troy – janetintroy

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.)

The Methodist Episcopal Churches of Troy, NY: First German Methodist Episcopal Church & St Titus Methodist Mission

Extended notes on State Street Methodist Episcopal Church (now Christ Church United Methodist) and the buildings and congregations that came from it.

“Although Troy had from a very early date not a few German inhabitants, it was not until 1855 that an effort was made to form a religious society, composed exclusively of German people. At that time it was estimated that there were no less than 2500 Germans in the city. The first German minister, who undertook to form a German society of a religious denomination in Troy, was the Rev. Mr. Swartz, the pastor of the German Methodist Church in Albany, who in 1855 began to conduct religious services in a building on the northwest corner of First and Ferry streets. Some months later, the Rev. F. W. Dinger of the New York Conference continued these services in the True Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church, on the south side of Congress Street, at its intersection with Ferry Street. In that building, the First German Methodist Episcopal Church of Troy was organized, on July 25, 1857. The society was incorporated March 31, 1859 (…) Shortly afterward the society purchased two lots on the north-west corner of Union and State streets for $1,500. The buildings on the lots were destroyed in the great fire of May 10, 1862.” (The History of Methodism in Troy, Joseph Hillman, 1888. p. 114-6.)

Interestingly, maps show that was the very point where the fire stopped along State Street, was just half a block from the current Christ Church, making the German Church the last structure lost on that street. The society then rebuilt, on that same lot, creating the church as pictured above, with the front facing State Street. It was dedicated on March 25, 1863.

This congregation, along with the 5th Avenue/ North-Second Street congregation merged with State Street Methodist Episcopal, in 1925, the three merged societies taking the official title of Fifth Avenue-State Street Methodist Episcopal Church. Many of the leading families of this congregation became leaders in the merged congregation, and their descendants were members until the end of the 20th century.

The original meeting house now lies under the car park behind the Central Library. As for the building above, Union Street no longer exists either side of State Street. It was the name for an alley which ran between Fifth and Sixth Avenue (alleys in Troy are named as streets) and this lot is now under the Trustco bank parking lot beside the Court building and Police Station. Maps show the building as one lot wide , but going back the whole two lots, as in the description above.

The spire of Christ Church United Methodist is at the left, the area immediately behind the sign, at right, is where Union St (alley) was. The black-topped parking lot was the site of the church.

The buildings on the east side of Fifth Avenue were removed during the 1960’s as part of an urban renewal program. I suspect this, too, was a victim of urban renewal, as the September 1950 copy “The Spire: Newsletter of Fifth Ave-State St Methodist Church,” lodged at the Troy Central Library, states the Liberty Presbyterian Church was at that time the occupant of the building above. It may have become unstable or in a fire between those two dates – so while that is unclear at time of writing, before that happened it became home to the …

St. Titus Italian Methodist Mission

So little is known of this congregation, that it has not appeared in Christ Church histories until this point. According to the collection of historical materials of Troy Conference, by Samuel Gardiner Ayres, archived at the Hart-Cluett Museum in Troy, St. Titus began as a mission to Italian families in 1913. However, he also states it began at that time in the Third Methodist Episcopal Church, which had been sold 15 years before that to the Ukrainian Orthodox congregation. I suspect this was an error, and the real location is 43 State Street – the German M.E. Church, where they remained after the latter congregation moved out.

The Adirondack Record- ElizabethTown Post newspaper for April 7th, 1932, carries an announcement by the Ausable Forks Methodist Church that: “The Reverend Lucius Martucci of St. Titus Italian Methodist Church, Troy, N.Y.” would give a talk on “The Melting Pot in America” in which he would talk of the pioneering missionary work of his mission among “the Italians of Troy.” The newspaper has another article about how the same church donated money each year to the St. Titus mission, stating it was the “only Church in the Troy Conference area, in which services are conducted in the Italian Language.” it gives the address of the church as 43 State Street, the same address as the building vacated in 1925 by the German Episcopal Church (above.) Interestingly, the author remembers several people named Martucci in the congregation, as well as the Rossi family, whose name is on a brass offering plate in Christ Church, United Methodist, to this today. It may have come along with the families when the congregation merged into State Street, at an unknown date, whether at its demolition, having shared the building with the Liberty Street Presbyterian Church, or before that, leaving the building empty for its new owner. I suspect someone will know…and if so, I will gladly update this mini history.

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.

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 Church of Troy, NY: Levings Chapel/ Fourth Methodist Church/ Levings Church.

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

Fourth Methodist Church/ Levings Chapel, 63 Mill Street, South Troy, NY

In the mid 1830s, Methodists who were working in the nail factory on Mill Street, began to ask for a church to be erected closer to their place of work and homes. According to Hillman, they were holding worship services at the nail factory. On September 24, 1838, they met at the factory and designated themselves as the “Trustees of the Levings Chapel in the city of Troy,” also known as Fourth Methodist Church of Troy.

In 1850, they erected a sanctuary opposite the factory. Two years later, the Rev. Tobias Spicer, another early Methodist from the State Street church, and who was appointed as pastor of the Levings Chapel society, spoke unflatteringly of his work there: “My labors this year were mostly in South Troy, where we had a feeble society, which had lately built a church. “ None the less, by the early 1860’s the church had a membership of 140, and in 1888, at the publication of Hillman’s book, the number had swelled to 212 members, by which time the church had been renamed “Leving’s Church” though the old name of Chapel was often used.

The congregation continued until the 1960’s, when the decision was made to close it, rather than execute the much needed expensive repairs. The remaining members merged with the Green Island Methodist Church, now called Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, and anyone looking for genealogical materials from Levings Chapel could start there.

The last service was held on Palm Sunday, 1968, and the decision seemed prescient, given that during the following Winter the roof collapsed during a heavy snow storm and shortly afterward the church and manse were torn down. The lot for the two buildings remains empty, and stands on the corner of Mill and Erie Streets, and across Erie Street from the Woodside arts center, which was previously Woodside Presbyterian Church. The photographs below show the site, now obscured from the road by trees – the blue marks delineate the platform which remains and the two disused paths leading to it, one covered in gravel and the other metallized. The tower of the neighboring former Woodside Presbyterian Church can be seen beyond the trees. The platform can also be glimpsed behind current homes from the top of Erie Street.

The substantial buildings of the nail factory and Albany Steel Works, which lined the Wynantskill at the time, have also long-since disappeared. Today there is a walk around Burden Pond, down beside the Burden Falls and then on toward the Hudson River. If you look for them, there are still bricks and a few ruins of the old mills, in places. The location is famous for the giant Burden Water Wheel that used to stand there, purportedly the most powerful water wheel ever built. Several websites give those details, and also tell how an RPI student used his knowledge of this wheel, and his engineering skills, to build the first fairground pleasure wheel for the Chicago Columbian Exhibition in 1893. His name was George Washington Gale Ferris. For the first members of Levings Chapel however, it was simply one of the amazing pieces of new technology, which made them so productive and helped create Troy’s wealth.

As for the Rev. Noah Levings, this early convert to Methodism by the State Street faithful, while still an apprentice blacksmith, will need to have a brief history of his own at later date.

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.