807, “to consider the propriety of forming a Society for the prosecution of missionary enterprise in the destitute regions around, in view of the increasing population of the county, their indigent circumstances and spiritual work and the multiplied call for ministerial labor.” Twenty people became members by paying a dollar each. They adjourned until October 28, 1897, and met in Hamilton, New York. They formally became the Lake Baptist Missionary Society, then the Hamilton Missionary Society, and finally covered the state as the Baptist Missionary Convention of the State of New York (from the Book: A Century of Baptist Missions in the Empire State by Dr. C.W. Brooks.) Elder Nathan Baker was a member of the Board of Directors of the Hamilton Baptist Missionary Society from 1811 to 1820. Benjamin Pearce, a future part time minister of the church was also an early member of the Society.
It is apparent from records that are available from the Hamilton Baptist Missionary Society that Elder Baker took extended absences from his duties as pastor of the Manlius Church to continue his missionary work in the central and eastern regions of New York State. The records of the Hamilton Missionary Society (1811-1820) indicated that he was away for many weeks for the years recorded:
| 9/11/1810 | Trip taken – the length was not mentioned |
| 2/21/1811 | 5 weeks (to the Holland Purchase) |
| 9/08/1812 | 7 weeks |
| 9/07/1814 | 6 weeks |
| 9/14/1815 | 4 weeks |
| 9/20/1816 | 6 weeks |
| 2/20/1817 | 12 weeks |
| 9/09/1817 | 16 weeks |
| 2/17/1818 | 8 weeks |
| 8/20/1818 | Trip taken – no time mentioned |
| 2/24/1819 | 4 weeks |
| 5/20/1819 | 12 weeks |
| 8/18/1819 | Visit to Indians – no time mentioned |
| 2/22/1820 | 20 days |
| 2/24/1829 | 4 weeks |
| 5/25/1820 | Tonowanta Tribe – School & Mission at Oneida – no time mentioned |
| 8/24/1820 | 3 weeks |
Elder Baker kept a journal of his missionary journeys. Elder Peck, a colleague of Elder Baker, an occasional visitor to Manlius and a prominent Baptist Missionary, prepared abstracts of the Journals of at least three of Elder Baker’s trips for publication in the minutes of the Madison Baptist Association Meetings of September 8-19, 1813. These missionary journeys undertaken by Elder Baker were abstracted by Elder Peck as follows:
“On the 21st of October 1812, he set out on a missionary tour, and rode to Camillus and preached in the evening—and passing from thence through Lysander, he came to Oswego falls, crossed the river into the town of Volney, and preached in the evening. 24th, returned across the river, and rode to Oswego village, spent the afternoon and evening in visiting the soldiers and inhabitants, among the former found a number of brethren. Lord’s day, 25th, preached at the village – after meeting crossed the river, to the town of Scriba. Next day visited the garrison in the forenoon, in the afternoon, preached to the people; here appears to be some inquiring souls. After meeting crossed the river. On the 28th rode home in a severe rain.
April 23rd, 1823, set out again on a missionary tour, and on the 24th came to Lysander and met a number of the disciples of Jesus, who had lately experienced the Grace of Life, and had come together for conference, having previous notice of this coming – had an agreeable time with them – spent the evening and morning in visiting the young professors. 25th, after preaching, they walked one mile and a half to the water, to attend to the ordinance of baptism. Then returned and brake bread to about twenty disciples, the greatest part of them young professors – a delightful season, it being the first time the Lord’s supper was ever administered in that town. On which he observes, “Brethren, you who have witnessed the like scenes, can realize the feelings of my heart when leaving this band of brethren in the wilderness, invaded by the enemy, who is trying to divide them by delusive doctrines.” -- On the 26th he rode home, wearied in body, but blessing God for His goodness to him.
June 22nd, 1813, he again left home and rode to Camillus, and met a number in conference, the season agreeable. 23rd, preached to the people a goodly time. 24th, at Lysander, preached, the blessing of the Lord attended – spent the evening and morning in visiting. The enemy still trying to divide the little band. He then passed on, crossed the Oswego river on the 26th, and preached on the fourteenth town, Scriba’s Patent – the second sermon ever preached in this town. –27th, returned and preached on the fifteenth town – the people collected from a distance, delivered two sermons; the season was solemn, and the power of the Lord seemed to be present. –He then rode to the Falls and met an appointment: --Here is some attention to the word of life. He then on account of a severe cold, which greatly affected his lungs, on the 29th returned home.”
Little mention was made of Elder Nathan Baker’s extended absences from the church, but it was evident that he was not always, if ever, a full time Elder. His salary was only $50.00 per year and seldom paid on time and in totality. Elder Baker was supported in his Church Work by a group of Deacons, some of whom were no doubt a part of the Church since its beginning. Deacons prepared and served Communion, visited the sick and the backsliders. The first mention of a Deacon was on June 4, 1814, when the Church voted an extra meeting to make an appointment of Deacons. Later on June 18, 1814, the Church voted to elect Deacons by ballad (sic), but after that it was mentioned again that the Deacons were to be appointed. Deacons (men only) were appointed or elected for life. While the Deacons were mostly concerned with Heavenly Pursuits and the unheavenly behavior of many of the members, the congregation voted it the Deacon’s responsibility to see that “we are provided with wood” for the winter of 1816-1817.
Some of the earliest Deacons mentioned were Nathan Weston, Elijah Weston, Jacob Jobs, William Hitchcock, J. Gates and Isaac Ketchum. There was no mention of a Board of Deacons, meetings, or a head of the Board of Deacons in the early days of the Church. The church was led by its Elder (minister) who preached on Sundays (usually 2-3 times), led the Covenant meetings, and was often Moderator for business meetings. The Deacons, the Church Clerk and the Treasurer were the only named officers. There were no Trustee, Mission or Christian Education Boards at that time.
Money was raised for church expenses when needed. There were no recorded budgets or Treasurer’s reports. When money was needed to pay the Elder’s salary or to buy wood, or to help the poor or to pay communion expenses, lists of names (called a Subscription List) were circulated and members were to subscribe to a portion of the expenses. On February 14, 1815, two lists were circulated for the purpose of “making some provision for Elder Baker.” The money was to be turned over to the Church Treasurer, who in turn would pay Elder Baker. On June 24, 1815, the church met and voted that Elder Baker continue to preach “as God, in His providence may permit” and to pay him what money we have collected ($15.00) out of the $50.00 we have agreed to give him.
At times the members were not allowed to decide what they would pay. On April 13, 1816, the church voted to pay Brother Jobs $11.50 for arranging care for Sister Margaret White in her last sickness. Three Brothers were assigned to make an average on the members for the money (each member was assessed a certain amount).
On January 1, 1817, the Church voted for a committee to evaluate the church members according to their best judgment (with regard to their family circumstances and debts they are owing). The expenses of the church were to be assessed according to the ability of the family to pay. (Any member who felt over-burdened by the assessment could apply to the church for a reduction.)
Although no mention was made of support for Missions in the early church, they did have concerns for the poor in their neighborhood. On February 1, 1817, the Church voted to call on such as have not paid their portion of the money for supporting the poor. If by refusal or neglect, those members who did not pay their share or assessments were called to account by the church in Church Meetings. Three Brethren were appointed to raise money for Elder Baker by making out a tax (assessment) on the members. Joseph Williams was appointed collector.
On April 6, 1816, Nathan Baker (son of Elder Nathan Baker and Lucy Baker), Joseph Watkins, Sally Mooney and Lydia Meacham related their experiences and gained fellowship (membership) with the church. Nathan Baker was to become very active in the church and was given many important responsibilities. He was referred to first as Brother Nathan Baker, but when a third Nathan Baker appeared, was called Nathan Baker, Jr or Brother Nathan Baker, Jr.
On July 19, 1816, the church voted to sing by rule and Brothers Nathan Baker, Jr. and Josiah Chatfield were appointed to serve as leaders. In the early church there were no hymnbooks. The leaders would read a line, which the congregation would sing, and this would continue until the hymn was completed.
In the following years, Brother Nathan Baker, Jr. was in charge of choosing singers, appointed to a committee to choose a minister, and acted as Moderator. He apparently was a loyal, active, well-behaved member of the church.
On January 1, 1817, the beginning of Elder Nathan Baker’s 19th year as Elder, the Church voted to call him “to preach with us next year, commencing January 1, 1817.” However, Elder Baker was to be spending at least 28 weeks in the Mission Field in 1817. On March 15, 1817, Brothers Isaac Ketchum, Joseph Williams, Elijah Weston, James Jobs, and Nathan Weston were voted a committee to “get a minister,” the first time in the minutes the title “minister” was used instead of Elder. On May 3, 1817, the Church was able to scrape together $4.62-1/2 to pay Elder Baker part of what was owed him. The men also agreed to supply him with some wood for his fire.
On May 31, 1817, at a meeting of the Manlius and Pompey Church and Society in the Schoolhouse near Brother Hubbard’s, it was voted that “sisters have equal rights with the brothers to speak and vote in the church in all church matters in which they wish to act.” This was a remarkable step for the church to take one hundred and three years before the passage on August 18, 1920, of the Constitutional Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote in public elections. This was an especially brave move for the brothers, since according to the first list of members, there were nearly twice as many sisters as brothers in the congregation. Any arguments that were made for or against women voting and speaking in the church were not recorded and there was no information given on the vote itself. Later it was found that most of the Elders and leaders of nearby Baptist Churches were obstinately opposed to women voting on church matters and quoted New Testament Scriptures to back up their position. The results of later Councils, in which Elder Baker was a participant, indicate that he, too, was opposed to sister’s voting rights. It is possible that he was away on a missionary journey when the enabling vote was taken. In addition to allowing women to vote in Church affairs, the Church also at that time voted that “it is in the opinion of the Church that confessions of faults committed by members of this Church aught to be made in the church only.” This statement also offended Elder Baker and other leaders of the Councils. They felt that public offenses should be publicly confessed as well as in the Church.
The Committee to find a minister must have had some success as Elder Elhanah Comstock started preaching half-time in November 1817. From Elder Comstock until 1827 when Charles Morton became a full-time ordained Elder, a succession of part-time Elders helped take “watch-care” of the church. On May 16, 1818, the church voted Elder Comstock a letter expressing satisfaction with his preaching. They wrote that they thought him “a man of sound principles, a faithful preacher and from the best information, a man of good moral character.” Elder Comstock apparently left the church at this time.
There was no indication of when a Pompey and Manlius Church Female Society was established, but one was in existance in 1818 and probably much earlier. In 1818 Elder John Peck reported that the Female Society of the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church “has laboured under many discouragements, but now seems much encouraged.”
In the early Spring of 1818 reports respecting the moral character of Deacon Elijah Weston began circulating through the congregation. On August 1, 1818, Elder Nathan Baker and Brothers Isaac Ketchum and Nathan Weston were named a committee to look into rumors and allegations respecting his moral character and to make a report to the Church at its next meeting on August 19, 1818.
Deacon Weston was profiled in The History of Onondaga County, New York by Professor W.W. Clayton, 1878. Deacon Weston was born on January 23, 1778, in Vermont, moved to Pompey in 1795, married Betsy Cotton on November 1, 1796. The Westons had nine children. Betsy Weston died on September 18, 1816. Deacon Weston later remarried and fathered six more children. He was a farmer in Pompey and died on May 15, 1867, aged 89 years.
Deacon Weston was a faithful, active and respected member (as expected of a Deacon) of the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church. As a Deacon he was often asked to visit members in disfavor with the church. He circulated subscriptions for provisions for Elder Baker, helped arrange for Schoolhouse housing for the church in the winter of 1816-1817, served on a Council in Manlius, attended an Association Meeting in Woodstock, and on March 15, 1817, was a member of a committee appointed to “get a minister.” In 1818, however, there was a dramatic change in the status of Deacon Weston, who was now asked to explain his own transgressions.
The records show that Elder Baker continued his missionary travels in 1818 and was away at least eight weeks. The status of Elder Baker came up in an August 29, 1818, meeting. No doubt the church was concerned about his long absences from the ministry. The church voted to have free conversations on the subject of a preacher and it was requested that members should express their minds whether they thought it best considering every circumstance that Elder Baker be our minister. (In the early days of the church ministers were engaged for a year at a time.) After discussion the members voted. This is the first vote recorded in the minutes with the names of the voters and how they voted, the questions being put individually, the answers were as follows:
| Nays | Yays |
|---|---|
|
None |
(Note that Nathan Baker voted against his father.)
Elijah Weston and David Williams were will to have Elder Baker but would agree to what the church thought best. Seven women and eight men voted and their rejection of Elder Baker was unanimous. Adding insult to injury, the church followed up their vote of “no confidence” in Elder Baker with an invitation to Elder John Nichols to preach with us “whenever it is convenient to him.” The unanimity of this vote must have hurt the founder of the church, Elder Nathan Baker, very badly. Ordinarily when an Elder was rejected by vote, he would move on to another Baptist church. Elder Baker owned his own home, however, and was spending much of his time in the Mission Field. He apparently decided to stay in the Manlius Church for the time being.
Elder John Nichols was a significant part of the leadership of the church from 1818 through 1827. He had a distinguished history and had come to this area later in lfe. He made himself available for pastoral work. He was born in 1739 at North Kingston, Rhode Island. As of 1767 he had a wife and children. He served on British ships in the “old French and Spanish Wars” and was captured twice. He later became a captain, mate and master of a vessel. He served as an officer in the Revolutionary War Army for two additional years. He became a member of the Massachusetts Legislature. He was ordained a Baptist Minister in Washington, Massachusetts, and preached there until 1794. From 1794-1817 he was Pastor at Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and came to Pompey and served the Manlius Church between 1818 and 1827. He came to the area at the age of 78 and died on July 6, 1829, in Pompey at the age of 89.
At the same meeting (August 29, 1818) the Church voted to have the statements of evidence prepared by the Committee investigating Deacon Elijah Weston read to the Church in a Church Service and voted its satisfaction for what the Committee had done. The written records do not totally explain the sins of Deacon Weston, but it is apparent that he was calling on Sister Burse, and on occasion staying the whole night with her. At the meeting several witnesses spoke for the Church and some defended Deacon Weston. Deacon Weston read a statement in his own defense. He said that he was aware that it was wrong in the eyes of the world for him to keep company so long with Sister Burse. The Church voted that Deacon (now called Brother) Weston had sinned in the matter of Sister Burse and “that his visiting her so long and going to bed with her” (exact words from the minutes) were part of what he had acknowledged to be wrong. He apparently mentioned his intentions for marrying Sister Burse and his reasons for not doing so.
On October 31, 1818, Elder John Nichols was received as a member of this Church by letter and experience. On December 19, 1818, at a meeting with Elder Baker as Moderator (still active and influential in the Church), the Church reversed its earlier rejection of Elder Baker and voted to invite both Elder Baker and Elder Nichols to preach and administer to the Church as they shall feel it their duty and both accepted the call. The Church also voted that “we the Baptist Church of Pompey and Manlius do freely bare and bury all past difficulties that have been in respect to the travels of the Church and go forward in travel as the Church of Christ.” It was reported that the meeting closed with prayer, thanksgiving and shaking of hands. On January 9, 1819, the church voted to come to Sacrament, and Elders Baker and Nichols were to administer it.
The next recorded vote was from a meeting of the Church on March 20, 1819, concerning the behavior of Elijah Weston. Attempts to discipline Brother Weston and his maneuvers to avoid the same, split the church and caused serious problems for Elder Baker. Brother Weston presented the church a confession. The church voted on accepting the confession on March 20, 1819.
Those satisfied were: (10)
Rebecca Jobs
Those dissatisfied were: (4)
This is the second vote where votes were recorded. Eleven men and three women voted. The two Elders of the church, Nichols and Baker, disagreed. The vote was re-opened at church meetings on April 13, 1819, and May 1, 1819. The final tally was 16 dissatisfied, 11 satisfied. Seventeen men and ten women voted.
Baptist Churches were, and still are, quite independent churches, though they belong to regional, state and national Baptist organizations. The local churches own their lots and buildings. In the early days one way of helping near-by Baptist Churches keep on the straight and narrow path was the use of a Council. When a problem arose concerning the practices of a single Church (which the Elders did not want to spread to their own Churches) or controversies between Churches, a Council was called. Invitations were sent to Elders and leading members, male, of their congregations to join with representatives of the convening congregations to act as a court. The members met, listed to evidence from both sides, deliberated, and then issued a set of resolutions to cover the problems discussed. Second Councils were often called to see if the recommendations of the First Council had been carried out.)
On June 1, 1819, Elijah Weston requested that the Church arrange for a Council to judge him guilty or innocent of the charges against him. His request was postponed, then apparently refused. Only July 3, 1819, the Church voted that Elijah Weston’s proceedings with Sister Burse, according to the evidence before them, was a plan of deception form the first to the last. This vote was reconsidered on July 3, 1819, but no results were given. On September 4, 1819, the Church voted not to send a representative to the Association meeting because “the Church is not in a proper situation,” probably because the Elijah Weston problem was causing a division in the Church.
At this time Elder Baker was voluntarily seeking to join another Church (the Pompey Center Baptist Church), and Elijah Weston was about to be discharged against his will from the Manlius Church. The Church noted that it had come to an end of labor with Elijah Weston. Eleven brothers and seven sisters voted in the affirmative and two in the negative. This should have been the end of the Elijah Weston problem but he was a very proud and stubborn man and determined not to be forced out of the Church.
At the November 6, 1819, Church meeting Elder Baker requested a letter to join another Church. His request was taken into consideration on November 20, 1819, but after much conversation, nothing was done. On December 2, 1819, his request was again taken into consideration. The Church was still reluctant but indecisive, and a vote found six members free to give Elder Baker a letter and six not free.
In early 1820 Brother James, an African, and his wife were voted letters to join another church. Elder Baker and his wife Lucy were also finally given letters to join another church “of our faith and order if he should think proper.” Six other members sought letters. Some of the requests might have been made to show support and loyalty for Elder Baker.
Elder and Mrs. Baker eventually took their memberships to the Pompey Center Baptist Church along with Elijah Weston, Thomas Gridley and Warren Scranton as noted in the 1822 minutes of the Madison Baptist Association Meeting. In the 1824 minutes of the Association Meeting, Elder Baker was listed as the Elder of the Pompey Center Church (but Elder Baker was not mentioned as Elder in a history of the Pompey Center Church.) The Church voted to give Elijah Weston a copy of his exclusion. The Church was reluctant to give letters to the other members, and voted on February 5, 1820, to deny their requests by a 12 to 0 vote.
At a Church Meeting on March 4, 1820, Elijah Weston brought forward another request for a Council signed by a number of members of the congregation. The Church did not think it best to have a Council. We do not have a copy of the request but the Church fathers became incensed by what must have been wording very critical of the Church and its actions. The Church then requested apologies from those who signed Elijah Weston’s paper. The following members acknowledged their errors.
| April 1, 1820 | Sister Cromwell |
| April 30, 1820 | Sister Filemone Sister Potter |
| May 20, 1820 | Joseph Williams Mrs. Williams |
| July 1820 | William Filemone |
| August 19, 1820 | Tho. H. Gridley Mrs. Gridley Sister Jobs Christopher Foster Stephen Root |
| October 21, 1820 | James Jobs |
| September 1, 1821 | Bradford Sherwood Augustus Foster Mabel Foster |
Curiously, after giving Elder and Lucy Baker letters to join another church, almost a year later at a special meeting on December 23, 1820, the subject of hiring a preacher for 1821 came up and a motion was made to know if the church would employ Elder Baker “to preach for us.” Elder Baker was rejected again, and this time, Elder John Nichols turned against him.
| Nays | Yeas |
|---|---|
|
Samuel Sherman |
Joseph Williams James Jobs Sister Johnson |
On March 31, 1821, Brothers Hubbard, Cleveland and Baker (Nathan Jr.) were appointed a Committee to provide a minister and the Church voted to receive a written complaint against Brother Baker brought by Brother Nathan Baker Jr., for using bad language, personal abuse, equivocation, and falsehood.
In the early days of Church Meetings meeting times were announced as being one of the clock or two of the clock, etc. The Church never seemed to meet on the half hour. In 1822 the clerk started using the abbreviated form which we use today, i.e., two o’clock, seven o’clock, etc. Time apparently went slowly for the deceased wicked. Early 1800’s Theology said to multiply the number of all the grains of sand on earth by the number of spears of grass, then by all the leaves on the trees and this would not equal the time sinners would spend in Hell. Perhaps part of the punishment was to do the counting.
On May 12, 1821, at “one of the clock” in the afternoon at the East School House the Church and Society met to confer on the subject of hiring Elder Elhanah Comstock to preach again. Apparently the vote was positive since on May 12, 1821, it was voted that Esquire Fleming, Jonathon Ball, William Phillemore, Thomas Hubbard, and Benjamin Gates be a Committee to look for a place for Elder Comstock “to live on” as soon as they can and make a report at the next meeting. Elder Nichols was still active and was preaching and moderating meetings in 1821 but was 80 years old and needed help. There were many dissatisfied members at this time and the Church proceeded to try to settle difficulties with them. They were invited to Church meetings and their complaints were aired to the satisfaction of some and the dissatisfaction of others.
The controversy with Elijah Weston was still not settled. On June 27, 1821, at the home of Christopher Foster with Elder Nichols, Moderator, the Church took up the case of Elijah Weston again. Brother Weston spoke and said it was likely he made the contradictory statements which witnesses said he did, but excused them as the result of misspeaking himself. He did not blame the Church and thought they were correct in excluding him because of the large number of witnesses against him. He was, however, not sensible of doing anything wrong, knowingly, and did not acknowledge the facts for which he was excluded. The Church voted again on restoring Elijah Weston to membership. Five were in favor, three against restoration, three did not decide, and the sisters, forfeiting one of their last chances for a meaningful vote in the nineteenth century, did not choose to declare their minds.
On July 7, 1821, the Church discussed the problems of Joseph Williams. Joseph Williams excused himself for what he had said at a previous meeting and pleaded that he considered himself not in his right mind at that meeting. The Brethren were asked what they thought about Brother Williams state of mind at that time and they pretty generally answered that they had thought him rational and in a better state of mind than usual.
At the same meeting the Church finally voted to have a Council. It was scheduled for ten of the clock in the forenoon at the house of Brother James Jobs on July 18, 1821. This was the beginning of a series of Councils that were set up to settle some of the difficulties that arose because of the treatment of Elder Baker, Elijah Weston, and the actions of the Church that were the cause of so many aggrieved and dissatisfied members.
Brothers Ball, Millard, and Weston (Nathan) were appointed to make statements to the Council and answer questions. There is no record of the statements made by the aggrieved parties to the Council but only of resolutions made by the Council and an explanation of its recommendations.
The Council met as scheduled. Present were Elders Beckworth and Lane who invited Brothers Eliazar Savage and Dulley Lamb “to take a seat and sit with us in Council.” Elder Lane prayed, after which the Council proceeded to an investigation of the difficulties between the Church and the Brethren who were aggrieved, and then retired for deliberation. When the deliberations were completed the Council gave the report which was included in the Church minutes and copied here:
1st. Resolved that this Council be a Confidential one while present for consultation.
2nd. Resolved that the authority of the Church according to the Bible is invested in the hands of the brethren. See I Cor. 14:34, I Tim. 2:11-12, I Pet. 3:1. (I Corinthians 11:34: “Let your women keep silence in the churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.” 1 Timothy:11-12: “Let the women learn in silence with all subjection, and I suffer not a woman to teach not to usurp authority over the men, but to be in silences.” 1Peter 3:1: “Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if they obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by conversation of the wives.”) but we firmly believe the Sisters should be consulted in all matters of discipline and their gifts promoted in covenant meetings and all other religious conferences.
3rd. Resolve that the Council was unanimously satisfied with the confessions of the Church relative to the allegation against them in showing a hard ungospel Spirit and are of the opinion that the grieved brethren ought to pass it satisfied.
4th. Resolved that the Council is of the opinion that the Church did wrong in refusing to grant the first request of the grieved brethren in calling for a Council and that the grieved brethren were also very essentially wrong in laying that writing before the Church called a remonstrance or in other words that paper containing their grief with the Church respecting their labour with Brother Elijah Weston.
5th. Resolved that the Council be of the opinion that the implication of the Church against Br. Elijah Weston of wilful deception of his treatment to Sister Burse was not provable from evidence laid before the Council.
The evidence of Sister Burse was satisfactory to the Council that Brother Elijah Weston was not guilty of that criminality in deceiving her as the Church had attributed to him.
The Council have also a conviction the Church were imprudent and lack wisdom in the management of difficulty whereas Brother Elijah Weston and Sister Burse had parted by a mutual agreement which we think is a Strong indication in fact that Sister Burse held not Brother Elijah Weston as having deceived her by saying we part in peace and even proceeded in giving him advice in the choice of a companion having also confessed previously to Brothers Williams and Gridley and now to the Council that she could travel in Church fellowship with Brother Elijah Weston were it not for certain reports.
We have further concluded that the conduct of Brother Weston was exceeding imprudent and unbecoming a Deacon in the Church of Christ a Christian and a Father in his unguarded observations to Sister Burse and then with whom he conversed on this Subject and this he had ought to confess heartily to his brethren before they can restore him. We now think as a Council that the Church ought to restore Brother Elijah Weston if he is willing to concede to this duty.
6th. Resolved that the Council are of the opinion that the Church had cause to disfellowship those grieved Brethren for extending their fellowship to Brother Elijah Weston while excluded from the body for we consider there were Gospel means by which those grieved Brethren might have obtained satisfaction and Brother Elijah Weston be restored although we thus Judge we Still deem the Church were wrong in not joining with them in mutual Council.
7th. As it respects the grievance of the Church towards the grieved brethren the Council are of the opinion they did wrong in not fulfilling their Covenant obligation and also for calling a Council without consulting their brethren notwithstanding their former opposition in being denied a mutual Council. For our opinion concerning those grieved brethren opposing the acts of the Church in the exclusion of Brother Elijah Weston we refer you to our 6th Article.
Dear Brethren in view of the whole our hearts feel pained for you. We can truly say as Paul said on quite another occasion, Our hearts desire and prayer unto God is that you the true Israel of God may be Saved from all your afflictions and restore to you all the joys of your past peace and consolation in the Holy Ghost.
By Order of the Council — John Peck, Moderator
John R. Dodge, Scribe
It was surprising that the first item for deliberation was on the subject of Sisters voting in meetings. There had been no indication that this was a problem in the local Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church. Apparently, the Elders and leaders of the surrounding Baptist churches, as well as Elder Baker, were dissatisfied and took this opportunity for voicing their objections.
On August 4, 1821, at the West School House with Brother Millard as Moderator, the report of the July 18, 1821, Council was taken up and accepted by the Church with no dissensions. It was again time for the Madison Association Meeting. Elder Nichols and Deacon Jacob Cleveland were sent as Church messengers this year (1821). Brothers Ball, Millard and Jobs were appointed to assist in making out the letter to the Association.
On September 15, 1821, the Church convened for a Covenant Meeting. The undaunted Elijah Weston came forward and owned in a general way that he was a fallible creature and often wrong but did not appear to own or confess one thing for which he had been excluded from membership. The question of satisfaction with Brother Weston’s Statement was put to the Church and four men and five women (9 votes) said satisfied and seven men and eight women (15 votes) declared unsatisfied. Women were still voting despite the advice of Council that they should not.
Then the Church, in two different meetings, voted to acknowledge and confess all the wrongs which the Council considered the Church to be guilty of. The vote was 36 yes, 0 no, just after allowing women to vote on Elijah Weston’s guilt.
Because of the unhappy times suffered by the congregation, on September 15, 1821, the Church inquired as to the state of the members minds as to their union and fellowship, and in general they appeared to be in a comfortable union. (One of the two words used to describe earlier meetings, love and union, was back - “union” – but as yet, not “love.) The Clerk wrote that “after this was got through with” Elder Dodge and Brethren Peck, Chase and Hough from the Pompey Hill Church joined the meeting to discuss further the case of Elijah Weston. After much conversation Elijah Weston again rose and spoke on the subject of his sins. He acknowledged he had been exceeding wrong in his conduct with Sister Burse and in what he said to other members about it, and in making hard speeches to the Church and about the Church and individual members. After further apologies the Church voted to restore Elijah Weston. The Clerk wrote that “the vote on his restoration appeared to be about as follows (viz) fifteen in favor of his restoration, part of them, however, with a burden, three against it.” A number did not decide either way. There was no list of voters and we do not know if women participated in the voting. Now that he was restored to membership, the Church gave Brother Weston a letter to join another Church of “our faith and order.” Other still aggrieved members asked for letters but their request was denied for the present. On November 8, 1821, the Church voted for a day of fasting and prayer for the next Saturday at the East School House.
On November 17, 1821, Elder Nichols examined the state of the minds of members respecting Communion on the first Lord’s Day in December and all present manifested a willingness to partake except Brothers Baker and Elijah Weston. Elder Nichols verbal contract to serve the Church was renewed “until such time as God in his providence shall order otherwise.” A vote was taken. It was unanimous and the offer was accepted by Elder Nichols.
The Church voted to have a Prayer Meeting (in addition to its Covenant Meeting) the Thursday before the stated Church Meeting in each month at one of the clock in the afternoon at places as shall be agreed on from time to time. This was the first mention of a scheduled Prayer Meeting. It started as a monthly exercise but later became weekly and it lasted as an institution of the Church until the late 1900’s.
The use of musical instruments in Churches in those days was sometimes frowned upon. It was proposed that a Bass Viol or Tenor Viol be used in the meetings and every member present agreed but Brother Ball and he said it would be a burden to him. The Clerk did not report whether the Viols were played or not. At a stated Church Meeting on December 1, 1821, at the home of Brother Hubbard, twenty members present were said to have had a “very comfortable” meeting prepatory to communion.
The good feeling did not last and in late 1821 and early 1822 the whole Elijah Weston, Elder Baker controversy reached the boiling point again. At a special Church Meeting on December 15, 1821, Brother Gridley was allowed to bare his grievances toward the Church. He felt that Elijah Weston was excluded wrongly from the Church, and that after his restoration the Church was again wrong in not communing with him. His final recorded words in the church were "Now Brethren, I am exceedingly tired with you and you may withdraw the Hand of Fellowship from me if you will or if you please.” Sister Gridley was equally disgruntled and charged the Church with a hard spirit for not communing with Brother Elijah Weston.
On December 22, 1821, at the West School House, the relationship between the Church and Elder Baker deteriorated further. On August 26, 1820, the Church had voted satisfied with Elder Baker’s letter respecting his signing of Elijah Weston’s paper. However, Elder Baker had since informed the Church he did not make any confession in the letter, and did not intend to be misunderstood, and that he had a right to extend fellowship to Elijah Weston.
The Church acknowledged its error in voting satisfied with Elder Baker and reconsidered its vote. The Church also voted to exclude Brother Stanton for signing Elijah Weston’s paper and for a break of covenant obligations.
At the January 5, 1822, stated Church meeting, the Church agreed to hear Elder Baker’s complaint against the Church for passing a certain vote on December 22, 1821, and for not meeting him according to agreement. The Church voted itself wrong for not meeting with Elder Baker. Elder Baker explained that he fellowshipt with Elijah Weston after he was separated from the Church because to him it meant merely that he still believed him to be a Christian. Elder Baker did not fellowship him in the Church Communion and travel, nor did he ask him to pray while thus excluded. In consequence, the Church voted satisfied with Elder Baker for signing Brother Weston’s paper.
