Hughes the father — Return to Glens Falls in 1909

About 46 years after leaving Glens Falls, the Rev. David Hughes was back at the pulpit of First Baptist Church for a Sunday at the beginning of the last year of the abolitionist preacher’s life.

Rev. Hughes, father of Gov. Charles Evans Hughes, was guest preacher on Jan. 3, 1909 at First Baptist Church in Glens Falls, the congregation where he was pastor from Oct. 1860 to Sept. 1862.

“Although 77 years old, Dr. Hughes still has a strong and pleasant voice,” The Post-Star reported.

The father, during his two years as pastor in Glens Falls, before moving on to Sandy Hill, now Hudson Falls, and many other communities, was known for his abolitionist sermons, several of which were published in full in local newspapers.

In one sermon he called slavery “organized sin.”

At his 1909 visit, Rev. Hughes preached at the morning service on the text John 16:7 in a sermon titled “When It Was Dark,” elaborating on a 1903 novel of the same title by British journalist and fiction writer Guy Thorne.

At the evening sermon, he preached on the text Luke 9:28–36 in a sermon titled “Lessons from the Transfiguration of Christ.”

The church “was crowded to the doors, both morning and evening.”

Rev. Hughes, while in Glens Falls, stayed with Deacon Merritt Ames, founder of the local Ames-Goldsmith silver nitrate chemical manufacturer.

Cecelia Gould Ames, wife of Merritt, was a nurse that assisted at the birth of Charles Evans Hughes at the Baptist parsonage in April 1862.

The two families remained friends for years.

In 1935 Charles Evans Hughes wrote in a letter to Addison Colvin, a Glens Falls newspaper publisher, politician and business man, about the long friendship between his parents and the Ames family.

The Rev. Hughes remained active as a preacher and orator in his septuagenarian years.

In April 1908 the father was among several opening speakers for the governor at a meeting of the Brooklyn League at Clarendon Hotel in New York City about the governor’s push to outlaw race track gambling.

In January 1909, Rev. Hughes was headed from Glens Falls to Asbury Park, N.J., where he was to preach for a week of meetings.

Shortly after that, he suffered a mild stroke, and went to Albany to stay with his son and family at the governor’s mansion while recovering.

In early December he suffered a second, more severe, stroke.

The Hughes family wrote Merritt Ames in Glens Falls that the father was not expected to live long.

The Rev. Hughes died at 11 p.m. Dec. 15 at the governor’s mansion.

Sources: Lake George Mirror Jan. 8, 1909; The Post-Star Dec. 16, 1909; March 27, 1930; The Morning Star Jan. 4, 1909; The New York Times April 6, 1908.

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