John Chase Lord, AM (9 August 1805 – 21 January 1877) was an American Presbyterian minister, lawyer, writer, and poet well known for his involvement in the nativist and anti-Catholic movements in Upstate New York during the mid-1800s. He was also a leading theologian of conservative Presbyterianism in the mid-19th century, serving as Moderator of the 63rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in 1852.
Early life John Chase Lord was born in Washington, New Hampshire on 9 August 1805 to parents Reverend John Way Lord, a Congregational minister and Sarah Chase. Born in Cornish, New Hampshire, his mother was a cousin of Salmon P. Chase, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He had four brothers, two who became clergymen: Claudius Buchanan Lord, who later became a Presbyterian minister in Springfield, New York, and William Wilberforce Lord, who grew up to be an Episcopal priest and writer in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and two who became lawyers: Charles Backus Lord, Judge of the Circuit Court of St. Louis, Missouri, and Scott Lord, who established the law firm of Lord & Lord in New York City.
When he was five, his family moved to the small Town of Burlington in Otsego County, New York. It was there that Lord began his education, at a local public elementary school. At age 12, he transferred to Union Academy, a boarding school in Plainfield, New Hampshire. Union Academy was founded by his uncle, Hon. Daniel Kimball, and its current title, Kimball Union Academy, bears his name. He stayed at Union Academy for three years, graduating with a class of 40 boys and five girls. He then went to Madison Academy, and later Madison College. At age 17, he went off to Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. Not caring for athletics, his two years at Hamilton were his formative intellectual years. He began writing poetry, and placed reading books of his personal interests above his class reading assignments, which was the reason for his mediocre grades.
During his college years, Lord was not a Christian and generally hostile to religion. He wrote in a memoir:
Like Augustine in the years when he studied at Carthage, he gave promise of an enemy, rather than a friend of Jesus of Nazareth. He was never dissolute, but during his collegiate course, and for some years after, he was thoroughly indifferent, and did whatever his tastes led him to believe would be pleasurable.
Law career After two years at Hamilton, Lord's growing disaffection with college life caused him to suddenly move to Canada with a friend, where he became editor-in-chief of a national newspaper, The Canadian. After just one year in that position, he decided to move back to the United States and specifically Buffalo. In his diary, he cites finances as a reason; indeed, when he arrived in Buffalo, he had enough money for just a single meal and only one night's stay in a hotel. Almost immediately after his arrival, he was hired by the law firm of Love & Tracy, then the preeminent lawyers of western New York. He quickly became a popular figure, and well respected by Buffalo society, and was chosen to represent the city in the United States semi-centennial celebrations. In 1825, at Buffalo's quarter-century celebrations, he was also chosen to speak, in which he recounted the more colorful side of Buffalo's history, recalling a panther killed in the street, the city's vicious rivalry with nearby Black Rock during its village years, and the construction of the Erie Canal.
To supplement his income, he started an academy on Main Street for one winter, and, because of his respected status, it was quite successful, producing many of Buffalo's important citizens at the time. He was made Deputy Clerk of Erie County in 1827, and on 18 February 1828 was admitted to the Bar. On 9 December 1828, he married his first sweetheart, Mary Elizabeth Johnson, the daughter of Dr. Ebenezer Johnson, who later became the first Mayor of Buffalo. The eloped with only the Lord parents present, as the Johnson's opposed their daughter's marriage. They later changed their minds and became great friends with Lord.
Conversion and ministry During this period of his life, Lord attended First Presbyterian Church, at the time the only of its denomination in Buffalo, and was elected a trustee of the congregation. Despite his clear involvement with the church, he was still not yet a deeply committed Christian, never publicly speaking at services. However, Lord's biography reports that he truly "converted" to the Christianity for unknown reasons, and offered public prayer at services one day. When his mother learned of this, she reportedly cried of happiness, and said that she was now "ready to depart in peace."
In his new religious fervor, Lord felt the calling to become a minister, and in 1830, enrolled in Auburn Seminary. After graduating in 1833, he ministered in Fayetteville, New York for several months. In September 1833, he was ordained and installed minister of Presbyterian Church of Geneseo in Livingston County, New York. From his seminary years on, Lord was known as an especially orthodox and earnestly dogmatic in his adherence to Calvinism, which he considered as truest of any Christian branch. His congregations were generally enthusiastic to receive him as a minister, for he was known as intelligent and charismatic.
In 1835, the Buffalo Presbytery voted to establish a second church in addition to the First Presbyterian Church in Buffalo. Known as the Pearl Street Presbyterian Church, it began with 33 members who had transferred from First Church, and Lord was appointed as its first minister. Upon arrival, he described the new church building: "The edifice was rudely constructed of hemlock boards doubled upon scantling, and filled in with tan-bark. It cost about three hundred dollars."