At a Special Church Meeting on January 12, 1822, the next controversy to upset the Church was a report that Elder Dodge, Clerk of the Council, kept some papers which allegedly belonged to the Church and would not return them. He also alledgedly said and did some unpleasant things at a September 15, 1821, Church Meeting that were previously unreported by the Clerk. There was a also a purge of the Church membership with Thomas and Mrs. Gridley, James Jobs and wife, Mabel Foster, Christopher Foster, Augustus Foster and Betsy Williams, dismissed for offenses ranging from failure to keep their travels with the Church according to Covenant and Gospel obligations, for speaking hard against the Church and individual members, and in the case of Betsy Williams for an additional charge that the Church was wickedly joining with the wicked world in hypocrisy against herself and her family. The Clerk was voted to give notice to the above persons of their exclusion by letter, and the reasons for the exclusion.
On February 4, 1822, the Church appointed Elder Nichols and Brothers Millard and Weston (Nathan) to visit Elder John Dodge and tell him of the complaints of the Pompey and Manlius Church and receive his answer. They were to agree with Elder Dodge if he asked for a Council to moderate the dispute. The Committee was also requested to send a letter to the Pompey Center Baptist Church “wherein we express our grief that they should receive members of our Church without letters of recommendation and from those with whom the Church was laboring.” To satisfy the Pompey and Manlius Church they would have to reconsider the vote by which they received said members and place them again out of their Church. Again the Committee was charged to agree with the Pompey Center Baptist Church if they wanted a Council to settle their dispute. They were then to arrange the time and place and the membership of the Council.
The Committee that visited Elder Dodge thought they had an agreement for when asked if he considered it a settlement, Elder Dodge said “I suppose so.” The next day he told a Church Meeting in Pompey Hill that he would not abide by the alleged settlement. In the absence of an agreement with Elder Dodge and at the instance of the Baptist Churches of Pompey and Manlius and Pompey Center, and Elder Nathan Baker, a Council was called for February 27, 28, and 29, 1822, at the West School House in Pompey. The results were recorded by Nathan Weston, the Clerk of the Pompey and Manlius Church:
The Council convened at the instance of the Baptist Churches of Pompey & Manlius & Pompey Center and Elder Nathan Baker February 27, 28, 29, 1822, at the West School House in Pompey. After mature deliberation on all the subjects laid before them and endeavoring to weigh the whole in the balance of the sanctuary & unanimous in the following Result.
1st. The complaint of Pompey & Manlius Church against Pompey Center Church for receiving their members without letters of recommendation and dismission & even while those members were under censure. Unanimously Resolved that the Pompey & Manlius Church have cause of grief with Pompey Center Church for receiving their members as they did & that the present set up is wrong & injurious to the union & fellowship of Sister Churches & that no Church should act under such circumstances without advice of Council.2nd The complaint of Pompey & Manlius Church against Elder John R. Dodge…1st For retaining papers laid before a Council of which he was Clerk that the Church challenged after the Council was dissolved. Resolved unanimously that there appears no cause of grief with Brother Dodge for not giving up the papers to the order of Church as it appears those papers were furnished by the Church expressly for the Council and that Brother Dodge gave them the privilege of copying those papers & said he would give them up if he could with propriety. 2nd. Resolved unanimously that the Church had no ground to accuse Brother Dodge with misusing the Moderator when he introduced the business on which he was sent by his own Church.
3rd. Resolved unanimously that Brother Dodge after introducing his business into the Church disregarded the order of the Gospel in rising in Opposition to the Moderator & saying to a Brother you have a right to speak you may speak when the Brother had just been told by the Moderator he was not in order but should be heard in his place.
4th. Resolved unanimously that the rebukes Brother Dodge gave the Church & his telling them what they aught to give a Minister in the event of their obtaining one as a compensation was improper and reprehensible.
5th. Resolved unanimously that Brother Dodge’s reply to Elder Nichols – Don’t you know you are wrong – was disrespectful and censurable.
6th. Resolved unanimously that Brother Dodge’s treatment of Brother Elijah Weston & Sister Burse’s Case at the same Church meeting was also wrong and calculated to wound both the feelings of the Church & Sister Burse. Charging the Church with partiality & Sister Burse with being full of prejudice that an acknowledgement is due from Brother Dodge to the Church on the above particulars.
Elder Nathan Baker’s complaint against Pompey & Manlius Church for their ungospel proceedings against him in treating him as out of fellowship without cause or trials…
1st. Resolved unanimously that the Church unjustly accused Elder Baker of signing a paper in common with a number of others said to be circulated by Elijah Weston that he did not sign the article to which a number of names were annexed in favor of Elijah Weston but was a separate article to which he assigned his own name expressing a wish for a Council.2nd. Resolved unanimously that the act of the Church declaring Elder Baker out of their fellowship for signing the above note referred to was not formed in justice nor proceeded with gospel measures which is a violation of divine rule. That their treatment towards him in excluding him & than restoring him after he had joined another church & also for treating him with indifference and neglect from time to time is inconsistent with the duty of a Church of Jesus Christ towards one of his public servants.
On the conduct & discipline of the Pompey & Manlius Church as brought before this Council by the Pompey Center Church & Elder Baker as a ground of dissatisfaction with the Church..
1st. Resolved unanimously that there is just cause of complaint that the Church in May 13, 1817, past a law giving Sisters the same authority in the government of the Church as Brethren which is in direct opposition to the law of Christ and in continuing to practice accordingly even over the advice of an ecclesiastical Council and their own agreement to correct their error as advised by Council.
2nd. Resolved unanimously that in our opinion public offenses aught to be publicly confessed & that the vote of the Church expressing a different sentiment is inconsistent with the spirit and tenor of the Gospel.
3rd. Resolved unanimously that the neglect of the Church to reprove Brother Ball for saying that Brother Weston had lied was wrong & that his communing with him after Brother Weston had brought a complaint against him more especially when Brother Ball had violated his own agreement to abide the decision of the Council was contrary to gospel order.
4th. Resolved unanimously that the proceedings of the Church with those members noticed to this Council as not walking with the Church but eventually rejected from their fellowship has been unskillful & unscriptural & calculated to weaken & scatter the flock of God and also to extinguish that light which a Church in gospel order reflects on those around it. That members were voted out of fellowship including their former Pastor for manifesting dissatisfaction in a case where they thought a Brother was improperly excluded & held out of the Church. That complaints were abruptly & irregularly admitted into the Church against a member from persons of the world instead of applying the rule of the Gospel in a proper manner to halting Brethren & removing stumbling blocks out of the way. Frequent entreaties were used saying “go with us, we wish you to come to the table we will have no difficulty with you if you will come to communion,” manifesting in this course the want of a conscientious regard to divine directions. In view of the present State of the Church, this Council is unanimous of the opinion that this Church is not a proper situation to receive the ordinances of the Gospel but it is the duty of this Church to correct their irregular proceedings & their unscriptural acts & return to their first love.
Resolved unanimously that it is the duty of Pompey Center Church to acknowledge to the Pompey & Manlius Church that they prematurely & improperly proceeded against her & in receiving her members without letters and in declaring a Sister Church out of fellowship without first taking measures to point out her wrongs and reclaim her.
Resolved unanimously that it is the duty of the Pompey & Manlius Church to confess their ungospel treatment of Elder Baker & to those members they have excluded.
Resolved unanimously that those members who have gone from Pompey & Manlius Church & joined Pompey Center Church as far as they have neglected their duty to the Church they have left & for the manner of their leaving the Church aught to confess their wrongs.
Resolved unanimously that Pompey & Manlius Church is worthy of censure for evidently attempting to injure Elder Dodge by charging him with more than was proved accusing him with saying “I fear by staying longer I shall be as bad as you” & that the Church aught to acknowledge their wrong to him.
The whole is submitted & accompanied with the prayers of the Council that it may be accepted with united desires that it may prove under the blessing of God for the promotion of the peace of Jerusalem & the glory of God.
Signed in behalf of the Council
Obed L. Warren Moderator
Eliada Blakesly Clerk
Although on some points the Council supported the actions of the Pompey and Manlius Church, in general their report was a stinging rebuke to the leaders and membership of the Church. At a special Church Meeting on March 14, 1822, at the East School House with Brother Millard as the Moderator, the Church examined the charges brought against it by the Council and by vote confessed its guilt of all of them. The confessions and votes and plans for correcting certain abuses were heard by Elder Beckworth and Brother Breed and both agreed that, in their opinion, the confessions were equal to what the reports of Council required. The Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church in turn received and accepted the confession of the Pompey Center Church of wrongly accepting its members without proper letters of recommendation. The Church also voted to reconsider its vote of May 31, 1817, which gave Sisters an equal share in the government of the Church, and at the same time stated that member’s confessions need to be made in Church only.
Apologies from the Church were accepted at later meetings by members who had been wronged or excluded from membership according to the Council, i.e. the Gridleys, Fosters, Sister Williams, Brother Stanton, Brother Jobs, and Brother Foster. Brother Jobs and others apologized to Brother Weston.
Elder Dodge, while supported on some issues, was rebuked on others. For those actions and words for which he was found guilty, he informed the Clerk Nathan Weston, that he was sorry for everything he had said that had hurt the Pompey and Manlius Church’s feelings.
In May, 1822, interest appeared to be growing in building a church. Elder Baker’s advice against building a church in the village was no longer viable, since all of the major denominations had already built churches or were in the process of doing so. It is likely that not having a church home may have resulted in stifling the growth of the Baptist Congregation because of possibly crowded conditions and lack of a religious atmosphere in the schoolrooms of the area.
The need for a church home had been mentioned briefly in 1814 and 1817. Five years later on May 18, 1822, the Church met to consider a proposal from a conference of Protestant Churches in Manlius about forming a Church or Society or building a Meeting House or “something of the kind.” Two members were for the proposal, four were against, and two did not declare. The proposal came at a time when the Episcopalians had already built a church (1813), as had the Presbyterians (1819) and the Methodist’s building was in progress (completed in 1822). It seemed to be too late for a proposal of this kind, and the possibility that all or some of the denominations could get along in one group seemed unlikely.
On May 19, 1822, the Lord’s Day, the Church agreed to meet on May 30, 1822, at one of the clock in the afternoon to see about building a Meeting House. The minds of the Church were taken to know who was for building a Meeting House at Hemlock Hollow. Six men voted for it, and four against. Then the vote was put to the Church and Society together (women voting) and nine were for building and nine were against it. The Church then agreed to meet some inhabitants of Hemlock Hollow later, but no mention was made of the meeting.
On August 3, 1822, at a stated Church Meeting in the East School House, Elders Cooley, Carpenter, and Dr. Petit decided to have another Council. Elder Cooley was voted Moderator. Elder Warren was present but declined “taking a seat” with the others. They voted to act as a Council but changed their minds and no business was done.
On the Lord’s Day, August 4, 1822, the Pompey and Manlius Church agreed for themselves, along with Elder Baker for himself, and in behalf of the Pompey Center Baptist Church to invite a few of the brethren that composed the last Council and some others to meet on September 4, 1822, at Elder Baker’s house at 9 o’clock in the forenoon. They were to see how well the advice of the Council had been complied with. Those invited were Elders Warren, Kendrick, Cooley, J. and N. Peck, Carpenter, Beckworth, and Brothers Dr. Petit and Parker. Brothers Weston, Hubbard, Millard and Ball were appointed by the Pompey and Manlius Church to speak and answer questions before the Council. Unfortunately there was no report in the Church Minutes of the September 4, 1822 Council.
At a stated meeting on October 5, 1822, at the East School House, with Jacob Cleveland as Moderator, the Church took up the report of the September 4, 1822, Council. There were nine brothers and fifteen sisters present. The members were apparently feeling rebellious and all nine brothers and fourteen of the fifteen sisters declined the report. Sister Crowell appeared not to have made up her mind. What was decided and what was rejected by the church is not known. Apparently the church was pleased with its action, because the members, after expressing their minds as to Church Fellowship, found an agreeable union among the participants.
Although there were future Councils reported (for the trial of Brother Pearce and the ordinations of Brother Morton and Brother Devoll), this was the last recorded use of a Council to settle the internal difficulties of the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church and Society. This was also the end of a very difficult time for the Church. The Elijah Weston affair and all of its consequences (i.e., the quarrels between members, between members and Elder Baker and the need for outside intervention) was discussed and fought over in at least fifty Church meetings. This undoubtedly weakened the Church and kept it from its real mission in Manlius.
Names are spelled as in the Church minutes differently in different places. William Phillermore, Phellermore, Philemore and Fillmore are the same person.
The Church had been incorporated in 1810, but apparently had failed to take the necessary steps to keep the incorporation current. On Saturday, December 14, 1822, the Church met in the Old School House and proceeded to re-incorporate. The event is described in a copy of the minutes.
Minutes taken at a meeting held at the Old School House, so called, for the support of a religious incorporation on Saturday, December 14, 1822, (where) by a plurality of voices choose (chose) William Phillemore, Benjamin Potter, Willoby Millard, and Nathan Weston as Trustees for said incorporation. That the naming of said corporation be the Baptist Church and Society in Pompey and Manlius.”
William Philemore, Moderator
Nathan Weston, Clerk
William Phillemore and Nathan Weston took the written instrument of incorporation (minutes of the meeting) to the Onondaga County Courthouse on January 24, 1823, and it was allowed to be recorded, but the recording was not done until January 16, 1829. (The Church has a copy of the instrument of incorporation.)
The Church then followed up the election of Trustees with an assignment of term lengths. According to the report Willoby Millard and Nathan Weston were drawn at the first class, Benjamin Potter and William Fillmore at the second, and John Hatch at the third. This meant that Millard and Weston had one year terms, Potter and Fillmore two years each and John Hatch three years. The Incorporation and the establishment of a Board of Trustees, which met regularly from this point on, were important steps which made possible the building of a church in 1828. On January 24, 1823, Nathan Weston and William Fillmore took the written and signed instrument to the County Clerk R.S. Hebs and it was belatedly recorded on January 16, 1829.
With all the business involved with the incorporation of the Church, the election of Trustees, and the impending building of a new church, the congregation found it necessary to keep a second set of records. The first Book of Records continued to record membership information, problems with members, baptisms, reports of Covenant meetings, and transfers of letters, essentially the work of the Deacons. The new record book recorded some of the business side of the church, i.e. the incorporation, the building of the new church, annual reports, election of officers, calling of ministers, treasurer’s reports, and early reports from the Board of Trustees. There were now two different Clerks. Nathan Weston continued recording information in the First Book until 1825. There were several short term Clerks for the second book, including Azariah Smith. The Clerk of the business related Book was also designated Clerk of the annual meeting. In 1832 Hiram Smith took over as Clerk and continued until December 8, 1890. Later he was also Clerk of the First Book.
Much later at a Special Church Meeting on September 1, 1823, at the house of Jonathon Jones, the Church voted to send the letter prepared by the Clerk to the Madison Association and with it a statement drawn up with reasons assigned why the Church could not accept the report of the Council of September 4, 1822.
At the Stated Church Meeting on October 7, 1823, it was reported that several visits to wayward members had been made. Among the backsliders was Deacon Cleveland, who owned that he had drank more than he aught at different times but did not remember having been helped into his wagon by Brother Fillemore. (This was not Deacon Cleveland’s first problem. Earlier he had been chastened for selling eggs on the Sabbath.)
There was no mention in the minutes of Elder Samuel Carpenter being formally hired as Elder of the Manlius and Pompey Baptist Church. The Church was acquainted with him since he served on the Councils of August 3, 1822, and September 4, 1822, as a representative of the Fabius Church. He had been Elder of the First Baptist Church of Fabius for six months starting in November of 1822. (Difficulties in paying its Elders was not limited to the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church. The Fabius Church paid Elder Carpenter – at least in part – with wheat at $1.00 a bushel, corn and rye at 50 cents a bushel, and other articles of produce in proportion.)
On November 1st, 1823, at the home of Brother Hubbard, the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church voted to receive Elder Samuel Carpenter and his wife Rhoda into the Church. Brothers Ball and Hubbard were to see to Elder Carpenter’s wants respecting a living and to try to have them supplied.
On Wednesday, November 12, 1823, a Committee of members, Brothers Millard, Ball, Phillemore and Weston (Nathan) was appointed to meet with a Committee from the Pompey Center Church and a Committee from the Madison Association at Brother Scranton’s home. After much conversation a settlement was not effected between the churches. The Committee from the Association found they could not find in particular what the two Churches were at odds about.
On November 29, 1823, another Committee (Elders Carpenter and Nichols, Brothers Millard, Phillemore, Ball, Weston and Jones) was selected to meet at Brother Root’s home on December 10, 1823, with a Committee from the Pompey Center Church to again try to effect a settlement between the two Churches. Elder Baker was appointed the Moderator. Warren Scranton (now a member of the Pompey Center Church) was appointed Clerk for the Pompey Center Church and Nathan Weston Clerk for the Pompey and Manlius Church. The difficulty between the two churches was “considerably conversed.” (Pompey Center accepting members from the Pompey and Manlius Church without letters of recommendation from the latter Church.) The two Churches unanimously came to the following result: (viz.)
We the Committees from both Churches this day agree that all difficulties that have existed between the two Churches this day are settled and never more to be called in question if the said two Churches agree and ratify the said agreement made by their Committees.
Signed Warren Scranton, Clerk
Nathan Weston, Clerk
The Pompey Center Church ratified the agreement on December 13, 1823, and the Pompey and Manlius Church did the same on December 14, 1823, and that was the end of the controversy between the two Churches.
At a special Church Meeting at the East School House on February 28, 1824, the Church voted that for several reasons (not given) to agree that they do not depend on Elder Samuel Carpenter “to supply them with preaching after today.” Brothers Ball and Hubbard were to inform Elder Carpenter of the vote. The Church voted to try to have as much preaching as possible and appointed Brothers Weston, Hubbard and Jones to try to get a supply of the same. At the same meeting, ironically, the Church voted that the Church had come to an end of labors with Brother Nathan Baker.
Elder Carpenter’s time as Elder in the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church turned out to be a short and unfortunate one for him. No doubt his dismissal was prompted by his experiences with Brother Nathan Baker, the third Nathan Baker to be mentioned in the minutes. (He must have been from another branch of the family since Nathan Baker Jr. was too young in 1821, 28 years of age, to have had a son old enough to be as bad as the third Nathan Baker turned out to be.) Brother Nathan Baker was, however, a member of the Church. Brother Nathan Baker, Jr., brought charges against him on March 13, 1821, for using bad language, personal abuse, equivocation and falsehood. The Church examined the charges on May 5, 1821, and found them unstubstantiated. By 1824, however, Brother Nathan Baker appeared to be in more serious trouble. The Church voted to admonish him by letter because of his long absence from the Church, something he said to Sister Rowe, and for disorderly walking.
On February 28, 1824, the Church voted that it had come to the end of labor with Brother Nathan Baker. On March 6, 1824, the congregation found an agreeable union in the Church and voted a letter of recommendation to Elder Carpenter and his wife. On April 3, 1824, at a Stated Church Meeting Brother Nathan Baker appeared. He stated as a reason for his absence a difficulty with Elder Carpenter. (Apparently Elder Carpenter borrowed some money from Nathan Baker, or owed him some money for another reason.) The Church questioned his sueing Elder Carpenter. Brother Baker said he did it because of his own poverty. Brother Phillemore stated in evidence that Brother Baker had sworn out an execution (a legal writ) against Elder Caprenter and took his horse and wagon and said publicly he should not have done it if he thought Elder Carpenter was an honest man and intended to pay him. (Whether in fact Elder Caprenter was honest or dishonest was not determined.) Brother Baker admitted playing dice in Manlius, quarreling with a man at Watson’s, with a second man in the road, and with a third man at the Cazenovia gate. He denied swearing while quarreling, however. After more conversation he acknowledged he was wrong in what he had done and that he was sorry. The Church seemed reluctant to censure Brother Baker and voted satisfaction with his confessions if he would apologize to Elder Carpenter and on Sunday, April 4, 1824, he made an acknowledgement in public. On June 5, 1824, at a Stated Church Meeting, the case of Nathan Baker was re-opened. The Church voted to withdraw the hand of fellowship from Nathan Baker, because he had absented himself from the Church for almost twelve months. In addition, Gerry Cole and Ezekial Fox testified that Nathan Baker had quarreled with Mr. Buck at Foxes Tavern and damned him and said he would give him a flogging if it were not for the law. Instead of proving the sincerity of his confession by good conduct, he had gone off and left his creditors to suffer the large sums of money he owed them. He left his bondsman, Peter Peed, to suffer the consequences of a lawsuit of defamation, and he had not confessed to Elder Carpenter as promised and more.
At a Stated Church Meeting on October 2, 1824, with Elder Nichols as Moderator, Jacob Cleveland, now called Brother (apparently he was no longer a Deacon), was again found in trouble with the Church. He now admitted he had been wrong in drinking too much and also wrong in his mind, but now had left off drinking any Spirits for two or three months. The Church voted that they were satisfied but required him to make a public confession on the Lord’s Day, October 3, 1824, which he did.
At a Stated Church Meeting on July 31, 1824, with Elder Nicholas as Moderator, Brother Benjamin Pearce was voted a member of the Church by letter and experience. Later, in September, 1824, Brother Pearce and Willoby Millard were appointed as Church Delegates to the Madison Association Meeting in Homer. By April 2, 1825, Brother Pearce began to act frequently as the Moderator of the Church Meetings, a responsibility given mostly to Elders preaching in the Church. At a Special Meeting on April 23, 1825, the Church voted to call Brother Pearce to “preach with us once a month” and became the fourth part-time preacher of the Church. (He was Licensed in 1830.) There was talk of calling Brother Pearce to ordination, but he requested a postponement, and the Church voted to let the matter drop for the present.
At the same April 23, 1825, meeting the Church finally bowed to the will of the Church Council and Elder Baker, and in adopting rules of regulating Church Meetings, withdrew the right of women to have a meaningful vote. There was no record how the Church voted on this change in the voting rules. The rules were as follows:
On September 3, 1825, Elder John Nichols, Brothers Pearce and Ball were nominated to represent the Church at the 1825 Madison Association Meeting. Brother Pearce was now about to be called to ordination by the Manlius and Pompey Baptist Church. He requested and was granted a postponement. The Church also voted that it wished to have a meeting house if the place, model and size could be agreed upon.
Apparently the Church and Elder Baker were still friendly. The Church voted to have a religious meeting at his home in October, 1825. At a Stated Church Meeting on February 4, 1826, with Brother Benjamin Pearce as Moderator, the Church again voted to let the case of calling Brother Pearce for ordination drop.
Dr. John King was a physician originally residing in Delphi. He experienced religion in 1816, but because of a disagreement with Elder Warren of the Delphi Baptist Church, united with the Baptist Church in Cazenovia and was baptized by Elder John Peck. He received a license to preach from the Cazenovia church and was asked to supply their pulpit. He consented so far as he could while still practicing medicine. In 1824 Dr. King, out of a sense of duty, discontinued his medical practice and devoted himself completely to the ministry of the Gospel. The Pompey Center Church then called him as a pastor. When he accepted, the Church called an Ecclesiastical Council to examine and ordain him if they found him worthy. Brother King was ordained and became Elder King and served the Pompey Center Church until the next spring when his health failed. He resigned his pastorate and moved away from Pompey.
In 1826 Elder Nichols and Brother Pearce were active and were joined by a fifth part-time preacher, Doctor John King, six years after he was first considered. Elder King moderated Church meetings, administered baptisms, and shared in the preaching duties. He was not mentioned after 1826. It was noted that he served without pay.
Elder Baker was not mentioned again in the Church records. Lucy Baker died on May 9, 1832, at the age of 70. Elder Nathan Baker died on October 20, 1836, at age 76 in Middlebury, Genesee County, New York. (Middlebury is not listed on current (1999) New York State maps.)
We know more about Elder Morton than about most of our early Elders because of his Seminary Record. “Charles Morton, born in Augusta, New York on June 10, 1789. He made the journey from Fredonia to Hamilton, a distance of 260 miles, on foot. He entered the Seminary in March, 1825, graduated in 1827.”
Charles Morton was the sixth of the part-time pastors to lead the Manlius Baptists. On February 21, 1827, the Church voted to engage Brother Charles Morton "to preach with us" for nine months from the first of June next (or until March 1, 1828). Brother Morton was still a seminary student at the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institute (Colgate University), but was to complete his studies in 1827. He was to be a member of the sixth graduation class of the Institute in Hamilton. The Church also asked Brother Morton to "provide preaching for us the whole of the time until June next (1827) and we pay him what he has to pay." This meant that Brother Morton would hire other students to preach in Manlius when he could not. Brother Morton would pay them and be reimbursed by the Church. From March until June, 1827, the pulpit was supplied by Brother Morton and his colleagues from Hamilton and perhaps by Brother Pearce and Elder Nichols. (In August, 1827, Brothers Morton, Jones, Pearce and Elder Nichols were our messengers to the Madison Baptist Association Meeting.)
New York State was settling rapidly. When a nucleus of a village was formed, one of the major decisions, after homes, taverns and schoolhouses were built, was to build a church for each of the major denominations. A large number of trained ministers were needed and to meet that need several institutions for the education and training of ministers sprang up in Central New York:
Baptist Churches in Central New York in the early years sought supply pastors (unordained students) and pastors (graduates) from the Seminary in Hamilton because of its location. Manlius was approximately 28 miles from Hamilton (as the crow flies). It was close enough so that a horse could be ridden from there to Manlius. Several students filled in when the Manlius Church lacked a pastor, and others were called here as permanent pastors.
When Brother and Mrs. Susan Morton were in Manlius during the months until he became the full time pastor, they stayed with Brother Selden (for 14 shillings a week) and also with Brother Jones. At a Church meeting on August 4, 1827, Brother Morton was called to Ordination, which was to be on October 11, 1827, and was also voted a member of the Church by letter. A Committee was appointed to secure the Presbyterian Meeting House for the Ordination and also stable room for the horses. Churches from Pompey Center, Delphi, Cazenovia (First and Second), Fabius, Hamilton (First), Eaton (Second) and Manlius (Fayetteville) were invited to participate. A Committee was voted to answer the Council on behalf of the Church. On October 11, 1827, the Church Council met according to appointment. The Council was organized with Elder Leonard, moderator, and Elder Smitzer (a future pastor of our Church), Clerk. Questions were proposed to the candidate by the Moderator. The Council adjourned one hour. The Council returned and proceeded to Ordination. Apparently the candidate qualified. The Moderator then preached a sermon from Isaiah 6:1-3, offered a consecration prayer, and Elder Smitzer gave the charge and a concluding prayer. The last hymn was sung, and the candidate, now Elder Morton, was allowed to give the benediction. (On May 2, 1829, almost two years later, the Church received a communication from Deacon Jones, who reported to the Church that Mr. Goodrich was owed $2.62 for conducting the singing for the Ordination. Mr. Goodrich was paid.)
According to information given in the obituary of Martha Ketchum Armstrong (Fayetteville Bulletin, July 4, 1924), the Manlius Baptists were regularly meeting for two years (1827-1828) in her father’s (Ezra Grinnell Ketchum) barn until the new church could be erected. The barn was the first frame barn raised in the Town of Pompey.
Two years had passed since the last mention of building a church was mentioned in the minutes of the Church, when on December 1, 1827, the Church, now being led by a full time ordained pastor Elder Morton, got serious and voted to build a meeting house in or near the village of Manlius within the ensuing year. Samuel Sherman and Abijah Yelveston were appointed a Committee to select a suitable place for said house (of worship), learn the terms of the owner and report at the next meeting of the Society.
The next Church meeting was scheduled for December 8, 1827. Because of bad weather attendance was low and the meeting was adjourned to December 12, 1827, at three o'clock. The Site Committee reported that they had examined several spots in and near the village of Manlius and that "they think there are none more suitable than four village lots lying on the north side of the Seneca Turnpike Road west of Azariah Smith's Brick Store extending 89 1/10 feet on the Turnpike and 60 feet deep, with the privilege of a 14 foot lane in the rear of the same. The said lots are by the owner given to said Society at the rate of $5.00 a foot front in exchange for pews at auction." The lots were owned by Slyvanus S. Tousley and wife and Azariah Smith and wife.
A plan for the meeting house was submitted by Azariah Smith and Sheldon Graves, "a house 40 feet front and rear, 48 feet deep, 24 feet posts, galleries all round with 48 slips (pews) on the lower floor. Two front doors and without a steeple." The report of the Site Committee and the plans of Azariah Smith and Sheldon Graves were accepted by vote.
Elder Charles Morton, William Fillmore, Sheldon Graves, Azariah Smith and John Fleming were chosen a Committee to circulate a subscription for building said house with the understanding that each subscriber may have the privilege of buying pews at auction for the amount of his subscription.
The Building Subscription read as follows: "To enable the Trustees of the Manlius and Pompey Baptist Society to build a meeting house in Manlius Village on the Site between A. Smith's Brick Building and R. Gilmor's Shop about the size 40 by 48 feet without a Steeple, the Subscribers severally promise to pay to the said Trustees or their Successors in office the sums set to their names. Subscriptions payable in materials to be paid by 11 April next (April 11, 1828). Subscriptions payable in Cash one-fourth on the first day of April next (April 1, 1828) and the residue in three equal semi-annual installments from that time, and whenever the said house is completed the subscribers agree to give their notes for the sums unpaid; and it is understood that the Pews or Slips shall be sold at public auction and that for all subscriptions paid or secured to be paid, the Subscribers are to be allowed in their purchase of a Pew or Slip. December 12, 1827.” On December 26, 1827, Azariah Smith, Sheldon Graves and John Hatch were voted a Committee to superintend and contract for the building of the meeting house.
The Church has a record of the names of the individuals and their plans to help pay for the lot and church building whether in cash , materials or services. For example, David Squires donated $1.00 worth of labor, Willoby Millard gave $50.00 worth of hemlock lumber, and Abner Duell gave $10.00 worth of chairs to be made in his woodworking shop. Fifty contributors and their gifts were named.
There were unfortunately no entries in the minutes for 1828 concerning the building of the new church. Any discussions in the Board of Trustees or in the Church Meetings involving building, financial, personal or legal problems were not recorded.
The business of the Church at the Annual Meeting on December 8, 1828, was the first entry in the new Minute Book for 1828, which recorded annual meetings, business meetings and Trustee meetings. Elias Stilwell was the Moderator, Moses Eells and James Sisson were elected as new Trustees, and Azariah Smith was chosen Clerk to replace Thomas I. Pilgrim, "removed from the Society." This explains why no information was recorded from December 26, 1827 to December 8, 1828.
At a Trustees Meeting on January 23, 1829, in the Conference Room of the completed new Meeting House, Azariah Smith, Clerk of the Church, presented a seal which he had procured. It was approved by the Trustees and voted to be the seal of the Society. It was described as having engraved around the edge "Pompey and Manlius 1822" and in the center "Baptist Society." The fate of the seal is unknown.
Drafts for the deeds of the site of the meeting house from Sylvanus S. Tousley and wife and from Azariah Smith and wife were presented and examined. The Church voted to accept the same. The deeds bearing the date January 1, 1829, were then executed by the said Smith and Tousley.
At the same meeting the Trustees also voted that the Clerk execute under the common seal and deliver to said Tousley a writing agreeing that the Trustees will not build any building on the 12 foot front and rear of the meeting house lot, nor keep wood or other lumber permanently stored there. A writing was executed accordingly and delivered to said Tousley.
Blanks for deeds of Pews were also presented and examined. The Trustees voted their approval. When the pews were sold the Clerk was to execute the same and deliver them to the purchasers.
