Historic church tour carried on despite power outage

AMENIA — Ralph Fedele was one nervous man on Saturday night.

Fedele, chairman of the North East Historical Society, had organized a tour of the Millerton Baptist Church. He, along with other organizers, set up displays in the church of documents dating back to the 1750s, including antique newspapers, journals and documents from a "time box" that was unearthed from the church’s foundation.

Fedele, along with Pastor Henry Prause, were both well prepared for the event.

However, they were not prepared for the heavy rain and wind storm, which occurred around 6 p.m., shutting down electricity to the village and closing businesses around the church.

"We still have about 10 minutes to go before the tour, so we’re waiting for a miracle," Fedele said in the darkened church.

Despite the storm, 42 people attended the event, filling the darkened pews of the church with a multitude people. By 7 p.m., the electricity was still off, and Fedele seriously considered canceling the event.

"It’s just a shame that we’re going to cancel," Fedele said in an ominous tone of disappointment.

However, many of the attendees had flashlights in their cars and brought them into the church with them. The event went on as planned.

As Fedele shined a flashlight on the front of the room, Prause shed a light on the history of the church.

"The history of this church goes back to 1751," Prause said. "The organization of the church came about when George Whitefield, the famous American evangelist, who brought a true revival to the colonies in the 1740s, was in this area and preached in Sharon and Smithfield. He had a tremendous ministry of people."

Prause said the residents who followed Whitefield did not feel comfortable with the churches in the area.

"That was because the revivalists were sort of looked at as emotionless," Prause said. "In 1753, the church organized in what is now Patterson, N.Y. I don’t think at that time they thought about moving up here. But in 20 years the situation became so difficult because of the antirentism. After deliberation, they decided as a group to come up to Spencer’s Corner in North East in 1773. How they decided upon North East, I have no idea."

Prause, who has served as the church’s pastor for 51 years, continued to give what he called "a quick running history" of the church, including the church building’s structure, membership and historical events.

"The church was one of the first in Dutchess County that made a statement against slavery," Prause said, before he read a historical document dating back to Sept. 24, 1778. "[This document is] the earliest record of an organization taking a stand against slavery. The Bill of Rights was written one year later in 1779."

After the lecture, a much happier Fedele called the event a success.

"I think the reverend made us forget about the storm we had," he said. "It was a very interesting presentation."