By Laura Chase Smith, E. P. Dutton, 1903 Chapter VIII WORK NORTH AND SOUTH (Continue the work in New York State, unless otherwise indicated) Then onward and westward Mr. Chase went to Bloomfield and Avon on the Genesee River, -- at the latter place receiving much kindness from the Hosmer family. There was then no road except an Indian trail though the Tonawanda plains, uninhabited even to the Niagara River. Therefore he returned by the way he came, visiting parishes he had formed at Canandahqua, Auburn, and Utica, and then visiting Mr. Nash at Burlington, Ostego County. The young missionary gives a graphic sketch of the self-denying life of Father Nash, who touched his youthful heart with his own spiritual strength and fervor, ..................... It was a meeting of two persons deeply convinced of the primitive and apostolic foundation of the church and ministry, to which on account of its purity of doctrine and the divine right of its ministry, we had fled from chaos and confusion of sects. We were both missionaries, though the name was not yet understood nor appreciated. He had given up all his hopes of a more comfortable living in the well-stored country at the east, and had come to Ostego county to preach the Gospel and build up the Church ............ He lived not in a tent like the patriarch, surrounded with servants to tend his flocks and milk his kine and 'bring him butter in a lordly dish,' but in a cabin built of unhewn logs, with scarcely a pane of glass to let in light enough to enable him to read his Bible; and even this was not his own, nor was he permitted to live long in one at a time." All this was witnessed by the young missionary who helped him in a removal, holding one handle of a basket in which a few articles of crockery while Father Nash held the remaining handle; and as they walked along the road "they talked of things pertaining to the Kingdom of God." Seldom is a more interesting picture drawn by the pen, or on more artlessly and innocently given, than this living and breathing sketch of a scene in the woods , a hundred years ago. The Bishop says long after: "I cannot refrain from tears when I recall the circumstances of that day. This man, who was afterwards most properly called 'Father Nash,' was the founder of the church in Ostego County who baptized great numbers of both adults and children, and thus was the spiritual father of so many of the family of Christ, and who spent all his life and strength in toiling of their spiritual benefit; yet who was at this period so little regarded by the Church at large, and even by his neighbors, that he had not the means to move hi small furniture from one cabin to another, but with his own hands, assisted by his wife and children and myself, accomplished the task. Well do I remember how the little cabin of one room looked as he entered it. Its rude door hung on wooden hinges creaking as they turned. How glad he was that he had been mindful to bring a few nails; these he drove into the logs with good judgment, choosing the proper place for his hat, his coat, and for other garments for his family. All this, while his patient wife was, with the children's help, building a fire and preparing food for--- whom? Shall it be said a stranger? No! but for one who by sympathy felt himself a brother more than by all the ties of nature, and who by this day's example learned a lesson of inexpressible value to him of all the days of his life hereafter." Besides Burlington, Mr. Chase visited many other places in which Mr. Nash had his small congregations, among them the Butternuts and Ridgefield. Thence he preceded alone to the Susquehanna, where, at Ocwaga, he organized a parish. The two families here who were of the most assistance to him were the Honiston and Harper families. Stamford on the Delaware River was the next place which the missionary visited. Here he preached for several Sundays and was kindly treated by the family of Andrew Beers, the astronomer. So interesting were these people that he was well-nigh induced to remain among them, and with that view contributed a hundred dollars of his small salary to help building their church. But Providence ordered otherwise. He then went on to Freehold, in which was a place called Batavia. Here a Mr.Gunn was his chief friend and supporter in forming a parish, and many years after he assisted him in similar duty at Portsmouth, Ohio. The few churchmen in Hudson, Lunenburg <now Athens>, at New Lebanon Springs, and in Putman County, were not neglected, so that it was quite autumn of the year 1799 before Mr. Chase reached Pougkeepsie, where, and at Fishkill, he was invited to remain as rector of the two parishes. The Rev. Philander Chase was ordained to the priesthood in St. Paul's Church, New York, by the Rt. Rev. Samuel Provost, on the 10th day of November, 1799. In the beginning of his work as a parish priest, Mr. Chase, yet a very young man, not quite twenty-four, naturally was greatly disappointed that , on account of yellow fever prevailing to an alarming extent in the city of New York, the Convention of the Church was not held for two successive years, 1798-99. In consequence there was no public record of his services as a missionary during this time. It is more probable that not one churchman in a thousand among the rich and powerful parishes in western New York knows who it was that laid these foundations in the wilderness a hundred years ago, The importance of missions in the destitute conditions of western New York still occupied his mind, although his duty to his family compelled him to remain in Poughkeepsie. The small missionary fund had been exhausted, even by the moderate stipend afforded him and the Rev. Mr. Wetmore, his predecessor. To replenish this by appealing to his people was at once his pleasure and duty, and although the contributions were limited, yet he never presented them but with an humble prayer that God would bless the day of small things to his glory. Chapter VIII to be continued Harriet M. Chase hatchase@uswest.net