TOWN OF BATH. 



179 



was organized so far as to elect a board of trustees, con- 

 sisting of George McClure, J. T. Haight, Howell Bull, 

 James Turner, Dugald Cameron, Samuel S. Haight, Henry 

 A. Townsend, and Robert Campbell. Two years more 

 passed by, however, before we hear of any further effort to 

 build up the Church of Christ in this community. Mr. 

 Niles' labors were continued every other Sabbath until, on 

 the 3d of January, 1808, the congregation assembled, prob- 

 ably in the court-house, which seems to have been their 

 place of worship until they had built a church ; and there 

 a small number of them entered into a covenant, and were 

 constituted a church under the name of " The Church of 

 Christ in Bath, Presbyterian Congregation." Their names 

 were as follows : Joseph Inslee, Elizabeth Inslee, William 

 Aulls, Elizabeth AuUs, James Turner, Eunice Johnson, 

 Henry A. Townsend, Elizabeth Townsend, Howell Bull, 

 Eunice Bull, Bobert Campbell, Mary Shethar, Samuel S. 

 Haight, Sarah Haight. 



On the same day Joseph Inslee and Samuel S. Haight 

 were chosen and appointed deacons of the church. All 

 this must have taken place in connection with the usual 

 services of the Lord's Day, the 3d of January in that year 

 having been Sunday. 



On the 30th of May following this a call was presented 

 to Mr. Niles, requesting him to take the pastoral oversight 

 of the congregation, which he accepted in a letter dated 

 June 11, and he was accordingly installed by a committee 

 of the Association, on the 7th day of July, 1808. The 

 church thus assumed at its origin a Congregational character, 

 but in September, 1811, it was received under the care of 

 the Presbytery of Geneva. In November of the same 

 year, William Aulls, Elias Hopkins, Samuel S. Haight, 

 Henry A. Townsend, and Howell Bull were chosen and set 

 apart to the office of ruling elder, and from that time this 

 has been a Presbyterian Church in fact as well as in name. 



Only a year after this the pastor was taken away by 

 death, Sept. 13, 1812, in the thirtieth year of his age. 



In January, 1813, a call was extended to the lie v. David 

 Higgins, of Auburn, which he accepted, and early in July 

 of that year he was installed as pastor. He had come 

 from Connecticut into this State at first on a missionary 

 tour, and had but recently organized what is now the First 

 Presbyterian Church of Auburn when he was called to 

 Bath. Here he remained for eighteen years, extending 

 his labors over a wide region, as it was gradually filling up 

 with new settlers. Under his ministry the church increased 

 its membership and erected its first house of worship, and 

 became well established as a centre of wholesome influence 

 to the growing village and to the surrounding neighbor- 

 hood. The preparations for building were begun in 1821. 

 As yet no house of worship "with a steeple'' had been 

 built in what is now Steuben County. A lot which had 

 been part of the land-office premises was given them by 

 the Pulteney Estate. A subscription was raised amount- 

 ing to something over $2000, and a contract was made 

 with Capt. Moses H. Lyon to build the house for $2450. 

 On the 2d of March, 1825, it was solemnly dedicated, the 

 services being conducted by the pastor, Mr. Higgins, assisted 

 by Rev. J. H. Hotchkin, of Prattsburgh, and Eev. Mr. 

 Clary, of Cohocton. At that time the church consisted 



of about sixty members, but six years afterwards, when Mr. 

 Higgins gave up his pastoral charge, sixty others had united 

 and quite a number had been dismissed, or were just about 

 to be dismissed, to organize new churches in the neighbor- 

 ing villages. The church of Hammondsport and that of 

 Kennedyville (now Kanona) derived nearly all their orig- 

 inal members from this ; that of Wheeler took about one- 

 half of its first membership from Bath, and still the parent 

 church had strength enough to go on and prosper. 



In 1831, just at the close of his seventieth year, Mr. 

 Higgins resigned his pastoral charge, and a few years after- 

 wards removed with his family to Norwalk, 0., where he 

 died, June 18, 1842, having passed the age of fourscore. 



He was succeeded by the Rev. Isaac Watts Piatt, who 

 had but recently resigned his pastoral charge at Athens, 

 Pa. Coming to Bath in April, 1831, he found the com- 

 munity pervaded by a deep religious sentiment, and at the 

 joint request of the pastor and the people, he became the 

 stated minister. Under his preaching, together with the 

 labors of the pastor, a remarkable work of grace was devel- 

 oped, resulting in a large addition to the church. His call 

 from this congregation was dated June 4, 1831. 



During his pastorate occurred the discussions which 

 sprang out of the notable revivals of those times, and were 

 instrumental in bringing about the division of the Ameri- 

 can Presbyterian Church. On the 18th of February, 1838, 

 a band of a score or more of the members of this church 

 in Bath — including two of its elders, Ira Gould and John 

 Emerson — met separately in the court-house, and organized 

 what was called the Constitutional Presbyterian Church of 

 Bath. 



This new society increased in numbers, and built a house 

 of worship on Liberty Street, but found it very difficult to 

 maintain stated services from year to year. The old church 

 also could not bear the depletion thus occasioned — with all 

 the attendant irritation — without serious injury both finan- 

 cially and spiritually. 



The pastor, meanwhile, was suffering in bodily health 

 beyond anything that appeared in his ordinarily cheerful 

 tone as he went about among his parishioners, and some 

 very severe domestic afflictions weighed him down with 

 great anxiety and sorrow. After the loss of a bright and 

 promising son, in October, 1843, it was difficult for him 

 to keep up his pulpit and parochial work with his accus- 

 tomed vigor, and in April, 1844, he gave up the charge of 

 this church. In 1847 he removed to West Farms, West- 

 chester Co., where he was pastor until his death, in Feb- 

 ruary, 1858. 



He was succeeded here at once by Bev. L. Merrill Mil- 

 ler, then a young man just licensed, and whose ministry of 

 seven years proved a well-chosen means of fostering the 

 best influences in the congregation. In 1851 he was called 

 to the church of Ogdensburgh, where he is pastor at this 

 day. 



In August, 1851, Bev. George D. Stewart, who had 

 spent a few years in the ministry at Port Byron, having 

 been called to this church, began his stated labors. His 

 pastorate of about eight years was a very flourishing one, 

 resulting in the gathering in of many from the surrounding 

 country neighborhoods. In 1852 the church edifice had 



