Queen Anne’s Chapel & the Dam Connection

Queen Anne’s Chapel & the Dam Connection

   In his book, Hidden History of the Mohawk Valley: The Baseball Oracle, the Mohawk Encampment and More, Bob Cudmore writes of St. Ann’s of Port Jackson, an Episcopal Church that was loosely associated with the remnants of Queen Anne’s Chapel when it was established in 1835, that its sanctuary was built in 1837 but by 1848 had entered into decline.  Cudmore notes that the Reverend A.N. Littlejohn had projected that if the congregation was to survive, “it would be on the growing north side of the river in Amsterdam.”

  

Perry, William Stevens, The bishops of the American church, past and present. Sketches, biographical and bibliographical, of the bishops of the American Church. With a preliminary essay on the historic episcopate and documentary annals of the introduction of the Anglican line of succession into America. New York: The Christian Literature Co, 1897

   Taking a moment to step back, A.N. Littlejohn also had roots to Fort Hunter but through the soil that was turned to make way for the Erie Canal.  Littlejohn was the son of Col. John Littlejohn Jr. and Eleanor Newkirk Littlejohn.  Eleanor was the daughter of Abraham Newkirk who owned a farm on the Glen side of the Schoharie Creek just south of its emptying into the river.  She married John in 1823 and by December of 1824 Abraham Newkirk (A.N) Littlejohn was born. By 1851 a new building was consecrated on the north side of the Mohawk River, and the church became well known for music.  During the mid 1980’s the congregation had renewed ties to its original heritage in Queen Anne’s Chapel.  That church was constructed to accompany the development of Fort Hunter at the confluence of the Schoharie Creek and Mohawk River in 1712.  Nearly three hundred years later, St. Anne’s connected to the Tyendinaga Parish of Canada and its Mohawk parishioners whom are descendants of those forced to leave their homeland during the American Revolution.

   In 1845, A.N. Littlejohn obtained his degree from Union College, Schenectady. He was admitted to the diaconate on March 18, 1848 and officiated at St. Ann's Church, and then at St. Andrew's Church in Meriden, Conn..  He became Rector of Christ Church in Springfield, Mass. He was ordained to the priesthood on Nov. 10, 1850. In July 1851 Littlejohn became Rector of St. Paul's Church in New Haven, Conn. He then went to the Church of the Holy Trinity in Brooklyn, NY and received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1868, a new Diocese, the Diocese of Long Island, was created and he was consecrated as its first Bishop on January 27, 1869.  It has been noted that he was “an eloquent lecturer,” and many of his lectures were eventually published.

   A.N. Littlejohn was also a contributor –as he wrote and conducted the commencement prayer – to the opening ceremony for the New York and Brooklyn Bridge in 1883. 

   Dr. A.N. Littlejohn died on August 3, 1901 in Williamstown, Berkshire County, Massachusetts.  He was interred in the All Saints Cemetery, Great Neck, Nassau County, New York.

Sources: AnglicanHistory.org, The Gutenberg Project Online, FindAGrave.com, Hidden History of the Mohawk Valley

*Editors Note: This article has previously appeared in the Spring 2017 Newsletter