He did not desire this new post, instead hoping to pursue missionary work in Mississippi, but accepted out of duty. His first sermon to his new flock was in November 1835. A year later, the youthful, quickly growing congregation had constructed a superior church structure, costing $30,000 (Equivalent to $749,456 in 2015). He set to work creating a vibrant community at the church, creating a large choir featuring brass instruments, and offered many of the fiery sermons that made him so famous. He quickly became more popular than the Pearl Street Church, offering praise for Buffalo and its citizens, but also criticism of their common sins, that other preachers overlooked.
In 1836, he was honored as a New York representative to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. The next year, the liberal and conservative factions, commonly called the Old and New Schools, of the Church split into two autonomous wings that would not reunite until 1869. During these tumultuous times, Lord's church was the sole bastion of Presbyterian traditionalist beliefs in Buffalo. His alma mater, Hamilton College, awarded him an honorary Doctor of Divinity in 1841.
In 1849, Lord spoke in his Quarter Century Sermon, spoke of Buffalo's experience of the cholera epidemic:
Lord began the year 1850 with his famous New Year's Sermon, widely published by local newspapers for its eloquence:
By now a nationally famous figure in theology, his lectures titled "The Land of Ophir," "The Progress of Civilization," "The Star Aldebaran," "The War of the Titans," and "The Romance of History" were published as a collection in 1851.
After years serving as a delegate, John Lord was chosen as the Moderator of the 63rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in 1852, which took place in Charleston, South Carolina.
Also in 1852 was the completion of the new Central Presbyterian Church in Buffalo, which housed the congregation of the former Pearl Street Presbyterian Church, and the construction of which began in 1848. The new church was at the time the largest place of worship in western New York, an ovular structure filled with natural lighting. A newspaper at the time described it as "not unlike the famous City Temple of London."
During the winter 1859-1860, Lord took six months off from his duties at Central Presbyterian Church, staying in Mobile, Alabama and preaching weekly at the Government Street Presbyterian Church. He returned to Buffalo just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. Lord's loyalties were strongly Unionist. While he had defended the legality of slavery in earlier years, he had also always been an implacable critic of the practice itself.
Sisters of Charity Hospital The Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo was created in 1847, and Bishop John Timon, its first prelate, immediately saw the lack of an organized healthcare system in the City of Buffalo. There were some private clinics, but no large central hospital, public or private. The city's mainly Protestant and nativist leadership, of whom John C. Lord was the de facto leader did not adequately address the healthcare needs of the rapidly growing and mostly Catholic working class, partly due to prejudice. Some did try to establish a Protestant hospital, but efforts faded away for lack of popular interest. Bishop Timon took efforts into his own hands, traveling to Baltimore in March 1848, seeking a religious order to administer the new hospital. The Sisters of Charity (now known as the Daughters of Charity) agreed to the task, and on 3 June 1848, eight Sisters of Charity, Sisters Ursula Mattingly, Ann de Sales Farren, Hieronimo O'Brien, Anacaria Hoey, Clare McDurby, Mary Aloysia Lilly, Mary Eliza Dougherty, and Agatha O'Keefe, arrived in Buffalo. On 1 October 1848, Sisters of Charity Hospital officially opened as the city's first large healthcare facility, under the leadership of Sister Ursula Mattingly, DC. The first patients were a group of six sailors.
Very little attention at first was given to the hospital originally, with The Buffalo Morning Express reporting the news simply by writing: "The city is well received in having a hospital for its own." The New York State Legislature provided funding for sectarian hospitals in locations where there were no nonsectarian hospitals, and Sisters of Charity Hospital was eligible for and received $9,000 (equivalent to $266,667 in 2015 dollars). The state funding was done rather inconspicuously, and the news only gained attention a few months later, when some of Buffalo's Protestant doctors protested the state funding of a Catholic institution as the city's first hospital.
Tensions were high in New York at this time due to the recent Seneca Falls Convention, at which 68 women and 32 men out of 300 attendees signed the now-famous Declaration of Sentiments, which listed men's abuses of women's freedom and rights. The event was still fresh in the minds of the people of New York, and the Protestant men of Buffalo felt threatened, increasing their strong objection to the educated, Catholic females who were running a now-state funded hospital. Buffalo's elite began speaking out against the Sisters Hospital and its state funding, criticizing its all-female leadership, lack of physicians' influence in decision making, and small staff. In early February 1850, Protestant doctors Josiah Trowbridge, Austin Flint, and James White privately complained to Lord, possibly Buffalo's most influential citizen at the time, about the administration of the hospital, arguing that three Sisters alone was not proper for the management of an entire hospital. He was enraged, seeing it not only as a religious threat but a political concern.
Letter-writing feud