The Trustees further voted to adopt as a regulation of the meeting house, that the pews therein shall not be altered or injured and shall remain open and free for any person to occupy when the same are not occupied by the owner, his family, or others, at the owner's request; but whenever the owner directs that any person shall sit therein, any person occupying without leave should immediately remove (themselves). They also voted that the pews should be numbered as in the annexed diagram and that pew No. 7 be reserved at the sale and be appropriated for the use of the minister of the Society. (The diagram of the pews has been reproduced and included at the end of Chapt 3.) They also voted to call the lower room "The Baptist Conference Room."
The pews were to be sold at auction on January 26, 1829, at 10 o'clock A.M., William Fillmore auctioneer, at the meeting house. The amounts bid for the pews ranged from $30.00 to $119.00. Contrary to present preferences, the most expensive seats were closest to the front of the Church. Several families combined their resources to buy a single pew. The accounts of the Building Committee were settled. The whole cost of the lots and meeting house was $2730.00. The sale of pews brought in $2702.00.
In the First Baptist Church of Manlius collection of historical papers and pictures, there is one of the original Pew Deeds for Pew #22. It was granted to Asa Rowe on January 26, 1829, for the sum of $50.00 (to have and to hold as Asa Rowe and his heirs and assign forever.). The deed was signed by A. Smith, Clerk, and sealed with the official seal of the Church. (On February 14, 1827, Asa Rowe sold his pew to Lauriston Fish for $20.00.)
It is not known when the pews ceased to "belong" to those who purchased them and became "public" Church property. There was no mention of the resale of pews or what was done for new families who needed pews. Brother Smith, obviously, had no need for 16 pews (one-third of the seating capacity.) It seems likely that most of the pews soon became public property. In 1912 the old pews were removed and replaced with new oak ones.
Now the Church had a home and a Board of Trustees in charge of its upkeep, both physically and monetarily. In the years to follow the Board of Trustees were kept busy maintaining the Church and keeping it supplied with candles, candlesticks, and firewood. They hired custodians to open the house, to sweep the floors, to "take charge of the keys," and to kindle the fires for the Sabbath and for the larger congregational meetings. For a time the Trustees were also in charge of calling ministers.
At the Annual Meeting of the Society on December 5, 1829, two Trustees were chosen: James Sisson, to succeed himself, and Roger Stilwell. Azariah Smith and S. Graves presented their last accounts for expenses for the new building, $27.45 and $1.38 respectively. They were examined and found correct and the Trustees were directed to circulate a subscription to raise the money. This was the last entry of Azariah Smith as Clerk. James Sisson became Clerk pro tem.
One man stands apart from the others in the effort to build the Church. He was Azariah Smith. Although the Baptist Church was not built as early as he would have liked, when the Church finally made up its mind to act, he was in the forefront of the effort. The Church was built partly on property he owned. With Sheldon Graves he submitted the plans for the building. He was a member of the Committee appointed to raise money by subscription , and was with Sheldon Graves and John Hatch a Committee to superintend and contract for the building of the meeting house. At the auction he purchased 16 of the 48 pews, and apparently lent the Church money to proceed with the building until the pews were paid for.. In addition, he was Church Clerk during 1829. He did all this even though he was not a member of the Church.
It was not reported in Baptist Minutes but historian E.E. Clemons reports that after the raising of the frame of the new church structure, the workers formed in a row on
the east plate and a suspicious looking bottle was passed from one to the other commencing at the south end of the row, (and) the last one, after making some remarks, threw the bottle against the adjacent brick building (Azariah Smith's Brick Store) breaking it into a thousand pieces.
There are no available pictures of the Church as it was in 1828, but Henry C. VanShaack, in his History of Manlius Village, describes the Church as he saw it as a young man of 26 years in 1828 and later after many improvements in 1868 when he was 66 years old. His early impressions are re-printed here. His later impression will be related later in this history. The major improvements as made to the building will be described.
From History of Manlius Village by Henry C. VanShaack
As first built it was a plain, cheerless, Quaker-looking, two story frame structure, without exterior architectural pretension or interior adornment. The light was admitted through a double row of old fashioned, rectangular windows all around the four sides of the edifice. There was no bell or steeple, and it had scarcely anything about it but its size to indicate that it was a house of worship. Its original internal construction and finish fully corresponded with its cold and forbidding external appearance. There was a plain heavy gallery all around the four interior sides of the building, reaching back and behind the pulpit, so that those sitting in that part of the gallery could overlook the preacher's manuscript, and see whether he was preaching an old sermon. On entering the auditorium you were obliged to face the whole congregation; and on going into the pew you had to turn clear around in order to face the pulpit and minister. This arrangement was calculated to make modest people go to church in season, so as not to disturb the meeting, although I am not aware that it had that effect.
At a February 2, 1828, Church Meeting Elder John Nichols was given a letter of recommendation to the Baptist Church in Mexico, NY, but if he went it was for a short time as he died on July 6, 1828 in Pompey at the age of 89. At the same meeting the Church authorized Brothers Pilgrim, Jones and Fleming to visit Elder Morton to learn the terms on which he would preach another year. Elder Morton agreed to stay a second year for $250.00.
While in the early years of the Church, the Manlius area itself could have been considered part of the Mission Field, a remarkable change had taken place and now the area had become populated and somewhat developed. The Churches were well-established and could now consider mission work elsewhere in the less developed areas of the United States or overseas. It was obvious that Elder Baker was extremely interested in missionary work in the western part of New York State in the early 1800s. Adoniram Judson, formerly a Congregational minister, became a Baptist and in 1813 was working in Burma with support from the Baptists in the United States.
The women of the Church were brought together in a Missionary Society with the help of Elder Peck in the early 1800s, but there was no mention of their activities in the Church Records. However, on November 1, 1828, the Church met for a Covenant Meeting. After the Brothers and the Sisters had expressed their minds in relation to their feelings and the cause they had professed, the Moderator, Elder Morton, made a proposal for the Church to form a Missionary Society for both men and women, an auxiliary to the Baptist Convention. There was a Constitution for the Society to serve as a guide for its activities in the Church. Elder Morton made the following motion: “Being impressed with the importance of disseminating the glorious Gospel among the destitute and scattered inhabitants of our own continent, embracing numerous tribes of Indians, who have been too long neglected and remembering that ‘Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,’ and also the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, how he said ‘It is more blessed to give than receive,’ and being assembled agreeable to previous appointment, on this first day of November in the year of our Lord 1828, we do cheerfully resolve, that the Baptist Church of Christ in Pompey and Manlius, be a Missionary Society Auxiliary to the Baptist Missionary Convention of the State of New York.” Rules were attached. The first rule was that the object of the Society was to assist the Baptist Missionary Convention in sending the Gospel to the destitute. The second rule stated that it was the duty of all of the members of the Church who feel willing to do anything for the spread of the Gospel, to subscribe to this Constitution and annex to their several names, the sums that they will pay annually into the funds of the Society. The other rules concerned the governing of the Society. The articles were adopted by the six members present and also by the sisters.
There was only one more recorded meeting of the Society and that was held August 1, 1829. Elder Peck was supposed to be present to deliver a discourse on the printing of the Bible in the Burman (Burmese) language but did not appear (previous commitment). After the members had paid the sums set to their names as a Society, the Moderator, Elder Morton, himself, made some remarks about the Burman Bible. A contribution was taken and $7.00 collected. (We have an idea of the number of people in the congregation in 1829. The Baptist Convention recommended to the Church that they should raise 18 cents from each member and the local Baptist Church calculated that the amount would be about $14.00, making a membership of 78 people.)
Elder Morton also was very busy in helping with the planning and building of the new church in 1828. On July 15, 1828 Sister Susan Morton, wife of Elder Morton, presented her letter and was received into the fellowship of the Church. In November 1829 Elder Morton was hired for a third year of preaching. In 1830 he lost his full time status as he requested permission to spend one-quarter of his time in the Jamesville Church if called to do so. The Church agreed on condition that Elder Morton supply the preaching for the time he would be away. The Church was to hire a Colgate student to serve in the pulpit during Elder Morton's absences. (There was no record that Elder Morton was called to Jamesville.)
In 1826, in western New York, William Morgan, who had joined the order of Free Masonry, published a book professing to expose the secrets of Free Masonry, a violation of a solemn oath. Indignation among Masons was intense. Mr. Morgan disappeared never to be seen again. Rumors had it that the Masons put him in a boat and sent him over Niagara Falls. Many people believed the rumors and as a result anti-Masonic sentiment swept the country. At its peak an anti-Masonic national ticket ran in the Andrew Jackson-Henry Clay election of 1832 and actually carried one state and received seven electoral votes.
As a result of this anti-Masonic fever, on Nov. 11, 1829, the Church and Society met "agreeable to an appointment." After other business was transacted the Church adopted the following resolution:
Resolved, that in the opinion of this Church it is the duty of all our brethren who are Free-Masons to dissolve all connection with the Masonic Fraternity and hold themselves no longer bound by any ties of allegiance to the Masonic Institution or by its obligations, laws, usages or customs and that they give to the Church material evidence of the same.
Resolved, that in our opinion, Masonic brethren ought not to be required to disclose any of the secrets of Free-Masonry or to verbally avow any opinion of its character or tendency.
Resolved, that we will endeavor to practice all Christian forbearance towards our Masonic Brethren but that in case they cannot be induced to take the steps above described, it will finally be our duty to withdraw the hand of fellowship from them.
The Masonic problem was not mentioned again nor were there any reports of Masons being ousted from the Church for non-compliance with the Church's resolution. This is probably because the Manlius Military Lodge 93 was closed within the year on Dec. 25, 1830, by the unusual act of bricking up the entrance to the lodge rooms. The Lodge remained inactive and the rooms blocked until March 25, 1851, when the anti-Masonic sentiment had subsided. The rooms were opened and the Masonic Lodge resumed its activities.
On March 31, 1827, the Church voted to give Brother Benjamin Pearce, who joined the Church by letter on July 31, 1825, a traveling letter and on March 1, 1828, a letter of recognition. In a June 5, 1830, meeting of the Church, Brother Stillwell thought it would be expedient to do something about licensing Brother Pearce to preach in this Church. A Committee was established to converse with Brother Pearce on this matter, to get information from other places where he had served and to invite ministers and others from these places to meet with our Church and share what information they might have, so that the Church could act with propriety.
The date set was the 25th day of June, 1830. The Church met as scheduled but necessary information in relation to Brother Pearce was not received, and the meeting
was postponed. Although not reported in the minutes, the meeting must have been held later with satisfactory results because Brother Pearce was acknowledged to have "formally received from us a license to preach the Gospel."
No sooner was Brother Pearce licensed to preach when a calamity at least partly of his own making, overtook him, causing him to lose that coveted license and to leave the Church. On August 27, 1830, at a special Church meeting a complaint was presented against Brother Pearce for trading with Brother Sweet of the Delphi Church a horse which Brother Pearce allegedly knew suffered from ringhorn (a problem with the horse's hoof) and was lame as a result, thereby deceiving him. Proof of the charges was said to be substantiated by a transcript of the sworn testimony from Esquire Litchfield's docket in Pompey Hill. Jeremiah Fox says he was present when the parties exchanged horses. The defendant (Pearce) said he would ride the plaintiff's (Sweet) mare and if he liked to ride it he would exchange. The plaintiff asked the defendant what was the matter with his horse, and the defendant said he had a stone in his shoe, was not so lame as when the stone was taken out. The defendant said he expected that was the cause of the horse's lameness; he knew of no other cause. One witness for the defendant named John Reed did say that the defendant stopped at his father's, discovered a stone in the shoe of his horse and removed it with difficulty. Brother Sweet in addition to his earlier testimony told the Church that Brother Pearce was told by a Mr. Barber that his horse had a ringhorn.
The Church members, after hearing and prayerfully examining the testimony before them, concluded that they were "constrained to believe Brother Pearce guilty of putting off a horse which he had a good reason to think had a ringhorn, thus deceiving and wronging Brother Sweet, and also bringing a wound in the cause of Christ, which cannot easily be healed." As a punishment and to set things right, they required that Brother Pearce:
On September 7, 1830, the Church showed off its new building when it hosted the Fall Meeting of the Madison Baptist Association. Brothers Stilwell and Filmore were to be the Committee to regulate and seat people in the house and Brothers Ward and Sisson a Committee to provide for the horses. Willoby Millard and John White were the delegates from the Manlius Church. The Church voted to spend $1.25 to help defray the cost of printing the minutes.
Apparently dissatisfied with the findings of the Church, Brother Pearce or a friend requested a Council in hopes of a more favorable conclusion. On October 11, 1830, at ten of the clock, the Church met and a motion was made and passed to have a Council in behalf of Brother Pearce on November 9, 1830, at ten of the clock in the forenoon with the Churches from Pompey, Manlius, Delphi, Cazenovia and Woodstock asked to send their ministers and one or two select members. Fabius was added at Brother Pearce's request. All of the Churches agreed to participate and the names are listed in the minutes. Twenty people came. Brother Lewis Leonard from Cazenovia Village Baptist Church was Moderator and Elder John Smitzer (later to become pastor of the Manlius and Pompey Baptist Church and Society) was Clerk. The Council heard the complaints against Brother Pearce of committing fraud in exchanging a horse with Brother Sweet of the Church in Delphi. The Council heard the records of the Church in the matter, listened to Brother Sweet's statement, and heard the defense of Brother Pearce, and a witness of Brother Pearce who said that the horse had not been lame to their knowledge until the horse got the stone in his shoe. If Brother Pearce hoped for a more lenient judgment from the Council his hopes were dashed. The Council prayerfully examined the subject and was unanimously of the opinion that there is much in the testimony that renders the honesty of Brother Pearce in his dealing with Brother Sweet very doubtful; yet the Council would hope that in the exercise of charity, from the consideration that the horse was not lame till after the stone referred to in the testimony was found in the shoe, that Brother Pearce did not mean willfully to deceive Brother Sweet; therefore, upon a review of the whole, the Council recommends to the Church that they require Brother Pearce to publicly acknowledge before the Church and Congregation that he had given a reason for the public to suspect his honesty, wounded the feelings of his brethren, and the cause of Christ, and that he give up his license to preach, and that his restoration as a brother be suspended until he complies with the above. Voted that the Council be dissolved. Prayer by Brother Breed. John Smitzer, Clerk; Lewis Leonard, Moderator.
On December 21, 1830, the Church met agreeable to an appointment to discuss the recommendation of the Council in respect to Brother Pearce.
Resolved, the result of the Council be accepted in relation to Brother Pearce.
Resolved, his confession be satisfactory which was as follows: "Upon taking a retrospect of the bargain made between me and Brother Sweet of Delphi, together with the manner of my subsequent treatment of the subject, I am persuaded that I have given occasion to those who are acquainted with the circumstances to doubt my good intentions, thereby laying a stumbling block in the way of the world, wounding the cause of Christ, and feelings of my brethren, for which I am heartily sorry and do most sincerely beg the forgiveness of my brethren and friends and crave an interest in these petitions at the throne of Grace that God may blot out my sins and deliver me from temptation in the future." Benjamin Pearce.
February 5, 1831, at a meeting of the Church, a request from the Baptist Church in Woodstock was presented requesting the transfer of Benjamin Pearce to membership from this Church to theirs and the request was granted. We do not know how Brother Pearce fared in the future. He is not mentioned again in the Minutes of the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church and Society.
In 1831 negotiations with the Church, the possibility of Elder Morton preaching half-time with the Fayetteville Baptists was discussed. The Church agreed to pay Elder Morton $350.00 for preaching in our Church, $300.00 for half-time preaching. However, he would have to supply the Manlius Church with preaching in his absence. Elder Morton did spend half of his time in the Fayetteville Church. There was no record of who preached in the Manlius Church in his absence.
In a history of the Fayetteville Baptist Church it was stated that, "Through the efforts of Mr. Harvey Edwards, (a new convert who began to awaken interest in the Baptist work in Fayetteville), the services of Charles Morton, pastor of the Baptist Church in Manlius N.Y., were now secured half the time and under the blessing of God, much good was accomplished by his labor in this place. A revival was enjoyed and the Church was strengthened and encouraged."
The most extraordinary event of Elder Morton's ministry was not mentioned in any of the Church records. An unknown author wrote the History of the Manlius Church for the Onondaga Association Minutes of the Sept. 3-4, 1861, meeting and included the story of a remarkable revival in Manlius that started in the Manlius Baptist Church in March of 1831 and spread throughout the village. The author's account of the event is as follows:
“After entering this house, a general prosperity attended the labors of Brother Morton, but nothing of special interest occurred until the winter of 1830-1831, when he became greatly distressed; other Churches were revived and multiplied but his was not. He visited places where the Lord was working gloriously, and returned only to weep and lament that all was so dark and dead at home. At length he entreated of his brethren to meet and fast and pray. This they agreed to do on the Friday preceding their Covenant Meeting in March. God, as if to prepare the way, took to Himself a lovely youth, a daughter of one of the members a few days previous; thus humbling the father before Him until He put his spirit upon him and sent him from house to house, confessing and exhorting with great power. This he did all the day previous to the fast day, and came into the prayer meeting in the evening, and confessed his sins, and exhorted his brethren to look to Jesus, who was willing to help them.
On the following day, they were all filled with faith and with the Holy Spirit, and so great was the power of God upon Bro. Morton, in his consciousness of the divine presence, and of his own vileness, that he lay for a long time on his face in front of his pulpit, the Spirit in him making intercessions with groanings that could not be uttered. Wonderful events followed. The entire village was moved. The factories were stopped
during the following week, all kinds of business were suspended, meetings were held in all the churches, messengers were sent after Elder. N. J. Gilbert of Syracuse, Elder Lewis Leonard of Cazenovia, and Elder John Smitzer of Delphi, with instructions to say to each, ‘The Lord is in Manlius, and you must not fail to come.’ They all came and saw the grace of God, and were glad, and exhorted the people with purpose of heart to cleave unto the Lord, and many, very many obtained mercy of the Lord, in that day.”
Since there was no mention of this revival in our Church minutes, or any record of a meeting on the Friday preceding the March Covenant meeting, the first reaction could rightly be one of skepticism. However, something extraordinary did happen on our Church which could only have been the result of some kind of revival in interest and spirit, and it was carefully recorded.
Record of Baptisms-Names and dates are recorded in the Church minutes.
| 1828 | 1832 | ||
| 1829 | 1833 | ||
| 1830 | 18 | ||
| 1831 |
In 1831, from March through December, sixty-eight men and women were baptized. The Church membership nearly doubled. Truly the Lord must have been in Manlius in those days.
The spirit of conversion apparently was not limited to Manlius. It was reported in a history of the Elbridge Baptist Church that the winter and spring of 1831 will long be remembered, not only by the children of God in Elbridge and vicinity, but throughout the whole United States, as a time of the special outpouring of the spirit in the conversion of souls. In Rochester, NY, then a city of 10,000 people with a reputation as one of the Erie Canal‘s most wicked cities, Charles Finney, known as “the Great Evangelist“ and as one of the best known and successful of all warriors for God in this period, was extremely successful at leading the movement. Twelve hundred people were said to have come to Christ. The revival spread to Hamilton College and villages and cities throughout the East. Some 50,000 converts were reported in this five months of the Rochester led revival.
On December 3, 1831, the case of Brother Nelson Camp was laid before the Church in relation to his preaching the Gospel, the fourth of recorded Church members to do so. The Church resolved that "we appoint next Wednesday evening at Elder Morton's for him to improve that the Church may the better be enabled to judge his qualifications for that important business." On March 11, 1833, he preached . Brother Camp later became ordained and had a long career as Elder in the area. Records available listed him as Elder in Baptist Churches in Phoenixville, Mexico, Onondaga, Tully (where he was called “the now venerable” Nelson Camp), Pompey, Canton and Memphis, the latter as late as 1861. There are likely other Churches in which he also served. In the Centennial
History of the Onondaga Baptist Association, he was mentioned in 1843 as being noted for effective preaching and Christian Consecration.
Except for the admonition to forsake Tavern Haunting, the first Covenant did not prohibit the drinking of alcoholic beverages. On December 31, 1831, the Church adopted the following resolution: “The Baptist Church of Christ in Pompey and Manlius, being convinced that the time has come when no professor of religion can make a habitual, common, or fashionable use of ardent spirits without very much abridging his usefulness and injuring the course of Christ and the cause of humanity; therefore, resolved that we must earnestly recommend to every member of this Church to entirely abstain from the use of ardent spirits except as a medicine, in case of body infirmity.”
Nothing was said against the use of tobacco by Church members, although its use was being decried by a writer in the Fayetteville Weekly Recorder as early as July 12, 1866. He viewed the use of tobacco as a vile, pernicious, and expensive habit. It was derogatory to the virtue of personal cleanliness, injurious to health and a perpetual drain upon the purse.” Some of its worst tendencies were “to engender debility, imbecility disease and premature death.” He hoped for the day when constant toppling, tobacco chewing, and even smoking could be eliminated from our land. (At this time tobacco was one of the more important crops grown by the area farmers.)
In 1832 a tragedy struck the First Baptist Church of Syracuse. Their pastor Elder Gilbert contracted cholera and died within two days. At his funeral service "Elder Charles Morton, standing in the pulpit, looked down on the lifeless form of his co-laborer in Christ, who but 42 hours earlier stood where he stood, and exclaimed with deepest emotion, "I hardly know what to say." Then he proceeded to the utterance of such thoughts as his deep sympathies would allow, from the words "to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
On October 21, 1832, a meeting of the Church was called to appoint delegates to attend a County Convention at the old Courthouse on Onondaga Hill to take into consideration the reorganization of the Onondaga Baptist Association formed in 1825. For the first time, in 1833, all the Baptist Churches in Onondaga County would be united in one association "now so well known and esteemed by the Baptists of the State of New York as evidenced by the establishing of the headquarters of the State organization at Syracuse and the election of one of our faithful workers, T. Otto, as its president." On September 7, 1833, the Manlius Church voted to ask for dismission from the Madison Association to join the Onondaga Association.
Some of the Church Members wished for changes in the Articles of Faith and the Covenant of the Church. They wanted them to be expressed in more proper terms. Elder Morton took pains to revise them and presented them to the Church for acceptance at a Covenant Meeting on November 3, 1832. The revised version was apparently not entirely satisfactory as a Committee was formed to examine the new version and make changes.
On January 1, 1833, the Church met in Covenant Meeting. It was a busy day with Brothers and Sisters telling of their feelings toward Jesus Christ, renewing the Covenant, and hearing new members relate their Christian experiences. In addition, Marcena Stone, the fifth Church member recorded to have done so, related his exercises to the Church with reference to preaching the Gospel. The Church voted for him to improve his gift on January 12, 1833. On March 16, 1833, he improved his gift again. The Congregation was becoming impressed with his ability to preach and resolved "to give Brother Stone the right to improve his gift in trying to preach, wherever God in his Providence may seem to direct." Brother Stone was not mentioned again in the Church minutes.
Although there was no mention of the desire of Elder Morton to leave in 1833, or for the Church to have him leave, at the Annual Meeting of December 8, 1832, the Trustees were charged to obtain a minister of the Gospel after Elder Morton's time expired in March of 1833. Elder Morton remained active as pastor until June, 1833. He was Moderator at the meeting in June, 1833, when the request of Elder and Mrs. Bellamy (our new pastor and wife) to join the Church was granted and they were given the right hand of fellowship. There was a problem concerning the full payment of Elder Morton's salary. This was not a new problem for the Church. How the problem was, if it was, solved was not recorded.
At a special evening meeting on February 16, 1833, of the Pompey and Manlius Church and Society, with Elder Charles Morton as Moderator, the Church resolved to give Elder David Bellamy a call to take pastoral charge of the Church. Five Trustees, i.e., William Fillmore, Sheldon Graves, Moses Eells, Rogers Stilwell and James Sisson, were named a Committee to present the call. They were to state in their communication the probable amount the Church and Society should raise for his support ($350.00 per year.)
David Bellamy was born in 1806, the eldest of four brothers. He decided to go into business as a youth and in 1828 established himself as a merchant in Ellery, a small village in Central New York. He had been raised as a Baptist and although he had no formal Seminary training, he felt the call to join the Baptist Ministry in Ellery. We do not know when or where, but he was ordained. In 1833 he was living in Skaneateles and was a member of the Elbridge Baptist Church.
The Trustees were successful and Elder Bellamy positively answered their call. On June 1, 1833, the Church met with Elder Charles Morton as Moderator. A joint letter of membership was presented by Elder David Bellamy and his wife Eliza from the Elbridge Baptist Church showing their standing as members of that Church. Also stated was Elder Bellamy's character as a member of the clergy with a request to unite with us. The Congregation resolved that the request be granted and the right hand of fellowship was given to Elder and Mrs. Bellamy. Signifying a change in leadership (never was an interim between pastors so short), it was resolved that Elder Bellamy be our standing moderator in place of Elder Morton, resigned.
On June 30, 1833, the Lord's Day, a letter was read to the Congregation asking them to appoint delegates to sit in Council at the Fayetteville Meetinghouse on the third day of July next in the forenoon for the purpose of examining Brother John Taggert and to attend his ordination if the Council should think it expedient. Deacons Elias Stillwell and Hiram Smith and Brethren James Ray, William Fillmore, Moses Eells, James Sisson and Elijah Williams were the appointed Trustee Delegates. (Elder Bellamy was away at this time.) The Pompey and Manlius Church Delegation could not know it, but they were assisting in the examination and ordination of one of the future Elders of their own Church (1869-1873.) Brother J.W. Taggert was a Seminary student at the Hamilton Seminary as Elder Morton had been and supplied the Fayetteville Baptist Church. After completing his studies he was ordained as the third pastor of the Fayetteville Church and remained there until the Spring of 1835.
On August 3, 1833, the Church held a meeting for conference and prayer. The Church voted for a Committee of twelve whose duty would be to visit every member of the Church. They also resolved that the Friday before the next Covenant Meeting be appointed as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer, in view of the low estate of Zion, and that we meet on that day at 9 o'clock in the morning.
The Committee appointed on November 3, 1832, to examine the Articles of Faith and Covenant as corrected by Elder Charles Morton and to present them to the Church for their acceptance, was called on to report. Brother James Sisson reported that the Committee had met twice, did not agree, and because they could not, asked for a dismission, which was granted. Another Committee was appointed for the same purpose (Elder David Bellamy, James Sisson, Moses Eells, Elias Stilwell and Hiram Smith.)
On August 31, 1833, the Committee to visit all of the members of the Church reported, as did the Committee appointed to review the Articles of Faith and the Covenant. A decision on the latter was deferred until October 5, 1833. On September 7, 1833, the Church voted to ask a dismission of the Madison Association in order to join the Onondaga Association.
The Church was still hearing at least two sermons in these days. On the Lord's Days of September 15 and 22, 1833, the Church was requested to tarry a few moments after the afternoon preaching or discourses to attend to some business. Between the sessions on September 15, 1833, two new members were baptized and received the right hand of fellowship.
The Church was still busy investigating the sinning of its members. After the afternoon preaching on September 22, 1833, it tarried to hear a report from two Justices of the Peace of Onondaga County concerning the support of an unwed pregnant woman. The father was judged to be a member of the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church and was ordered by the Judges to pay eighty-eight cents to the overseers of the poor of the Town of Manlius for the support of the child (for as long as the child is supported by the town.) They found the woman to be in indigent circumstances and ordered the father to pay the overseers of the poor $25.00 for the sustenance of the mother, and other expenses at the sum of $5.00, Elija C. Rust and Daniel Gilbert, Justices. When the Church heard the report, the alleged father was excluded from the fellowship of the Church. At the same meeting Elder Bellamy and eight male delegates were chosen to attend the up-coming Onondaga Association Meeting.
On October 5, 1833, the Church met according to appointment and voted on several things of importance. For the first time, attendance at the New York State Baptist Convention was mentioned and Brothers J. Sisson, H. Millard and M. Eells were appointed delegates from Manlius. A letter was received by the Church from the former Pastor Elder Morton, who claimed that the Church owed him money for his last months as Elder. The Church also voted to adopt the new revised version of the Articles of Faith and Covenant and to have them printed.
On November 2, 1833, the Committee appointed to see to the presenting of the Articles and Covenant reported. Their report was filed, and the Committee was told to continue its work and to get the printing done "cheap."
While the Church was still very judgmental when sinning was concerned, it rallied to support families in need. Brother Blow's family had financial problems (unexplained), a Committee reported. (Brother Blow, sometimes written as Bleau, was Church custodian.) The report was accepted and the Church voted to support the family for six months. A subscription paper was circulated, which stated how much money was required, and according to the committee's best judgment what every member ought to pay for the family's support.
On November 30, 1833, at a regular Church Meeting, Elder Morton's claim was presented. A Committee was appointed to investigate and commit all testimony to writing and present it to the next Church Meeting. On December 21, 1833, the report on the claim was accepted. The Clerk tells us that we are to see the next page in the Church minutes for the report, but it is blank and we will not know the amount of or the outcome of his claim.
Elder J. W. Taggert of the Fayetteville Baptist Church also presented a claim against the Church of $8.00 for preaching two Sabbaths ($4.00 per Sabbath.) The Church showed how careful it was in the stewardship of its modest treasure and voted to give him the same that he paid for supplying his own pulpit at the same time which was $6.00 ($3.00 per Sabbath.) At the same meeting the Congregation resolved that every committee appointed by the Church shall make their report to the Church in writing, and every such report shall be recorded in the Church Book to be put on file by the Clerk. This was a good idea but probably not implemented, at least not in the Book of Records available for those years.
The Annual Meeting of the Church and Society was held on December 23, 1833. The members voted to raise by subscription $40.00 to be paid by the first day of February next (1834) to defray the expenses of the Church for wood, candles, and also to cancel a debt for last year's expenses. The Church voted for a meeting on the first Monday in January 1834, at the usual time of 10:30 to have a sermon, and expend, with other Baptist Churches, the rest of the day in fasting and prayer for the ambitious goal of conversion of the WORLD. This became a traditional "New Year" celebration for the Church for several years.
On February 1, 1834, at a regular meeting of the Church in the Conference Room, the Congregation voted to raise $10.00 by subscription for the purpose of defraying the expense of printing 500 copies of the new Articles of Faith and Covenant on writing paper. (Unfortunately, none of the 500 copies have survived.)
In a special meeting on March 18, 1834, the Congregation resolved that the Trustees be authorized to add to the subscription for the support of preaching for the present year, in proportion as already subscribed, enough to make up the deficiency of
said subscription. The Church also voted to have preaching for another year and to raise $350.00 for said purpose by subscription. The Church voted for the Trustees to call Elder Bellamy to preach another year (his second) for $350.00. Elder Bellamy accepted the call.
The Church met again on April 5, 1834, and voted to recommend that the Trustees take suitable measures to buy a house for the Church and Society. On May 3, 1834, in the Baptist Conference Room, the Church resolved that the Trustees be authorized to institute a subscription for the purpose of raising money to purchase a house and lot adjoining Nicholas P. Randall's property (a prominent Manlius lawyer) for the price of $400.00.
On the Lord's Day, June 20, 1834, the Church voted to give a letter of commendation and dismission to Sister Teresa Howard, she being about to leave America for Burmah (Burma) on a mission. Although some of our early pastors served as missionaries in Western New York State, Sister Howard is the first and only foreign missionary from our Church that was mentioned in the minutes.
On Saturday, November 1, 1834, the Church gathered for a Covenant Meeting. After the Brothers and Sisters had spoken it was resolved to appoint a Laboring Committee of six to stand four months for the purpose of looking into the state of the Church. If they should think fit or necessary to commence labours with any Brother or Sister, such matter of discipline should be brought before the Church as they should seem proper. Moses Eells, William Filmore, Elias Stilwell, Jesse Smith, Lauriston Fish and James Sisson were the said Committee.
