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St. Stephen's Episcopal Church

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St. Stephen's Church is the fourth oldest Episcopal Church in Oneida County. The three earlier churches are St. Paul's on Paris Hill, organ­ized in 1797, Old Trinity Church in Utica, organized in 1798, and St. Paul's in Holland Patent, formed in 1821.

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St. Stephen's beginning goes back to early June in 1824 when an Episcopal minister, the Rev. Amos Cotton Treadway, arrived in New Hartford to visit his sister. Finding a number of Episcopalians in the area, he conducted services in various places, the principal one being in a schoolhouse located on the Seneca Turnpike.

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During the fall of 1824 the ques­tion of a permanent organization was discussed by Father Treadway's followers, and on September 1st a meeting was conducted, and the parish was formally organized. Jedediah Sanger, an Episcopalian, was chosen one of the vestrymen at that meeting. He paved the way for a permanent building when he purchased the lot at 25 Oxford Road for $150. He also contribut­ed $2,000 to the building fund. The Rt. Rev. John Henry Hobart, Episcopal bishop of New York, came to New Hartford on September 4, 1826, to consecrate the new church.

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There is a plaque in the church in memory of Judge Sanger, who died in 1829 at the age of 78. The inscription includes, "He, being dead, yet speaketh."

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​St. Stephen's has been placed on the New York State Register of Historic Places. The application had to be approved by the State Board and then the nomi­nation was forwarded to the Keeper of the National Register in Washington, D.C.

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