Rev. Thomas Cumming Beattie

The Rev. T. C. Beattie, successor to Dr. Leggett, was born of a ministerial family, and has eminently sustained the glory of the family name as a preacher of the gospel. He was the son of Rev. David Beattie, the beloved Pastor of Scotchtown Presbyterian Church, Orange Co., N.Y., for forty-two years. He was born in Scotchtown, N.Y. July 23d, 1854, with a strong physical constitution which was splendidly developed in his boyhood romps over the rugged hill of Scotchtown. After absorbing what was to be had in the way of education at his own village school, he was sent to the Middletown, N. Y., Academy, where George A. Decker, Esq., now a lawyer of wide repute in Middletown, was then the prominent teacher. At twenty years of age and with a bright career before him, he entered Princeton College.

Very shortly after entering College, however, he was smitten with typhoid fever. It was a very malignant case, and left him after a severe struggle for life, with a much weakened constitution.

He graduated, nevertheless, four years later, very near the head of his class of seventy-eight fellow students, delivering the class oration. He was also one of the six appointed to debate on Commencement Day.

He still looks back to those College years with much gratification, for the teachers in his day, Dr. McCosh, in Philosophy, Lyman Atwater, in Logic, Charles A. Young, in Astronomy, and A. Guizot in Physical Geography, were not only eminent men at that time, but have since become world renowned in their various departments.

After graduating in 1878, and while his studies were still fresh in his mind he spent one year in preparing his younger brother, William, for College. The death of this younger and only brother, William, while in his Junior College year at Princeton, made a deep impression upon him.

Mr. Beattie was converted under his father’s preaching while yet a young boy of about 14 years of age, and united with the Scotchtown Presbyterian Church. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit he chose the ministry as a calling. This shows the character of the man for there is no higher vocation on earth, and he was fully convinced that this was his mission in life. His choice of Union Theological Seminary was not made upon its superior teachers, but because he had lived in Princeton four years and believed that a change of surroundings might be beneficial to him. After one year at Union, however, he was strongly convinced that Princeton was the place for him, because there the Word of God was pre-eminently exalted. In Princeton the guesses and theories of the best scholars were subordinated to the inspired Word.

In his course at Union Seminary he received the lectures of such men as Drs. Shedd, Hitchcock, Schaff and Briggs. While at Princeton Seminary his instructors were Drs. A. A. Hodge, Casper Hodge, Aiken, Green and Moffat. He was one of the four speakers appointed for the Commencement exercises of the Seminary. He had been taken under the care of New Brunswick Presbytery while at Princeton, and so was licensed in April, 1881, by that Presbytery.

The Church of Chester being vacant at that time, and nearing various candidates, was supplied by Mr. Beattie for two Sabbaths, though not consciously as a candidate. The people were quite pleased with the young man, both in and out of the pulpit. A hearty call was extended to him and he began his labors with the Church on June 27th, 1882.

While serving the Church of Chester he was made Moderator of the Presbytery of Hudson. Since then he has served as the Moderator of Pueblo Presbytery, and twice also as the Moderator of the Presbytery of the Rio Grande, and has acted as the stated clerk of the latter Presbytery for seven years. He has also represented the several Churches and Presbyteries with which he has been connected, in the General Assembly.

The Church was in good condition when Mr. Beattie accepted the pastorate, and the numbers about as large as could be expected in Chester. All the services were well attended except the prayer meeting. The Sunday School, too, needed considerable attention as it always does, unless some godly man of executive ability has charge of it. These two branches of work called for special effort and thought. They had up to this time been conducted either in the audience room or in the basement of the Church. The latter was both gloomy and damp. Some of the people were afraid to attend prayer meetings in such a place. This led to the practical consideration of a new Chapel, which could be used for all such purposes. Pretty soon a subscription paper was started with the purpose of securing money enough to build a Chapel costing about $2,500. Sufficient encouragement was secured to warrant the going forward with the undertaking. But it was found that the ideas of the people were larger than the first design, so that the building, when complete, cost nearly $ 5,000. It is a beautiful and comfortable large Sunday School room with two primary departments in the rear.

With such commodious rooms the Chester congregation began to think of a large pipe organ as the next most necessary thing for their Church. This is what led Mr. Beattie to just a day or two before I started for Europe, we had some kind of an entertainment – I think a sociable, in the Chapel – and then we began the organ fund.

The organ, however, was not secured during his pastorate. After attending so effectively to the rear of the Church, Mr. Beattie turned his attention to the front, inviting the people to grade and make the beautiful lawn which we see today. Mr. Beattie was second to none in the execution of this work, laboring to level the soil and scatter the seed as vigorously as any of his parishioners.

However, he says he does not regret it, as it was the means of securing him Miss Ruby Miller, and they were married in the Chester Presbyterian Church July 28th, 1891.

The Church took on a new color on the outside, and new furnaces were placed in the cellar at his suggestion. The Parsonage lawn was reclaimed from its wilderness appearance by regrading and seeding it. In 1887, the congregation gave him a vacation of three months that he might visit Europe and get the great benefit that is always to be had in travel. He had gone only as far as Ireland when he was suddenly and quite unexpectedly taken with a hemorrhage of the lung that forced him to return immediately to America. This cut short his traveling in that direction, though he has visited Mammoth Cave, Ky., Alaska, Yellowstone Park, and Yosemite. Every year also he crosses the Continent twice, that he and his wife may visit their old home and their large circle of friends.

After a long sickness following his return from Europe, some months having been spent in the Adirondacks, and still a longer time at his father’s home in Scotchtown, without any assurance of recovery from his lung trouble while in this climate, he at length resinged his charge at Chester. Forty-eight had been added to the Church during his short pastorate, and much good work had been set in motion.

Feeling strong enough to do some work late in the Summer of 1888, he took charge of the Presbyterian Church at Las Animas, Colorado. There he labored successfully until he was called to his present charge, the First Presbyterian Church of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1890. He accepted this charge on condition that it should withdraw from the board and be self-sustaining. This was done and the Church has struggled nobly with all these trying business years, and has succeeded, admirably, giving the Pastor as fine a house to live in as any parsonage in Orange Co.