At a regular Church Meeting on December 6, 1834, Brother Sisson made a statement respecting Brother George Richardson, who had made public statements about Elder Bellamy's preaching, which apparently were not complimentary. His case was referred to the Committee on Discipline. Brother Richardson was eventually forgiven because he later became a Trustee (Dec 8, 1843).
At the Annual Meeting on December 8, 1834, it was "resolved that we pay for the house purchased by Brothers Eells and Smith and direct the Trustees to take a deed in the name of the Church and Society." It was also resolved that the Trustees be authorized to institute a subscription to raise money to repair the house.
A special Church Meeting was called for March 4, 1835, at one o'clock in the afternoon. The Church unanimously voted to have preaching in the coming year commencing in the middle of May, and voted for a Committee (Hiram Smith, Horace Chapman, Lauriston Fish) to circulate a subscription for the purpose of hiring Elder Bellamy for another year. At a subsequent meeting it was resolved to raise $350.00 besides the use of a house for Elder Bellamy for preaching another year. The use of the house made the conditions more favorable and Elder Bellamy assented.
The Church regularly adjusted its rules and regulations, deleting some, changing others, and adding new ones. Except for the five hundred copies of the new Covenant, the additional rules, some of which would later be a part of a constitution, were not published for everyone to read and follow.
The policy for drinking alcohol changed from a resolution adopted on December 31, 1831, that recommended "to every member of the Church to entirely abstain from the use of ardent spirits except as a medicine, in case of body infirmity," to a demand, on April 4, 1835, that stated "we consider the use and traffic in ardent spirits as a drink an immorality; that no one shall be admitted to membership in the Church unless they consent to the above declaration and agree to practice accordingly."
Just as Elder Bellamy was arriving in Manlius, the first steps toward the creation of the Manlius Academy had begun. Azariah Smith and others enthusiastically supported the effort and the State Legislature approved its incorporation on April 13, 1835. Among the members of the first Board of Trustees were "four clergymen of the village, namely Algernon Holister, Castor Smith, David Bellamy and R. Houghton."
On September 5, 1835, Brother Alfred Bellamy, brother of Elder David Bellamy, presented to a Covenant Meeting of the Church a letter of commendation from the Baptist Church in Kingsbury, NY and requested permission to join the Manlius Church. His request was granted.
There were all kinds of stories told in the minutes of Church Meetings about members and their problems, some amusing, some heartbreaking. One unusual humorous story is about a pig that was stolen from a member of the Church by another member on October 5, 1835.
On October 5, 1835, the Church met in the conference room and voted to take up the case of discipline with Brother Schafer charged by Brother Ray with decoying a pig and claiming it as his own. Since all of the participants are called “Brother,” it can be assumed they were all members of the Baptist Church and Society in Manlius and Pompey. Brother Richman owned a pig. Brother Ray wanted to buy a pig. Brother Schafer wanted to sell Brother Ray a pig, but not having one of his own to sell, allegedly stole Brother Richman’s pig and sold it to Brother Ray. Brother Richman became aware of the loss of his pig. Hearing of the Schafer-Ray transaction, he became suspicious and visited Brother Bay’s pig pen, identified his pig and took it home. This particular pig must have had a definite look and/or personality since two other witnesses (Brother Evans and Williams) also identified the pig as Brother Richman’s. Brother Richman stated emphatically to Elder Bellamy, pastor of the Church at the time, that he know the pig as well as he did his own children. Brother Schafer was brought before the Church Meeting and accused of decoying a pig. If Brother Schafer defended himself his defense was not recorded in the minutes. The charge was sustained by the Church and the right hand of fellowship was withdrawn from the now ex-Brother Schafer.
On the first Saturday preceding the first Sabbath in December, 1835, Rufus King Bellamy, a second brother of Elder Bellamy, presented the Church a letter from the Baptist Church in Kingsbury with a request to join us. The request was granted and Rufus King received the right hand of fellowship from his brother Elder David Bellamy. At the same meeting Brother R. K. Bellamy "related the exercises of his mind with regard to preaching the gospel, and requested liberty to improve his gifts before the Church at some future time." The Church voted to hear him preach on Tuesday next at 7 o'clock P.M. Rufus Bellamy was the sixth male member of the Church to be interested in preaching.
On Saturday, February 6, 1836, Brother Colton was noted as having been "exercising" with regard to preaching and the Church appointed Thursday Evening next to hear him. Brother Colton was the seventh of Church Brothers with ambitions to preach the Gospel.
In the Spring of 1836 the minutes of the Church show that the Congregation was involved and interested in Church affairs on a state and national level. The Church was very upset (as were Baptist Churches in general) with a position (not stated) taken by the ruling Board of the American Bible Society. The Church passed a resolution to recommend that Baptist Bible Society and members withhold all donations to the American Bible Society if the Board actions are upheld by the Society as a whole. Elder Bellamy was appointed a delegate to the next ABC Convention in New York City when held.
Also in the Spring of 1836 Elder Bellamy received and accepted the call of the Church to preach the coming year, i.e., 1836-1837, his fourth. Although Treasurers of the Church had existed for some time, on September 3, 1836, the job was expanded with the Treasurer not only keeping records, paying bills, depositing money in a safe place, but acting as a collection agent as well. The new Treasurer's duty was to circulate subscriptions and use his best endeavours to obtain the full amount of every such subscription. For his efforts he was to be paid ten shillings a day, which he had to collect himself by circulating his own petition. Brother Lauriston Fish was the first of the new breed of treasurers. He was released by the Church on October 1, and replaced by Brother Ezra Ketchum.
On December 31, 1836, at a Covenant Meeting Lucy Ann (Clark) Eells, aged 15, (a niece of the Eells who lived with them) related her experience to the Church and was received as a candidate for baptism. Elder Bellamy baptized her at a Covenant Meeting on January 1, 1837. (Lucy Eells would become the second Mrs. Bellamy many years later.)
Reverend Bellamy received a call to preach to the Church May, 1837 to May, 1838 (for his fifth year). This time Elder Bellamy said he was not ready to accept the
call, but if he did he would have to have $550.00 and the use of the house. The Trustees accepted Elder Bellamy's conditions but deducted $50.00 from the $550.00 for the use of the house.
On September 3, 1837, Rufus King Bellamy, brother of Elder Bellamy, was among the group of four appointed to attend the Fall Meeting of the Onondaga Baptist Association. On September 23, 1838, a letter was granted to Brother Rufus King Bellamy. He later became ordained. We know he served as a Baptist minister in Chicopee Falls for 35 years. He had three sons, one of whom was Edward Bellamy, who became well known as the author of American Socialist Utopian Novels in the late 1800s.
In 1837 the Church had its first choir as the members voted on December 3, 1836, to employ Brother Palmer of Fayetteville to teach a singing school one hour a week and for leading the Choir half-time on the Sabbath. The Salary was $12.00 per week. At about the same time the Church recommended that Brother Blow be rehired as Custodian for 1837 "upon the same conditions as they did last year, and pay him in proportion for any additional time he shall spend for the singing school."
On March 24, 1838, at a special meeting the Church voted to sustain preaching for the ensuing year (May 15, 1838 to May 15, 1839). A Committee was appointed to wait on Elder Bellamy and present him with the call. Elder Bellamy this time was not prepared with an answer, but had several conditions that the Church had to meet if he would accept the call:
The Church then voted that a Committee of the Trustees and the Clerk be appointed for the purpose of corresponding with our own Pastor or other ministers of the Gospel for the purpose of procuring a Pastor for the ensuing year. (The name Pastor was taking the place of Elder.) The Church also voted to raise $550.00, payable quarterly, if Elder Bellamy accepts the call, including the house.
On April 4, 1838, a special meeting was held. After some ecclesiastical business was completed, Elder Bellamy stated that he was ready to give his answer to the Committee or to the Church. The Church voted that he should talk to the Church. He said he had made up his mind to stay for the 1838-1839 year, if the Church would comply with the previously stated requisitions and conditions. A Committee was appointed on the spot to confer on the subject. The Committee decided to comply with Elder Bellamy's wishes if the Church raise the salary by assessment or an average on the members. The Church voted to accept and adopt the report of the Committee. Elder Bellamy's services were secure for one more year, his sixth and last.
At a Covenant Meeting on September 1, 1838, a motion was made to rescind the assessment vote passed on April 4, 1838. After much discussion the motion was carried. The procedure finally adopted was to circulate a subscription. Any deficiency then would be raised by an average on the Church members according to their ability to pay.
On October, 1838 at a Church Meeting delegates were appointed to the Fall Onondaga Association Meeting and to the Baptist Convention. The Church resolved that as we shall raise money enough for the Convention this year, that the Convention be asked to constitute our Pastor Elder David Bellamy a Director for life.
Andrew Patch was the eighth man to have expressed an interest in preaching. Andrew Patch was received into Church membership on March 5, 1831, on the basis of a letter from the Baptist Church in Middlefield, N.Y. (Otsego County). His wife Hannah Patch was baptized by Elder Morton. Nothing more was written in the minutes about the Patches until January 3, 1835, when Brother Patch asked for a letter of dismission for himself and Mrs. Patch. Mrs. Patch was given one by vote. Brother Patch was refused a letter. He was not in good standing with the Church, because he had not paid his share of a $50.00 subscription for Elder Bellamy. In addition he was accused of being indiscreet in conversation, of manifesting a sort of jealousy toward some members, and a hardness, all inconsistent with the principles of religion. On March 8, 1835, a letter of confession from Brother Patch was read to the Church. The letter also contained another request for a letter of commendation. On March 15, 1835, the Church voted satisfied with Brother Patch and his letter and voted to give him a letter of dismissal. The Patches returned a second time to Manlius from Middlefield, New York, and the Baptist Church there. They presented a joint letter from the Middlefield Baptist Church and were accepted again as members in the Pompey and Manlius Church on April 15, 1837. Brother Patch now harbored ambitions for preaching and applied to the Church for a License to preach the Gospel. The subject was taken up at a regular meeting of the Church on February 2, 1838. After considerable conversation on the subject, the Brethren present voted seven, yes and two, no, to give Brother Patch a License. There was no information given on Brother Patch's future as a Licentiate.
In July, 1840, The Manlius Church received a communication from the Baptist Church in Ithaca. It stated that Elder and Mrs. Bellamy had united with them on receiving a letter from this Church. Elder Bellamy was widely known in Baptist Circles around the state as he served as the Clerk of the Baptist Missionary Convention of the State of New York (while Pastor at Manlius) in 1835 and 1836. He received an Honorary Degree from the Hamilton Seminary (Madison University) in 1849. His name is found in connection with the Hope Chapel Baptist Church in New York City and the Baptist Church in Clyde, New York. In 1852 Eliza Bellamy died. In 1854 Elder Bellamy married Lucy Ann Clark Eells, the same Lucy Eells he baptized on January 1, 1837, seventeen years previously. She was fourteen years younger than Elder Bellamy, who was now 48 years old. Elder Bellamy went to preach for a Baptist Church in Mount Morris, New York, where his only child, a son Francis, was born in 1855. In 1859 Elder Bellamy accepted a call to the First Baptist Church in Rome, New York. He died there in 1864 at the age of 58. According to Dr. John W. Baer in his book The Pledge of Allegiance: a Centennial History 1892-1992, he was for the Union in the Civil War (not surprising for a Northerner) and forecasted its victory on the basis of its superior manpower, manufacturing power, the economic interest of foreign nations and the spirit of the North. His son Francis was also an ordained Baptist Minister. He entered the Rochester Theological Seminary in 1876, graduated in 1880, and began his ministry in he Baptist Church of Little Falls, New York. He later won a lasting claim to fame by authoring the Pledge of Allegiance.
In the Spring of 1839 negotiations for Elder Bellamy's seventh year in the Pompey and Manlius Church should have been underway. However, at a special meeting of the Church and Society on April 9, 1839, Elder Bellamy prayed, after which he stated that on account of his health he thought it best for him not to engage for the ensuing year and that he should not consider himself a candidate for the pastoral care of the Church the ensuing year. The meeting voted to sustain preaching for the and appointed a Committee for the purpose of corresponding with the Ministers of the Gospel in the area for the purpose of procuring some one to preach to us another year. The committee members were: Brothers Moses Eells, Lauriston Fish, and James Sisson.
When Elder David Bellamy withdrew himself as a candidate for his seventh year of preaching in the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church because of ill health, the Church voted to sustain preaching for the coming year and appointed a Committee to find a worthy successor. Brothers Moses Eells, Laurenton Fish and James Sisson were asked to correspond with the Elders in the area to find one who would be interested in preaching in Manlius in 1839-1840. The Church voted on June 22, 1839, to raise $175.00 to pay for preaching for six months. The Church was without a full-time Elder until the Spring of 1840. During this time the Church voted on August 3, 1839 to call Elder Zenos Freeman. Elder Freeman rejected the call. The Church turned to Brother Edmund with a call on October 13, 1839, and he also said no. Since Brother Edmund and Elder Bellamy along with Bradford Sherwood, Daniel Weston, William Filmore, John White, and Rufus K. Bellamy were delegates from the Church to the 1839 Fall Onondaga Association Meeting, and the Church paid Brother Edmund's way, it appears that Brother Edmund might have been an interim Elder. As of January, 1840, Elder Bellamy was still in the area and he may have done some preaching in the Church also. He prayed at the January 4, 1840, Covenant Meeting and voiced his concern about money owed Jesse Smith, Moses Eells and Brother Edmund. A subscription was circulated for $130.00, which was to pay for debts due and for preaching until the first of February, 1840, or "thereabouts."
The next meeting in which the subject of calling a Pastor (Elder and Pastor were now both used titles for the spiritual leader of the Church) was on March 8, 1840. There were conversations on the subject of obtaining Elder William McCarthy (Clerk Hiram Smith spelled the name McArthy) as our Pastor. Every Brother present stated that he thought it was the duty of the Church to make an effort to obtain him. They felt that in so far that each had become acquainted with him, and so far as they have had opportunities to hear him preach, they were satisfied.
On March 8, 1840, in the Conference Room, the Church voted to call Elder William McCarthy of the Baptist Church in Paris, New York, to be its pastor. The Church members voted to raise $400.00, exclusive of the use of the parsonage house, for the purpose of sustaining Elder McCarthy for one year should he accept the call. The Church selected the Clerk, Hiram Smith, and William Fillmore, Moses Eells, James Sisson, Jesse Smith as a Committee to make the call to Elder McCarthy. Elder McCarthy accepted but perhaps on the advice of previous Elders asked for some alterations in the proposed terms:
The Church agreed to propositions 1 and 2, but did not vote on number 3. Those present, however, noted they would give towards furnishing wood.
On May 20, 1840, at a Covenant Meeting Elder William McCarthy and his wife Elmina presented letters from the Baptist Church in Paris, New York, (Paris is approximately eleven miles south of Utica) with a request to be received as members of the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church. The request was granted.
On August 1, 1840, letters of dismission were granted to Alfred Bellamy, Joseph Plank and wife, and Sister Grant and Susan Wright to form a branch of the Fayetteville Baptist Church in Chittenango. Alfred Bellamy was another of Elder Bellamy's brothers.
In the Fall of 1840 the Church was honored to be selected as hosts for the Onondaga Association (of Baptist Churches). A Committee was chosen to make arrangements to provide suitable accommodations for the members of the Association. There were no comments made concerning the Association Meeting in the minutes of the Church.
In the Annual Meeting of Dec. 8, 1840, wood for the fire was on the minds of the Trustees. The Church voted to spend $16.00 for wood for the ensuing year. Since wood was readily available and the Church used a considerable amount, the Church voted that anyone shall have the privilege of paying his proportion (of money) in wood, if paid by the first of January next (January 1, 1841) at the rate of $2.00 a cord. For the amount that had to be purchased for cash, a special committee was appointed to average the wood bill on the Church Members.
On January 2, 1841, the Congregation met for a Covenant Meeting and related their minds on the subject of religion. They agreed to meet again the following Monday for a day of fasting, prayer and again for the conversion of the world. This was the start of another unusual period in the Church's history of worship, somewhat reminiscent of the excitement generated in the special meetings during Elder Morton's Pastorate. The Clerk, Hiram Smith, described what was happening:
Monday, January 5, 1841. The Church met in the Conference Room for prayer and confession. Many of the brethren and sisters were melted into contrition before the Lord, who by His Spirit seemed to be working in the hearts of His children causing them to humble themselves before Him, and to pour out their souls in prayer and supplication and confessing them to the Lord and one another. In view of the feeling which was manifested, it was agreed that the Church would meet again on the morrow, which was done, and meetings were continued every evening from that time until the regular Church Meeting, which was held in the Conference Room on Saturday the 6th day of February, 1841.
On February 6, 1841, the state of religious feelings being such, the secular business was deferred and the time occupied in religious conversation and prayer. It was the opinion of the brethren and sisters that the present series of meetings ought to be continued. If they were, the Clerk did not record them in the Church minutes. However, as verification of what was happening, on March 6, 1841, at a Covenant Meeting 16 people related their experiences to the Church and 15 were accepted. On March 7, 1841, thirteen were baptized.
On March 29, 1841, at a special meeting of the Church, a motion was made and carried to give Elder William McCarthy a call to continue as leader for another year. Reverend McCarthy agreed. The salary was to be the same $400.00, and the Trustees had the problem of making up an extra $43.00 for the arrears on Reverend McCarthy's previous year's salary. The parsonage house (the first time the modern name for an Elder's house, "parsonage",was used) needed $40.00 worth of repairs. The Trustees were charged to get the work done immediately upon the faith of the Church. This meant apparently get the work done now and pay later. The repairs mentioned were to the roof which needed shingling.
On October 2, 1841, the Church was thinking about eliminating the afternoon service, which would still have left the morning and evening services. They voted not to give up the afternoon service except by a vote of the Church unless Providence seems to desire otherwise.
In all of the Church records thus far, the celebration of Christmas and Easter was never mentioned as being part of the religious program of the Church. Now on December 4, 1841, the Church voted that the Church observe Thanksgiving on Thursday next as recommended by Governor Seward of New York State; services to commence at 11:00 o'clock. It was also agreed that the Church have another singing school. A Committee was named to raise the money and hire a teacher.
On January 1, 1843, Elder William McCarthy gave notice to the Church that he had made up his mind to resign his pastoral charge at the expiration of the pastoral year, April 1, 1843. On March 26, 1843, the Lord's Day, letters of commendation for Reverend and Mrs. McCarthy were requested and granted. We do not know where and when Elder McCarthy was born or educated, where he went after he left Manlius, or when he died. The Madison University records show that Elder and Mrs. McCarthy had a son, also William McCarthy, who graduated in 1858 and also became a minister of the Gospel.
On September 3, 1836, the Church voted that the Treasurer would not only do the usual duties of a Treasurer, but would also act as a collecting agent. This apparently did not work out and on June 4, 1842, a separate collector was appointed for the Church and Society. The Church voted to pay the collector $1.75/day for necessary service and to appoint William Fillmore as collector.
On December 31, 1842, at a Covenant Meeting, the congregation voted to observe the first Monday in the new year as a day of fasting and prayer. This was a tradition in the early Church.
On February 4, 1843, Brothers Filmore and Eells were appointed a Committee to visit Elder Smitzer of the Fayetteville Baptist Church to see if he would become pastor of the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church. (In 1843 Elder Smitzer would be in his fourth year of a six year pastorate in the Fayetteville Baptist Church.) On Saturday April 1, 1843, a regular meeting of the Church was held in the Conference Room. The meeting was opened with prayer by Elder Spaulding. Obviously Elder Smitzer was not available. Elder Spaulding presented a letter of recommendation and proposed to unite with the Church. The Church voted to receive Elder Spaulding as a member, but there was no recorded vote to hire Elder Spaulding as Pastor of the Church.
Elder Spaulding was interested (as was Elder Morton) in promoting the Baptist cause in the Jamesville area. The Church voted that he have the privilege of calling a meeting of the brethren to commune at Jamesville, to hear experiences, if any should present themselves, and if the brethren present at such a meeting are satisfied as to their experiences and view of Church order and discipline, the Elder should have the privilege of baptizing them into the fellowship of their Church. On May 6, 1843, one resident of Jamesville, un-named in the records, related his experience to the Church and was baptized by Elder Spaulding.
The status of Elder Spaulding from April 1, 1843, until June 3, 1843, was not explained. It is possible he was here on trial, because it was not until the regular Church meeting held on June 3, 1843, that the Church voted to make an effort to sustain preaching the following year, and that a Committee of three (Jesse Smith, Sheldon Grover, and John White) was appointed to make the call to Elder Spaulding. The Church voted also that a subscription be drawn up and circulated for the purpose of “seeing how much we can raise for the support of Elder Spaulding should he consent to be our Pastor.” Although it was not reported, Elder Spaulding accepted the call. It was noted that Silas Spaulding, Pastor, was a delegate from the Manlius Church to the Onondaga Association Meeting in September, 1843.
The Church continued to have problems with raising money by the subscription system and started to resort to taking collections to supplement its income. On December 2, 1843, the Church voted to raise additional money for contingent expenses with a monthly collection the first Sunday of the month after every Church Meeting. Times may have been difficult financially since Elder Spaulding was only getting $300.00 a year plus use of the parsonage. (Elder Bellamy had been paid $550.00 plus use of the parsonage for his last year.) Besides the Elder's salary the Trustees had to arrange for custodial services, purchase of wood and candles for heat and light, and repairs to the Church and parsonage.
There were no comprehensive yearly Treasurer's reports, but for each Annual Meeting Report some bits of information were given. For 1843 the Trustees asked for $46.00 to cover the contingent expenses for custodial care, candles and wood in addition to the Elder's salary. In 1844 Annual Meeting Minutes the Treasurer reported that the year started with $4.00 in the Treasury for incidental expenses. He collected $7.59, spent for wine and candles the sum of $6.10 and had in his hand at the end of the year $5.49. It was suggested that the Church raise $20.00 for the 1845 expenses. The members present subscribed for the wood supply. At the December 8, 1845 Annual Meeting the Trustees were asked to settle with Elder Spaulding for his first two years of labor. They were to give him a note for the amount due. Nothing was done, however, and a special meeting was called in March, 1846, to arrange for paying the arrears, $231.00, out of his $600.00 salary ($300.00/year).
On January 6, 1844, the Church appointed Brother John White as a solicitor for the purpose of obtaining funds for the Foreign Missionary Society and the American Bible Society. At a meeting on Saturday, April 13, 1844, with Elder Spaulding, Moderator, the Church took up its regular business, the usual problems with sinning members. Then the Moderator retired from the room and Brother Ketchum took the chair. The Brethren expressed their views relative to calling Elder Spaulding for the 1844-1845 year and voted to call Elder Spaulding for a second year. They appointed a Committee of Moses Eells, Jesse Smith and Hiram Smith to wait on Elder Spaulding and present the call of the Church and report on Sunday, April 21, 1844. The Committee reported it had performed the duty assigned by the Church and that Elder Spaulding felt free to accept the call and would remain with the Church for a year (same conditions.) The Church voted that Brother Hiram Smith draw up a subscription for $300.00 to pay for his support.
Upper New York State in the 1800s seemed to be a breeding ground for new varieties of religious sects. During the summer of 1844 in the Town of Manlius there was a large encampment of Millerites, named for their leader William Miller, a former Baptist minister. He made a series of Biblical calculations and announced in 1831 that the end of the world would occur in 1843 or 1844. Many people sold their possessions and waited in anticipation. Their wait was, of course, in vain. Some were disillusioned, but others continued to meet as a denomination that would eventually be called the Seventh Day Adventists. Spiritualism, Mormonism and Perfectionism (the creed of the Oneida Community begun in 1848), all had their beginnings in upstate New York.
The date of the establishment of a Sabbath School in the Church was not recorded. The first mention of a Sabbath School was in the minutes of a meeting on Saturday, January 31, 1845. The Church voted to adjourn its meeting to "one week from tomorrow immediately after Sabbath School Services."
Methodist Hannah Ball started the first Sunday School in England in 1769. Robert Racheks, an Anglican, developed and popularized the concept on the streets of London. The purpose of the first American Sunday School was to reach the unchurched. In the nineteenth century the focus was on Christian Education for those already a part of the Church. The Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church pursued both objectives for a time with its Sunday School to educate its children and adults and satellite Sunday Schools to reach the unchurched or people in areas with as yet not local Churches.
The Onondaga Baptist Association was promoting the Sunday School in 1837 (and perhaps earlier.) It recommended the use of New England Baptist Sunday School Union materials until New York had such an organization. They recommended that each Baptist Church establish a Sunday School in each school district. An Onondaga Sunday School Society was organized for the promotion of the Sunday School enterprise. Later an association of the Town of Manlius Sunday Schools was established.
On Saturday, April 19, 1845, supplying the pulpit for another year (his third) was the main object of discussion. After Elder Spaulding prayed, Moses Eells was appointed Chairman of the meeting. Elder Spaulding stated the reason for the meeting. He said that he wished the Church to understand distinctly that he did not consider them under any obligation to him in consequence of his residing here, but wanted the Church to act as though he was entirely out of the way. Elder Spaulding was hired for his third year.
There was little mention of Elder Spaulding for the year 1845-1846. He was appointed a delegate to the Onondaga Association Meeting in September of 1845. There was no record of his being asked, but Elder Spaulding did serve a fourth year (1846-1847) as Elder. Elder Spaulding was obviously a second choice as Brothers White and Sweet were in contact with Elder John Smitzer now of the Chittenango and Sullivan Baptist Church, to ask whether he expected to leave Chittenango immediately or whether he expected to leave at the end of the year. In his written reply dated June 11, 1846, Elder Smitzer replied that he did not intend to leave immediately and that he could not say at present but that he should be guided by events that run the course of the year.
From March 6, 1846, to December 8, 1847, there were no entries in the record book so we know nothing of events that occurred during Elder Spaulding's final year. The last word from Elder Spaulding was dated August 13, 1847, requesting a settlement of his account with the Church. The Brethren thought they had settled with him before he left and, therefore, no action was taken. (Considering the Church's poor record of paying its Elders, Elder Spaulding was probably still owed money.)
Elder Spaulding is another of several Elders of the Church for which we have very little information. We do not know where he came from, where he went, his age, his marital status, his education.
There is no record of a Church vote to call Elder Alexander Smith to the pulpit of the Pompey and Manlius Church. He abruptly appeared in the Church minutes, with no introduction, as having baptized 23 men and women on March 7, 14, April 4, 11, and June 15, 1847. On July 3, 1847, at a Covenant Meeting the Reverend Alexander Smith presented a letter of dismission from the Honesdale Baptist Church, dated June 28, 1847, and requested membership in the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church. By motion Reverend Smith was voted to be received as a member. It was written that, as his ministerial duties have already begun, "we hope the union just formed will become a blessing to both Pastor and Church."
On September 4, 1847, Elder (the names Elder and Reverend and Pastor were now used interchangeably) Smith led a delegation of Brothers John White and Lauriston Fish to the Onondaga Association Meeting, which was held in the Second Baptist Church in Onondaga Hill on September 14 and 15, 1847. On December 8, 1847, the Annual Meeting of the Church was held in the Conference Room. Reverend Alexander Smith was the Moderator. The major piece of business was a motion to empower the Trustees to take proper and legal measures to sell the parsonage house and lot belonging to the Church and Society. No reasons were given. It is possible that the Church could not afford to keep up the property or that it needed the money from the sale to meet current expenses. The Church could no longer offer a rent-free house as part of the salary package for prospective pastors.
The Church has no legal papers for the sale of the parsonage. However, Dr. Thomas A Moore built a new home on the site (now 501 Seneca St.) in about 1854. The old parsonage was incorporated into the house as the east wing and used as his office. The east wing still stands in 2000, no longer used as an office but as part of the living quarters of the house. Dr. Moore became an active member of the Manlius Baptist Church. He was a Trustee, headed up the effort to remodel the Church in 1867-68, and championed the cause of Elder Nathan Wright, voted out as Elder of the Church in 1869. Dr. Moore was angered by the treatment of Elder Wright and left the Church in protest.
On August 5, 1848, at a regular Church meeting with Reverend Alexander as Moderator, a motion was made and carried to appoint a Superintendent of the Sabbath School. Melancthon Stillwell was nominated and elected unanimously. Because Deacons were elected for life, an election for one was a rare occasion. There was a vacancy in the summer of 1848. (Moses Eells resigned because of old age). A motion was made and carried that the Church appoint a Deacon by Ballot. Chancy Parker received six votes, Brother F. Weston one vote, and Brother Moses Eells one vote. Brother Parker was declared duly elected.
On September 19 and 20, 1848, the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church had the honor of hosting the Onondaga Association's Fall Meeting. It was the 24th anniversary meeting. Delegates appointed were Reverend Alexander Smith, Deacons Jesse Smith, George Richardson, Brethren Melancthon Stillwell, Franklin Weston and Moses Eells. Brethren Sheldon Graves, Hiram Smith, Chancy Parker, and Duwell Merrick were appointed a Committee for arrangements.
The member Churches of the Association usually wrote letters reporting conditions and progress in their Congregations. The letter from the Manlius and Pompey Baptist Church to the Fall meeting (in Manlius) was encouraging. The summary read, "Union prevails here, the faithful administration of the word is enjoyed and a deeper work of grace wrought in the hearts of believers. Some of their number have entered their rest. Their Sabbath School is flourishing."
The last mention of Reverend Alexander Smith in our records as a Pastor was on November 5, 1848, when he preached and baptized a girl named Mary. In 1849 it was mentioned that a note given by Elder Smith to the purchaser of the parsonage was transferred to the Church and Society as part payment for the debt due. The amount of the note was equal to the sum due Elder Smith for his last three months' service as Pastor. The Trustees were authorized to give up Elder Smith's note and obtain his receipt in full.
Reverend Alexander Smith joins Elders McCarthy and Spaulding as spiritual leaders of the Church for which we have little or no biographical information.
While Elder Smitzer was eagerly sought after to become the Elder of the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church and Society on at least two occasions, when he did agree to come to Manlius, the record keeping procedures for the Church failed (or records were lost) and there is little information about his calling or his service as Elder, or the events that took place in the Church. Elder Smitzer is only mentioned by name three times in the minutes available. On June 3, 1849, Elder Smitzer prayed at a Covenant Meeting. On September 12, 1849, he was appointed a delegate to the 1849 Fall Onondaga Association Meeting. In the Church letter to that meeting, the Clerk Hiram Smith reported that the Church was called to part with their former Pastor (Brother Alexander Smith), but subsequently secured the pastoral service of Brother John Smitzer in whom they (the Church) are happily united and whose labors have already proved a blessing in the conversion of many precious souls. In December, 1850, Elder Smitzer opened the Annual Meeting with prayer, after which he asked to be excused.
In 1850 a great interest of the Onondaga Association was manifested in the work of the Baptist Missionary Union. Although disclaiming the authority of the Association to dictate to member churches, they respectfully and earnestly requested the churches to raise certain sums of money for the cause. The amount requested from each church was listed. It varied from $10.00 from the smaller churches (i.e., Bridgeport), $75.00 from Manlius, and $200.00 from the largest churches, which were Fayetteville and Elbridge. The author lamented that only $722.00 was raised out of the total $1000.00 requested and said it showed that it was with our fathers even as it is with us: to pass resolutions was present (easy) with them but to perform that which was resolved was not. Several churches, however, "so abounded in liberality that they did more than was asked of them." Both the Fayetteville and Manlius Baptist Churches fell in the liberal category.
