The NYG&B is very fortunate to occasionally receive collections of materials that had theretofore been unknown. One such wonderful collection was donated by James Brush of Mills River, North Carolina.
The Laight Street Baptist Church was founded in 1842 when seventy members of the Tabernacle Baptist Church petitioned for a group letter of dismissal in order to form their own independent congregation. Their request was met with:
“. . . mingled emotions — We sorrow that we have been called to part with those, who have been colaborers [sic] with us, while we rejoice that they separate from us in love to unfurl the Banner of the Gospel in a destitute part of our City.”
The congregation located their new church downtown below Canal Street. By 1870, however, the congregation had moved uptown to 42nd Street.
The collection does not cover the usual items you’d expect to find in church records: baptisms, marriages, confirmations, and deaths. Instead, the collection documents its founding, the gift ofland provided for its new edifice, mortgages taken out to pay for the new building, and the names of many dozens of members who joined from far flung congregations. Following are those founding members of the Laight Street Church, who removed themselves from Tabernacle Baptist (spelling and punctuation as found in the original record).
Mrs. Catherine Ackerman
Miss Catherine E. Ackerman
Samuel F. Allen
James T. Bertine
Mrs. Sarah Ann Bertine
Miss Catherine Bertine
Mrs. Eliza. I. Browere
Miss Eliza. I. M. Browere
Mrs. Maria Booth
Wm. H. Churchill
Miss Caroline C. Cowen
Mrs. Abby Colgate
George H. Clapp
Henry Coeymans
Mrs. Susan Colgrove
Mrs. Sarah Dougherty
Miss Sarah Jane Dougherty
John M. Davis
Mrs. Alice L. Davis
Mrs. Margaret Foulas
James Goadly
Mrs. Mary Goadly
Elan G. Galusha
Mrs. Julia Galusha
John. M. Galusha
Miss Jane Amelia Graham
Joseph Green
Obediah B. Geran
William Harris
Mrs. Eliza Harris
Chs. W. Hougton
Mrs. Mary Houghton
Miss Eliza. Ann Hall
Mrs. Betsey Hallett
Mrs. Ann Johnson
Daniel Lee
Miss Margaret Leash
Martin R. Marcell
William Mason
Mrs. Susanna Mason
Miss Mary. Ann. Mason
Miss Rachel Onderdonk
Joel B. Purdy
William Philips
Mrs. Eliza Platt
J. E. de Ronde
Mrs. Phebe Randolph
Eliza. Round
Amanda Ruland
Benjamin A. Russell
N. B. Spaulding
Mrs. Sarah I. Spaulding
Micajah M. Stancils
Mrs. Elizabeth Stancils
Miss Matilda Stancils
Henry M. Smith
Mrs. Anna Smith
Margaret Shimca
Emery Townsend
Emily Townsend
Mary R. Truette
Abraham Williams
Samuel Winterton
Miss Sarah Ann Winterton
Wm. L. Wait
Mrs. Ann Maria Wait
Matilda Watson
Lathrop Upham
Mrs. Calista Upham
Richard C. Lewis
Over the next several years more members left the Tabernacle church to join with Laight Street, and other members joined from places as distant as New London and Norwich, Connecticut; Philadelphia; Lowell, Massachusetts; New Orleans; Providence, Rhode Island; Crawfordville, Georgia; Racine, Wisconsin; several cities in New Jersey, including Rahway; and a wide variety of towns throughout New York, including Albany. At least one new member was a Presbyterian.
Archives such as this can be a boon to those whose ancestors left a scant paper trail. With the help of our volunteers this collection will be added to the Members’ Area of the G&B website.
Originally published in The New York Researcher, Summer/Fall 2010
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