HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 699

fixtures, etc., valued at $13,000 were unencumbered by debt. Grace church is ninety-two feet by forty-four, being calculated to seat five hundred persons, and with all its accessories, fixtures, etc., is a brilliant example of how neat, comfortable and commodious a church may be built, even in a city, for a comparatively small sum.

Mr. Guion continued the rector of this interesting and prosperous parish until the spring of 1868, when he was succeeded by the Rev. William S. Chadwell. The vestry, at the time of the consecration of the edifice, were Messrs. Jonathan James, and James S. Guion, wardens; Dwight Woodbury, Henry S. Samuels, Edward W. Townsend, Richard Sealey, Erasmus D. Brown, David B. Cunningham, Geo. K. Brooks, and William T. Anderson, vestrymen.

The parish is now in a most flourishing condition, both in the attendance upon divine services and sabbath school instruction. During the fifteen years' rectorship of Rev. Mr. Guion, there were connected with this parish, at one time or another, four hundred 'and thirty families; three hundred and seventy-two children and twenty-four adults were baptized ; one hundred and twenty-nine persons were confirmed; one hundred and eighty couples married, and two hundred and forty-eight persons buried. The whole number received as communicants was three hundred and twenty-three.

St. Barnabas Chapel, E. D. Services were commenced early in 1869, by the Rev. Henry A. Dows, now in charge of this mission, in a building rented for the purpose on the north-west corner of Evergreen avenue and Jefferson street. Church on Evergreen avenue, between Chestnut and Stockholm streets, opened for divine service, December 12th, 1869.

III. METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCHES.

Sands Street Methodist Episcopal Church. From the remnant of the first class ever formed in Brooklyn, who were living in 1831, the Rev. Noah Levings1 learned that the pioneer of Methodism here was Thomas Webb, a captain in the British army, who began to preach “in his own hired house,” near the barracks, in New York, as early as 1766. Subsequently he visited Brooklyn, then a rural hamlet, and preached salvation, by grace through faith, to the Dutch inhabitants; how often, we know not,

1 Methodist Mag. and Quart. Review, vol. XIII; New Series, vol. II, 1831, p. 258.