Several items of business were mentioned in the few notes available. In a July 5, 1851, meeting it was reported that the village served notice upon the Trustees to have the sidewalk in front of the meeting house and lot repaired. A committee of Brothers C. Parker and Sheldon Graves was appointed to look into buying insurance for the meeting house in some safe mutual insurance company. The Church, once again, voted to circulate a subscription for raising funds to employ a teacher of sacred music to teach a singing school in this Church from the present (July 1851) through the fall and winter.
In the minutes to the 1852 Onondaga Association Meeting the Clerk from Manlius wrote in the annual letter that "the last of the members who first composed the Church has died, one of a company of nine baptized in Limestone Creek, AD 1796, which was probably the first time a baptism took place there." The name of the member was not given.
There is information available concerning the size of the congregation during most of the years of its existence in the reports of the Church to the Madison Baptist Association and later to the Onondaga Baptist Association.
| Year | Elder | Members |
|---|---|---|
| 1796 | Baker | 9 |
| 1808 | Baker | 100 |
| 1837 | Bellamy | 50 |
| 1846 | Spaulding | 125 |
| 1853 | Smitzer | 120 |
Because of Elder Smitzer's other area pastorates, there is more biographical information for him than for other pastors of his era. According to the Centennial History of the Elbridge Baptist Church, Elder John Smitzer was born in New York City in 1799. He was baptized in the old Bethel Church in 1813, graduated from the Baptist Theological Seminary (New York City), held several important pastorates during his lifetime and baptized from 800-1000 people. Local Churches served were Pompey Center (1826-1833), Fayetteville (1839-1845), Chittenango-Sullivan (1845-1847), Manlius (1849-1852), and Pompey Center (1853-1855). His first pastorate in Pompey Center was during a remarkable time of growth for the Church. They reported a 600 member congregation with 160 scholars in the Sunday School and a 150 member Temperance Society. His otherwise successful stay in Fayetteville was marred by a split in the Church as abolitionists desired from the Church a more militant stance towards the abolition of slavery.
Elder John Smitzer was cited in the Centennial History of the Onondaga Baptist Association as being noted for effective preaching and Christian Consecration.
Elder George Devoll was never mentioned in any currently available records of the Church during his Pastorate. He came to Manlius as a licentiate in 1853. It is possible he was a Seminary student at Hamilton as was Elder Morton. There has been some question of the spelling of George W. Devoll's last name with some Church Historians spelling it Revoll and others Devoll. The Onondaga Association's minutes from September, 1854, however, listed George W. Devoll as the ordained minister from the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church and Society. The condensed version of the Pompey and Manlius annual letter to the Association noted that Brother Devoll was ordained Pastor on February, 1854. This was confirmed by a newspaper article, which appeared in The Central New Yorker, a Syracuse newspaper. The author had attended the ordination and felt that the relationship between the new Elder Devoll and the congregation was not as it should be, and that the practical relations between the Elder and congregation should not be severed for slight causes." (From the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church and Society folder at the Onondaga Historical Society archives.)
In the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church and Society letter to the Association (February, 1854) the Clerk described the Sabbath School and Bible Class small but pleasant, and reported that the Church was grateful for the small mercy drops which have fallen on them. Apparently, the author of the Central New Yorker article was correct in his observations since Elder Devoll's pastorate was of a very short duration. He left in the Spring of 1855. In the letter for the September 1855 meeting the Clerk reported the lack of a pastor (Elder Devoll left in the Spring of 1855) and that the Church kept up its prayer and conference meetings when they had no preaching. Brother Melancthon Stillwell, a licentiate, now preached to them. "The Church mourns over the low state of Zion."
Melancthon Stillwell, first recorded Sunday School Superintendant (August 5, 1848), was born at Eagle Village in 1814. He was a graduate of Hamilton College. He became the Principal of the Fayetteville and Baldwinsville Union Schools, after which he entered the study of the ministry. Owing to impaired health he was unable to continue the work which he believed he was called to do, although he did not relinquish his work for his Master. He was a devoted worker in the Sunday School and was Bible Class Teacher for many years boath at Manlius and Eagle Village and a Deacon of the Church (from the Fayetteille Recorder, February 15, 1894.)
Elder George H. Brigham was born in Eaton, New York, on August 13, 1823. At age 27 he entered the "Shorter Course" at Colgate University in Hamilton and graduated from its Theological Department in August, 1853. This was a big year for Brother Brigham with a graduation , a marriage (to Eliza A. Perry on August 25, 1853), an ordination (December 1853), and his first Church in Scipio, New York. He remained in Scipio through 1854, 1855, and part of 1856.
Elder George Brigham was reported as pastor of the Manlius Church in the minutes of the Onondaga Baptist Association's September, 1856, meeting. Our letter to the Association tells of "the Church being much encouraged under the labor of our newly settled pastor."
Although his life work elsewhere has been well documented, our knowledge of his stay with us suffers from gaps in our record keeping as described earlier. The record keeping for the Annual Meetings was resumed on December 8, 1857; therefore, we have records for two Annual Meeting (1857 and 1858) for which Elder G.H. Brigham was Moderator. Onondaga Baptist Association meeting notes show Elder George Brigham still to be our pastor at the time of the September 1859 Association Meeting. Our condensed report to the meeting tells us that:" The past year was not one of marked prosperity but of continued peace. We have enjoyed the privilege of visiting the water several times and are still enjoying the faithful labor of our pastor. We feel that his services have been the means of uniting us more closely int the bonds of Christian love and fellowship."
Elder George Brigham was pastor when the Church bought its second parsonage and lot (February 13, 1858) on the corner of North and Pleasant Streets, home of our present Church, and he was the first pastor to live there. He moved in on April 1, 1858. The only information we have about the parsonage (except for legal papers) is found in a nostalgic and humorous history entitled "The Old Baptist Parsonage" written by Mary Avery Woodworth. In her history Mrs. Avery reported that the parsonage was purchased by the Manlius Baptist Church from Mr. and Mrs Ebenezer Marvin on February 13, 1858 for $700.00. Mrs. Hannah Macumber, widow of Elihu Macumber was instrumental in financing the purchase. Mrs. Macumber gave $400.00 and the Church raised $300.00. While Mrs. Macumber was described by Mrs. Avery as a dear old lady with two colors of hair, Mrs. Macumber has a business sense and was realistic about the future of the Church. From the legal documents it was learned that the $400.00 which she gave had some strings attached. The money was given with the provision that if the Church neglected for three successive years to support the Church and Society and maintain preaching of the Gospel, the $400.00 was to be returned to Mrs. Macumber or her representative.
Mrs Avery apparently wrote to the Reverend who had lived in the old parsonage to learn of their experiences there. Reverend G. H. Brigham, the first pastor to live in the new parsonage, told of a pleasing tradition concerning it (the house) as follows: "A former owner raised in it a large family and upon each occasion of an addition to his family, he made an addition to the house." Apparently no children were born in the Parsonage because Mrs. Avery remarked that this was a plan of procedure upon which we had no occasion to act. It also explains why Yettie Harris later described the house as being "low and rambling." (Footnote:The Church has a photograph of the house in its historical collection. Mrs. Avery's history is reproduced in full in the appendix.)
Reverend George H. Brigham wrote that "our associations with the parsonage home, as by memory recalled, were very pleasant, with its ample room,- around us many friends who often brightened it, and cheered us by their presence and kindly words and deeds of encouragement. We enjoyed it as a home, perhaps as well as anyone in which we lived, and it was not without smothered feelings of regret that we left it for a home in a much wider field of labor."
Elder George Brigham left our Church in late 1859 to become pastor of the Homer Baptist Church, known as a Church that had enjoyed a great history of prominent pastors recognized as denominational leaders. He was said to be reluctant to candidate for such a prestigious Church, so the pastor who was leaving, Dr. Harvey, arranged an exchange without indicating his purpose to Homer Baptists or Mr. Brigham. The earnest sermon of the young stranger so captivated the people that he was unanimously and heartily called to preside over the (Homer) Church. He served there for seven years.
Elder George Brigham served as the District Secretary of the American Baptist Missionary Union for Ohio after an interim of preaching. In 1873 he became the District Secretary of the Mission Union (later known as the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society) in the Central New York Area and served for 20 years. Reverend John B. Calvert remembered, "He loved the cause of foreign mission, and in the twenty years of service he did the best work of his life." Rev. Calvert also described Elder Brigham as a preacher. "Br. Brigham was eminently a preacher of the Gospel. Like poets, preachers are born, not made. By his very constitution he seemed to have been ordained for this holy and exalted calling. His broad and deep sympathy, coupled with his rare intellectual furnishings, combined to fit him in a peculiar way for the work of the Gospel ministry. I recall, as many of you do, his quiet and gentle manner, his slow and measured speech, his intense earnestness and soul enkindling enthusiasm in the pulpit discourses as he warmed to his subject, and above all, the consecrated bearing and almost holy atmosphere that always attended the man. Br. Brigham was an orator in the true sense of the term."
Reverend John B. Calvert, a young colleague of Reverend Brigham, was impressed as a youth by the way that Reverend Brigham treated his horses. "Mr. Brigham, in the exercise of his pastoral duties was in my boyhood a frequent visitor to our home. Among the many incidents which come to my mind, there is one I recall with great vividness today. My people at the time were living on a farm at the north of Homer village. On the afternoon of a blustering winter day, Mr. and Mrs. Brigham drove up to the door. Mr. Brigham loved good horses, and he was the owner of a beautiful dappled bay, of which he was more careful than of himself. After he had gotten out and helped out Mrs. Brigham and tied his horse to the hitching post, he unfastened his fur muffler and with it wiped the snow from the neck and back of the horse before covering him with a blanket. My mother, who had been watching from the window where she was sewing, called me to her and said,`I want you to see how kind Mr. Brigham is to his horse, and I hope you will always remember, from seeing his act, that a merciful man is merciful to his beast.'"
Elder George Brigham was also a poet and often expressed his love for God in poetry. From 1881 until the end of his life, he lived nearby in Cortland, New York. He and his wife Eliza celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on August 25, 1903. Elder George Brigham died at the age of 87 on September 5, 1910. Information on Elder George Brigham's life is found in the book Rev. George H. Brigham, An Appreciation by Reverend John B. Calvert. There is a copy of this book and one of Rev. George Brigham's poetry, On the Sea of Galilee and Other Poems, in the Historical Room. In one of his poems, "The Time to Die," Elder Brigham wrote:
O let me not die in the winter time
When all is cold and drear
I would go from a bright and sunny clime
To one more bright and clear.
If September 5, 1910, was one of those beautiful days when summer lingers before the first killing frost, then Elder Brigham had his wish.
Elder Edward Pierson Brigham was born in Madison, New York, on August 11, 1828, a younger brother of George Howe Brigham. He began the "Scientific Course" in 1852 and graduated in 1855. In 1855 he also married Mary A. Hopkins of Lebanon, New York, and entered the Theological Seminary at Hamilton, New York, from which he graduated in 1857. He pastored Churches in Shusan (Washington County), Manlius, Camillus, Penn Yan, Wappinger Falls, and LeRoy. The seminary record reports that he "has baptized every year." His first wife died and he married Calista L Hayen while serving the PennYan Church.
There is little or no information in our Church record of Elder Edward Brigham's Pastorate in Manlius. The LeRoy Baptist Church and Society happened to have excellent records of his pastorate there and these records give an insight into his character and service later in his career. Elder Brigham came to the LeRoy Baptist Church from the Franklindale Baptist Church in Wappinger's Falls, New York. He was called to begin his pastorate in the Fall of 1870. (Salary of $1200.00 with a parsonage.) His letter of dismission from the Franklindale Church was voluntarily accompanied by a letter which read in part, "It affords us unspeakable pleasure to testify of our high appreciation of the labors of our pastor, in all his varied relations, and of our conviction that his ministry has been greatly blessed to the edification of the Church and congregation."
Elder Brigham's ministry in the LeRoy Baptist Church did not end on such a happy note. Although he was pastor at the time of the LeRoy Church's greatest membership to date (283 in 1871), he was dismissed (improperly) by the Elders and Deacons of the Church in 1876 for reasons not stated. He stayed in LeRoy for a time, where he made disparaging remarks about the newly installed Pastor, Elder Reed, which were at least partially true, but for which he later apologized. A Council was called to settle the issues. Elder D.D.Reed was also asked to resign as Pastor, and both Elder Reed and Elder Brigham were instructed to leave town as quickly as possible. (One of Elder Reed's sins was to have been baptized three times, which the Council termed "a moral delinquency meriting condemnation.") The congregation was reminded about the laws governing the removal of pastors, and was asked to avoid talking about the distressing circumstances and to work together harmoniously again. When Elder Edward Brigham left LeRoy he was 48 years old. Thus far no record of his later years of service have been found.
Elder Maynard preached as a licentiate in the Plank road Baptist church and was ordained there in 1855. The prayer of the Manlius Church was answered as Elder Maynard came to be Pastor later in 1861. He was the leader during a time of turmoil as the country was being torn apart by the issues of slavery and secession. He brought a wife, H., and daughter, F.H., with him.
(In the Church Clerk's roster of members only initials were given for the Maynard women.)
In the September 1862 minutes of the Onondaga Baptist Association, the Church reports, "We are blessed with the choice of a pastor and last winter enjoyed a precious revival." The Civil War was taking its toll, however. "Some of their number have gone forth to defend our government, one of whom has fallen with his face to the foe."
Mary Avery Woodworth tells us, "Its capacious rooms (the parsonage) were opened in their turn for the ladies of the village to make hospital supplies for our boys in blue in the war of the Great Rebellion." The Syracuse Journal of July 22, 1862, reports: "The Ladies Aid Societies of the area were formed early in the war and contributed material items to the volunteers. The South of Manlius Village made up a box of clothing and necessities, consisting of bed gowns, sheets, coats, towels, napkins, pillowcases, drawers, bandages, lint (a soft material for dressing wounds, procured by scraping or otherwise treating linen cloth.), socks, wrappers, slippers, sheets, dried fruit, etc., for the volunteers of the army of the peninsula. Reverend Maynard (our pastor) took charge of it and delivered it to those for whom it was intended."
In the Onondaga Baptist Association letter for 1864 Manlius Baptist Church Clerk wrote, "Amid the strife and excitement incident to the commotions of the times (Civil War), we live in peace, harmony and unity."
On September 2, 1865, the Church Clerk records (membership and problems) were resumed. The new book was continued until February 29, 1952, covering about 87 years. Hiram Smith was the Church Clerk before and after the gap in records, which leads one to believe that there is a record book missing that covered the period from 1850 to 1865.
There was a significant change in the tenor of the meeting notes when they became available again starting on September 2, 1865. The earlier meetings of the Church, especially Covenant Meetings, seemed to be concerned mainly with the sins and shortcomings of some of the church members, i.e., deviations from respectable personal behavior or from the accented spiritual tenets of the Church as set forth in the Church Covenant and the Articles of Faith. The sinners and their sins were recorded in the Church Minutes along with a record of the efforts made to encourage them to returan to God's Grace. After 1865 the problems were mainly with members not attending services or not supporting the Church. Drunkenness, lasciviousness, adultery, horse theft, blasphemy, heresy, etc., were hardly ever mentioned as sins of the members. Perhaps the area was becoming more civilized, or perhaps some of the more interesting problems were being handled privately by the Pastor and the Deacons.
On April 1, 1866, Elder Maynard notified the Church that he would close services at the end of the year for which he was engaged (the first Sabbath in May) and a committee of seven, E.G.Salisbury, Hiram Smith, Rufus Dunbar, I.N. Loomis,Jr., A. Lamb, and F.H. Dewey, was appointed to supply the pulpit and obtain a pastor. He preached his farewell sermon on May 6, 1866. On May 20, 1866, letters of dismission were given to Elder Maynard, his wife and daughter. There was no biographical information available for Elder Maynard.
The last information concerning Elder Maynard was found in the Personal column of the Manlius Department of the Weekly Recorder for May 11, 1893, which stated that Reverend A. Maynard, the old pastor of the Baptist Church will hereafter be found at the Masonic Home in Utica.
Elder Nathan Wright and his wife Mary A. Wright prior to 1866 were members of the Butler and Savannah Baptist Church, where Elder Wright was the Pastor. Elder Wright was invited to preach in Manlius on May 13, 1866, by the Search Committee with a view to his becoming pastor of the Manlius Church. The Church apparently was undecided and asked Elder Wright to preach again on the next Sabbath, May 20, 1866. He was engaged to supply the pulpit through the summer. After what appeared to be a two and a half month trial period, the Search Committee was instructed by the Congregation to engage Elder Wright as Pastor for the sum of $600.00 a year with the Church and Society to "stand pledged for the same." The Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church letter to the Onondaga Baptist Association Meeting reported that the Church had "settled Elder Nathan Wright as its Pastor and believed and prayed his coming among us may be for good." On October 6, 1866, Elder Nathan Wright and wife Mary A. presented their letters from the Butler and Savannah Baptist Church and they were accepted as members.
Times were changing and the Trustees were using coal instead of wood to heat the Church. Brothers Lamb and Williams were appointed a Committee to equalize the amount due for coal and a pump upon the Church Members.
Interest in the need for remodeling the Church must have been growing. At some time in the spring or summer of 1867, plans were being made for the changes and for raising money to pay for them. On July 9, 1867, in the evening at Smith Hall the ladies of the Church were to entertain the public with a strawberry and ice cream festival. The object was to raise money for furnishing the Church, when the remodeling was completed. They hoped the citizens of Manlius would turn out "en masse."
In August 1867, the Manlius correspondent for The Weekly Recorder (he signed his articles as Phoenix) wrote about an unusual wedding that happened in Pompey in the summer of 1867, "one which seldom happens even in Pompey." It was a golden wedding celebration for Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Newton Loomis (better known as the I. N. Loomises.) All of their children and grandchildren were there (with one exception.) Among those present were son I. N. Loomis, Jr. and Yettie Loomis, both also to live to ripe old ages and to be very prominent and involved members of the Baptist Church and Society in Manlius.
The Onondaga Baptist Association minutes of the 1867 Fall meeting showed concern with reuniting the nation at the end of the Civil War. Brother John Smitzer (Manlius Elder 1849-1854), now Secretary of the State Convention, resolved we invoke the blessings of God and the wisdom of the state in the great work of reconstruction and that we await the progress of events, meanwhile, performing our civil duties in the fear of God looking for the acknowledgement of universal manhood. The Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church reported that " a spirit of worldliness has greatly retarded our Christian progress....our pastor (Nathan Wright) held a series of meetings in an out-station (Eagle Village) which were signally blessed of God, where some thirty were hopefully converted. Thirteen were baptized into the Church while about a like number joined themselves to the various religious societies in the neighborhood." The Church also reported having a good Sunday School and supporting two prosperous mission schools.
Starting in the fall of 1867, "the old church" according to Mary Avery Woodworth was "thoroughly repaired. Dr. T.A.Moore, a Trustee, assisted greatly in the undertaking, sparing neither time nor money. From start to finish his patience and courage never failed. All gave with a will."
The Manlius and Pompey Fair was one of the biggest events in the village of Manlius. In 1867 the Fair was held on Thursday and Friday, September 26 and 27. The ladies of the Baptist Church and Society planned to erect a large and commodious tent on the Fairgrounds from which they would sell provisions and all the delicacies of the season as a great convenience and comfort to the multitudes (over 10,000 people attended the Fair on Friday, September 27) and to raise money to aid in buying furnishings for the newly remodeled church.
Phoenix, in the November 2, 1867, edition of The Weekly Recorder reported that the work on the outside of the Baptist Church was nearly completed. Among other things the vestibule was remodeled, having rounded sides. On December 2, 1867, he reported that "the bell had been put up in the Baptist church (and a nice sounding one it is, too); and they have put up the bell upon the top of the steeple and removed their scaffolds and the steeple now makes an imposing sight."
On the inside the galleries facing the pulpit were removed, the pulpit was moved to the north side of the sanctuary, the pews were necessarily reversed. A central chandelier took the place of the scattered lamps and a furnace in the cellar replaced the two wood stoves. As to the cost and the ability of the congregation to meet the new obligations, the September 1867 Onondaga Baptist Association Meeting notes report, "We are repairing our house at an expense of $4000.00 (total cost of Church in 1828, $2730.00). We shall complete it about January 1, 1868. We hold our meetings in the Town Hall."
Early in January, 1868, the young ladies of the Baptist Society continued their efforts to adorn and beautify and make comfortable their church. They held a festival of oysters and ice cream and earned over $100.00.
In February of 1868, the hardworking ladies of the Baptist Society presented for the Church and friends in the village an entertainment from which they collected $250.00 for Reverend Wright. (This was becoming a common practice among Churches to help pay for their Pastor's salary.)
The completed Baptist Church edifice was dedicated to the worship of God at the end of March, 1868, and the Society now held regular services in the Church. Phoenix reported that "the Elder, the Ladies more particularly, deserve much praise in the earnestness and zeal in which they have engaged in furnishing the house and it is now as fine a church as there is in town."
Manlius historian Henry C. Van Shaack, who wrote a rather disparaging account of the Church when it was built, now was pleased with what he saw. "Now you are fully apprised how much this edifice has been lately improved in all the respects I have mentioned. Our Baptist brethren have now the satisfaction of feeling they have risen much higher in the world, and knowing that they have, in the belfry of their nice little steeple (the steeple was Byzantine in style, supposedly an odd choice for 1868 Baptists; Rev. McPherson referred to the building as the "church of the golden acorn,") the clearest sounding bell in our village to proclaim their faith and their progress. Although I do not think their steeple is quite as high from the ground as the Methodist steeple, yet as their building is farther up the hill, I think their steeple reaches a trifle nearer to the sky than does the Methodist steeple; and I confidently expect, that when our Baptist friends repair again, that they will make a sure thing of it by adding another story to their steeple, for I know of no good reason why they have not just as good a right to use a little more wood than our Methodist brethren, as they have to use a little more water. (The Episcopal steeple reaches nearer to heaven than any of our churches which is all right enough, because it is the oldest.)"
Professor W.W. Clayton in his history of Onondaga County reported that "the remodeled church is a neat and commodious edifice, with a fine steeple and bell and everything about it is in good taste and modern style." Because of the unusual round shape of part of the steeple, Reverend Macpherson referred to the building as the Church of the Golden Onion.
On April 2, 1868, a Church Meeting was called to order at 3 o'clock for the purpose of renting seats to raise some money for the remodeling of the church, and also to vote "to see if we give Reverend Nathan Wright a call for another year." This was very late for this decision to be made. Nothing was recorded on renting the pews but a motion by S. Nixon amended by Hiram Smith would change the next ministerial year from May 1 to April 1 less one month pay and reduce the time for Elder Nathan Wright's next term to eleven months. This motion passed. A second motion was made and seconded that we give Elder Nathan Wright a call for one year, his third. The vote was 35 for, 15 against. This was a rather large negative vote and a harbinger of unpleasant things to come for Elder Wright and especially puzzling when just two months before the Church was very generous in raising money for Rev. Wright. Perhaps there was a gender gap in attitude towards Rev. Wright. The women raised the money, while some of the men were dissatisfied with his performance as Pastor.
In September of 1868, the Onondaga Baptist Association Meeting was held in
Manlius. "We bid the Association Christian welcome, praying that your meeting with us may by the blessing of God, be the means of inciting us to more activity. We have finished repairing our house of worship, having received sufficient contributions in money and pledges to pay the entire cost of repairs."
On Sunday, January 31, 1869, Elder Wright requested the members to tarry after church to attend to business. At the meeting the clerk offered a resolution that a special meeting be held Tuesday next at 2:00 p.m. to consider the subject of supplying the pulpit for the ensuing year and to take such actions as may be deemed necessary. In that meeting on February 2, 1869, with Dr. Harvey as chairman, a resolution was offered: "Resolved, that we deem it inexpedient to engage Mr. Elder Nathan Wright to continue his services as Pastor of this church after the First Sabbath in May next, at which time his engagement with us expires. H. Smith Church Clerk." Discussion was followed by a ballot taken of male members present. Forty-eight approved the resolution, two were against. The Deacons were to form a Committee to inform Elder Wright of the result.
A copy of the resolution made and adopted in the Church Meeting of February 2, 1869, was entered into the Church Record (minute book for annual meetings, etc.). Also entered was a record of a duly notified meeting of the Trustees of the Baptist Church and Society of Manlius. The Trustees present were A.P. Lamb, Deacon F. H. Dewey, Dr. T. A. Moore and G. J. Champlin. (G. L. Adsit was absent.) George Cole was the Clerk. They met at the H. Smith Shoe Shop. ( The Trustees often met in local stores for their evening meetings. The stores were heated and fuel was saved by not having to heat up part of the Church.) The purpose of the meeting was to ratify the proceedings of February 2, 1869, Church Meeting and to adopt the following resolutions: "Whereas resolved that we concur (A. P. Lamb, F. H. Dewey, G. J. Champlin) in this action of the Church and we hereby notify Reverend Wright that his official relations with us together with his salary as minister and his acceptance of the Parsonage will cease on the first Sabbath of May next." Geo. Cole, Clerk. Dr. T. A. Moore did not concur nor would have G. L. Adsit had he been present. Both Dr. Moore and Mr. and Mrs. Adsit left the Church as a result of the treatment of Elder Wright. We have no inkling of why the Church wanted to get rid of Elder Wright, but as stated previously, a large number voted (men only) and the vote was overwhelmingly against Elder Wright.
This lack of approval must have hurt Elder Wright rather badly, since at the March 6, 1869, Covenant Meeting, having been given the bad news, he said that feeling as he did, he should not administer Communion on the morrow (it being our regular Communion season) and so on March 7, 1869, there was no Communion. On May 2, 1869, after what must have been two very difficult months for both the Pastor and the Church, elder Wright preached his farewell sermon, but did not administer the Lord's Supper. Elder Wright wished to join the Delphi Baptist Church, but there was a problem in the method of transfer of membership. The Manlius Church gave Elder Wright a letter of commendation and based on that letter Delphi received Elder Wright as a member. According to the rule, however, a letter of commendation is not the same as a letter of
dismissal, which had not as yet been asked for by Elder Wright or the Delphi Church. How the problem was resolved was not recorded, although it was at approximately this time that Elder Wright became Pastor of the Pompey Baptist Church. (Reverend Wright was Pastor of the Pompey Baptist Church for approximately two years. In the Delphi news column in the Weekly Inquirer for January 20, 1870, it was reported that a donation for Rev. Wright was a very successful one and certainly well bestowed. It is possible Reverend Wright become the Pastor of the Delphi Baptist Church.)
In September of 1869, much of the good feeling in the Church was gone, along with Elder Nathan Wright and his wife. The Church reported in the Fall 1869 Onondaga Baptist Association Meeting that "during the past year we have had many joys and sorrows. We have passed through trials and difficulties. We have been without a Pastor since May last. Have somewhat weakened, financially and spiritually by a want of harmony between the Church and some individuals in the Society."
Although only two men voted against dismissing Elder Wright, some other members apparently were upset with the treatment of Elder Wright and there were repercussions as late as February, 1873. Dr. Moore, largely involved in the remodeling of the Church, felt he had been misused in the matter of dismissing Elder Wright and had withdrawn his support of the Church. Mrs. Moore related that she could not come to Church either if she could not contribute to expenses. Brother Adsit and his wife thought the Church did wrong in dismissing Elder Wright without advising with the Society, but the large vote at 2:00 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon must have meant most of the Congregation was aware of the proceedings.
From May until September 1869 the pulpit was filled many Sabbaths by the Pastors of sister Churches, by Rev. Dr. Harvey and others. (Letter to Onondaga Baptist Association Meeting September 1869.)
On September 19, 1869, Brother Melancthon Stilwell and the Trustees were appointed to call on Reverend J.W. Taggart for the purpose of ascertaining whether he would supply the pulpit for the remainder of the year or until April 1870. The Committee reported even better results, "that Elder Taggart would indeed supply the pulpit and take Pastoral charge of the Church." The Church then gave him a unanimous call to become their Pastor. Reverend Taggart was one of our older Pastors, when he came to serve the Church at the age of 64. On October 2, 1869, at a regular Church and Conference Meeting, Reverend Taggart and his wife, Harriet, were received as members from the First Baptist Church of Wheeling, West Virginia. A cordial and warm welcome was given them. Apparently, Reverend Taggart had forgiven us or forgotten that in 1833 we paid him $3.00/Sunday for supplying our pulpit when he asked for $4.00.
At the same Church Meeting and Conference, the members present resolved “hereafter we hold regular Church Meetings for business every alternate month, on the Saturday before the first Sabbath of the month, at which time all business matters related particularly to the Church shall be attended to. Also on every alternate month on the Saturday before the First Sabbath we will hold our regular Covenant Meeting for religious exercises only.” The new system was to start in November with a Covenant Meeting.
Joseph Wanton Taggart was born in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1805. He entered the Hamilton Seminary in 1828. He was called to the Fayetteville Baptist Church in 1832, where he was ordained on July 2, 1833, the same day he was married to Harriet M. Stilwell of Manlius. The Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church participated in the ordination. He stayed in the Fayetteville Church two years. His pastorates included Homer, First Baptist of Syracuse, 16th Baptist of New York City, Detroit, Michigan, without charge from 1861-66 (Civil War Duties?), and First Baptist of Wheeling, West Virginia.
There is a question about where Reverend and Mrs. Taggart lived during their stay in Manlius. Our letter to the Onondaga Baptist Association meeting of September 1870 reports that Reverend Taggart came here with the intention of making Manlius his home, but Mr. Mary Avery Woodworth does not mention him as occupying the parsonage after Elder Wright's stay. "Then came a reign of young men and bachelors and the old house had to be rented."
On March 5, 1870, Miss Yettie Loomis related her Christian experience and was received as a candidate for baptism. Miss Loomis was baptized, probably by Reverend Taggart, and later became the wife of Charles E. Harris, our pastor from 1877-1879.
Although there was no information given in the Church minutes about a change, apparently the pews, for which members paid money and received deeds saying the pew was theirs and their survivors for eternity, reverted to the ownership of the Church. In the April 1, 1870 edition of The Weekly Recorder (Fayetteville), there was printed the following notice: "Renting of the Pews. The Baptist Society rent the pews of their Church on Monday next at 1 o'clock P.M. All interested are expected to be at hand."
The report of the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church to the September, 1870, Onondaga Baptist Association Meeting told about a series of evening meetings held in the Church for which we have no other record. "We were blessed by the gentle outpouring of the Holy Spirit at a series of evening meetings. A number were converted. This was at a time when darkness seemed to be resting down on us... (we were) few in numbers and depressed in spirit. We bowed before the Lord, our prayers were answered in ways we least expected." The Clerk was pleased with the appointment of Reverend Taggart as Pastor. "His labors have been blessed. Sabbath School and Bible Classes (are) in successful operation.”
The practice of a Church renting pews was distasteful to the Manlius correspondent to The Weekly Enquirer (Fayetteville). He was pleased when the Church changed its policy. On May 4, 1871, he reported on the subject: "The Baptist Church Society in Manlius Village has made a very important and desirable arrangement in the seating of their Congregation. The seats are now all free and the clergyman is sustained by a liberal subscription of the members and patrons of the Society. This is a move in the right direction; all seats should be free in a house of worship, consequently, none will consider themselves intruding upon another in the house of worship. The wealthy and the lowly are equal in the sight of God, and all that seek him in faith believing shall truly find him."
The report to the September 1871 Meeting of the Onondaga Baptist Association was hopeful. "Although few in numbers, we enjoy faithful ministrations of the Word by our Pastor (Elder J. W. Taggart)." The Sabbath School was described as excellent. Members of the Church, old and young, were interested in Bible Classes. The Clerk ended the report with the hopeful statement, "We are not discouraged for we serve a Master who says, `Lo! I am with you always.'"
