Tag: christianity

A remarkable Troy woman and the burning of the Henry Clay

A story about the remarkable early Methodists of Troy, NY and especially those associated with the State Street Methodist Episcopal Church and its branches.

Nathaniel Currier (American, Roxbury, Massachusetts 1813–1888 New York)
Burning of the Henry Clay Near Yonkers–While on Her Trip From Albany to New York on Wednesday Afternoon July 28th, 1852.–The rapid spread of the flames forced the passengers into the water. Mothers and children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters were drowned together, whilst trying to save each other. Little children buffetted the waves in vain for a few moments, and then sunk to rise no more. Persons on board about 500 of which number nearly 100 are supposed to have perished., 1852
American,
Hand-colored lithograph; Image: 7 9/16 × 13 1/2 in. (19.2 × 34.3 cm) Sheet: 10 1/16 × 14 15/16 in. (25.5 × 38 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Adele S. Colgate, 1962 (63.550.101)
http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/662253 (Public domain.)

“One of the most touching incidents illustrative of the sanctifying power of God’s grace and the Christian fortitude of a pious woman, I may here relate as a tribute to the memory of a much- loved relative and an estimable member of the State Street and Congress Street societies, Miss Elizabeth Hillman, familiarly called Aunt Betsey Hillman, who was well-known to all its people as an earnest Christian and a zealous worker in the Lord’s vineyard. During revivals she frequently gave evidence of her joyous exaltation of soul with loud shouts of praise and hallelujahs. On

Tuesday evening, July 27, 1852, while present at a prayer-meeting held at the residence of Noah Clapp, a member of the State Street Church, she led in prayer. One of the special favors which she solicited of the Great Ruler and Disposer of events was that when her work was done on earth she might be called quickly to heaven, for she dreaded the pains of a prolonged illness.

On the following morning she took passage on the boat Henry Gay (sic), plying between Albany and New York. On the way the boat began racing with another steamboat, the Armenia, on the opposition line. The excited passengers became greatly alarmed for their safety. A young woman from Albany was much frightened and Miss Hillman, in her endeavors to calm her apprehensions, spoke to her about the salvation of her soul. Discovering that she had not yet accepted Christ as her Saviour, and was wholly unprepared to die, Aunt Betsy urged her to give her heart to God. This she promised to do, if she should be permitted to get off the boat alive. Shortly afterward the boat was discovered to be on fire, and was steered toward the shore. In attempting to save their lives about fifty of the passengers were burned or drowned. The young woman and Miss Hillman, in seeking a way of escape, were compelled to decide which one of the two should perish on board the burning boat. Aunt Betsy at once urged her dismayed and sorely-distressed companion to leave her, saying: “I am prepared to die, and you are not.” The young woman fortunately escaped and afterward obtained that peace of soul, of which she

delighted to speak when tearfully telling of the noble unselfishness of the Christian woman who went to Heaven in a bright mantle of flame. Her age was fifty -seven(sic.)” (Methodism in Troy, Joseph Hillman, 1888, pp79-80. She was actually 67. )

Joseph, the author of the seminal work on the history of our congregation, was the nephew of the woman in the story. He writes that the The Hillman* family, Isaac and his second wife, Nancy Hillman joined the church in 1827, as the second church structure, the “brick church,” was being built. Isaac had come under the influence of the renowned Methodist preacher, Lorenzo Dow, when the family still lived in Vermont, and became a fully confessing member of the Methodist Church in 1809, at the age of 12. In reality, as a family of German Palentines finding refuge in Ireland, his whole community was already allied with the Methodists before many migrated to America, many settling in the area of the New York-Vermont border. While Isaac and his wife immediately appear in the official membership records of the church, the first time Elizabeth HIllman is mentioned, in the surviving records, is in 1835, though she may have joined earlier. City Directories show that this extended family lived in adjoining lots on Congress Street, with Elizabeth and their brother David first appearing in the Troy City Directory in the 1837-8 edition, which says that she is “boarding” at 190 Congress Street Extended, with the rest of the family, including David. Another brother, John Hillman, a physician, appears in the Troy listing for only one edition.  

In Ireland, the family had kept their German name of Bergmann, but used various versions of the last name until the contingent who moved to Troy translated it, quite literally, into English as Hill-man. Elizabeth was born on July 1st, 1784, the fourth of 8 children born to John (see below for versions of his last name) and Mary –  also recorded as Maritia and Calreana – Miller. A book tracing the family line of her brother Isaac down to current survivors (“A Few More Left: The Story of Isaac Hillman” by Henry Z. Jones ,Jr.)  reveals that there was something of a scandalous break up between her parents, with her mother being disowned by her husband at least twice, and even by her own father who, at his death, divided her one-sixth share of his wealth between John and Mary’s 8 children, leaving none to his errant daughter. 

Her childhood went through other troubled times. In 1785, the parents and their four oldest children – including Elizabeth –  were asked to “depart the town immediately” (Bennington, VT Official records) and again in 1808 when the family were “warned out” of Shaftsbury – something that happened when a family was in danger of becoming a financial burden on a community. At the age of  24, you would expect Elizabeth to no longer be living with them, most typically already married, but a notification in the Vermont Gazette, in 1791, could explain why she might be needed with her father: her mother had left the family home. She later returned for a while, during which time their youngest child, Isaac, was born, but left again in 1799. It is tempting to play amateur psychologist on the subject of why Elizabeth never married!  Did Mary Miller reconcile with her children after their father had died? Enough, at least they buried her in the Mount Ida Cemetery inTroy, but I could find no evidence that she was living with any of them before that. 

As for Elizabeth, “Aunt Betsey”, what we do know is that she was baptized as Elisabetha Barrackman, later Hillman,  and is recorded in the Gilead Lutheran Church books of Center Brunswick, NY. which is intriguing, but there is family history linking the family to that area, including her mother’s family being in Brunswick. At the time of her birth, the family was living in Shaftsbury, VT and attending the Fourth Church, which later became the Shaftsbury Baptist congregation. Baptism In Center Brunswick would suggest this did not happen when she was a baby. Other siblings spent time with Isaac at various points of his life, in Middleburgh and then Lansingburgh, which is when Elizabeth reappears in records in1824. This was where Jerusha Sweet Hillman, Isaac’s first wife died, shortly after their second child was born – did she move in to help care for the children until he remarried? Either way Elizabeth was then to remain close to Isaac for the rest of her life.

