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Towns of Bloominggrove, Cornwall and Monroe

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BLOOMINGGROVE CHURCH.

The first house for public worship in Bloominggrove was built in 1759, by immigrants chiefly from Suffolk county, Long Island, who were descendents of the pilgrims; and who, in the same year, organized themselves into a congregation, under the pastoral care of the Rev. Enos Ayres. This gentleman died in 1762, and was succeeded in 1764 by the Rev. Abner Reeve, said to have been the father of Judge Reeve, who established the law school in Litchfield, Con. Mr. Reeve removed, after occupying the pulpit some three or four years, and was followed by the Rev. Amaziah Lewis, as a supply, for about twelve months. Then there officiated, as supplies, first the Rev. --- Case, one year; next the Rev. --- Green, six months; and then the Rev. Silas Constant, two years. In 1768, the Rev. Samuel Parkhurst came to preach as a supply, took sick and died, and was buried by the side of Mr. Ayres, the first pastor of the congregation.

In June, 1786, the Rev. Benoni Bradner became the minister of the place; in 1802 he ceased from the labors of the pulpit; and, in the beginning of 1804, departed this life, in the seventy-first year of his age. His remains, as also those of the Rev. Messrs. Ayres and Parkhurst, rest beneath the present church edifice. After the retirement of Mr. Bradner, the Rev. Joel T. Benedict preached a few months; and then in May, 1803, the Rev. Noah Crane succeeded, and continued as pastor until his removal in 1811. In November of this year the Rev. William Rafferty followed, and left in 1815.- He died suddenly, while on a visit here, in the summer of 1830; he being at the time president of St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland. He was interred in the family burial ground of the relatives among whom he expired.

In 1815, the Rev. Luther Halsey, jr. began to preach in the vacant pulpit, and remained until 1824, when he removed to Princeton, New Jersey, to occupy a professorship in Nassau Hall. Toward the close of Mr. Halsey's ministry in this congregation, viz: in 1823, the old meeting house, after standing some sixty-four years, was taken down, and the present large and substantial building erected. This edifice, covering the site of the former one, stands, flanked on both sides by oak and walnut trees, on an eminence a little west of the Bloominggrove and Greycourt turnpike, and about midway between Washingtonville and Craigville.

In August, 1824, the Rev. James Arbuckle, then pastor of the eighth Presbyterian church in Philadelphia, was called to succeed Mr. Halsey; and, having accepted the invitation, entered, the first Sabbath in October of the same year, on a course of ministerial services, continued till July 17, `47. The congregation purchased, in 1838, five and a half acres of land, in close proximity to the church; and, on a spot commanding one of the most extensive and beautiful inland prospects in the county, built, together with other requisite structures, a new and commodious residence for the minister.- There is no incumbrance on either the church or the parsonage property. The congregation have neither a standing debt, nor a permanent fund. All the expenses, whether ordinary or extraordinary, for the maintainance of public worship, are defrayed by contributions raised exclusively among the people themselves, as the occasion may require.

The Rev. Mr. Arbuckle furnished us with these facts, and we now record his sadden death. He died July 17, 1847.

Departed this life at Bloominggrove on Thursday, January 29, 1804, in the 71st year of his age, Rev. Benoni Bradner, after a long and distressing illness, which be bore with Christian fortitude and the most examplary resignation.

“How nature throbbed, how beat in every vein,

When my fond parent felt foreboding pain!

When Genius, Virtue seemed prepared to fly,

Fatigued with earth, impatient for the sky;

Thou, dearest sire, delight of human kind,

Of passions gentle as the vernal wind,

Thy daily pleasure, heaven alone to please,

Art now no more.

Oh! meet me in the realms of day,

Whither thy spirit winged its joyful flight,

To meet its God in infinite delight.”

Died on the 24th of February, 1818, Mrs. Eunice White, consort of Sylvanus White, in the 85th year of her age.

And on the 2d of March, 1818, Mr. Sylvanus White in the 88th year of his age. They were the parents of the Hon. Nathan H. White, and had been married and lived together 64 years.