Reverend Taggart completed his pastorate here early in 1873. Reverend and Mrs. Taggarts' memberships were transferred to the First Baptist Church of Syracuse on August 17, 1873.
Reverend Taggart became Pastor of the Euclid Baptist Church in Clay, New York, and served from 1877-1880, until he became an invalid and moved to Syracuse. He died on September 3, 1893, at the age of 88. (Mrs. Taggart preceded him by two years into the "better land.") Reverend Taggart's passing was lamented in the Association Meeting of 1893. He was remembered for his wise counsel, kind sympathies, a devoted consecration to Christ and His Kingdom, and an unfailing courtesy and genial spirit which marked his Christian Character.
More financial details were beginning to find their way into the minutes. The Treasurer's Report for 1873 was as follows:
| Balance for 1872 | $ 20.59 |
| Rec'd during 1873 | $ 116.44 |
| Total Rec'd | $137.03 |
| Spent 1873 | $136.08 |
| Balance | $ .95 |
This must have been exclusive of the money paid to Rev. Taggart.
There was no record of the Church having appointed a Pulpit Committee to search for a Pastor. However, on April 20, 1873, Brother Crain was given a unanimous call by the Church to be its Pastor for one year at a salary of $800.00 per year (a record). On May 2, 1873, he was received as a member of this Church with a letter from the Stockbridge Baptist Church.
Brother Corydon S. Crain was born in Lenox, Massachusetts on December 21, 1848. He graduated from the Hamilton Seminary in 1870 and came to Manlius from the Stockbridge Baptist Church in Stockbridge, New York (approximately twelve miles north of Hamilton, N.Y. in Madison County. Corydon Crain apparently was not ordained, since he was called "Brother Crain." This meant, of course, that he could not perform Baptisms or serve Communion, which must have caused some problems for the Church.
While the Church was struggling to fill its pulpit, the Presbyterians across the street were apparently in even deeper trouble. On May 31, 1873, the Baptists resolved that we "cordially invite the members of the Presbyterian Church and Society to meet in our house of worship whenever in the providence of God they are destitute a minister to preach to them in their house of worship." Brother Corydon Crain and Deacon Dunham were resolved to be a Committee to present the above invitation to the offices of the said Church and Society. While this offer to share our services was probably an unselfish desire to help a struggling sister Church, there could also have been some hope of gaining members from a Church that might eventually have to close its doors.
There is an interesting parallel with the situation that existed later on in Fayetteville. There, as in Manlius, the Presbyterian and Baptist Churches were across the road from each other. They started meeting together because of a shortage of coal in 1918. In our case the Churches could have started meeting together because of a shortage of ministers. In Fayetteville the ultimate result was the formation of a United Church in 1933. In Manlius the Presbyterian Church simply closed its doors for five years from 1900-1905, then permanently in 1932.
At any rate, there was no indication that the offer was accepted. Ironically, the Baptist Church was coming into a period when they were experiencing just as serious difficulties of their own in filling the pulpit. Brother Corydon C. Crain was one of several revolving door preachers we had during these times. When the farewells were written in the Church minutes, the ink with which the welcome was written had scarcely dried. There was not enough time for the Pastor to get to know his Congregation or the
village well.
On August 17, 1873, Hiram Smith, the Church Clerk since February 2, 1833, and during the 15 year gap in Church minutes, offered his resignation. Action was deferred until the next Lord's Day, August 24, 1873; then again to "some week day,"which turned out to be Saturday, August 30, 1873, at 2 P.M. His resignation was accepted, and I. N. Loomis, brother of Yettie Loomis, was elected the new Church Clerk. Hiram Smith had served as Clerk for 40 years.
There is some information on Brother Crain's life after Manlius. He apparently was called to be Pastor of the Delphi Baptist Church. In the Delphi News section of The Weekly Recorder for Dec. 8, 1879, it was reported that a pound party at the Baptist Parsonage was held for the Benefit of Rev. Crain. There was a goodly number out. The ladies made Mr. Crain a very nice present of a cashmere dress pattern. Although the night was dark and muddy, they were disappointed in the number that were present. On January 15, 1880, it was reported that the members of the First Baptist Church (of Delphi) met to make arrangements for a donation for the benefit of Reverend Crain on January 23, 1880. All were invited to come and have a good time. Later, according to the Colgate University Seminary Alumni Record, he became an evangelist in the eastern and middle states, Canada, England, Ireland and Scotland. Later he lived in Boston, Massachusetts and was the editor of The Shepherd's Voice from 1890-1896.
Brother Crain's resignation as Pastor was read in Church on February 7, 1874, less than a year after he was called. The Church voted acceptance with the understanding that his resignation take effect at the expiration of the time for which he was engaged to serve. A Pulpit Committee consisting of Deacons Dewey and Dunham and Brother Hiram Smith was immediately appointed. On March 29, 1874, a letter of dismission was granted to Brother Crain.
The Manlius letter to the Onondaga Baptist Association Meeting in September 1874 reported that "prospects were not encouraging. We need a Pastor who will hunt up and reclaim the wandering and bury the dead. For such a man some will double their subscriptions." The delegates to that meeting were Clinton L. Scoville, a Church member and a licentiate, and Mary Avery. Mary Avery (later Mary Avery Woodworth) was the first woman that we have a record of attending Association Meetings from the Manlius Church. Discussions of Mission, Christian Education, and Children's organizations were becoming an important part of the Association programs. There were areas for which Church women were taking a large part of the responsibility and it was important that they be there to take part in the denominational planning of the activities.
On February 1, 1874, a Pulpit Committee was appointed to find a replacement for Brother Corydon Crain. The members were Deacons Dewey and Dunham and Brother Hiram Smith. By the Fall of 1874 they had found Reverend A. C. Ferguson, Pastor of the Union Springs, New York, Baptist Church. Although it is not mentioned in the records, the Church must have heard him preach and found him satisfactory. He was called as Pastor and he accepted. The Church agreed to pay him $12.00/ Sabbath and for him to use the name of (and facilities of) the Church for lectures in his own behalf. On January 2, 1875, Rev. Ferguson was received as a member on receipt of his letter from Union Springs, New York (near Auburn), Baptist Church. There was no mention of a Mrs. Ferguson, or Reverend Ferguson's birthplace, age, education or experience. (We do not even know his first name!)
Although there is very little information concerning Reverend Ferguson's Pastorate in Church Records, information found in the Fayetteville newspaper, The Weekly Recorder, indicates that he was a very active Pastor, both in his own Church and in cooperation with other Manlius Churches and Civic Leaders in the Village of Manlius. One of Reverend Ferguson's first activities was to organize a Young People's Literary Society late in the fall of 1874. The group included members from all denominations. They met often and the members entertained each other (and audiences) with music, readings both serious and humorous, and, at times, lectures.
On the last Sabbath evening in December, 1874, Pastor A. C. Ferguson delivered an illustrated address at a praise and promise meeting which also featured a Sabbath School Concert. Just a few days before Christmas Reverend Ferguson presided over the marriage of Miss Ella Champlin, a member of the Church, to Mr. John S. Hyman. He was said to have performed the ceremony "most impressively and beautifully."
On January 17, 1875, Reverend Ferguson exchanged pulpits with Reverend Shrimpton, the Baptist Minister from Fayetteville. On January 21, 1875, the ladies of the Manlius Baptist Church "put on" an Oyster Supper for the public at Smith Hall. They promised to serve their customers (un)conditionally, tenderly, faithfully, joyfully and smilingly. At the February 21, 1875, Sunday Evening Service the Congregation enjoyed a Sabbath School Concert and a Praise Meeting.
In its first months of existence the Literary Society was responsible for several evenings of entertainment for the citizens of Manlius. On January 28, 1875, the audience was entertained with dramatic and humorous recitals, ("The Two Graves at St. Helena" was recited beautifully and impressively by Miss Yettie Loomis), piano solos, and vocal solos by Reverend Ferguson. On March 10, 1875 the Literary Society met to hear a talk on "Items in My Trip to California" by Rev. M.S. Hard, Pastor of the Centenary Church of Syracuse. There was music by the Baptist Church of Fayetteville Choir, Rev. A. C.
Ferguson and others. The author of the report of this concert in The Weekly Recorder gave Rev. Ferguson "much due credit" for the untiring energy displayed in laboring for the Literary Society and giving to the people so rare a treat. On Wednesday Evening, March 24, 1875, the President, Rev. A. C. Ferguson, lectured the Literary Society on the subject of Physiognomy and the Signs of Character. (Physiognomy is the art of determining character or personal characteristics from the features of the face or the form of the body.) These concerts and lectures were given at meetings of the Literary Society to which outsiders were invited. Although Rev. Ferguson was permitted to arrange for paid entertainments on his own to augment his salary, there was never any mention of audiences paying to attend the Literary Society programs. In the absence of movies, radio and television people looked to live entertainment to brighten their lives. In the late 1800s the spelling bee became popular. In 1875 the "spelling fever" reached Manlius and several spelling bees (not just for children in those years) were held in the Manlius Baptist Church (April 17, May 1, May 5, 1875).
The Church as always was concerned with the plight of unfortunate people all around the world. On Sunday evening April 20, 1875, the Church united with other denominations (Presbyterian and Methodist) to hear of the need of those Kansas farmers whose crops were entirely destroyed by an invasion of hordes of grasshoppers. Forty three dollars was raised for their aid.
April was the customary time to renew a Pastor's contract. The Trustees "called and engaged A. C. Ferguson to be Pastor and Preacher of said Church during one year from April, the first Sabbath, to the first Sabbath of April 1876. And we engage him on the following terms, viz; we promise to pay him $12.00/week. Full arrangements to be made the first Sunday after the last Sabbath of each month." As an extra enticement "we also give him the use of our church edifice to the number of four times a year, on any occasion he may appoint that does not conflict with our regular Church meeting for a concert or lecture in the name of our Church interests. He is to take the responsibility of the said entertainment, and is to have all the profits of the same." On April 4, 1875, the above arrangements were ratified by the Church and Society.
July 4, 1875, fell on a Sunday. On Sunday Evening all of the Manlius Churches held a union service in the Baptist Church. Although it was announced as a praise meeting, it assumed another phase, that of the celebration of patriotism. Although Rev. Mr. Ball was supposed to speak, he became weary and asked Rev. Ferguson to take his place. Reverend Ferguson, apparently prepared, compared our nation with others in past history. Ours, he said, enjoyed Liberty, religious and secular, Independence of the individual citizen, Faith in the perpetuality of republican institutions, and Education for the masses. The first letters of the emphasized words spelled LIFE, which is dearest to every immortal being. The address of Reverend Ferguson was reported to have been “stirring, eloquent and brim full of patriotism.”
Our September 1875 Onondaga Baptist Association Meeting letter reported that under the labor of Pastor A. C. Ferguson, "We have been blessed. The Church has been revived and souls converted." The letter commented on the special concerts and lectures arranged by Pastor Ferguson. "The monthly concerts have been occasions for filling the house. During a portion of the year literary social gatherings have been held which were unusually interesting and profitable." Delegates to the Association Meeting were Reverend A. C. Ferguson, C. L. Scoville and wife, Deacon Dewey and wife and again, Mary Avery. There were few if any all male Manlius delegations to the Association meetings from then on.
In 1876 the nation celebrated its 100th birthday. It was reported in the January 12, 1876, Weekly Recorder that the quiet village awoke from Friday night's (December 31, 1875) slumber and gave 1876 an uproarious reception with the whistle of the paper-mill screeching, the church bells ringing, half-a-hundred boys (more or less) yelling accompanied by an anvil chorus. "We had rather an ear-splitting din for a time over the great centennial year." Some over-zealous young men entered the Baptist Church and rang the bell of that edifice so violently that it dropped from its perch to the floor, doing no serious damage, except breaking the pulley wheel.
The Baptists inspired by the leadership of Rev. Ferguson seemed inclined to celebrate as often as possible. They gave a Centennial Supper in Smith Hall on Wednesday, March 1, 1876. Although a fierce storm had hit the Manlius area, the hall was nearly filled. The event was described in the February 25th, 1876, Syracuse Journal and in the March 9, 1876, Weekly Recorder. The Hall itself was well decorated for the occasion. On the left side was a museum of antiquities including books and articles from revolutionary and older days, among them military arms in service during the revolution (“all to remind the guest of God‘s loving care in the past; He has not dealt so with any [other] nation). On the right side were items expressing our confidence in God for the present, “In God We Trust.” As part of the program thirty men, women, and children in costumes representing characters of the olden times appeared before the audience while the band played “The Star Spangled Banner.” Each character was introduced commencing with the Goddess of Liberty, Uncle Sam, Miss Columbia and General and Mrs. Washington. When supper was announced, Reverend A. C. Ferguson read a Psalm from a 230 year old Bible and gave thanks for the blessings of the Christian Republic. A series of tableaux were presented after dinner. A highlight was “The Wedding of Uncle Sam to Miss Columbia” with General and Mrs. Washington attending the Bride and Groom. The newspaper reported that the entertainment received the highest commendations from all in attendance and would long be remembered. The entertainment was so successful that the whole program was repeated on March 3, 1876.
Although not much was written about them, Brother C. L. Scoville and his family were members of the Manlius Church from an unknown date to December 24, 1876. Brother Scoville was a Licentiate (from a different Church) and when the Scovilles left the Church, the Trustees voted their thanks to him for his labors of love in preaching occasionally and for his untiring zeal in the cause of his Master. (The Scovilles returned to the Church from September 19, 1880, to May 30, 1886. He may have been serving a Church or Churches in his absence.) Brother Scoville was listed in the Onondaga Baptist Association's yearly directory of area ministers and licentiates until 1898.
Humorous stories were often put in the local papers to relieve the tedium of bad news. In one of the Weekly Recorders for the fall of 1876, it was reported that the latest thing in churches was a slate, left hanging in the church vestibule on which young ladies could register their names, number of pew and information as to whether they had company or not (brothers and parents did not count.) "The convenience of this plan must at once be evident to every young man."
Mosquitoes still abounded and their soothing music was heard to lull the wearied to gentle sleep. Mark Twain learned of the invention of a portable mosquito net and wrote "that the day was coming when we shall sit under our nets in church and slumber peacefully, while the discomfited flies club together and take it out on the minister. Happy day!”
No doubt the Baptist Church of Manlius and the citizens of Manlius were disappointed when Rev. A.C. Ferguson's stay became another of the short variety. On March 26, 1876, a letter was granted to Rev. A. C. Ferguson to join the Baptist Church of Pittsford Village near Rochester, New York. He closed his labors with the Manlius Church on Sunday, April 6, 1876. Representatives from all the other Church Societies were present. The "Independent Order of Rechabites" appeared in a body. The Weekly Recorder wrote that "his efforts in town, his energy and spirit will be sadly missed. He leaves with the benedictions of his many friends." No information has been found concerning Rev. Ferguson's life after his stay in Manlius.
Charles E. Harris was first mentioned in the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church and Society records as part of the delegation from the Church to an Onondaga Baptist Association Meeting on July 1, 1877. Although not ordained, he was called Reverend Harris in Manlius. The Manlius letter to the September 1877 Association Meeting stated, "We have no settled pastor. Our pulpit is supplied by Rev. E. E. Harris of Hamilton. These are dark days; pray for us that there be light ahead." (Hopefully Rev. Harris did not see a copy of the letter.)
The Church, as always, felt the need of a full-time ordained pastor. While Rev. Harris was "supplying" the Church, he was a full time student in the Colgate Seminary. Hamilton was approximately 30 miles away and in those days Rev. Harris could hardly journey back to Manlius for every need that a regular full-time pastor would fulfill. However, it appeared that the Congregation was grateful for what Rev. Harris could accomplish.
While the adults were commiserating about "dark days," the youth were alleviating the heat in the sultry days of early August with an Ice Cream Sociable. A young Baptist named Katherine reported the event in the August 9, 1877 Weekly Recorder: "The weather has been so sultry that the ice cream sociable under the auspices of the Baptist Society, held at Mrs. Chapman's on Pleasant Street last Tuesday evening, was very much in order. The evening was very favorable, being considerable cooler than several of its predecessors. The yard was well lighted with Chinese lanterns and reflectors; equally well furnished with camp stools and the Watervale Band discoursed sweet music. Under such pleasant circumstances with delicious cream to tempt the appetite, all ought to have been entertained. Thanks are due the band for their kindness in favoring us. It is a rather youthful band, for almost all are beginners and they have not practiced long. It is their custom to meet each Saturday evening to practice; and having attended several of these rehearsals we have greatly enjoyed them; in fact, we have not heard a village band in a long time that can surpass them. The young people of Manlius were largely represented, and particularly those of other denominations who came over to "Damascus" to help us. There was a lady and her brother from Fayetteville and several ladies from Pompey with somebody else's brother. We can but note that the gathering was in every way a financial success. We expected to see more of the good people of Fayetteville but were disappointed. Perhaps the Methodist picnic on the same day made some difference in their attendance. Undoubtedly we will give them a chance to attend some time when they can have no excuse for not coming." Katherine.
On February 10, 1878, at a Sunday Evening Service "considerable excitement was created at the Baptist Church by the falling of the chandelier. No other damage was done, however, than the breaking of several lamps and shades. The congregation dispersed in a hurry." Weekly Recorder- 2/14/1878.
In March 1878 the Church voted unanimously to invite Rev. Harris back to “preach with us the ensuing year,” his second. In addition, whether the Church was recognizing a Congregational desire for a lighter summer schedule, or giving Rev. Harris more time for his studies, it was resolved "that Rev Harris have a four to six week vacation and that he preach but once a Sabbath and all the other services on Sunday be dispensed with."
In September 1878 the Church Letter to the Onondaga Baptist Association stated, "We have carefully corrected our list of names and now know something or hear from all who belong to the Church. We have a good Sunday School." In the minutes of a Church Meeting held previously on October 6, 1877, the Clerk, I. N. Loomis, Jr., elaborated on the reasons for the correction. "The Church voted unanimously for a resolution that stated `Whereas many whose names are on our Church book as members of the Church do not meet with us or manifest any interest in the affairs of the Church and whereas we are taxed by the Association for certain purposes in proportion to the number of members reported by us, it was therefore resolved: If any member fail to meet with us or to communicate with us by letter, or to contribute to the support of the Gospel among us during any associational year (September to September), such person shall by such neglect forfeit his or her membership.'"
Our membership:
1875 94
1877 86
1878 58
Because of the constant difficulty in finding and keeping Elders, the early Church depended to a large extent for survival on the extraordinary efforts of some of its members, who came to be called “pillars” of the Church. Usually there was very little information available concerning their lives and works, especially for the earlier ones. An exception was William Fillmore. Because of his work for local governments as well as for the Church, and his stature in the community, The Weekly Recorder for November 7, 1878, published a long and informative biography of his life as an obituary. William Fillmore was born in the town of Milton, Saratoga County, New York, on June 8, 1786. The Fillmore family moved to Manlius in 1794 as some of the very early settlers. As a young man William was interested in military matters and became an Ensign in the local regiment. He married Mary Clark in 1812 with whom he had 12 children (a boon for the Sunday School.) William was highly respected in Manlius and was elected Constable for 13 years, and acted as Deputy and tax Collector. According to his obituary, in the fall of 1812, he “became impressed with religious convictions and made a profession of faith.” About a year later he was baptized and united himself with the Baptist Church, of which denomination he remained a consistent member until his death.” During his 65 years as a member he was an active participant in the programs of the Church, both spiritual and practical. He was Moderator of the Church Meeting in 1822 for the purpose of forming a Religious Corporation, and was one of the five men elected as Trustees for the new Corporation. As Trustee he was part of the Committee to circulate subscriptions for building the new church in 1828. He was the auctioneer when the pews were sold to the highest bidders and represented the Church at Association Meetings. Later he was elected a Deacon, and, as was the custom, remained a Deacon for life. William Fillmore (1786-1878) died on November 16, 1878. He was 92 years, 5 months and 8 days old. In his obituary it was written “as a Church Member, William Fillmore was best known and his influence most widely felt. He remained a consistent member until his death. He has departed to receive the reward of a well spent Christian life.”
On Sunday, December 4, 1878, Reverend Harris preached his farewell sermon. It was reported that he had preached acceptably for the past two years and that he goes from among us with the best wishes of a large circle of friends.
In December of 1878, there appeared in The Weekly Recorder one of the earlier reports of a Christmas celebration by the Manlius and Pompey Baptist Church and Society. On December 31, 1878, The Church gave a supper for the Sunday School children instead of a Christmas Tree. "The tables were bountifully spread with the goodies provided for the occasion, in the parlors of the Church, and taken all together, it passed off very pleasantly to all present"
In February of 1879 Reverend Harris paid a return visit to Manlius (probably one of several since he was now actively courting Miss Yettie Loomis, preceptress in the Senior Department of the Graded School in Manlius.) He occupied the pulpit of the Manlius Baptist Church on February 23, 1879.
On March 18, 1879, Reverend Charles E. Harris received a call to the First Baptist Church of Jackson, Michigan as Junior Pastor for one year. Reverend Harris graduated from the Hamilton Theological School in June 1879. He accepted the call to Michigan and was received as a minister on August 1, 1879, and on October 8, 1879, was ordained. The Manlius Church has a copy of his Ordination Certificate.
Ordinarily this might have been the end of our association with and knowledge of the future life of Reverend Harris, as has so often been the case with many of the younger pastors of the 1800s. This time things were different. After his ordination he came back to Manlius and on October 28, 1879, was married to Yettie Loomis, the eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. I. N. Loomis. The couple was married in the Loomis' home by the Rev. Dr. Harvey of Hamilton, New York. The Weekly Recorder noted that "they are both well and favorably known to our people. After receiving the congratulations and well wishes of their many friends, they departed for their future home in Jackson, Michigan. On December 5, 1879, Mrs. C. E. Harris was received into the Jackson Baptist Church by letter from the Manlius Baptist Church.
On May 5, 1880, the Jackson Baptist Church invited Brother Harris to become the Senior Pastor of the Church. He accepted but on October 10, 1880, he resigned. He and his wife were granted letters of dismissal to the Baptist Church in Port Huron, Michigan, where he served as Pastor from 1881-1888. According to the Jackson Baptist Church Records, Reverend Harris became the editor of the Michigan Christian Herald in Detroit, Michigan, probably in addition to his duties as Pastor of the Port Huron Baptist Church.
Charles E. Harris was born in Plattsburgh, New York, on November 11, 1848, to Thomas and Elizabeth Harris. We know something about the development of Charles E. Harris as a Christian, because of a Biographical Record he prepared for the Semi-Centennial of the Michigan Baptist State Convention while Pastor of the Port Huron Baptist Church. Asked about his early religious impressions, Reverend Harris wrote that they (and religious instructions) were received in Sabbath School. He wrote, “(I) can hardly remember the time when I did not find the necessity of and desirability of a hope in Jesus Christ.” Concerning Conversion and Baptism, he thought that he was hopefully converted at age 18 while living with the family of Reverend Levi Smith in West Plattsburgh, NY. He was baptized into the fellowship of the West Plattsburgh Baptist Church by Reverend Smith. Reverend Harris wrote that he had felt called to the ministry even before he accepted Christ, “but not till several years after my conversion did I finally yield (to) what I believe was the call of God, consent, and enter the work of the ministry.” Charles E. Harris was 23 years old when he entered Madison University and 27 years old when he entered the Hamilton Theological Seminary. He completed the Madison University program in 1876 and graduated from the Seminary in 1879.
From Port Huron, Michigan, Reverend and Mrs. Harris and family (Taylor Loomis and Rachel A.) moved to California where Reverend Harris accepted the Pastorate of the Baptist Church in Pasadena, California. He served there from 1888 until his death at the age of 45 on September 25, 1894. He left his wife Yettie Loomis Harris, and three children, Taylor Loomis, Rachel A. and Laura C. Harris. Laura was born on September 16, 1894, nine days before her father's death.
Yettie Harris brought Rachel and Laura back to Manlius where she and her family lived in the house on the north corner of North and Pleasant Street which she purchased from Reverend and Mrs. Barber and which is now the Newall-Fay Funeral Home. (Taylor stayed in California.) Mrs. Harris transferred her Church Membership back to the Manlius Baptist Church and will be mentioned many times in the future as part of Church history because she lived a long and active life (97 years) and made many contributions to the Church, personally as organist, Church Clerk, Sunday School teacher, leader of women's groups, and financially as a major contributor to the construction of the new Baptist Church in 1927 and for the expenses of the Church and the support of Missions.
Although she had an opportunity when she wrote the history of the Manlius Church for inclusion into the box of mementos placed in the cornerstone of the new church, Mrs. Harris did not elaborate on her husband's pastorate but modestly stated that "Reverend C. E. Harris was a student at Hamilton Theological Seminary who acted as supply for two years." We are indebted to Mary Avery Woodworth for insight into the character and personality of Reverend Harris. She wrote, "Rev. Harris came to us from the School of Prophets at Hamilton. A gifted young man having the courage of his convictions, a man of intense earnestness. If measured by years his life was short but if measured by sacrifice upon God's altar, then his life was rounded out to its completeness. He heard the home call and gladly going, left us a precious legacy of wife and children."
It is from information in Rev. Harris's handbook that we know he conducted his first marriage ceremony for Mary Avery and Alvah Woodworth on January 2, 1878, in Manlius. Our early Church Minutes do not mention or record marriages, and Mary Avery's was no exception. Mary Avery was our first woman delegate to the Onondaga Baptist Association meetings. As Mrs. Woodworth she served on many Church Committees, was a leader of Church Women's Groups and wrote a very important history of our second parsonage and gave us personal glimpses of those who occupied it. Rev. Harris conducted one marriage in Manlius (Woodward-Avery), 19 in Jackson, Michigan, 140 in Port Huron, Michigan, and 14 in Pasadena, California, for a total of 174 during his 15 years in the ministry. He also conducted 171 funerals during this time including one for an unnamed infant in Syracuse in July 1886. His last entry in his Pastor's handbook was for a funeral on January 27, 1894.
When Mrs. Harris came back to Manlius to live, she brought her husband's books with her. Eventually at least some of these were given to this Church and are kept in the Historical Room. All have been signed by C. E. Harris. One of the most interesting is Rev. Harris's personal copy of The Pastor's Complete Handbook and Register. It was a gift from a friend at the Baptist State Convention in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on October 20, 1879. It contained everything a young minister should know about baptism, comforting the sick, burying the dead, and visiting the unchurched. There were forms and ceremonies for every occasion, including his own handwritten version for the wedding ceremony. Best of all were his personal records of baptisms, visitations, marriages, and deaths with which he was involved during his pastorates.
| Reverend W. N. Thomas | 12/13/1879 to 7/24/1881 |
| Reverend H.S. Steelman | 11/01/1880 to 4/30/1881 |
| Melancthon Stilwell | 1/01/1880 to 7/1882 |
| H. A. Buzzell | 7/18/82 for 10 weeks |
| Reverend W. H. Hawley | 12/1882 to 5/1883 |
| Reverend E. M. Barber Supply | 1883 |
With the departure of Reverend Harris, considered a full-fledged Pastor of the Church (perhaps in deference to Mrs. Yettie Harris), the Church experienced a difficult time supplying the pulpit from 1879-1883.. A Pulpit Committee was appointed in June 1879. The members were Deacons Dewey and Dunham and Isaac Newton Loomis, Jr., the Church Clerk. They were fairly successful in filling the Pulpit on Sundays with capable preachers. Some were ordained pastors, some seminary students and others Church leaders. When no one else could be found, the Clerk read a sermon. Only on rare occasions was the church closed. What the Church sorely missed was the day to day presence and leadership of a full time Pastor.
Reverend W. H. Hawley was born in Charlotte, New York, on January 27, 1846. He received his education in the High School at Schenectady, Charlton Academy and Rutgers Academy. He married Miss Anna C. Lawrence in 1867. He was ordained in Johnstown, NY, Baptist Church in 1869, and was their pastor for four and a half years. He was pastor in Fort Edward, NY, for three years, the Adams, NY, Baptist Church for four years, and the Fayetteville, NY, Baptist Church for six years, at which time he left the ministry for a career in business.
It was reported in the January 16, 1879, Weekly Recorder that the Reverend W. N. Thomas had assumed the duties of Pastor of the Baptist Church in Manlius. There was no biographical information given. He was a young man and very likely also a Colgate Seminary Student. (The Weekly Recorder reporter from Manlius complimented Reverend Thomas for preaching a very able sermon on Sunday Evening, July 27, 1879, from Luke 10:47. He felt that although Reverend Thomas was a very young man , he was destined to soon hold a position with the most eloquent of his calling.) Reverend Thomas joined the Church on December 13, 1879. He was dismissed on July 24, 1881.
In February 1879 it was reported that the interior of the Baptist Church was being "overhauled and repaired" (work that may have been inspired by the falling chandelier). In the Feb 27, 1879, edition of The Weekly Recorder the readers were told that "the frescoeing of the Baptist Church will not be finished this week. Consequently, there will be no service on Sunday."
On April 13, 1879, former Pastor Reverend George H. Brigham of Syracuse, NY, returned to lead the Evening Service. On June 8, 1879, his brother and successor in Manlius, Reverend Edward Preston Brigham from New Woodstock, New York, occupied the pulpit for the morning service, administered the ordinance of Baptism to five persons by immersion in Limestone Creek in the afternoon, and finally at the Evening Service led the observance of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
On August 13, 1879, The Baptist Congregation and Sunday School picnicked in
Loomis' Grove. August 17, 1879, must have been a hot and sultry day. The Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches decided to dispense with their Sunday Evening Services.
In the fall of 1879 the Manlius crop of peaches was ripe and juicy, and the ladies of the Baptist Church held a Peach Festival at Smith's Hall on Thursday Evening, September 18, 1879. The Watervale Cornet Band entertained the visitors. The affair netted the Women's Society about $50.00.
At times other Reverends substituted for Reverend Thomas. Among those who preached were Reverend B. Morly of Lansing, Michigan, Reverend H. Brown of Centerville, NY and Reverend Steele of Hastings, NY. Reverend C. N. Pettingill of the Fayetteville Baptist Church preached on several occasion in the afternoon when the Church could not find someone to lead the regular morning and evening services.
In the Church letter to the Onondaga Baptist Association in the Fall of 1879, the Clerk wrote that "the faithful labors of our present supply are not without good results. As a Church we are working together and our Sunday School is well attended.
The absence of a full time ordained Pastor was reflected, however, in the lack of information from Church sources from 1879-1882. (Much of our information comes from the column devoted to Manlius news in The Weekly Recorder.) Only three Church Meetings were reported in the minutes of 1879, two in 1880 and 1881, and five for 1882. These were low numbers for a Church that conducted most of its business in Congregational Meetings.
In 1880 the Clerk I. N. Loomis, Jr., (also a member of the Pulpit Committee) was discouraged. He wrote in the Church letter to the Association, "Our pulpit has been occasionally supplied but the prospects are truly discouraging. We can guarantee so little to the support of a pastor that no one is invited to come here, yet there is little doubt that a good pastor would soon have a fair Congregation, and receive good support."
Worship on Thanksgiving for 1880 found the Presbyterians and Methodists assembled with the Baptists in the Baptist Church for services "appropriate to the day". Apparently Reverend W. N. Thomas had left the Church as Reverend Steelman was reported in late 1880 to be regularly supplying the Baptist pulpit. On December 20, 1880, Reverend Steelman's son was the supply pastor. In December 1880 the Manlius
Baptist Sunday School was provided a Christmas Program by the Church. I. N. Loomis, long time Sunday School Superintendent (as well as Clerk), was in charge. "The children indulged in short and appropriate literary exercises, after which they were distributed presents. Santa Claus, drawn in a chariot by two little pages, caused much merriment on the part of the little folks."