During her life, Elizabeth conducted various property transactions, and at her death still owned a house in Lansingburgh, as well as being the owner of land on Congress Street, though she had previously sold some of the lots. There is no mention of any work she was undertaking in the city directories, but may have helped Isaac in his on-site business endeavors. She seems to have been left with sufficient money by earlier family members – her maternal grandfather is the one we know about –  in order to buy land. It was enough for her to be generous, too: Elizabeth is listed as one of three major benefactors of the Congress St, later Trinity, Methodist Episcopal Church on 13th Street. The cost of building the church was $6,199.84 , but half the cost was donated by just three people: Elizabeth, Isaac and Alvin Williams. It faced the entrance to Prospect Park, and burned after the congregation had merged with the State Street church in 1965. (I have an essay about the church on this site.) 

It is easy to presume she was a dour, unmarried, and hyper-religious presence, but her appellation of “Aunt Betsey” by church members and the fondness felt by her nieces and nephews belie that idea. Joseph Hillman calls her a “much loved relative.” She was certainly fiscally astute, especially in comparison to Isaac, who was far more prone to taking risks, making and losing and remaking his fortune on several occasions, though he was not to blame for them all! 

Elizabeth’s life is a reminder of the danger** of the only feasible way for people in Troy and environs to travel to New York City, which they did, in surprisingly large numbers: by boat. It was a cut-throat business. Numerous companies rushed from port to port trying to get ahead of a rival boat to get all the passengers.  Elizabeth’s final voyage, indeed, was not the only time she was involved with a ferry boat disaster on the Hudson.

A report in The Daily Whig newspaper in April, 1845, has Elizabeth Hillman of Troy, who was rescued from the The Swallow when a sudden snow squall caused the boat to strike a  rock near Athens, NY, and within 5 minutes the boat was at the bottom of the river. A long list of passengers were rescued, but a few drowned, including Elizabeth Spencer, a “young convert” according to Joseph Hillman, who had only 8 days earlier united with the State Street congregation. (Methodism inTroy, p.63) Was she traveling with Elizabeth? We do not know, but  how could that event not have influenced Elizabeth’s decision the next time she faces tragedy on the Hudson?

The New Yorker magazine in 1938 published a dramatic description of the fatal trip which claimed Elizabeth’s life (see link below.) The burning of the Henry Clay was the catalyst for a state law finally banning the racing of commercial ferry boats down the Hudson. It was too late for 50-80 souls (reports vary) including Elizabeth, though her brother Jacob, who was also traveling, did survive, and brought her body back to Troy.

Her death was officially given as drowning, although the telling of the story by her nephew makes it sound like she burned. A photo of her body in Jones’ book, taken after her recovery from the water, shows some dark marks, like soot, but is basically intact: she must have jumped or fallen from the boat, as others did, and drowned.

After her funeral, held at the Congress St Methodist Episcopal Church, Elizabeth was buried in the Mount Ida Cemetery, where her mother, brother David, and sister-in- law, Nancy, had all been buried before her. The memorial on her gravestone is quoted in the 1923 book, “Inscriptions of Graves from Mt. Ida Cemetery, Pawling Ave, Troy N.Y.” recorded by the Daughters of the American Revolution: “Elizabeth Hillman, one of the sufferers by the burning of the Steamboat Henry Clay, on the passage from Albany, N.Y. July 28, 1852. Aged 67 years.” 

With no photos on the Find-a-Grave site of these four Hillman graves, I presumed the sites had been lost, and an hour’s walk around the site on a recent cold, wintery day, proved what a small percentage of the hundreds of graves are visible. Many stones have fallen, even in the past one hundred years since the DAR, with difficulty, recorded the inscriptions. Stones are broken, fallen on their face, have been completely covered by grass, have fallen down the hill and onto the walk beside the Poestenkill or become victim to subsidence at the edge of the road. Those that stand are frequently so worn by wind and rain as to be illegible. Volunteers continue to work on the site to restore and preserve the stones of hundreds of early residents of Troy, including many from the State Street congregation. So, it remains with us to remember this courageous and faithful woman, who, with her family, became such an important part of the State Street, and Congress Street, congregations. In the third quarter of the 19th century, Troy was an overwhelmingly Methodist city – hard to imagine, I know! – and Elizabeth and her family surely played a large part in that, through their financial support, but also through their dedicated demonstration of a faithful Methodist way of living. 

Janet Douglass, Troy, NY, March 2026.

*Her father’s last name and some of the older children’s, was variously recorded as  Birkman, Barckman(n), Barkman(n), Barkemann, Barrackmann, Barrickman, and Banackman but Isaac and the family, including Elizabeth, her brothers David and Jacob, and mother Mary, seem to have chosen the literal translation from the German – Hillman – at the time they move to Lansingburgh and Troy. 

**In a sad postscript, this was not the last family tragedy caused by a racing steamboat. Her nephew, Isaac’s son born to his third wife after they moved to California, died when a racing ferry boat caused numerous passengers to be drowned, and nearly cost the boy’s mother life, too. Indeed Isaac himself had earlier been at risk of dying in a weather-related disaster at sea.. Isaac Hillman is such an interesting character he easily deserves an essay of his own: stay tuned!

An online copy of the DAR record of inscriptions at Mt. Ida Cemetery, Troy, NY.

Click to access Mt._Ida_cemetery_inscriptions%2C_Troy%2C_N.Y._.._%28IA_mtidacemeteryins00daug%29.pdf

Dramatic description of the race and the ship’s burning, when 50-80 of the 500 passengers died, the boat finally crashing near Yonkers. 

