Historic Cross River community church hidden in plain sight

Cross River Baptist Community Church

By Maureen Koehl

The little white church sitting on its quiet knoll on Route 121 in Cross River is one of Lewisboro’s best kept secrets.

It served as the house of worship for a determined congregation for two centuries. What the group lacked in numbers was made up for in its dedication to the Lord and its place in the community. Although many years proved a struggle, the members of the little congregation managed to keep the doors wide open and provide Sunday services for the hamlet.

The church is an unassuming 18th century structure that provided 224 years of service and worship for members of the Cross River community and beyond. The Cross River Baptist Community Church is the oldest public building in Lewisboro. Other congregations have been in existence longer, but their buildings are younger. None of our governmental offices can claim a heritage dating back to 1791, the year the Cross River Baptist Church was built by a dedicated group of worshipers. 

The church escaped the rising waters of the Cross River Reservoir in the early 1900s that supplied the water needs of a growing New York City. The Baptist Church with its turn of the century two-seater backhouse stands guard over the entrance to Ward Pound Ridge Reservation secure in its place in the hamlet’s history. Generations of parishioners are buried in the Cross River or Reynolds’ cemeteries on Route 35. Baptisms were performed in the nearby river, although a baptismal tub was discovered in the basement many years ago. 

On June 23, 1789, just weeks after George Washington took his oath of office as the first president of the United States, a group of members of the Baptist Church from Bedford, including Gilbert, Joshua and William Reynolds, joined with Adam Keeling, Elias and Joshua Lee, Ebenezer Ferris, Thaddeus Bronson and Thaddeus Smith of churches in Stamford and Reading, Conn., to organize a new church at Cross River.

The group met at the Cross River home of Nathaniel Reynolds for this purpose. The record of June 23, 1789 states: “According we provided a constitution chose Eldor Ferris Moderator … and Earnestly implored the Blessing of God to attend us and by his grace to enable us to take up our Cross and follow Christ to go forth to him without the gate baring his reproach in the midst of a wicked and perilous generation.” 

At that time, Cross River was a thriving community, hopefully, not too “wicked and perilous,” with general stores, a blacksmith, a wheelwright, carpenters, millers and farmers. It stood at a crossroads of several important highways, including the Danbury Post Road. 

At first, the congregation met in different members’ homes, but soon voted to raise money to buy property and build a church. Never a wealthy congregation, the members raised 130 pounds by July 1790, determining that this sum would be sufficient to start the building program. It was decided that the meeting house would stand between Gilbert Reynolds’ mill and house and would be 36 feet by 30 feet. 

An excerpt from July 18, 1790, church records shows the following labor costs for the project.

“It was agreed that a Man with a fore Cattel Team and Cart finding himself should have: 0.10 per day; that a man and one pair of horses and cart or wagon finding himself — 0.6 per day; that a common Laborer finding himself — 0.4 per day; till the first of November … and that Steven Wood should be appointed a master workman of said building.”

The July 3, 1791, church records tell us that “The Church mett (sic) at the public place of worship.” Through lush times, and lean ones, the church endured. Pastors seemed to come and go with regularity. Brother Asa Bronson preached at the church until 1820 when he joined the North Salem congregation. For the next 12 years times were hard, services were infrequent, the building was falling into disrepair and “it was a season of darkness to the church.” 

In 1839 the church completely reorganized. Brother Stephen Holley and Brother George Reynolds were chosen as deacons. The church called the Rev. William H. Card to be pastor in 1840 and he began to reclaim the church’s place in the village. More than 50 people joined the church and ground was purchased to build a parsonage. Subscriptions totaling $465 were raised for the structure. The church leaders voted “that the house be 32 by 26 feet and that there be a portico,” Furthermore, “that the house be painted if Elder Card will get the work of painting done for nothing.” The parsonage still stands at the south corner of Route 121 and Boutonville Road.  

In 1853 the meeting house was repaired and an addition was built to the south end of the building. This 20-foot addition included a gallery, a bell tower and steeple at a cost of $1,250. The church, which had started with eight members in 1789, had 110 members in 1868, even though the Civil War years had been lean. Postwar prosperity brought prosperity in membership to the congregation. 

The interior of the Cross River Baptist Church transports you to the 18th century. The white pews with their red-cushioned seats are just comfortable enough to allow listeners to attend to the sermon and not doze off. The western light streams in during the afternoons giving the sanctuary an other-worldly glow. 

In 1999 the church suffered a furnace blowback, covering the entire interior with sooty, oily ash. It took months to repair the damage and clean every seat cushion, lamp, and religious article in the church. The sanctuary had to be repainted from floor to ceiling. During the restoration, old lighting fixtures were discovered, allowing some historical good to come from the disaster. 

Cross River descendants of the original members kept stewardship over their beloved church. Sisters Lois and Joyce Reynolds, members of the Moore and Whitman families and Evelyn Russell, daughter of former Lewisboro supervisor and church deacon Cyrus Russell, were all leading members of the Cross River Baptist Community Church until their passing, a testament to the endurance of the faith of the little white church on the Cross River hillside.

Maureen Koehl is Lewisboro town historian.

---

Friends step in to save the Cross River Meeting House

By Maureen Koehl

The Cross River Baptist Church built in 1719 has endured for two centuries, but time has interrupted this history with the passing or moving away of its small congregation. For several years the future of this historic meeting house has been discussed. Ideas to save the building from falling into complete disrepair and contemplating other uses have been suggested but leads and ideas have not been fruitful. Earlier this fall a sister congregation, the pastor of the Croton Falls Community Baptist Church, Timothy Wagner, came up with a rescue plan. 

In July, Pastor Wagner presided over the celebration of life for Cross River Baptist’s last surviving member, 106-year-old Lois Reynolds. Pastor Wagner’s relationship with the church reached back to 1993 when he preached his “audition” sermon at the church securing his place at the Croton Falls church where he has remained for more than 30 years. The memory of that occasion and the presence of his family for the event brings tears to his eyes even today. The two congregations have a long history of mutual support dating to 1923 when they shared a pastor and in the intervening years when they supported each other in times of need. When a tragic fire struck the Croton Falls church, Cross River was first to respond with aid.

Taken with the colonial beauty and simplicity of the Cross River meeting house {as colonial churches were called}, Pastor Wagner called upon his congregation to help save the structure as a true meeting house, a place to gather, not only for religious services, but for community events as well. To retain its tax exemption status, a church must have at least one religious service a year and the hope is to have the church ready for an Advent service later this Fall. Pastor Wagner’s enthusiasm ignited the same in members of the Croton Falls church and a Friends of the Cross River Meeting House was formed under the aegis of the Croton Falls Community Baptist Church, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization. The group is well underway in its goal to raise $50,000 that will be used solely for the preservation of the historic Cross River Meeting House. A rallying cry for donors and volunteers has gone out. Contact Pastor Wagner or this writer for details.

Preserving the 1791 church is a way of not only preserving the building and its history for future generations, but to offer a hands-on look at its past and the community it served.