In 1881 the pulpit supply situation improved. The Clerk reported to the
Association that "our meetings have been regularly maintained during the year. Reverend Steelman supplied the pulpit for five months from November 1880 to March 1881. On Sunday, March 27, 1881, Reverend Steelman preached his farewell sermon. Brother Stilwell preached occasionally when able and at other times sermons were read by the Clerk." The Clerk also wrote, "Our prayer is that God in his mercy may revive us and turn the hearts of his people again into this field of labor." It is believed he was lamenting the shortage of ministers which was also a problem for many other Churches in the Association. Many of the Church letters to the Association in 1881 contained messages of sympathy for President Garfield’s family. President Garfield died September 19, 1881.
The winter of 1881 was a hard one. The Annual Meeting scheduled for December 8, 1881, was adjourned to December 20, then to December 27, and finally was held on January 3, 1882. One of the problems surely discussed was that some miscreant had pilfered considerable quantities of coal from the Baptist Church coal bin. The identity of the guilty party was known and he was warned that if he continued his depredations he would fall into the meshes of the law. On January 10, 1882, K. H. Preston and C H. Wood were asked to look into the condition of the parsonage barn and attend to the necessary repairs.
Minutes of the Onondaga Baptist Association were not available for 1882. Our Church Records show that on June 18, 1882, the Church turned again to the Colgate Theological Seminary and hired H. A. Buzzell, a Seminary student for ten weeks at $10.00 per Sunday. On August 27, 1882, it was recorded that Brother H. A. Buzzell continued to supply the pulpit every two weeks. In the September 28, 1882, edition of The Weekly Recorder, it was reported that Rev. Buzzell had resigned because of poor health.
W. H. Hawley later contracted locomotorataxia, a degenerative disease of the spinal cord, marked by a loss of control over muscular movements in walking and otherwise, which caused his early death on February 19, 1903. Reverend Eli M. Barber of the Manlius Church made one of the funeral addresses, setting forth the spiritual life of the deceased brother. He was said to have had a large heart, to have been generous, cordial, kind, sympathetic and an attractive speaker. His last words were, "I am dying. The peace of God be with you all." Rev Barber wrote one of his poems for the occasion:Friend after friend departs.
Who hath not lost a friend?
There is no union of human hearts.
That finds not here a friend.
Were this frail world our only rest
Living or dying, none were blest.
Late in 1882 the Baptist Church in Fayetteville came to the aid of the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church, as we had for them in the early 1830s when Reverend Charles C. Morton preached half-time to their Congregation for about a year. Reverend W. H. Hawley preached Sunday afternoon (2:30 P.M.) in Manlius from December 1882 until April 1883. In the Manlius letter to the September 1883 Onondaga Baptist Association Meeting, Clerk I. N. Loomis, Jr., reported that Reverend Hawley had kindly supplied us with preaching for several months. To show their appreciation for Reverend W. H. Hawley's assistance, on January 30, 1883, the Baptist Society gave a social for him at Smith Hall. The purpose was to raise money as a gift for him (and to have a good time.) There was a good attendance and a liberal supply of edibles, as well as money, was furnished for the occasion. The attendees were also entertained with "fine " singing. The net proceeds of $60.00 were given to Reverend Hawley. (This type of entertainment was used frequently in the late 1800s to raise extra money for the pastors of the Churches, or for Church programs or repairs.)
In the June 1, 1883, Weekly Recorder it was reported that the Baptist Congregation was making a serious effort to get a regular pastor, and that a subscription was "going the rounds" to raise money for that purpose. In July of 1883 a few of the rebellious youth of the village were looking for ways to irritate their Elders (even as now in the year 2004). The Fayetteville Weekly Recorder reported that some of the Youth in Manlius were attending several churches on Sunday Evenings and discharging tobacco juice on the carpets during services "and committing other unnamed misdemeanors within the sacred edifices."
On July 12, 1883, it was reported that Reverend E. M. Barber would occupy the Pulpit on Sunday, July 15, 1883, for the morning and evening services. Reverend Barber came back to supply the Pulpit on July 8, 15, 22, August 12 and 19. It was then announced that Reverend E. M. Barber had accepted a call from the Manlius Baptist Church.
Reverend Eli M. Barber of Fenner, New York, came to the Pompey and Manlius Baptist Church and Society as a supply pastor in May, 1883. This limited status may have been at his request because his health was a continuing problem during his long stay in Manlius. The Church, however, made an effort to settle him as a full-time pastor and was successful . On May 20, 1883, at a free conference after preaching, three women, Mrs. Armstrong, Mrs. Preston and Mrs. Morgan, were appointed a Committee to solicit subscriptions for the purpose of ascertaining how much could be raised for a salary for Rev. E. M. Barber. On September 23, 1883, during a Covenant Meeting and on a motion of Deacon Dewey, seconded by Deacon Dunham, Reverend E. M. Barber of Fenner was unanimously chosen pastor of this Church, date to be commenced about the middle of July last (July 15, 1883.) His salary for the first year was $400.00 and he received four weeks vacation. His pastorate, which lasted over twelve years, was to be one of the longest for a Manlius Baptist Minister.
Reverend E. M. Barber preached in the Manlius Baptist Church regularly from July, 1883 on. The Weekly Recorder’s Manlius correspondent , impressed by the increased activity in the Church, exclaimed with some exaggeration that the Congregation had increased 100 fold.
In 1883 monthly Covenant Meetings were still being held to prepare for Communion on the following Sunday. In addition midweek Prayer Meetings were scheduled. Prayer Meetings were first mentioned in a Church Meeting on November 17, 1821, when the Congregation voted “to have a Prayer Meeting in the future the Thursday before the stated Church Meeting in each month at one of the clock in the afternoon at such place as shall be agreed upon from time to time.” They were later mentioned in our letter to the Onondaga Baptist Association Meeting of September 1875. “Our Prayer Meetings have been instructive and profitable and many more have attended than formerly.” Our letter often mentioned the Prayer Meetings from then on possibly because of the Onondaga Baptist Association’s recommendation that the program for a working Church include:
By 1883 the Church was doing very well in all these areas of Christian development.
On Sunday, July 6, 1884, many of the Baptists attended an ice cream social at the home of G. S. Morgan. There was reported to have been present a “large and pleasant gathering.” Besides the ice cream there was another special event planned. Reverend E. M. Barber was presented a “beautiful” silk quilt and sofa pillow by Mrs. Mary A. Woodworth. She presented it to him as “the work of our hands, hoping that when He giveth his beloved sleep only pleasant dreams may come.” Reverend Barber, a bachelor, responded. He felt that he could not appreciate the gift as it ought to be appreciated, that “it needed a woman on his side of the house to understand fully and fittingly to respond to the graceful and beautiful presentation to which you have listened.” As to the lack of a wife to help appreciate the gift, he noted that in his last 20 years on earth (he was 41 years old) he had received a few gentle hints, to say the least, concerning the truth that it is not good for a man to be alone, but never so broad a one as this. He thanked the women sincerely for the gift. He said, “It shall be a reminder of my first year’s pleasant association and work in Manlius.”
On September 6, 1884, Reverend Barber presented his letter from the Cazenovia Baptist Church and was received as a member of the Manlius Baptist Church. In 1884 the Church continued the practice of sponsoring concerts for the enjoyment of the village of Manlius and also for raising money for the expenses of the church. A “grand concert” was scheduled by Mrs. E. F. Lake (who appeared to be directing the Baptist Choir at this time), assisted by Professor T. H. Hinton and other noted musicians of Syracuse and Manlius. Tickets were 25 cents and included refreshments to be served after the concert in the lecture room. The concert received mostly rave reviews in The Weekly Recorder. The reporter did feel that the tenor who sang while suffering from hoarseness didn’t have a very pleasing voice anyway. Another tenor, Mr. Rice, vainly attempted to sing “Let All Obey” but the accompaniment was written in a different key.
Easter Sunday (April 13, 1884) was clear and warm. It was reported that hundreds of Manlius citizens turned out to worship and be seen, “particularly the possessors of fine silks, satins and feathers.” The Weekly Recorder correspondent who couldn’t attend all of the services “assumed that the sermon in the Baptist Church was on the Resurrection of Christ and that Mrs. Lake sang the appropriate parts.”
Memorial Day, a day sacred to the memory of fallen soldiers, was formally observed in the village of Manlius for the first time in 1884. Because of the absence of the band on May 30, the services were postponed until May 31, 1884.
On Saturday, July 5, 1884, in the afternoon the Church held a Covenant Meeting. The Church was still hiring ministers one year at a time and at this meeting invited Reverend Barber to remain as pastor for a second year, at the same salary and with four weeks of vacation. Reverend Barber accepted the call. In the letter to the September, 1884 meeting of the Onondaga Baptist Association, the Church Clerk wrote that “while the car of time has moved us to the station one year nearer the end of the journey, we are favored with a conductor.” The people liked Reverend Barber so much that they prayed for him not to be coveted by any other Church. Their appreciation was evidenced by the fact that “attendance at preaching was greatly improved.”
On July 2, 1885, Reverend Barber baptized five persons in the creek. On the same day it was announced that after two years he would leave his charge at the Church and preach his farewell sermon on July 5, 1885. It was still customary to hire a pastor for one year at a time, and this would be the end of Reverend Barber’s second year in Manlius. The Congregation did not accept Reverend Barber’s resignation, and he bowed to their will and agreed to stay. He was given several weeks leave of absence to enjoy a time of rest with his parents in Fenner, NY. A candidate recommended by Dr. Harvey, Brother D. D. Forward of Bouckville, N. Y., was to supply the pulpit during Reverend Barber’s absence.
Reverend Barber returned to resume preaching on October 18, 1885. It was reported that the Church finances were in good condition, that the outlook was encouraging, and that the time off had renewed Reverend Barber’s health and strength. He was, however, still to preach only once on Sunday to lighten his preaching burden.
He was to be paid his former salary of $400.00 per year.
In the “things never change” category, The Weekly Recorder for Nov. 5, 1885, reported that a tattooing mania among the ladies has broken out in the city of New York. “An effort will be made to prevent the Manlius girls from giving their attention to the custom.”
On Tuesday evening, November 10, 1885, the Church presented to the village another evening of entertainment. Miss Ella Knight of Clyde, New York, presented a literary program. She was reported to be an elocutionist and impersonator of the first rank. The charge was 25 cents.
On Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 1885, the Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist Churches held Union Services. This year was the Presbyterians turn to host the services and Reverend E. M. Barber’s turn to deliver the sermon.
At times the Baptists had worked with a Mission Sunday School in Eagle Village. Details are sketchy but during the 1885 Christmas Season the Manlius Baptist and the Eagle Village School children met in the Baptist Church for “exercises of an entertaining character and the distribution of presents from the tree.” Later on Christmas Day (evening) the two schools met for a “Christmas Service and bower.”
The Ladies Aid Society was meeting at least monthly at member’s homes. Mrs. T. A. Moore (again active in the Church) was the president in 1886, and the Society was thought to be “in a prosperous condition.” The Young People met weekly on Sunday evenings before or after the Evening Service. The Baptist Sunday School held an annual picnic in different picnic spots around the area. (Green Lakes was one of the favorite destinations.) In 1886 the picnic was held on “Cozy Island,” a new resort near the southern boundary of the village of Manlius. Cozy Island was described in The Weekly Recorder published August 7, 1890, as “an island encircled by high hills which shut out the rest of the world, and so by its seclusion brings to the mind `Cozy.’ The island, in Limestone Creek, is well dotted in evergreens, with a beech here, a basswood there. Its solitudes are usually unbroken, except by the playing of the waters on all sides as they hasten down the rocky bed of the stream. It was in this charming spot less than one quarter of a mile off one of our main streets that a large number of people (not all children) found recreations and entertainment without expense or labor.”
There is always more to be done in the church besides attending meetings, services and social events. The church and the old parsonage continually needed repairs. On June 5, 1886, it was the church chimney that needed attention. The women of the Church were challenged in a another area of expertise as Mrs. T. A. Moore, Mrs. George Armstrong, and Mrs. Oliver Moulter were appointed a Committee to get the job done. Although it would still be many years before women would be able to vote again and be elected to Church Boards, their talents would be used in the meantime on a number of important appointed Committees. The September 1886 letter to the Onondaga Baptist Association was glowing with its comments concerning Pastor Barber and the progress of the Church “happily reunited and prosperous under our present pastor.” These and similar words were found in all of the Association letters written during Reverend Barber’s twelve plus years as Pastor.
On December 12, 1886, the Baptist Sunday School (assisted by choirs from several Churches) presented a Cantata “Under the Palms” (“The Flower Feast”). The Cantata illustrated the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles after the Captivity. “Everybody (in the audience) seemed delighted with the admirable manner in which the Cantata was produced.” The cost of admission was 20 cents.
Reverend Barber, still a bachelor, was held in high esteem by his Congregation. On New Year’s night, December 31, 1886, five gentlemen from the Church invaded his home and waited for him to return. (He was not living in the parsonage at this time. He had bought himself a home on the corner of North and Pleasant Streets, across from the parsonage.) At precisely 8:00P.M. Rev. Barber arrived to find his visitors. Brother Perkins rose to explain what was happening. He said he was not given to speech making but “we have come to thank you for the good you have done us by your kind words and your example as a clergyman, since you came among us, and in behalf of friends to present you with this slight token of our regard...... we hope you will be blessed with many Happy New Years.” Reverend Barber thanked the givers (representing a total of 35 people). He prized the gift not alone for the money but for their unexpected expression of regard, and for the spirit that promoted it. Later on the next Sabbath morning Reverend Barber was still glowing and spoke of the joy which came to him on the threshold of the New Year, a joy not equaled by any past experience. He hoped all of the names on the list of donors might be found upon the Lamb’s Book of Life, receiving at God’s hands the beautiful gift of eternal life. (The Congregation repeated the gesture on April 13, 1887, with another $25.00 gift.)
On Sunday evening, June 19, 1887, Reverend E. Barber preached a sermon to the Graduating Class of the Manlius High School in the Baptist Church. He spoke on “The Moral Beauty of Character” to a large Congregation. On October 9, 1887, Reverend Barber closed the fourth year of his ministry. He received a unanimous call to continue his labors and accepted.
At the Annual Meeting of the Church on December 12, 1887, the members made a determination to wipe out indebtedness. There was also concern about the possibility of Reverend Barber resigning . There apparently was a misunderstanding and Reverend Barber explained that what he had said was that he had resigned himself to stay another year. His explanation was said to have been “hailed with delight.”
“Christmas,” the writer in the holiday edition of The Weekly Recorder remarked, “of all Holidays, there is none so dear to all hearts as Christmas. It took years for the Christians in the Protestant Churches to warm up to the holiday, but when they did they went all out.” In the 1880s even Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus and their reindeer were imported to the festivities. The Baptists joined with the Presbyterians in December of 1887 and “all seemed to be in the merriest of humor.” “The church was crowded to its fullest capacity and a stranger could not distinguish between the `blue’ Presbyterian and the `hard shell’ Baptists, the latter who hadn’t allowed other denominations to commune with them except they have been `down into and under the water.’ ”
In 1887 and earlier the Manlius Church sponsored Young People’s Meetings held at 6:00 on Sunday before the Evening Church Service. January 17, 1888, however, the Church sponsored a meeting of the youth to discuss the possibility of organizing a chapter of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor. The Christian Endeavor movement was sweeping the country and even the world. The Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor was founded in 1881 by Francis E. Clock to promote “earnest Christian Life and to provide training for Christian Service.” Meetings were held weekly for devotions and monthly for “special considerations.” Their simple pledge was, “Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for strength, I promise Him I will strive to do whatever He would have me do.” The movement grew rapidly and by 1885 there was an international organization with 3.5 million youth, two-thirds of whom were in the United States and Canada. Christian Endeavor was non-denominational and included groups from most denominations.
In the early spring of 1888 diphtheria, a dreaded and very contagious disease, became a serious threat in Manlius and elsewhere. One method used to prevent the spread of this and other diseases was to quarantine the homes in which the disease was prevalent. In 1888 this included homes in the blocks on either side of the Baptist Church, and the church had to be closed for a time. The Presbyterians, with whom relations were very friendly (sharing Sunday night services, joint C. E. meeting, picnics and Christmas celebrations) offered the Baptists the use of their building for services until the disease abated.
On April 5, 1888, Mrs. O. Moulter and Reverend Barber were chosen a Committee to solicit funds to kalsomine and otherwise renovate the conference room of the church. On July 25, 1888, former pastor Reverend G. H. Brigham (Manlius Baptist Minister from 1856-59) of Cortland, New York, visited the Baptist Chapter of the YPSCE. The Weekly Recorder reported that if the saying “while we’ve youth in our hearts we can never grow old” is true, then in that sense, Reverend Brigham (65) was as young as any one else at the meeting. The group now called in Manlius the Christian Endeavor Society celebrated its first anniversary on February 2, 1889, with a supper at the home of Miss Sarah White. The Society was entertained with music, social games and conversation.
Second only to Christmas as a special time for the “little ones” was Children’s Day. The Weekly Recorder wrote “It is well that the Churches of our land have set apart a special day when the children may be taught in special lessons that Christ lived and died for them as well as their parents.” On Sunday, June 13, 1889, at the Baptist Church in Manlius the Children’s Day exercises took the place of the evening sermon., The stage was beautifully decorated with potted plants embanked in front of the pulpit. On either side cut flowers were arranged on stands. Crowning the pulpit were golden roses “suggestive of Him whose glory excelleth.” The program included prayer by the Pastor, a short message from the Sunday School Superintendent, singing, responsive readings, recitations by the children and a pleasing address by Pastor Barber. It was said that “the exercises of the evening, the sweet flowers, the singing birds and no thought of sorrow made one look beyond from our Sabbath home to the sweet endless Sabbath and wish that all might join in the universal chorus, Alleluia, Salvation, and Glory, and Power unto the Lord our God.(Rev 19:1)”
The people of the Church (and of the village) loved to get together socially in the summer and winter for parties, socials, entertainments and picnics. Hardly a week went by without an announcement in The Weekly Recorder of a social event or gathering of some kind in the Village. Picnicking was naturally a favorite summer event. On Tuesday, August 20, 1889, the Sunday Schools and the Knights Templar (a male benevolent society) enjoyed a picnic together in Green Lakes Park. Just four days later the unusual combination of the Village of Manlius Firemen and the Baptist and Methodist Churches organized an Everybody’s Picnic at Pleasant Beach on Saturday, August 24, 1889. It was announced in The Weekly Recorder that “the Firemen will go, the members of the Baptist and Methodist Sunday Schools will go ” (and the Episcopal Sunday School had been invited). “In fact, everybody who can go is going.” Transportation was by a train leaving at 8:41 A.M. The return left for Manlius at 6:00 P.M. from the picnic grounds.
The church buildings, inside and out, received considerable attention in 1890. The roof was painted on July 28, 1890. On September 19, 1890, the church was reported to have been renovated “inside.” The Ladies Aid Society decided to paper the inside of the church and Miss Sarah White and Mrs. C. W. Brown were sent to Syracuse to select the paper. Mr. Walrath of Fayetteville started papering on October 9, 1890, and promised to have the job completed by Sunday, October 12, 1890.
On October 1, 1890, Elder Eli M. Barber, Now approximately 51 years old, took the advice he had been given so often by friends, relatives and Church members (including Mrs. Woodward), and married Miss Ella Palmer (one of Fayetteville’s best known and popular young ladies.) The ceremony took place in the Palmer Homestead on North Burdick St. in Fayetteville and was conducted by Reverend A. C. Lyon of the Fayetteville Baptist Church. The couple honeymooned in Niagara Falls. The wedding was said to have been a notable event in this town where both the contracting partners were known and highly esteemed by everybody. Reverend Barber had lived in the Parsonage for a time. “Then,” according to Mary Avery Woodworth, “he bought a home where he could look askance at the old parsonage. The first thing he brought to make it look attractive was a Palm. The new species I believe is called a Palmer.” From then on Mrs. Barber became an active member of the Manlius Baptist Church. She worked with the Junior Christian Endeavor, the Women’s Groups and was a regular delegate to Onondaga Baptist Association. On December 6, 1890, Mrs. Barber was received into membership of the Manlius Baptist Church by letter from the Fayetteville Baptist Church.
In the Fall of 1890, the Evangelist Rev. John Fine held a two week Revival Meeting with the Baptist Church. The Meetings closed on November 9, 1890. One tangible result was the baptism on November 16, 1890, of 18 Baptists by Reverend Barber in the Lower Limestone Creek after Sunday school. The Weekly Recorder for November 20, 1890, reported that “the weather had been cloudy up to one-half an hour before the service began but “it cleared off bright and pleasant and remained so for the rest of the day. The water was very clear for this season of the year and everything conspired to render the occasion a very pleasant one. The number baptized was the largest at any one time in many years.”
Just two weeks later, on Sunday afternoon November 30, 1890, also after Sunday School, “quite a number repaired to the Limestone to witness the baptism of a young lady.” This time the weather was different. “ We awoke on Sunday morning to find about 8 inches of snow had fallen during the night. It was a most unusual sight for the ground was covered with snow and the candidate was dressed in white.”
In November 1890 Reverend Barber apparently in good health, started a new series of Tuesday Evening Studies devoted to Bible readings. Prayer Meeting on Thursday evenings continued. Sunday Evening Services were held jointly with the Presbyterians with the ministers alternating their preaching.
In the winter of 1891 a correspondent of The Weekly Recorder castigated the Protestant Churches (Episcopal, Baptist and Presbyterian) for failing to have their churches warm for the morning services. Several parties were said to have left services because of the cold. Conversely, by evening “it is liable to be so hot that the windows are lowered, letting zero air in on the heads of the audiences.” The Weekly Recorder hoped to be able to report better things in the future.
On Sunday evening, January 11, 1891, Reverend Barber gave the right hand of Fellowship to twenty new members at an “impressive and beautiful ceremony.” Afterwards the Lord’s Supper was served.
From time to time different diseases took a heavy toll, especially on the young, the weak and the old people of the community. In 1891 and 1892 the scourge called La Grippe hit the Syracuse area. The Weekly Recorder listed the names of many who were ill and some who had died. At times the churches were reported to be relatively deserted. Reverend Barber, whose health was already somewhat precarious was unable to preach at least two Sundays in January, 1892. It was announced that the Baptists would hold services, conducted by Pastor Barber if he is able, if not, by someone else. Reverend Barber was quoted as saying he had never felt so uncertain of himself after recovering from an illness as at this time.
Another donation meeting for Reverend E. M. Barber was held in Clark Hall on February 20, 1891. $101.06 was raised. Although the weather was anything but favorable, the Hall was so full one could scarcely elbow their way in or out.
The Baptist Chapter of the Christian Endeavor Society was finishing its third year and celebrated at the home of Hiram White on February 13, 1891. The Presbyterian Society was invited as well as all young people interested in joining the Society. The Baptist Society reported growing from 14 charter members to 48 active members and 32 associates. A Junior Society was organized on Sunday, May 3, 1891. Mrs. E. M. Barber, wife of Pastor Barber, was to organize and supervise the new group of 25 charter members between the ages of 6 and 13.
The old parsonage on North and Pleasant Street apparently had been rented for several years and was badly in need of repair. The Trustees were considering a plan of tearing down the old parsonage, building and replacing it with two or three houses to rent. The Trustees changed their minds and on December 17, 1891, were reported to have concluded to build one large double dwelling house for the purpose of renting it. Neither scheme came to fruition and in 1900-1901 a single family parsonage was built on the lot.
The Church in 1892 was having trouble paying bills and sometimes meeting Pastor Barber’s salary was difficult. The Trustees were authorized by the Church to appoint a Finance Committee of Professor Bullis, H. H. Perkins and Will Monk to solve the problem. On June 9, 1892, the Congregation resolved to clean the church and particularly the windows.
In the Fall of 1892, O.W. Moulter, F. Barton, Mrs. Charles Brown, Mrs. Patrick and Mrs. Newman were appointed a Committee to ascertain the possibilities of cushioning the pews. The cost was to be held under $200.00. The Trustees appointed another Committee on December 23, 1892, of O.W. Moulter and G.H. Tripp to look into the situation. They investigated the possibility of shortening the side pews because some people thought the aisles were too narrow. There was no report from the first Committee but the Trustee’s Committee recommended shortening the side pews by one foot. The cost, they said, would not be over $10.00 and having shorter pews meant shorter cushions and that would save about $25.00. The Trustees rejected the report of their own brothers and voted to leave the pews as they were.
The Sunday School sponsored an unusual event to raise money for the Church Cushion Fund. It was a U.S. Apron and Ice Cream Social to be held at the home of James Dean on August 31, 1892. The “flag” feature scheme was to collect aprons from all over the United States that had been made either by women of note or by well-known former residents of Manlius. The aprons were to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The proceeds would be added to the cushion fund.
Reverend Charles Harris and his wife Yettie and children visited Yettie Harris’s family, the Loomises, and friends in Manlius in September and October of 1892. He preached to the joint Presbyterian and Baptist congregations on Sunday evening, September 25, 1892. His subject was India and his sermon was said to have been “entertaining and instructive.” On October 2, 1892, he preached a sermon of “unusual interest and power” on the text “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, giveth I unto you.” This sounded like a valedictory, and it turned out to be just that, as this was very likely Reverend Harris’s last visit to Manlius.
Hiram Smith, a long time Clerk of the Church (February 2, 1883 to August 30, 1873, which included the mysterious fifteen year gap in written Church Minutes) died on Sunday, October 2, 1892, at the age of 92. He was said to have been clear minded, vigorous and industrious to the last. He was a businessman engaged in the boot and shoe business. He was at one time Justice of the Peace and Postmaster of Manlius. In politics he was an “unswerving and loyal” Democrat.
From The Weekly Recorder for October 27, 1892, and November 3, 1892, we get a rare glimpse of how the political scene sometimes affected the life of the Manlius Baptist Church. The Congregation was very resourceful and inventive in finding new subjects for parties or celebrations. Eighteen ninety-two was a national election year and Grover Cleveland (a New York Democrat and former youthful resident of Fayetteville), President William Henry Harrison (an Ohio Republican), and Mr. Bidwell and Mr. Cranfell (No Whiskey, a Prohibition Party,) were running for President. It was advertised as a Campaign Cupper to be served on November 3, 1892. The Bill of Fare (everything on the menu had to start with a capital “C”) included Cutely Carved Cold Cuts, Crinkled Chips, Cucumbers, Cider-Cured, and other Curious Compounds by Competent Cooks. The Compensation was 10 Cents. Of special note were the decorations. The hall was trimmed with red, white and blue festoons. Each political party was represented by a decorated table. The Republican table featured a grandfather’s hat of mammoth proportions (a symbol for William Henry Harrison). The Democratic Table had a crib “of good size” in which was placed a doll signifying “Baby Ruth”.(Baby Ruth was born in 1891 to the Clevelands, a year before Grover Cleveland was elected to his second term. She was beloved by the country and the famous Baby Ruth candy bar was named after her.) The Prohibition Party’s table featured pictures of candidates Bidwell and Cranfell. (The Female Suffrage ticket, Mrs. Victoria Claflen Woodhull Martin and her unnamed running mate, was only recently announced and no pictures were available.) The entertainment was declared to have been “out of sight” (an expression rediscovered by our youth in the 1980- 1990 period, which may have been inspired by the success of U.S. and Russian Space Missions.) The proceeds were approximately $37.00.
As the years of Reverend Barber’s tenure as Pastor increased, it seemed that our relationship with the Presbyterian Church just across the road from us got closer and closer. Union Evening Services were now the standard procedure. On Sunday evening, December 25, 1892, Christmas was observed by a Union Praise Service at the Presbyterian Church. The Monday evening service was of a “more secular character and especially adapted to the juvenile contingent.” H. B. Ransier, a “rapidly rising Manlius pharmacist”, and D. W. Allen prepared for the stage an old-time fireplace with andirons, hanging crane and kettles. The imitation of flame, smoke and steam so impressed the reporter that he proclaimed H. B. Ransier “a worthy rival in coloring and imagination to Reubens, Correggio and Michael Angelo”. Santa Claus came, gifts were presented, and there were recitations and singing. It was “a pleasant occasion long to be remembered.”
The Big Entertainment Event of the Year 1893 for the Baptists was the Washingtonian Banquet. The unusual feature of the Banquet that was brought to the attention of The Weekly Recorder readers was that it was inaugurated and carried out with no help from the ladies. As early as 1893 the women were accused of invading the proper sphere of man. “The masculine element in this instance has retaliated by assuming the duties of a position considered generally as being essentially feminine.” There was a marked contrast between the serious straight-laced life of the Baptist Church depicted in the Church minutes and what happened in the 1893. The Trustees and “others” met at the Depot on February 8, 1893, and decided that the Church would engage in a major fund-raising project to be called the Washingtonian Banquet, which would be held in Clark’s Hall in Manlius, New York, on February 21, 1893. (The Manlius Historical Society has not heard of Clark’s Hall, but it must have been quite larger to have held the crowd of 400-500 people that came to be fed and entertained.) The event was thoroughly organized by the Trustees (the rule was that the men do everything) with Supper, Entertainment, Reception, Decorations, Advertising, and Hall and Peace Committees with over 60 men involved. Pastor Barber was a member of the Reception Committee along with 22 others. All of the information concerning the banquet was professionally printed on a broadside (which has been reprinted in the appendix.) The cost was 10 cents for the entertainment alone. For 25 cents the meal was included. The profit was $65.67 of which $15.00 was spent for dishes for the next dinner. In the broadside which probably also doubled as a program, wry humor was interspersed with facts. For example, Napoleon XX was listed as a dishwasher. Arrangements were made with Doctors Killemquick and Kureawl to secure the comfort of the patrons. Oleomargarine was served mixed (with coloring) and bald headed (as is). Entertainment included music by the St. John’s Glee Club, impersonations and drama.
On Sunday morning, May 25, 1893, the Baptists arrived at the church to find the sanctuary full of smoke. There was no fire. The smoke was blamed on a “disarrangement” of the furnace. The Congregation must have surprised and pleased the Presbyterians when they walked across the street to join them in their morning worship service.
In June of 1983, the church had new carpets installed as well as new cushions for the seats. The church was thoroughly cleaned and, in the opinion of out -of-town artists was one of the prettiest churches in this region. On June 30, 1893, the church was again opened for the usual services. On July 2, 1893, the Church had an new Church Clerk. Isaac Newton Loomis resigned and H. H. Perkins took over his duties.
The Weekly Recorder correspondent for the Village of Manlius did an unusually good job of reporting Church News in 1893. He wrote condensed versions of several of Reverend Barber’s Sunday Sermons. From them we get an idea of the content of his Sermons which were reported to have been widely accepted by the people of Manlius. The synopses of the morning and evening services for July 13, 1893, are reproduced here:
“On Sunday morning, Rev. E. M. Barber preached from Matt. 14:17. His subject was: `The Kingdom of Heaven and the way into it.’ Where there is a Kingdom, there is a King and subjects. Men make a mistake when they think this Kingdom is continued to the other world. The text says `it is at hand.’ The purpose of Christ’s coming into the world was to form this Kingdom or Society, Himself the governing head and center, the members to follow where He points and be obedient to His word. The thought that the Kingdom is confined to the other world, will ruin any soul. The condition of entering is in repentance, or change in one’s mode of doing things. If we have thought sin a trivial thing, we are to change our mind on that, we must submit our views to His. It is humiliating to repent and confess one’s sin before men yet we expect to enter the Kingdom of Heaven when we die. He says, `Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things I say?’ It is one thing to be religious, another to be righteous.
