Kunze died in 1807.  His successor, Frederick William Geissenhainer of New Hanover, Pa., took charge in 1808 and remained till 1814 when the state of his health compelled him to return to Pennsylvania.

He was succeeded by Frederick Christian Schaeffer of Harrisburg, a gifted man who preached equally well in German and in English.  On the tercentenary of the Reformation in 1817 he preached a Reformation sermon in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Broadway, which attracted widespread attention.  A copy is preserved in the New York Public Library.

[illustration:  “Fragment of Kunze’s Gravestone discovered by the author in 1907, in Greenwich Village, where some laborers were digging the foundation for a new building.  Kunze’s ashed repose in the Lorillard vault of the churchyard of St. Mark’s in the Bowery, Tenth Street and Second Avenue.”]

After twenty years the promise of a separate English church was fulfilled, when in 1822 a large and beautiful structure was erected in Walker Street, just east of Broadway, and placed at the disposal of the English portion of the congregation.  It was called St. Matthew’s Church.  Schaeffer was assigned to the pastorate and Geissenhainer was recalled from Pennsylvania to take charge of the German part of the congregation.  New trouble soon developed.  The English congregation demanded representation in the Church Council.  This the mother church declined to concede, although it is claimed they had agreed to do so when the English congregation was formed.  The new congregation was unable to maintain itself, and in 1826 the church was sold for a debt of $14,000, and Pastor Schaeffer resigned.  The Walker Street building was bought by Daniel Birdsall who resold it to the mother church.  The legal questions at issue in the transaction were taken into court and decided in favor of the mother church.

A son of the pastor, Frederick William Geissenhainer, Jr., was called from Pennsylvania to minister in St. Matthew’s Church in English, so long as this could be done without detriment to the German congregation.  This continued for three years, by which time a deficit of $5,000 had accumulated.

In the meantime the congregation of Frankfort Street had grown to such an extent that it decided to sell the Old Swamp Church, and move into the spacious building on Walker Street, where it also acquired the name of the English congregation and was thereafter known as St. Matthew’s Church.  The younger Geissenhainer continued to hold English services in the afternoon until 1840.  The senior Geissenhainer served the German part of the congregation until his death in 1838.

After Pastor Schaeffer resigned in 1826 he collected the salvage of the English enterprises and organized a new English church, St. James, which he served until his death in 1831.

Among the major happenings in this period were the Burr-Hamilton duel, the launching of Fulton’s steamboat, the introduction of Croton water, the opening of the Erie Canal, the writings of Washington Irving, and the organization of the American Bible Society and the American Tract Society.