Ground for a Church edifice and burial purposes was purchased in January 1810. A headstone in the churchyard still marks that date as the year of the first interment. A contract was let in the same year to Sampson Crooker for the construction of a building thirty feet by fifty, but for want of means the frame stood as a skeleton for two years afterward, when the structure was at last finished. Trinity Church of New York city supplied the parish with the money needed for this purpose—fourteen hundred dollars. The means by which that opulent corporation was induced to make the contribution forms an interesting story. It has come down from Judge Page, through the recollections of Lester Hubbell.[15]
ST. MATTHEW’S CHURCH.
Consecrated in 1814, Enlarged in 1845, and Again in 1852.
LLOYD L. WOODRUFF AND SAMUEL D. BACON STANDING ON THE SIDEWALK.
The vestry of St. Matthew’s had decided to ask Trinity for help and Judge Page was sent to New York to make the application. He found on arrival that Trinity had so many applications of the kind that its policy had been to decline all, but the Judge, by means of the City Directory, ascertained the personal addresses of all members of the vestry and proceeded to call upon them. On meeting with a refusal from the first one he told him how much he regretted to return home without securing a single vote, and asked as a favor that he might have this man’s vote. The vestryman at last consented, but assured the Judge he could not possibly secure the gift. The Judge then called upon the other vestrymen and employed the same methods as with the first. Each was to give him one vote in order to save his pride on returning home. When the vestry of Trinity came together, the request from St. Matthew’s was duly read by the clerk, put to a vote, and, to the surprise of every one present except the Judge, was passed unanimously. The Judge is said to have kept his countenance in a state of rigid repose, when he rose to his feet and thanked the vestry for their generosity.
Bishop Hobart consecrated the Church in 1814 and in 1817 a bell that had been cast in London was set up. In 1845 the church at a cost of fifteen hundred dollars was enlarged and entirely remodeled by William J. Thompson. This was during the administration of Mr. Adams: it was newly consecrated by Bishop DeLancey. About seven years afterwards another enlargement of the nave was made by Mr. Thompson and Lewis Carmichael, during the rectorship of the Rev. Samuel H. Norton. About the time when Trinity Church gave the fourteen hundred dollars, Gouldsborough Banyar gave the Church 116 acres of land two miles below the village,—a property which was retained until some years after the Civil War, when it was sold and the present rectory in part built from the proceeds.
The first grave opened within the burial ground was that of Edward Howell, a sea captain, who, early in the century, had abandoned his roving life and settled on the Nathaniel Wattles place intending there to spend the remainder of his days. When the purchase of this land was under consideration, Mr. Howell was asked for a subscription. He declined on the ground that he had just sold his farm with the intention of going with his family to Bath, Steuben County. A few days afterwards, Captain Howell was taken ill and died. Thus his grave was the first ever opened in those grounds. As may still be seen, the stone that marks Captain Howell’s grave was “inscribed by his children.” The family removed to Bath where one of his sons became a judge and member of Congress.
In this churchyard are buried many of the first Unadilla pioneers, as well as men who followed them in the first half of the nineteenth century, among the number Solomon Martin, Guido L. Bissell, Josiah Thatcher, James Hughston, Isaac Hayes, Curtis Noble, Stephen Benton, Sherman Page, William Wilmot, Adanijah, Daniel, Gilbert and Gardner Cone, Abijah H. Beach, David Finch, Niel Robertson, Fowler P. Bryan, Joel Bragg, Col. A. D. Williams, Henry Ogden, Dr. John Colwell, Erastus Kingsley, Arnold B. Watson, Col. Samuel North, Frederick A. Sands, Rev. Norman H. Adams, L. Bennett Woodruff, Henry S. Woodruff, and Dr. Gaius L. Halsey.
An earlier burial place than this stood just east of Lester Hubbell’s summer home. There was buried Daniel Bissell. Mr. Thompson remembered the head stone that marked his grave. What disposition was made of these graves when the grounds were abandoned as a burial place, the author has been unable to ascertain.