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1938/07/23/the-fatal-hudson-river-steamboat-race

Also see the Wikipedia page for the boat and the disaster (Henry Clay 1851 steamboat)

The Swallow ferry boat disaster is described here:

Click to access 1845-04-10-troy-daily-whig-steamboat-swallow.pdf

The quoted biography of Isaac Hillman and his descendants is:

“A Few More Left: The Story of Isaac Hillman” by Henry Z. Jones ,Jr pub. Penobscot Press, 2005.

The County land records office in Troy, is the source for land transactions deeds for the family.  The Central Library’s Troy Room holds all City Directories, since they began in 1829. 

The 19th Century Struggle for Musical Instruments in Worship

“The use of musical instruments in the church, it should be known, was not approved by its early members and no little opposition was shown to the gradual innovations that were made to support the congregational and choir singing with such instruments as the bass viol and organ. At one time, the singers in the church attempted to introduce the use of a bass viol and obtained a player to bring one to the church for a rehearsal. Seeing the objectionable instrument in the gallery, while on his way to class-meeting, Isaac Hillman took his pocket-knife and cut the strings of the viol, thereby defeating, the purpose of the ambitious choristers. Although he had used so summary a method to sustain the authority of the society, he nevertheless indemnified the viol-player for the loss of the strings of his instrument.” (Methodism in Troy by Joseph Hillman, son of Isaac, p. 60)

Accompanied music in churches today seems so very ordinary, it is hard to consider what outrage the introduction of musical instruments into worship could possibly have caused, though there are Christians denominations to this day which forbid their use. In fact, many of us are  very familiar with the very opposite of that: friends and family members for whom the absence of a fabulous organist, extensive voice or hand bell choir, or a great band, is reason to avoid a church altogether. 

Our early records reflect the progression happening in many Protestant churches of the day: from unaccompanied congregational singing and chanting  – solos were also impermissible –  to the arrival of an organ. Indeed, we even have the wording of the original letter detailing why a group of leaders tried to prevent it.

So what was the problem? After all, the Psalms, in the Christian Old Testament, mention singing and dancing accompanied by musical instruments. The issue centers on the fact that in the brief comments in the Book of Acts, and in the Letters, about the early gatherings of those who followed “the Way” of Jesus, mention no instruments by name. When the people driving the Protestant Reformation started to look closely at the Biblical texts, intending to return worship to what they felt had been its original form, they found no instruments mentioned and began to call accompanied singing a “heresy” and so they outlawed it.

The records of the State Street Methodist Church reveal the hesitancy of moving away from this received Protestant wisdom. The congregation had been hiring a succession of men to teach multi part singing in the “classes” as well as to general congregation, from at least the late 1820s. In the early 1830s, the choir requested they be allowed to rehearse, at least occasionally, and for a one month trial period, with a bass viol: a very tentative step, indeed. They understood there would be objections, as detailed above. Nonetheless, the choir prevailed,  and the bass viol appears to have become somewhat acceptable in Sunday services within a decade. The idea of installing an organ, however, would  be a far larger step, partly it seems, because siting an organ seemed such an irrevocable step, and maybe even an offensive one to the very structure of God’s house.*

Christian Heritage Edinburgh has this brief history of the organ in worship:

“In AD 670 Pope Vitalian introduced the first organ in church history at the cathedral in Rome, but organs were not widely played in churches until the eighteenth century. In fact often they were met with great suspicion and even anger. The organ gradually made its way into general usage in the Catholic Church by the thirteenth century but some of the Reformers, particularly John Calvin (1509-1564), considered it an instrument of the world and the devil.” 

Even so, by the mid 1700’s organs were being installed in congregations in New England, especially in Episcopal and Congregational churches, and pressure gradually mounted in all denominations to include musical instruments, with a large and complicated organ as a prized status symbol.

In the State Street Methodist society, those who fought hardest to prevent the acquisition of an organ called themselves the Memorialists. They were led by Dr. Avery J. Skilton, and when their cause appeared unsuccessful, they requested that the Leaders print their letter of objections, in full, in the minutes of their meeting held on August 22nd,1852. It begins: 

” To the Leaders and Stewards Meeting regularly assembled Brethren. 

A Church is an assemblage of pious persons associated together for the purpose of worshiping God, and of mutually aiding each other by advice, encouragement and exhortation to a Godly life and conversation, and to the exercise of holy disposition,” After several hundred words it concludes with a summary of the complaints of the Memorialists, who believed the leaders had made an “absurd” choice because firstly, the use of musical instruments is “unsanctioned by the Gospel”; an “imposition on their feelings” of people who joined the Church before this addition; an “injustice in a trespass upon the rights of property” of the members have paid their annual pew rental (threatening legal actions of trespass no less!); “an attempt to force the Church of God into accordance with man’s political preferences” (a comment on a presumed perceived imbalance between the objectors and those saying nothing, versus the leadership); “A withholding of the right of private judgment and conscience” – because there had not been a general ballot; and finally, they declared that the Leaders’ Meeting had “transcended its powers” and“violated the rights of members without the shadow of delegated authority” – a complaint that there had not been a vote for everyone, but neither were the leaders elected by the congregation as their representatives. The letter was signed by Dr Avery J. Skilton, Peter Bontecou, James Carnell, E. A. Burrows, William Ritter, Chester Brockway, Cynthia Brockway and S(Samuel? Sarah? Saul?) J. Peabody. 

By early 1853, the organ was installed and the topic only reappeared in the minutes when requests were made in following months to first “dispense with the organ voluntarys”(sic) and later, the organ interludes, showing that while the organ was deemed helpful in hymn singing, not everyone was comfortable with it being used in a performative way – or maybe this was a nod to those who had objected all along. The disagreement had been intense and passionate, yet those who protested the installation of the first organ did not leave the congregation when they failed. If limiting the use of the organ for a while was a small accommodation to its detractors, who had not simply moved on when they lost the discussion, this author can find it nothing other than heartening.

Janet Douglass, Troy, NY. February 2026.

