USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > Millstone in Monmouth County > Historical discourse on occasion of the centennial anniversary of the Reformed Dutch Church of Millstone > Part 5
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They started on October 25th, with eighty troopers from Staten Island, but were delayed in crossing, and were not ready to leave Amboy till day-break the next morning. Still they proceeded. They feigned to be Americans, and accosted the people pleasantly as they passed. But Simcoe was recognized when a little East of Bound Brook, and word was instantly sent to Gov. Livingston at New Bruns- wick, to prepare to head them off. They tried to burn Washington's huts at Middlebrook, but did not succeed. They reached the bridge and found eighteen of the boats, and spent forty minutes in firing them. They went to the Raritan Dutch Church standing close by, which contained harness and provision stores, and fired it, making the Commissary and his men prisoners. A shot was now fired at the party from the opposite bank, but they at once cross- ed, and came up to Millstone, to the Court House here. Limcoe lamented that they had been delayed in starting, as it was now late, and the country was becoming alarmed and beginning to assemble about him. He found three tories as prisoners in the court-house: one of them (he says was chained to the floor and was a dreadful spectacle, being almost starved. These were liberated, and the soldiers asked
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permission to burn the court-house, which, since it was un- . connected with any other building, was granted. But it was an unfortunate circumstance for Simcoe, as the light showed his enemies his position ; alarm guns were fired in every direction, and Gov. Livingston notified to judge of the enc- my's whereabouts, by these shots. The party passed down through Middlebush, threatening the inhabitants that if the firing in the rear were not discontinued, they would burn their houses ; but as they approached New Brunswick, in- tending to turn south-ward and leave that city on their left, at the road a couple of miles this side, but which they miss- ed, they fell into an ambuscade of Americans, Simcoe's horse being shot under him, and himself and some of his men being made prisoners. He remained a prisoner a couple of months at Burlington .* An American Captain, by the name of Voorheese, was killed. There were but few events of general interest, after this, in this vicinity, during the war.
The congregation knew not where to look for another minister in those troublons times, and were reduced to their former circumstances, of depending upon the neighboring churches, when unexpectedly a refugee preacher arrived in the midst of them.
Solomon Froeligh had been born at Red Hook, near Al- bany, on May 29th, 1750, O. S. In his fourteenth year, his mind was deeply impressed with religious convictions, he being then under the pastoral care of Rev. John Schenema, the minister of Catskill and Coxsackie. His father was a farmer. Young Solomon begged his parents to give him a liberal education, but their circumstances hardly permitted it. But at length, through his mother's influence, when in his 18th year, he was placed under the care of Rev. Dirck
* Whitehead's Amboy, p. 353.
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Romeyn, the pastor of Marbletown, Warwarsing and Rochester, to begin the study of Latin and Greek. He never received any assistance from his father, but assisted himself by teaching school. Soon after, to possess better privileges, he removed to Hackensack, and entered there the celebrated academy of Dr. Peter Wilson. Here he made such progress that Princeton College conferred on him the degree of A. B. About the same time (Nov. 11, 1771,)
he married Rachel Vanderbeck. He now proceeded to the study of theology, under Rev. John H. Goetschius, formerly of Switzerland, but now preaching at Hackensack. He was licensed to preach the Gospel Oct. 1st, 1774, and on June 11th,1775, was ordained pastor of the four united churches of Long Island, it being only a year before the breaking out of the Revolution.
With his ardent nature he could not help taking sides in . that great struggle. The district in which he lived was noted also for its disaffection to the cause of Independence. Y'et in the midst of enemies, he labored and prayed boldly for his country's freedom .*
Shortly after the battle of Long Island in August 1776, and which occurred in the territory of his congregations, he found it necessary to flee to save his life, narrowly escaping. He fled to Jamaica, and Newtown, and having been con- cealed one night in the house of Mr. Rapalje at Hurl-gate, he was put across the river to Harlem. He went first to Hackensack, and preached while there a most patriotic ser- mon from 2 Chron. 11 : 4, exhorting the inhabitants not to fight against the cause of Independence, to which many there were inclined. Dr. Laidlie, the colleagne of Dr. Living- ston, heard him, and warmly commended him. In his flight he lost his cattle, furniture, books, and clothing, indeed every
Riken's Annals of Newtown, p. 199, and pamphlets on the secession.
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thing. In company with Dr. Livingston, both being on horseback, he started for Poughkeepsie, keeping on the west-side of the Hudson, and for three years he supplied the pulpits of Fishkill and Poughkeepsie (1776-1779). But in 1799, he left them, probably on account of the campaigns, then beginning in that vieinity.
In the spring of 1780, he appeared in Millstone, one year after Mr. Foering's death, and the Consistory at once ap- pointed Mr. Ernestus Van Harlingen to wait upon him and try and secure his services, till he could return to his churches on Long Island. They offered to give him as salary 26S bushels of wheat a year, cach bushel to weigh 60 pounds.
He declined entering into a temporary arrangement, but said he would accept a call, which the Consistory gladly offered to give him, and he moved into the parsonage, June 5th, 1780. The Consistory paid his expenses of moving, which in the money of the day, amounted to $1455, one dollar in gold being worth at the time $40 of the Continen- tal currency.
But it was impossible for him to get a formal dismission from his churches on Long Island, as the enemy held both the Island and the city. But the Synod, meeting in Octo- ber 1780, at New Paltz, appointed a committee to settle a question of dispute between our congregation and the three neighboring congregations, in respect to the bounds of each, and if they succeeded in effecting amity, they were then empowered in the name of the Synod, to approve the call, and in this very unusual case to dismiss him from his con- gregations on Long Island.
