The present society was organized in 1843, under the style and title of the First Baptist Church in Peekskill. The meeting house, which is valued at $3,400, was erected August, 1847, and dedicated the 8th of April, 1847, to the service of Almighty God. On this occasion the Rev. W. R. Williams, D. D., delivered the dedicatory sermon. This church belongs to the senior Baptist , ^ association. Upon the 31st October, 1843, the Rev. Edward Conover was duly elected pastor ; this individual was succeeded, November 25, 1844, by the Rev. C. C. Williams. The present pastor is the Rev. P. Buel, who commenced his ministrations 23d August, 1846. The communicants belonging to this church ^ average forty.

70 HISTORY OF THE

The Methodist Episcopal church in Peekskill was first incorporated 2d August, ISOS ; Bethune Washburn, Gilbert Weeks and John Spock, trustees.^ The Methodist society must have been in existence, however, some time previous to the above incorporation, for on the 26th February, 1795, we find John Drake and Catharine his wife conveying three-quarters* of an acre of land in this place to William Hallock, Thomas Clark, William Weeks, Abraham Travis and Stephen Newby, managers of the Methodist society. The present church edifice, erected A. D. 1837, occupies the site of a still older building erected in 1811 : to it is attached a small grave yard. The communicants of this church number two hundred.

The Protestant Methodist society was first established here in 1827, and incorporated 23d November, 1836 ; John Spock, William R. Steel and Thomas Blackney trustees. b