*The organ discussion takes place in the Leaders’ Minute Book which records meetings from1849. It begins with the February 1852 meeting: “On motion of Bro. Matthews, it was resolved that the chorister be permitted to introduce an instrument called the melodion into the choir of the church on trial for one month.” Permission was continued for another month in March, but there was a motion “to rescind use” in April, but the decision was delayed after much discussion. A second April meeting and another long discussion ended with the resolution “in view of the feeling of the church on the subject of instrumental music in divine worship the purchase of an organ for the above purpose is inadvisible.”   At the meeting on July 2, 1852, “Dr. Skilton presented a paper…purporting to be a protest against the erection of an organ in this church, which he desired to read.” on the subject, and the following month his paper was recorded in the official minutes, as above. 

The first organist of the church was Mr. Conant who had first been hired as the Singing Master or Chorister, both terms are used, in November 1849. He was discontinued some months later, rehired in December 1850 and in February of 1852 he made the request to introduce a melodion. After Mr Conant left his position, the society tried to hire a Mr. Clucas but this led to strife with the leadership of St Paul’s who also believed they had hired him. There is no evidence he ever took the position with the Methodists, but Mr William Cluett did,  and the long and generous history of the Cluett family and this group of Methodists, began.


Quotation on the history of the organ is from www.christianheritageedinburgh.org.uk

For a contemporary take on the” heresy” of musical instruments in worship, read https://www.swrb.com/newslett/actualnls/InstrHer.htm

A curious link between Troy, NY State Street Methodists & the Birth of the Salvation Army

Stories from the lives of members of the State Street Methodist Episcopal Church

Minutes of the Quarterly Meeting of the State Street ME Church, Troy, NY February 10th, 1832, showing the approval of our subject as an exhorter (top right.)

What name links the State Street Methodists to the very beginnings of the Salvation Army? We should start with a little background: you may have heard that the Salvation Army was founded by William Booth in England, but did you know that before that Booth was a Methodist preacher? Indeed, at one point of his career Booth was preaching in the very same Gateshead Methodist pulpits as your author, as that is where I was living and preaching before moving to Troy…but I am not, of course, the link in question! The link I am writing about goes back to the mid 1800’s, and concerns a preacher, forgotten by most people, but about whom much has been written because of his preaching successes on both sides of the Atlantic. And it’s a story which begins with Troy’s State Street Methodists.

James Caughey’s name is no longer familiar to us, but in his day, his preaching and books were frequently mentioned in pulpits and newspapers, in America, Canada and in Britain, where he was popular with the masses – while being frequently unpopular with the developing hierarchy of the church. He was an old-fashioned revivalist, calling the people to repentance and a new way of life. The Southern Christian Advocate newspaper on Friday, July 23rd, 1852, called him “one of the remarkable men of our time. We suppose him to be the greatest revivalist now in Christendom.” and the Philadelphia Enquirer of April 4th, 1857, wrote: “This distinguished divine has been preaching at the Salem M.E. Church (…) with the most astonishing success.” But as the church moved away from noisy camp meetings and rallies, and moved toward a style more suited to middle class adherents, his methods began to sit uneasily with the leadership, first in England, and later in America, and his achievements were mostly forgotten.

James Caughey was born on April 9, 1810, in northern Ireland. His parents were Scottish, and he was raised, not surprisingly, in the Presbyterian Church. While he was still a boy, the family moved to Troy. There had been a steady flow of Irish protestants to New York for two decades already, attracted by the explosion of industrial jobs to be found. By the time he was 15, Caughey was employed in a local flour mill, where he apparently came into contact with some of the early Methodists of the city. At this point State Street was the only Methodist society in Troy, and was in the process of building its second and larger brick sanctuary, at the front of the lot now occupied by the garden. There is no record which mill he worked in, but there were two families in the congregation with a long history in milling, and the existence of workplace Methodist practice is known to us from the history of Levings Chapel in South Troy, which was set up soon after this time, when a group of workers at the nail factory began to meet in a Methodist class, either before or after their shift. So he may have been encouraged to visit State Street M.E. by his co-workers or management.

For someone who left us so many of his words, Caughey was quite reluctant to offer details of this time in his life, and city directories, which only began in 1829, do not mention where the family was living. However, on several occasions in England, he mentions that he was associated with the Methodists for 3 or 4 years before he received a call to preach. Several biographies explain that change as coming from a revival in 1830 when he was still just 19 years old. The early members of State Street were very fond of holding regular revival meetings led by invited fiery preachers, at which they would record dozens of people joining the congregation at each event, as well as encouraging others to be more fully part of their baptist or presbyterian churches. In various sermons he spoke of attending many meetings and seeking assurance of his place in the family of God. At a camp meeting outside the city, he saw people who had that assurance and decided he would not rest until he found it. Caughey received what he had been craving – a sense of peace and that he was forgiven and at peace with God. It came with a duty to tell others:

“The doctrine of entire sanctification I did not understand ; … I sought the blessing earnestly by day and by night. I fasted, prayed, . and wept, and often entered into an agony of soul for the blessing. Months passed away without any other benefit than an increased spirituality of mind, accompanied by great tenderness of conscience. Sitting one day in a private room alone, reading Mr. Wesley’s Plain Account of Christian Perfection, a heavenly calm, with a consciousness of entire purity, over-spread my heart, and a light like day-dawn beamed upon my placid soul. I exclaimed, in sweet amaze, ” Why,-if this be Christian perfection, which Mr. Wesley describes, — if this be the true Scriptural view, — then I have it ; I do enjoy this very thing. The blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed me !