In the evening, Mr. Barber preached in the Presbyterian Church. The theme was 'Summer in the Soul.’ The discourse was full of poetry and beautiful word picturing, comparing the lovely summer time, the sun bringing into life all things, with Christ in the soul making it beautiful, and productive of all good. There are afflictions, troubles, depressing seasons in the Christian life, but like the clouds of summer time they pass over, leaving us in the sunlight of God’s peace.”
One Sunday Evening Service a month, at least in 1893, was devoted to the causes of Mission. On July 30, 1893, Reverend Barber’s topic was the Indians of the United States. The needs of our red brothers and sisters were clearly set forth. Encouraging reports were read of the work already done for their benefit.
In the Late Fall of 1893, the gentlemen of the Baptist Church decided to try to repeat their Washingtonian Banquet’s success with a Marine Dinner. They advertised with a short poem:
Men-ny men of men-ny minds
Men-ny men of men-ny kinds
Men-ny fishes in the sea
Men-ny more for you and me
The Second Annual Banquet given by the men was held in the Baptist Church on November 30, 1893. It was a first-class marine dinner at very low rates. The diners were entertained with a unique and interesting literary programme, a demonstration of the superiority of man, established by proofs extending back to the time of Adam (who was a man). It was all in good humor, of course. The net receipts were about $30.00.
In 1893 one of the Women’s Missionary Groups adopted Mr. Gibbud as a missionary, renamed themselves the Gibbud Mission Band and held a Pound Social for his support. (Everyone was supposed to bring a pound of something useful to send to Mr. Gibbud to aid him in his work.) The group was not unmindful of the poor in their own village and Committees were chosen to look after them on Canal, Smith, and Pleasant Streets. Seneca and Washington Streets had not yet been provided with care takers.
The men of the Church, encouraged by their first two successful Annual Banquets, decided to have a third. It was held on February 20, 1894, this time in the store building west of Phillip’s Flour Mill where two whole floors had been filled up at great expense for this event, described as “a men’s festival, banquet, fair, jubilee, exhibition, exposition, bazaar, social, anniversary celebration, feast, entertainment, show, supper, make-money or unnamable exercises.” The men promised a grand supper and entertainment by a cornet band, a champion accordion player, banjo and guitar players, foreigners who will sing songs in their native languages and Yonan Shabaz, a native of Persia, who will set up a booth where he would show an 800 year old Syrian Bible, photographs and curiosities. The admission for entertainment (the Persian Booth was 10 cents extra) and dinner was 25 cents. The evening was judged to be another great success both socially and financially for the men and the proceeds were about $100.
In the Spring on April 30, 1894, Melancthon Stillwell died at the age of 80 in his old homestead in Eagle Village. He was a graduate of Hamilton College and Principal of the Fayetteville and Baldwinsville Union Schools. “He eventually entered into the study of the ministry but owing to impaired health he was unable to continue the work which he believed he was called to do although he did not relinquish his work for His Master.” He preached to the Church, was a devoted Sunday School Superintendent (the first), and teacher (both in the Manlius Church and in Eagle Village.) He was described as a very estimable man who will be greatly missed by all who knew him.
The Tribune Fresh Air Fund was already in place to help send needy city children to the country. A Committee from the Churches of Manlius met on June 5, 1894, to make plans to find homes for the “little ones” who have never seen anything but busy city streets.
While the Church was losing what we call “pillars” of the Church (Hiram Smith, Melancthon Stillwell and others) on October 17, 1894, at a Prayer Meeting, William Nightingale was received into the Church on his experience and was baptized on Sunday, October 21, 1894. Mrs. Nightingale’s membership was transferred from the First Baptist Church of Baldwinsville. This was the beginning of as remarkable and unparalleled record of 67 years of service to his Lord and his Church . He too would become a strong pillar of the Manlius Baptist Church.
In 1895 the Congregation felt the need for extra space for small meetings, dinners and other activities. The addition was apparently also to include a kitchen. There is very little written about this project in the Church meeting notes. However, in the rare instance in the early Church where we have a record of a pastor’s opinion on matters of this kind, Reverend Barber wrote a poem, “Improvements” , which described his feelings and preferences. Reverend Barber was said by local historians to have been a prolific poet whose works were often found in local newspapers. In his poems, both humorous and serious , we gain an insight into the character of Reverend Barber not available in older newspapers or Church Records. “Improvements” (see pages 14-16) let the Church know of his determination to have the new church addition on “God’s green earth and not in some dank, dark cellar.” “Trolleyitus Suburbanmeningitus” demonstrated that Reverend Barber was blessed with a sense of humor. The poem described the controversy over the possible replacement of the trolley car with buses. In a poem entitled “Dedicated to the Manlius Band”, we learn of Reverend Barber’s love of music especially as furnished by the Manlius Band on summer nights. “There is a place where we may go, on every Saturday night to throw our sorrows to the wind and troubles put to flight.” The Trolley Car and the Band poems are reproduced in the appendix.
When he first saw the inside of the church he wrote, “Walls were dark and bare, a dreary place for prayer. He felt a chill there of souls and place.” He did not want to come back again. Fortunately for the Church, he did, and then lived through the floor collapsing. This was apparently the worst thing that happened and from then on things improved. The question in 1895 was whether to build an addition in a remodeled cellar, which was characterized by Reverend Barber as “being dank and gloomy,” or to attach an addition to the east side of the church on the main floor - “on God’s green earth where all things lovely have their birth.” He felt that “it is a task we can assume, let us work with cheer and will and hold our faces to it, till it shall be fully done.” The Congregation listened to Reverend Barber, built the addition on the east side of the church, on God’s green earth. It was not built, however, until 1896, after Reverend Barber left the Church.
Manlius, June 5, 1895 E. M. Barber
Improvements
Room! more room! this is the cause.
Beneath the spur of Nature’s laws,
That brings us here tonight.
A kitchen to the room below!
Where things can come, where things can go
And willing hands, or quick or slow,
Can work with all their might.
2
All are indebted to the past;
We make no change, without we cast
A lingering backward gaze.
Twelve years! since the pastor followed where
They led him to that place of prayer.
The floors & walls were dark & bare;
A dreary place, he thought, for prayer,
Much more for heart-felt-praise.
3
He felt the chill of souls & place,
And did not care his way to trace,
Back to that room again.
But back he went; & through the years!
And through alternate hopes and fears,
Through mingled joys & smiles & tears,
And changes glad, since then.
4
Quite soon, one half the floor fell through:
And one long, silent breath we drew
At what would next occur.
But soon, a carpenter drew near;
New boards & beams our sight did cheer;
His hammer sounded strong & clear;
God bless the carpenter!
5
Then one good woman came & spread
“To ease the pastor’s knees” she said,
“When he should kneel to pray,”
A strip of carpet on the floor.
It eased his mind; it cheered him more.
The thoughtfulness was worth far more
Than any knew that day.
6
Then, on the sides, & overhead,
Good kalsomine & paint were spread,
To meet the earnest calls:
A paper border broad & neat,
Of apple-blossoms fair & sweet,
The lifted eyes with pleasure greet,
Above the tinted walls.
7
This seemed to meet the present need.
Some years went by: & then indeed,
A project new was planned.
A carpet now for every knee.
Covering all the room should be,
And all must instantly agree,
To lend a helping hand.8
A carpet firm, of woven strands
Torn off & sewed by patient hands,
Was laid upon the floor.
Tis seen to-day; while some who wrought,
And for the fabric planned & thought,
And gladly in the making talked
Are with us now no more.
9Then. afterward, before we thought,
Some paper for the walls was bought:
And , stranger still to say,
The good old organ walked down stairs,
And the Endeavorers bought new chairs
And the old room seems otherwheres,
Than on that distant day.
10
Thus, one by one, improvements came,
Until the place seems not the same
The pastor saw at first.
Tis now, indeed, a place of prayer:
The Holy Spirit enters there,
Hallowed memories center there,
And Christian friendship sweet & rare,
To quench the soul’s deep thirst.
11
But still, improvement calls us on:
And what, & how, & when be done;
Facts for our common sense:
Would it be wise to build below,
When, as we all must clearly know
We should not just be pleased, although
Twere built at less expense.
12
We’ve room above, on His green earth,
When all things lovely have their birth
Beneath the quickning sun.
Then let us rise & build the room
Beyond the basement damp & gloom:
It is a task we can assume,
And let us work with cheer & will
And hold our faces to it, till
If shall be fully done.
On July 4, 1895, Mrs. Yettie Harris and her oldest daughter Rachel A. Harris were received into full membership by letter from the First Baptist Church of Pasadena, California. Rachel Harris had been baptized by her father on January 7, 1894. At this time, Laura was approximately one year old. (It appears that their son Taylor Loomis Harris stayed in California.)
On September 8, 1895, Reverend Barber, at the relatively youthful age of 56, again tendered his resignation, to be effective on the second Sunday in October, 1895., Our letter to the Onondaga Baptist Association meeting of September 9, 1895, reported that our work still goes on and that our earnest prayer is that the Holy Spirit and our beloved pastor may remain and abide with us.
After receiving the resignation of Reverend Barber, the Congregation met on September 22, 1895, at the close of the morning service to take action. The Congregation apparently was reluctant to accept Reverend Barber’s offer to resign and a Committee of Deacon Dunham, H. E. Ransier (Chairman), H. H. Perkins and G. W. Tripp was appointed to visit Reverend Barber. They reported that if the Church gave Reverend Barber one or one and a half years and if the Church could keep up the regular interest, Reverend Barber would, if his health was restored, return to us if we wanted him. There was no further recorded discussion of the possibility of waiting for Reverend Barber’s health to return. Probably there were too many ifs involved. On Friday evening, Dec. 10, 1895, the Barbers were given a farewell at the home of H. D. White. All were cordially invited to be present.
Reverend and Mrs. Barber sold their home on the corner of North and Pleasant Street to Yettie Harris and moved to Fayetteville. On September 15, 1901, their membership was transferred to the Fayetteville Baptist church. Of Reverend Barber’s years as pastor, Yettie Harris wrote: “For twelve years he faithfully served the Church. It was this long and successful pastorate that put new life into the Church and began an era of better times.”
Mrs. Barber died sometime in the Spring of 1904. On June 30, 1904, after the Covenant Meeting, the following memorial tribute was adopted by the Church:
In Memoriam
“We the members of the Baptist Church in Manlius desire in this informed way to memorialize our beloved sister, Mrs. Ella Palmer Barber, who so recently sought the Savior’s presence, and “entered upon the life of God.” Her sweet spirit was best expressed in the words of the Apostle Paul: “For to me to live is Christ but to abide in the flesh is more needful for our sake.” She lived among us with no thought of self-aggrandizement. She never sought to rule but just fitted so perfectly into all the emergencies and every day conditions of our Church life. ;Her creed, if it had been written out, would have been expressed in four words: to do, to love. In the home of the rich or poor, she was alike welcome. She knew no social boundaries, giving a happy consecrated service to all, hence, every one grieved at her going. In Sunday
School and Christian Endeavor both Senior and Junior, her life touched many other lives in a strong helpful way. In loving grateful hearts her memory will be enshrined. To our beloved brother who in his great loss has received it as from His hand unflinchingly and without a murmur and who has in doing this given us a beautiful example of loyalty. In the dense darkness we extend our sympathy, and pray that the everlasting arms may be felt in full support, until heaven and home are one.”
Mary Avery Woodworth
Reverend Barber, in spite of his ailments, outlived many of his contemporaries. He was an active member of the Fayetteville Baptist Church. He served on Committees, attended Association Meetings as part of the Fayetteville Delegation and supplied the pulpit when needed. Reverend Barber and Reverend J. C. Smith D. D. shared the pulpit from December, 1903 until September, 1904. Reverend Barber preached during the summer of 1907.
In Reverend Barber’s semi-retirement he continued to write poetry and also wrote two books, Home Memories and Margaret Ives. Home Memories was a simple tale of home life on his parents’ farm on Bingley Road just west of Fenner Corners. Pseudo names of local places were used, but many are recognizable to those who know the area. The book was published in 1908 by the Gorham Press, Boston, MA, and was said to have achieved “quite a sale.” A copy is available in the Syracuse Public Library. The forward to the book revealed Reverend Barber’s concerns with the trends of the early 1900s, i.e., congealed wealth (the massing of money by large corporations with monopolistic powers), and congested humanity (the abandonment of the simple country life for crowded city living.) He felt that the youth of the nation were being unconsciously robbed of the old-time values, i.e., honor, integrity, simplicity and contentment. He hoped that his picture of a simple healthful home life might inspire more of the young to remain in the country where “our work was out in the clean grass and clover, under cloudy and sunny skies, with lights and shade playing on the hillsides and in the hollows, and the chattering swallows and bubbling bobolinks coming close to us, and a thousand voices of fresh young life filling the earth yet new with each returning spring.” He asks, “Ye comrades of the woodland, stream, and schoolhouse green and travelled paths of hill and glen, whither have ye fled?”
In his introduction to Home Memories Reverend Barber also wrote enthusiastically about Theodore Roosevelt. He found in the new President, “some light shining in this darkness. The example of our sturdy, courageous, righteous President will be as a star in life’s way to many a youth of this land. He will appeal to the sense of hero worship so strong in the minds of the noble young, and be the recipient of the homage they are so ready to accord the true and the brave. He will be their ideal. He, and those who are like him, waging the warfare against organized greed anywhere in public affairs, will become a most powerful factor in forming their future course in life.... He will be enshrined in the thoughts and affections of the young, as a princely leader safe to follow, and through whom shall come to them a stronger and higher admiration for whatsoever things are true and honest and just and pure and lovely and of good report.”
Reverend Barber interspersed his narrative of Home Memories with poetry. Most was the work of some of the great poets of the day (Bryant, Hesperian, Field, Stowe, Tennyson, etc.), but two long poems written by Reverend Barber were also included. One was untitled, but was published elsewhere as “A November Dandelion.” In the poem Reverend Barber wrote about his feelings as he took a walk through the fields in late fall and came upon a late blooming dandelion which he described as
“A token of His Grace and Power,
From Him who sends the little flower.“
Finding the dandelion reminded Reverend Barber of a similar experience with a beloved brother who died as a young man. Reverend Barber picked the flower, took it home, and sitting by the fire, gave himself to musing. “I lived over again the dead but cherished past, which this little flower had quickened into life.” He saw “the loved ones of enchanted days” and longed for the years to take him back again.
The second of his poems was entitled “An Old Man’s Song,” which may have been somewhat autobiographical. The old man was 87 years old and had “buried all that looked at me when life was in its morning.” He felt that:
“My days of toil and earthly gain
Are now entirely over.
And yet my days of joy go on-
God is the changeless lover.
I go on as in my youth
With golden days before me.
I must be true unto the best
And highest in and o’er me.
Hail and farewell! to you until
The better country reaching
I say `Good Morning’ on a day
That has no night or ending.
And with the fadeless tree of life
In beauty o’er us bending.” (An excerpt from the poem)
Margaret Ives was the story of a young lady, orphaned soon after birth and brought up by Reverend John Ives and his wife Mary in an unnamed northeastern American state. Margaret, influenced by her adoptive father, became a Biblical Scholar, preached sermons, conversed and argued with friends and her future husband on the divinity of Christ. Besides getting a taste of what life was like in the farms and villages of the late 19th Century, the reader gets an excellent indication of what Reverend
Barber’s sermons must have been like when he preached in the Manlius Baptist Church. Margaret Ives was dedicated to Frank Barton, a Deacon of the Manlius Baptist Church, “the righteous man and steadfast friend, a tribute to the beauty of friendship.”
Reverend Barber enjoyed winters in Florida where he often visited friends. While in Florida he wrote two long letters which were published in The Fayetteville Bulletin (December, 1918 and May, 1919). They described the area and people which he visited, and, as a retired preacher, managed to include his thoughts on religion as well. He also wrote of his painful loss of Mrs. Barber. When he reached his friend’s home in San Mateo, Florida, he felt a sense of “getting home.” “Home! Home! you know how the words run, ‘ Be it ever so humble there’s no place like home,’ and no one knows the meaning of ‘home’ till his own home is broken up.” Reverend Barber was said to have enjoyed good health in his later years and an erect carriage as a result of the long walks that he took. He had intended to return to Florida in late 1921 but on November 4, 1921, Reverend Barber, walking west on Genesee Street, just outside of Fayetteville, was struck by a car. While he suffered only cuts and bruises from the accident, it was said that the shock following proved fatal. Reverend Barber died on November 6, 1921. He was eighty years old. In his obituary Reverend Barber was described as a clergyman of the old school, administering strictly to the needs of the Church. He was declared beloved by many in every Church in which he was connected. Services were conducted on Wednesday, November 9, 1921, in the Fayetteville Baptist Church. Reverend R. N. Rand, pastor of the Manlius Baptist Church officiated. The Church was “filled to the doors.” Reverend Eli Barber was buried in the Palmer family plot in the Fayetteville Cemetery next to his wife, Ella Palmer Barber. He was survived by two sisters and a brother, all of Cazenovia.
Introduction to the Band Poem
At times in the early twenties the village of Manlius sponsored or encouraged the formation of a village band which would in the summer months perform on warm summer evenings for the villagers of Manlius. Reverend E. M. Barber was one of the members of their enthusiastic audiences. His poem dedicated to the Manlius Band was published in The Fayetteville Recorder of August 22, 1921.
Dedicated to Manlius Band
By One Who Appreciates the Music
There is a place where we may go, When we want to give a social
On every Saturday night; The truth must be allowed;
To throw our sorrows to the wind,
And troubles put to flight.It is down on our own Main Street
Where music fills the air;
With autos parked, as thick as flies,
And maidens, young and fair.Our little town is up-to-date,
With everything at hand;
And we should all be grateful,
To have a Manlius band.Of course, there’s some to criticize,
It’s natural as can be;
But never mind the sour grapes,
The sweet ones let us see.We cannot all be Sousas,
We realize it, and yet;
The Manlius Band is good enough,
They play for all they get.There is a village, beautiful;
With wealth at their command;
But when it comes to music,
They hire our Manlius Band.When we want to give a social
The truth must be allowed;
We have it on a Saturday night,
The band will draw the crowd.Then give them our encouragement,
It helps a lot, you bet;
It makes them feel you want them,
And gives the music pep.So come out to the concerts,
Give them a hearty hand;
For we should be “some lonesome,”
Without the Manlius Band.
In the early twenties there was a controversy over whether a bus of the trolley cars should be used for transportation to and from Manlius. Reverend Barber wrote a humorous poem on the subject called Trolleyitis Suburbanmeningitis, which was published in The Fayetteville Recorder for February 11, 1921.
Trolleyitis Suburbanmeningitis
You may talk about you jitney bus,
Whether it be near or far;
In this cold weather, I prefer
To go by trolley car.Some towns may think a jitney bus,
Puts the trolley out of sight;
But give to Manlius the Suburban,
For we’re a trolleyite.No doubt Mr. Allen has his faults,
Or he would be crucified;
And so have other folks their faults,
Or long ago they’d died.So let us hope that by next spring,
When the birds begin to peep;
Those other folks will wake up,
From their Rip Van Winkle sleep.I’m not to blame for what I write,
It’s the disease of lots I hear;
Called Trolleyitis Suburbanmeningitis.”
But the cure is very near.The Antidote
The Suburban car,
With plenty of power;
To be given in doses,
Every half hour.
On Tuesday, October 22, 1895, Mr. H. H. Perkins, Church Clerk and official greeter for Reverend James Hall Benedict and his wife Ida C. Benedict, met them at the station and escorted them to their boarding place for the weekend. There is no information on what transpired but very likely Reverend Benedict preached as a candidate to the Manlius Baptist Church on Sunday, October 27, 1895.
On December 15, 1895, at the close of the sermon the Church Clerk, Mr. H. H. Perkins, made a motion that the members proceed to vote for a Pastor. The vote was taken and Reverend James Hall Benedict was declared the unanimous choice of the Congregation. Brothers F. A Barton, H. E. Ransier, and G. W. Tripp were appointed a Committee to wait on Reverend Benedict and inform him of his call, which he accepted. There was no record of his starting date in Manlius, except that he was in Manlius and preached at a Methodist revival meeting on January 17, 1896. Pastor Benedict and his wife Ida C. Benedict were received as members of the Church by letter on January 30, 1896. He was given the Right Hand of Fellowship on February 2, 1896, by Deacon Nelson Mills. On February 9, 1896, the Presbyterians canceled their Sunday Evening Service and Pastor and people walked across the street to the Baptist Church to welcome the new Pastor.
We do not know how many members there were on that 7th day of December, 1797 when the Baptist Church and Society of Manlius and Pompey first met. Approximately 100 years later in the Fall of 1897 there were 102 Church members, 142 scholars, and 19 officers and teachers in the Sunday School. The church property was valued at $4200.00. The expenses of running the church during the 100th year were:
$900.00 Current Expense (Salary, Building, etc.)
0.00 Improvements
2.00 Minutes for Onondaga Association
50.00 Miscellaneous
$952.00 Total
The Church gave $94.84 to Mission projects:
$25.42 American Baptist Publication Society
10.33 Mission Debt
7.00 Armenians
5.62 Home Missions
1.25 Chittenango Church
13.07 Education-Hamilton
9.00 Berea College
10.87 State Convention
12.26 Publication Society
$ 94.84 (Mr. Nightingale's Arithmetic)
While we were hiring a new minister for the Manlius Baptist Church, one of our own brothers, George Casler, was starting the process of becoming a minister and would eventually become ordained and have a Church of his own. Two days before Reverend Benedict was voted Pastor, on December 12, 1895, at the close of the regular prayer meeting, Brother George Casler requested that the members of the Church grant him a license to preach. A vote was taken and the license was granted. Brother Casler was the ninth known member of the Church to have an interest in preaching the Gospel. The form used by the Church as a license is as follows:
"To all whom it may concern: The Baptist Church in Manlius, Onondaga County, Send Christian Salutations. The bearer hereof, our beloved brother __________, being a man of good moral character, real piety, and sound knowledge of divine things and having been called to the exercise of ministerial gifts of which we have had considerable trial both private and public we have judged him worthy and do therefore hereby license and authorize him to preach the Gospel whenever he may have a call not doubting but that in due time circumstances will lead on to a more full investiture of his ministerial office by ordination. In the meantime we recommend him to favor and respect praying that the Lord may be with him and abundantly bless him."
In September, 1897 it was reported that Mr. and Mrs. George L. Casler had left for Hamilton, New York, where Mr. Casler will attend the Theological Seminary preparatory to entering the ministry. On April 15, 1899, it was reported that Reverend George C. Casler has accepted the pastorate of the Baptist Church in Unadella, New York, and with his family would shortly take up residence in that town.
At the same time we were greeting a relatively young minister (41 years old) to replace an older man (Rev. E. M. Barber), some of our Diaconate leadership was also moving from one generation to the next. Deacons were appointed or elected for life. It was inevitable that some of these men would find difficulty in fulfilling their duties in their later years. In 1896 Deacons Rufus Dunham (70 years) and Nelson Mills (64 years), fell into this category. H. H. Perkins, Clerk on January 30, 1896, in a Church Meeting moved that "whereas the infirmities of age are
creeping steadily but surely upon the bodies of our dear brothers Deacon Rufus Dunham and Deacon Nelson Mills thereby hindering them in their official capacity and whereas we do not believe it to be for the best interest of the cause of Christ to allow them to resign the position they have so long and faithfully filled, wherefore, be it resolved that we select two younger men to the office of Deacon with the express understanding that they are the assistants to our present Deacons, that our Pastor, the Reverend J. H. Benedict, together with our Deacons Dunham and Mills are hereby appointed a Committee to nominate candidates to be voted as such Assistant Deacons at the next Covenant Meeting, if they choose, to be held February 27, 1896.
Done by order of the Church
Jan. 30, 1896 H. H. Perkins Clerk"
The Covenant meeting was held. Deacon Mills reported for the Committee and Brothers H. H. Perkins and O. W. Moulter were nominated and elected unanimously to the office of Deacon of the Church. Nothing further was said about their status as assistant Deacons. At the same meeting, Mrs. Jennie Curtis was elected Clerk of the Church, the first woman in this position and the first woman elected to a Church office. For unknown reasons, she resigned after recording one meeting. William Nightingale was elected to take her place on March 6, 1896.
In 1896-1897 another major improvement (the subject of Reverend Barber's poem "Improvements") was made to the exterior of the church building. The addition of the parlor to the east side of the church was under consideration for some time since in April of 1896 the Ladies Aid had already raised $275.00 of the $500.00 estimated cost. The Trustees accepted the money (no surprise) but stipulated that the Trustees raise the balance. Reverend Benedict was named to be a Committee to raise that amount (and allowed to ask anyone to help that he chose.) Reverend Benedict's Committee reported on May 26, 1896. Apparently the ladies had raised $200.00 more. The women were given an unusual opportunity by the Editor of the Manlius Eagle to use his type and press for a special edition the last week in May, 1886. The editing of the newspaper proved very successful for the ladies. They netted over $200.00, an amount sufficient to complete the payments for the new addition.
A Committee made up of Reverend Benedict, Mr. Barton, and Mr. Tripp was appointed to build the new parlors. The parlors were completed and used for the first time on October 18, 1896. The ladies of the Church served a chicken pie supper in their new rooms on Election Day in November from 4-9 P.M. The cost was 25 cents. Election Day in 1896 was said "to have passed off quietly." Hotel and saloon keepers were required to keep their doors locked while the polls were open, which pleased the "peaceable" people of the village.
The Church and its organizations continued to offer entertainment and fun for its members as well as worshipful and inspirational experiences. The Ladies Quartet of the First
Baptist Church of Syracuse gave an entertainment for the Baptist Young Men's Prayer Band at the Opera House on February 5, 1896. The Junior Christian Endeavor Society enjoyed a sleigh ride on February 12, 1896. The Senior Christian Endeavor Society was to have a Valentine Social on February 14, 1896, and on March 28, 1896, the boy orator, Ralph Bingham, held forth at a Baptist Church Service.
In May, 1896 the Manlius Editor for The Fayetteville Recorder took a swipe at the Presbyterian (and probably Baptist, also) farmers. It was a rainy morning and the Congregation was small. He complained that the farmers prayed to the good Lord to send rain to save their crops and when their prayers were answered the good farmers in gratitude for His blessing stayed home from Church.
The Trustees, while acting normally in working for the addition did a curious thing. They elected Frank Barton and William Nightingale Chairman and Secretary of the Board Of Trustees for their natural lives. We do not know if they were serious or jesting. William Nightingale was a Trustee for most of his years in the Church, but he had to be re-elected every three years, only Deacons were elected for life.
In the October 1, 1896, edition of The Fayetteville Recorder it was reported that Mr. H. E. Ransier, local druggist and active member of the Baptist Church, gave his Boy’s Sunday School Class a treat on Saturday, September 26, 1896, by taking them on a “romp in the woods.” He feasted them with good things and took many pictures. (He was a gifted photographer.) He was reported as being able to feast and teach them Biblical Subjects on Sunday and have them report a good time on that day as well.
On October 22, 1896, the envelope system was adopted for collecting monies. The number of offerings requested for benevolences was increasing steadily and the Church attempted to establish some order to the process. On December 3, 1896, the Congregation voted to take up the collections in the following order:
Foreign Missions October and November
Education Society December and January
State Convention February and March
Home Missions April and May
Publication Society June and July
Minutes and Ministers Home August and September
The Church has been a member of the area Association of Baptist Churches since they were established. At first it was the Sullivan Association, then the Onondaga Association. It was the duty of the Clerk to write reports each year describing the state of the Church and to submit statistical information. The Secretary of the Association condensed the letters to a short
paragraph and this in addition to the statistics were printed in the annual report. Although the minutes often recorded appropriating a dollar of two for a copy of the proceedings, only a few were kept. No copies of the original letters were saved, but in 1897 Clerk William H. Nightingale started the practice of copying the annual letter and vital statistics into the minutes of Church Meetings. This was continued until 1907 (and once more in 1917).
Mr. Nightingale as Church Clerk wrote for the 1897 Association Meeting: "Another year has rolled and we meet in annual convention to compare notes as to God's dealings with us and our dealings with God. We are very apt to be encouraged or depressed according as God has poured out blessings upon us and especially as we have seen addition to our Churches. If this is to be the standard, our hearts will be made sad; for we have received five by letter, none has been received into the Church by baptism. Special meetings were held during the early first part of the year and we were very agreeably assisted by Brethren Naylor and Richmond. The life of the Church was renewed and a number professed to have found Christ as their Savior, but not as yet willing to follow Him in His appointed way. We are not willing, however, to call the year one of entire failure. Our morning and evening Congregations have increased in number and our Prayer Meetings are alive and full of the spirit. We have completed our church parlor and now have pleasant and commodious quarters for our Primary Department and for Prayer Meeting."
Reverend James H. Benedict's stay was to be another of the short variety. On Sunday, September 5, 1897, a letter was read. Mr. Nightingale only reproduced part of the letter in the Church Minutes. He left out Reverend Benedict's reason for such an early departure. Fortunately the original letter was saved and is reproduced here in full:
September 1, 1897
To the Deacons, Trustees , and
Members of the Manlius Baptist Church.
Dear Brethren,
About three years ago I suffered a financial loss which took away every dollar of my savings and left me in debt nearly two thousand dollars. Since that time, I have been reducing that indebtedness all that I possibly could each month. I have accomplished something in this time, but not enough to suit part of my creditors, who are now crowding me and I feel it my duty to them, as well as to myself and family to try and speedily liquidate my debts.
I have under consideration a proposition from a responsible business concern whereby I can earn nearly double the amount this Church is able to pay me.
I therefore, herewith, tender my resignation as your pastor, to take effect October 1, 1897, at the same time praying that God may wonderfully bless you as a Church and as individuals.
As ever your affectionate pastor.
J. H. Benedict
At the meeting it was moved and carried that the Church lay the matter on the table for one week. On Sunday September 12, 1897, the letter at hand, (the Congregation) moved and carried that H. E. Ransier be Chairman of the Meeting. A motion was made and carried to accept the resignation of our Pastor (J. H. Benedict) to take effect on October 1, 1897. It was moved and carried that a Committee of three act as Pulpit Committee. The members were William Nightingale, Chairman, Mrs. Jennie Curtis and Guilburt Tripp. This is the first time a woman was chosen to be a member of the Pulpit Committee. (William Nightingale was now Church Clerk, Chairman of the Pulpit Committee, Secretary of the Board of Trustees, and about to become Superintendent of the Sunday School. He also taught a Sunday School class and sang basso in the Church Choir.)
The Church, now without a pastor, met for its Annual Meeting on December 9, 1897, but only temporarily. Someone had forgotten that the call for the Annual Meeting had to be read from the Pulpit for three consecutive Sundays prior to the meeting. It was therefore moved, seconded, and carried that "inasmuch as the call had only been read twice, we adjourn for one week that the call might be read again." The Church met on December 16, 1897, elected officers and there being no further business, the meeting adjourned. There was no recorded mention of the historical significance of the time and no recorded 100th anniversary celebration. There was to be no celebration until 35 years later when the 135th anniversary was modestly commemorated. This is surprising because the Church and its organizations in these years often made up reasons to have a dinner or picnic or party or "social". Indeed the Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Episcopalians, and our friends in the Fayetteville Baptist Church celebrated their 100 years with homecoming, speeches, dinners and impressive articles in the newspapers. The Fayetteville Baptists celebrated their 100th anniversary in style with a special commemorative book complete with pictures of former pastors and prominent members, a history of the first hundred years and a copy of the celebration day program with excerpts of speeches. Rev. E. M. Barber gave one on the development of the Sunday School.