Our History
History of Pine Grove Church, Founded 1857
Chapter 1
I’d like to take you back 150 years, to a small community between Albany and Schenectady. This was before the Civil War, when James Buchanan was (15th) President of the United States.
There was no central heating. Wood stoves and fireplaces were used for heat and cooking. Most men were farmers or worked on the railroad. There were no cars. People walked or rode on horses or in buggies. Some took the train from Albany to Schenectady. There was a stop on Old Karner Road, where the Post Office is now.
Central Avenue was called the Albany Schenectady Turnpike, which was a toll road between 1797 and 1802. When it rained, wooden planks were placed on the road so carriage wheels wouldn’t get stuck. This was an improvement over the Kings Highway, which was the State Road that runs east to west through the Pine Bush.
Children attended a one-room school house in those days where they learned reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Several religious families got together to worship on Sundays. It took too long to travel to Albany and get back by milking time. Some men were appointed local preachers. They would spend Sundays traveling to their churches, holding services in the homes of families or in the school classrooms.
In 1857, these families decided they wanted a church of their own. They secured about two acres of land from Stephen and Harriet Van Rensselaer. The deed was recorded on November 27, 1887, in the name of the Albany Pine Plains Methodist Episcopal Church. The names on the deed as trustees were William P. Winters, Robert Aspinall, and Thomas George.
Construction was soon begun on a small chapel. It measured 24½ feet wide by 40 feet deep (three of them would fit into the present church sanctuary). It seated eighty people comfortably, and up to one hundred if everyone crowded in. The clear glass windows went from floor to ceiling. A woodstove heated the chapel and kerosene lamps were used as light and hung on brackets on the walls. Behind the chapel stood sheds for the horses and buggies.
Records were not kept at the church during this time, but stories handed down through the generations indicate that the first families in the church were The Scaces, The Fullers, The Browns, The Sabeys, The Cains, The Shutters, and The Flatts. Mr. Flatt walked from his farm, near the intersection of New Karner Road and Central Avenue, every Wednesday and Sunday to light the wood stove to warm the church for prayer meeting and worship.
Local preachers were Mr. John Cox, Mr. William Daniels, Mr. Issac Vanderpool, Mr. Henry Higgins, and Mr. Caleb Brind.
The first map showing the church dates from 1866 and it identifies Pine Grove as the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The chapel remained unchanged until about 1893 when improvements were made. A vestibule and cloakroom were added to the front of the church. A belfry was built on top. Henry Shutter, son of one of the founding families, owned a brass foundry in Connecticut. He made and donated the bell. The same bell now hangs in our present church. The windows were shortened and remained plain glass, but colored borders were added and the design changed to make the tops pointed.
