In November 1840 Albert Gallatin Hall began his thirty-one-year ministry, the longest in the history of the church. A former member of the congregation, Dr. Hall had come to Rochester as a layman to edit a religious paper, “The Genesee Evangelist.” He had no seminary training and acquired his theology in the course of his writing and in his spare time. At the age of thirty he was ordained and became the minister of the Presbyterian Church in Penfield. This church later disbanded in 1884. 

In his twenty-fifth anniversary sermon, he said, “I have endeavored in these long years to preach the gospel in its purity. Avoiding all subjects inappropriate to the pulpit, I have been concerned to deliver nothing from this sacred desk but what I have first received from God through His word.” When Finney returned to Rochester in 1842 and 1855, Dr. Hall opposed his revivals as too emotional. He was opposed to the abolition of slavery and ignored the slavery discussion in his sermons. 

At his death one of his clergy friends said, “He was a man of more than ordinary power. Combined with this strength of character was a very genial disposition which served to attach others to him in strong friendships.” Perhaps it was this warmth which led to his great interest in the church school, to which he gave much thought and effort. 

It was natural, when his descendants gave windows to the church in his memory in 1965, that they show Jesus and the children. Dr. Hall died in 1871 while still the pastor of Third Church. His descendants in the church are Ann Cobb, Jane Steinhausen, and Edward Harris. 

Next