I held the blessing for some weeks with a trembling hand, and confessed with a faltering tongue, in the assembly of the saints, what God had wrought in my soul. The more frequently I spoke of this great blessing, confessing it, and urging others to press after it, the clearer my evidence became.” from Helps to Life of Faith, p.175

From that point on we can assume Caughey began to take his faith journey more seriously, seriously enough to request the position of exhorter at State Street M.E. Church in Troy. The image above shows his application being accepted. Becoming an exhorter in your home society was the first step in the direction of becoming a local preacher, and then an ordained minister. Exhorters operated only in their own congregation, and encouraged and led people in worship and prayer, between the visits of the traveling ordained clergy. Referring to old Conference records, Caughey’s biographers then record that he was sent by the congregation with a recommendation he receive Deacon’s orders in 1834, and that two years after that he was ordained as a Methodist elder (pastor) and sent to serve at Whitehall, NY . He was then 26 years old, but already in the intervening year, he had accomplished his first evangelical preaching tour in Canada.

On July 9th, 1839, at Whitehall, when he was struggling with the idea of whether it was time to settle down and get married, he had a vivid experience of being called to return to Canada, where he would then receive the financial means to travel to Ireland and England. Instead of choosing marriage and a settled life, he asked permission of the Conference to follow where he felt the Holy Spirit was sending him. He spent March – July 1841 in Montreal, and then sailed for England. His great success in the period between 1841 and 1847 led to him becoming known as the “King of Revivalist Preachers.” The Rhemalogy site quotes Caughey saying that he saw “20,000 profess faith in Christ and 10,000 profess sanctification,” adding that these were conservative numbers, created by carefully adding the names of those who professed faith, meeting after meeting, year after year.

Daniel Wise, who edited and editorialized some of Caughey’s letters and journals in the 19th century, presented the young preacher as a self-educated yet voracious reader but that his early career gave no indication of the huge impact he would later have in England. His Wikipedia page states that later in life “Caughey had an imposing figure and face, a forceful personality, a quick wit and great eloquence.” William Booth’s biographer, Harold Begbie said of Caughey: “He was a tall, thin, smooth-shaven, cadaverous person with dark hair. One who often saw him and well remembers him tells me that he wore a voluminous black cloak folded about him in a Byronic manner; his voice was subdued, he gave no sign of an excitable disposition, his preaching warmed slowly into heat and passion which communicated themselves with magnetic instantaneousness to his audiences.”

His presence in Britain caused enough controversy that after a few years, the leadership there encouraged him to return to the States. His preaching style had brought to a head a discussion between two factions within the British Methodist Church, and many of the leadership belonged to the group which was beginning to become less sensational, dramatic and outwardly “enthusiastic” in style – the complaint the established church had always leveled at John Wesley and his followers – and wanted the church to become more acceptable to the growing middle class. This would shortly begin to affect Methodism in America too. My co-researcher, Alice Rose, and i have both begun to suspect that a rift was growing among Troy’s Methodists by the second half of the 19th century, as the State Street church adopted a system of paid pew rentals, became less interested in revival meetings, and less invested in it evangelical endeavors – and even started using musical instruments in worship! (That is a story for another day.) Those who were unhappy with the direction moved into some of the other congregations State Street had birthed and continued earlier ways at least for a while longer.

So, after 6 years In England and a little time in Ireland, Caughey left Britain in 1847, and he returned to Burlington, Vt. making preaching tours in Canada annually for a time, as well as three more trips across the Atlantic and as an invited preacher up and down the East coast of America, from his base in Burlington, VT.

And the link with the Salvation Army? William Booth attributed his becoming a Methodist, and subsequently a Methodist minister, to the preaching of James Caughey. Booth was just 15 years old when he first heard Caughey. The Wikipedia page for William Booth says: “William styled his preaching after the revivalist American James Caughey, who had made frequent visits to England and preached at Broad Street Chapel, Nottingham, where Booth was a member.”

In his 1920 Life of William Booth, Harold Begbie writes about Caughey’s influence and includes a new paper article describing what it was like to attend one of Caughey’s meetings. The full text is available online (link below) but it begins: “But the greatest influence upon William Booth was exercised, beyond all question, by the American evangelist James Caughey, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This man attracted enormous crowds to Wesley Chapel, and brought about an undoubted revival of religion in the town. ”

Eventually, as the tension between the old-time revivalist preachers and the leadership grew, Booth left Methodism and formed his own organization based on the principles and understanding, and even the language, he had first heard from his mentor, James Caughey: the Salvation Army was born.

As for Caughey, ill-health had forced his retirement to Highland Park, NJ, where he became Pastor Emeritus of Highland Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1886, when William Booth visited America on a preaching tour, he came to visit and thank the man he saw as his mentor.

Caughey died at age 80 on 30th January 1891, and is buried in the Elmwood Cemetery in North Brunswick, NJ.

Caughey may not be celebrated in Methodism today, on either side of the Atlantic, but there are traditions who regard him as foundational to their understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit to this day. Among some Evangelical and Pentecostal traditions, Caughey is seen as an early proponent of what they now would call the baptism of, or rebirth in, the Holy Spirit. His influence is celebrated on various websites, and I have named some of those below

Caughey, however, proclaimed himself a traditional Methodist to the end, and disliked any link to schism, believing he was loyal to the words and ethos of its founder, John Wesley. He just saw himself as an old-time preacher in the mold of Wesley. We still have many of his sermons, as his revival meetings always had someone to record his words. He called people to convert to a new way of life, a new focus. He spoke to the workers who were starting to bring great wealth to those in charge, but he encouraged owners and workers to do the right thing. He told them no matter what the rigors of their daily life, God valued them, loved them and always had, and wanted to forgive them and prepare them for a new start. And because he was an old time Wesleyan preacher, he preached on sanctification. John Wesley would have been so proud – as he frequently complained in his final months, that although his preachers did really well talking about prevenient grace, and redeeming grace, they were neglecting the very Methodist notion of sanctifying grace. Caughey really made sanctifying grace, as Wesley first described it, the cornerstone of his work. For, when he was “reading Mr. Wesley’s Plain Account of Christian Perfection, a heavenly calm, with a consciousness of entire purity, over-spread my heart, and a light like day-dawn beamed upon my placid soul. I exclaimed, in sweet amaze, ” Why,-if this be Christian perfection, which Mr. Wesley describes, then I have it.”

And he wanted everyone else to experience it, too.

