St. Stephen's Episcopal Church
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All of New Hartford should be proud that St. Stephen's Episcopal Church on Oxford Road 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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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 school house located on the Seneca Turnpike.
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."