Janet Douglass, Troy NY. November 2025

And as a final curiosity of a personal nature to me… it was not only William Booth who graced those pulpits I also preached in… James Caughey also spoke in the Methodists chapels of Gateshead, and the style of worship of at least one would still seem familiar to the man who set their hearts on fire long ago! Small world….(JD)

Want to know more?
Search for “King of Revival Preachers” on the Rhemalogy website
Search for “Revival Heroes James Caughey” on the Revival Library site
Beautiful Feet, a website about revivalism in America: https://romans1015.com/tag/rev-james-caughey/page/8/
This description of Caughey includes part of Begbie’s description of what it was like to attend one of his revival meetings: https://ukwells.org/revivalists/james-caughey
Full description of a Caughey revival meeting: Harold Begbie Life of Booth vol 1 p. 9ff (1920.) https://archive.org/details/lifegeneralwill04begbgoog/page/n30/mode/2up
On the changes happening in Methodism during Caughey’s time in England: https://oxford-institute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/2018-05-pedlar.pdf
Wikipedia page for William Booth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Booth
Wikipedia page for James Caughey: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Caughey

There are numerous books based on Caughey’s sermons and journals, available free of charge on the internet. Many come in the form of questions and answers and the style conversational. All of the titles below are available free of charge on the internet, in the Google Book Archive or various educational libraries. Search for one by name and add Caughey, they come up easily. They include:
Glimpses of Life in Soul Saving:
Helps to a Life of Holiness and Usefulness, or Revival Miscellanies:
Revival Miscellanies: 11 Revival Sermons of James Caughey
Earnest Christianity
Showers of blessing from clouds of mercy: selected from the journal and other writings of the Rev. James Caughey 

The Methodist Episcopal Churches of Troy: State Street/ Fifth Avenue-State Street/Christ Church United Methodist

Part of the series of extended essays on the early Methodist societies of Troy, New York.

The current sanctuary is the third building to house the Methodist congregation on State Street in Troy, NY, but it was a private home on State Street, which was regarded as the site of Troy’s first Methodist gatherings in the earliest days of the community, which would become the City of Troy. Records suggest Methodists first met on State Street in 1793. It is not yet possible to determine whose home that was and the location, but at that time there were few domestic buildings, and they centered on River, First and Second Streets. So, presumably where one of those crossed State there was a home where early Methodists found themselves welcome – which could never be assumed. Early Methodists were met with much opposition.

After its rocky start – Methodism did not have as many adherents as other protestant denominations at this point, and avowed Methodists were subjected, to ridicule, name-calling and outright violence for their beliefs – the congregation became sufficiently large and established, to need its own building. Lingering prejudice about the denomination is witnessed in the difficulty in obtaining the land to build. Jacob D. Vanderheyden, the landowner, had donated land for other denominations, or made the land extremely inexpensive for them to purchase, but he refused to sell land to the Methodists for a long time. It was the intervention of his brother-in-law, Dr. John Loudon, who shared his dream of pigeons “flocking” to the desired site, that is credited for Vanderheyden’s change of heart. Nonetheless, the Methodists paid top dollar for their piece of land.

The congregation was incorporated as “The Methodist Episcopal Church of the Village of Troy” on November 29th, 1808, and a few weeks later, on Christmas Day, Vanderheyden conveyed the land to the trustees, having agreed to sell the land for $500, though with a $35 annual interest fee until paid off in full. The piece of land they acquired was the western half of the current site: two narrow lots, which has been designated the previous year as city lots 743 and 744, on the north east corner of State Street and Williams Street (the alley.) The building stood in what is now the small garden area in front of the parish house. It was two stories tall, plain, weatherboarded and painted white. The subscription started to pay for the construction of this modest building, despite having masons and carpenters in the congregation who gave their skills at no cost, still meant that the church was not ready to use for worship until 1811. Hillman reports that one of the largest sums donated came from Phebe, the daughter of Caleb Curtis: $5. He hints that there were very many, but very small donations, from those with less to give. The list of donations in the subscription book closed at $557.82.

The earliest drawing of that first clapperboard building is in A.J. Weise’s ‘Troy’s One Hundred Years” in which the building stands open on all sides. Weise describes the location as being built next to the common land. This was the land, donated by the Vanderheydens, for the annual Pingster or Pinkster Fest. Each Pentecost, both enslaved and free African Americans would gather for their annual celebration on this land, which included plenty of eating, drinking, music, singing and dancing…(See my essay on the African Zion congregation.)

The building was opened, still unfinished, with rough benches having been hurriedly made from planks by the congregation’s carpenters, just in time for the first service. Hillman reports the land around was not inviting and consisted of thick weeds and briars and patches of bare earth. The remains of a small stream passed by the eastern side of the building and when it iced over in winter, the narrow strip made for “good sliding” for the children.

Over time, the hurriedly made rough benches were replaced with slightly better plain pine benches, backed with a narrow board, but still at that time the pulpit was a a plainly-constructed desk on a small platform with several chairs. Tallow candles in tin sconces along the walls of the church lit it when evening meetings took place. By 1817, the church had a fence, which Hillman reported was to be “painted either all red or Spanish brown except the front part which was to be white”, as in the etching above from Hillman’s book. At the same time seats were added to the gallery and were likely the ones removed from the main auditorium. Women and girls sat on the east side, and men and boys took seats on the west side. The pulpit too had been replaced, Hillman reporting that there not being enough space, the children sat on the kneeling-step which surrounded the “altar.” (Hillman,p 46)

Frederick Garrettson – a man of great renown in the history of American Methodism – whose daughter traveled with him and acted as a secretary for his travels passed this on to his biographer:

” From Schenectady they returned to Troy, and put up at the house of the Hon. George Tibbits, whose hospitable mansion is delightfully situated on the side of a sloping hill ascending from the eastern part of the city, denominated Mount Ida. On the Sabbath, Mr. Garrettson preached in the Methodist Church, in this city, morning, afternoon, and evening, to an attentive congregation; and ‘truly’ says he, ‘it was a good day.’

He remarks that when he visited this place about thirty years before (in 1788) , there were only a few scattering of houses, and no Methodist society; but that he now rejoices to find a flourishing little city, in which there were four houses of worship, and not less than three hundred members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. what seemed to add to his religious enjoyment was the catholic and friendly spirit manifested by the several religious denominations toward each other. (Hillman, p 45-6.)


Even so, it was not until 1823 that the congregation secured sufficient money to pay off the debt on that first building. Only 16 years after its opening for worship, the congregation had outgrown their space: a new, larger sanctuary was required. On February 28th, 1827, the building was sold to Thomas Read and Sterling Armstrong for $500, only taking possession on November 1st. The first building had been moved to the corner plot, immediately east of its original location, the common land no longer being used for its intended purpose. So it looks like they shuffled the clapperboard building along, and worshiped there, while the brick chapel was being built. There, it was afterward used as a temporary court house, while the first court house on 2nd Street was being constructed, and then as a grocery store, until the erection of the current stone church in 1867. (Hillman p. 48 and p.52).

In the 1860 stereograph below, taken from the corner of State and 4th Streets, looking toward Troy University – about which, much more later – the brick sanctuary can be seen and beside it, a little harder to discern, is a much smaller, white wooden clapperboard building… standing there until the site construction of the current limestone sanctuary, which began 7 years after the photo was taken.

Dr. Loudon, his dream of pigeons, his work as one of Troy’s earliest doctors, and his importance to the congregation will all be covered in a later post.

The main historical source for the congregation is Joseph Hillman’s 1888 book “Methodism in Troy.” Other histories of Troy and Rensselaer County, many of which, like Hillman’s book, were published around the 100th year anniversary of the naming of Troy, include similar information. These include several books by A.J.Weise and also Rutherford Haynes and Sylvester Peck. All are available to read at no cost online. The Library of Congress site is a good place to start, but Google books and various university libraries also have digital versions. The stereograph above is from the Library of Congress archive, and is available for free use as part of the Charles F. Himes collection (Library of Congress Control Number 2005687324.)

Maggie Van Cott (Margaret Newton Van Cott): early woman preacher & evangelist.

Maggie van Cott (1830-1914), seen here in a screen shot of her biography on Wikipedia.com, was the first woman in Troy Conference to be given a license to preach, and became famous throughout the North East as a leader of revivals, and even made tours out West. She received her license to preach in 1869, which was obviously controversial, and yet also very popular. In the book “The Harvest and the Reaper” written from her recollections,  there are contemporary reviews of her preaching, and whilst some criticize her lack of training as an orator and theologian, (and talk about her “womanly logic” – meaning lack of it,)  they all have to admit to her success at her goal of “bringing souls to Christ.”

 In March and April,1876, Maggie van Cott visited the State Street, Troy, NY congregation, staying with the Hillman family. Both Maggie and the Troy Praying Band, under Hillman,  had visited the Springfield, MA Methodists in the past to run revivals. 

The Troy Daily Times reports the revival events, reporting that the church was full for some, and that the one – weekday – afternoon, when they reported a smaller crowd, it still numbered several hundred. The pastor’s wife, Mrs. Kimball, and Mrs Joseph Hillman held some women only events, in addition to those open to the general public.

Joseph Hillman records in his book, Methodism in Troy, both his home and that of the pastor, Rev. H.D.Kimball, were robbed during the revival at the church: “the writer took the most complacent view of the loss as was possible, and proposed that the hymn “Hallelujah, ‘tis done” should be sung.” (Hillman, p.73.) He then continues to speak of the revival being a “glorious success” and how it also gave the Presbyterian church some new members.* Several of the revivals, at State Street Methodist Episcopal do appear to have been led with some support from the local Baptists congregations.

Revivals were not always seen positively in the Presbyterian denomination, as can be read at the link below, so it is interesting that the friendly relationships between denominations, praised more than half a century earlier by Frederick Garresttson when visiting Troy, seems to have continued to some extent.  The objections by the Presbyterian denomination included the inordinate “enthusiasm” which so often was a criticism of Methodist worship, but also the preaching. The nature of revival preaching made it less likely to be on the theology of Calvin. Revivalists were often Methodists, and their founder, John Wesley, had written many treatises in direct opposition to Calvinism, contrasting it with his own theology of the Four Alls, a traditional summary of Methodism teaching which underpins British Methodism to this day: 

She was born in New York City, but it is widely reported that, on the death of her husband,  moved to Greene County, which she deemed a better base for her revival work, and died at Catskill. A Maggie Van Cott does appear on the list of city residents in the 1830s, which hints that maybe she moved first to Troy and, as her travels and fame grew, moved  to Greene County. 

 By her 50th birthday she had supposedly traveled 143,417 miles, held 9,933 revival meetings, and given 4,294 sermons, but the total was far greater as continued her work until her eighties.

The New York Annual Conference of the Methodist Church created a bulletin insert for Women’s History Month in 2016, and it can be accessed at their site.

Online copy of her book: The Harvest and the Reaper can be read online, free of charge, at Google.com/books

Online copy of The Life and Labors of Mrs. Maggie Van Cott by John Onesimus Foster can be read free of charge, online, at Google.com/books

For more information on the Four Alls, one resource is the “What is Distinctive about methodism” page of the British Methodist Church.please visit the Methodist Church site at methodist.org.uk

The image at the top of the page comes from Wikipedia.com and is the title of their boigraphical sketch of the Mrs. Van Cott. The image of the “Four Alls” was created by the author.

The Methodist Episcopal Churches of Troy, NY: Fifth Avenue/ North Second Street

Extended notes on the Methodist congregations associated with the State Street Methodist Episcopal Church (now Christ Church, United Methodist.)

“The expediency of taking advantage of the growth of the city northward of Grand Division Street, and of having a church in which the seats were free, caused the State Street society to give consideration to the project of providing a place of worship in the north part of Troy. On May 23, 1831, the Quarterly Conference appointed a committee ‘to provide a place for preaching somewhere in the bounds of the fourth ward.’ On August 8, that year, the committee reported ‘that the only place to be had ‘ was ‘the dwelling-house’ of Stephen Monroe. A committee of five persons was then appointed ‘to provide a place or places for meetings in the first and fourth wards of the city (…) Considering that the lot on the northeast corner of North Second and Jacob streets would be an eligible site for a church.” (Hillman, pp 87-8)

On the evening August 13, 1831, the trustees of the State Street society “resolved that a subscription should be circulated throughout the City of Troy and elsewhere for the purpose of building a Methodist Episcopal Church in the fourth ward of the city ‘with free seats.” showing that the idea of having paid seating in the “mother church” on State Street had become an issue for some of the congregation.

This building was a brick structure and included a basement. As soon as it was built the Sunday School which had been organized nearby, in the school-room of Miss Annie Manwarring, was moved there and prayer meetings began. “On Sunday afternoon, August 30, 1835, Bishop Elijah Hedding dedicated the church.“ (Hillman 87-88.) The congregation having grown in number, this church building was replaced with a grander structure, which was originally slightly less grand than the drawing found in Hillman’s book. The original aspect of the church can be seen in this 1869 map by William Barton which can be seen online at the New York Public Library website. The private house next door in that drawing, appears have become the parsonage.

The congregation chose to re-merge with the State Street congregation in the 1920’s, at the same time as the German Episcopal Methodist church. The merger of these three churches occurred in 1925, and is recalled by an unknown member of State Street Methodist Episcopal, upon the 125th anniversary of the church in 1939:“Time passed on with greater or less success to Methodism in Troy, until the year 1925 when the mother church grew lonesome for her children and it was decided to unite the congregations of State Street, Fifth Avenue and the German Church under one head whose name should be the Fifth Avenue-State Street Methodist Episcopal Church.”

(quoted by Rev. Dr. James Fenimore in his 1998 paper: “Christ Church, United Methodist – a Church on the Edge of an Apocalypse” from a letter to the church entitled “To the Pastor and People of State St. Methodist Episcopal Church.” This paper is available online.)

The building and its parsonage became the property of St. Peter’s Armenian Apostolic Church in 1927. That congregation left the building when they constructed their new church in Watervliet, in 1971. An African American congregation then worshiped in the church, until it became suddenly and dangerously unstable, and was razed by the City of Troy in the 1999. The parsonage was demolished a little later.

In 2024, the lot which was occupied by the church and parsonage, is used for parking. It is located between Federal and Jacob Streets on Fifth Avenue, in the area now known as Columbus Square.

Line drawings and quotations are from “The History of Methodism in Troy” by Joseph Hillman, 1888, available as a PDF, free of charge, at a number of online archives, including the Library of Congress. Photographs are the author’s.

The Methodist Episcopal Churches of Troy, NY: Third Street Church.

Extended notes on the Methodist congregations associated with the State Street Methodist Episcopal Church (now Christ Church, United Methodist.)

Third Street Methodist Episcopal Church, corner 3rd and Monroe Streets, South Troy.

In March 1844, trustees were elected for a separate congregation named “the Third Street Methodist Episcopal Society of the City of Troy” and a Sunday School was organized. The following year “a lot on the northeast corner of Third and Monroe Streets was purchased by the society to build a church. “  (Hillman, p.96) “The small society which had organized in 1843, began its erection in 1847(…) On Christmas day, that year, the building was dedicated.”  (Hillman p. 66)

“The origin of the Third Street Methodist Episcopal Church can be traced to a statement made by William Barrett, a class-leader of the State Street Church, at the leaders’ meeting held on May 2, 1842 (…) he suggested the suitableness of the house belonging to him in that part of the city for preaching.”  “ In1873, the church was enlarged by the construction of a lower story of brick, on which the wooden structure of the first edifice was placed.” (Hillman, 96-99)

Prayer meetings had been conducted in William Barrett’s house for a while, and when Daniel Hudson, an experienced Sunday School Superintendent, moved “from the northern part of the city,” a class of Methodists was formed. A “class” was the usual Methodist term for a neighborhood group of adults and families with children. The Trustees of the State Street congregation, seeing the success of the class, started to look for a building in earnest, meanwhile paying William Barrett for the use of his house for prayer meetings, preaching and a Sunday School. This saved South Troy participants from trudging the one mile each way to the State Street church, or not quite as far a walk for many – but up a steep hill – to Levings Chapel. 

Like other new congregations, the decision came at a time of dissension that pew rentals were being charged in the State Street building, usually reported by Hillman as temporary fees to pay for new buildings, but always mentioned with hints that the decision was not universally approved.  Certainly the cost to rent a pew could have dissuaded attendance by the workers of South Troy, many of whom worked in the steel mills and foundries of the area. In fact, Hillman tells us this would-be congregation decided not to accept State Street’s appeal for money for their building, but to create its own Board of Trustees and become a separate church. 

In October, 1844, the Sunday School reported having 15 teachers, in addition to two superintendents –  one for males and one for females – and a secretary-librarian, even though Hillman estimates membership of the society being around 35, with 75 students in the Sunday School. The first sermons were preached on the steps of the partially-built church, and the sanctuary was dedicated on Christmas Day, 1847.

After a time as a separate charge, the congregation reunited with State Street and operated under the name of Wesley Chapel. When attendance climbed again, peaking at 151, under the able leadership of its superintendent, Daniel Klock Jr., they once again took a minister and revived their Third Street name. The Sunday School had 288 members in 1888, and the school rooms were enlarged. Sadly, it was not to last. 

The congregation which had struggled, revived, and struggled and thrived for a few years, then struggled again, closing its doors at the end of the19th century, not so long after its best years.

Saint Nicholas Ukrainian Orthodox Church, with a similar shaped, but brick, building now occupies the lot.

Line drawings and quotations are from “The History of Methodism in Troy” by Joseph Hillman, 1888, available as a PDF, free of charge, at a number of online archives, including the Library of Congress. Photographs are the author’s.