But during the summer of 1780, and before the call was acted on from this congregation, Nechanic* sought to unite
* In 1775 (November 13th) we find an order from the Consistory of
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with us, and secure a part of Mr. Froeligh's services, Nechanic and Sourland being then under the care of Rev. John M. Van Harlingen. Articles of agreement were entered into, and Mr. Froeligh's call, as finally approved, stands in the name of the two churches, and is dated Sept. 4, 1780 .* He was to preach two Sundays out of three, at Millstone, and one at Nechanic, and was to alter- nate between the Dutch and English. At Nechanic, when the days were long, he was to preach twice a day. Mill- stone was to furnish one hundred and sixty bushels of good winter wheat, and Nechanic one hundred and eight. In 1784 (April 12,) by mutual consent, his salary was changed to £120 proclamation money, of which Nechanic paid £40, and Millstone £80 a year.
The next year, October 1st, 1782, the Synod met in the church of New Millstone. New York was their general place of meeting, both before and after the war, but during the war their meetings were held at places remote from the scene of hostilities, and in 1782, our defaced and desolated church, almost unfit to be occupied, welcomed the Synod of the denomination within its blackened walls. The Rev. Harmanus Meyer, the pastor at Paterson and Pompton Plains, presided over the body, which consisted, however, of only nine members. Rev. Dr. Dirck Romeyn preached the opening sermon, from Isaiah iv. 5: " And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon all her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the
Millstone to the Consistory of Nechanic, given to Mr. Foering, for £5 15s. 11d., on account of his salary. Possibly some arrangement between Mr. Foering and Nechanic may have temporarily existed. * The dates on the call, and the statements in the Mints. of Gen. Synod, vol. i., pp. 80-97, do not altogether agree. I follow the official documents in possession of this church.
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shining of a flaming fire by night, for above all, the glory shall be a defence," a grand text from which to draw encouragement and consolation for the people of God, in those troublous times. For He was indeed ever present with them and their cause, as He had been visibly present to Israel in the cloud and fire. It was at this meeting that Simeon Van Arsdale was examined and afterward licensed, and who settled at Readington soon after, and died in early life, (1783-1787.)
The war now being over, and no further dangers being apprehended, the Consistory felt the necessity of effectually repairing the church." But they had suffered so much from the raids and depredations of the enemy, that they were really unable to go to the necessary expense. There had been an almost constant accession of immigrants from Long Island to this county, from among the Dutch, up to the beginning of the war. The ties of relationship were not yet forgotten, and undoubtedly frequent visitations back and forth, when the state of the country did not forbid, were made. Mr. Froeligh, moreover, had labored among the immediate relatives of the people here, when he had been settled on Long Island, and in fact this people was a colony from his former charges, though before his settlement over them. They therefore appointed a committee, consisting of Mr. Froeligh, Capt. Cornelius Lott, and Peter Ditmarse, to visit Long Island, and solicit help, as the congregations there had suffered very little, they having been in the British lines throughout the war. The subscription states that our church had been much distressed, the inhabitants plundered, and the church building in part destroyed, and rendered useless ; that the people were unable to bear all
* It appears that in 1779, Cor. Cornell had given £137 for repairing the church, and another individual (name unknown) £91.
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the expense required alone, and hence were under the disagreealle necessity of appealing for help to those whom Providence had smiled on more kindly, hoping that from sympathy, they would be induced to charity and benevo- lence toward us. The subscription also states, that the names of such as gave should be handed down to posterity on the records of the church .* This has been done. They secured thus, on Long Island, the sum of £85, or about $212, and the church was now repaired and rendered again com- fortable. The seats were now also sold, by which $100 were raised in addition, and thus the repairs paid for.
While on Long Island, soliciting funds, Mr. Frocligh's old charges tried hard to keep him there, as he had never been regularly dismissed.+ But he said he was now united to another, and refused to remain. He labored here about six years. He was greatly encouraged at the beginning of his ministry, by a large accession to the church. This is, indeed, the more remarkable, as the times of the Revolution are noted for their profligacy and immorality. The first winter that he was here, he received fourteen on profession, and three by certificate. The next fall, he received sixteen by profession, and two by certificate, but during the rest of his ministry only six. The revivals under him occurred while they had no respectable place of worship. Mr. Froeligli's life and experience were somewhat peculiar. His spiritual exercises were very deep and overpowering. He says of himself in a letter, " While preaching at Mill- stone and Nechanie, I experienced God's smiles and his frowns. Here I have been both on the mount and in the valley. The neighboring ministers opposed my settlement, and I was not installed for a whole year. I had officiated but a short time in these congregations, when to my great
* See Appendix-Note 3.
+ Riker's Annals, p. 241.
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joy, a general awakening broke out among my people. It affected persons of every age and color. The word preached became powerful ; many became solicitous inquirers what they should do to be saved; many of profligate morals became professing and praying Christians. This unexpected season filled my heart with great delight, as I began to des- pair that God would ever own me by His blessing on my labors. But alas ! I was too much elated. I imputed too much to my own abilities, and did not give God all the glory. Therefore my joy was changed into sorrow. I was seized with a dangerous illness, and brought to the gates of death. I cannot say that my confidence in the redemption of Christ was much shaken during my illness, and it pleased the Lord to restore me. But soon after he gave me up to the most gloomy despair, in which I continued for six years ; sometimes sunk into inexpressible blackness of despondency, overwhelmed with sadness, bereaved of all satisfaction, haunted by shocking fears of misery, and assaulted by the most horrid temptations to deism, of which I had never experienced the least before. My situation was frequently rendered intolerable by sudden injections of Satan's fiery darts. The arch-fiend so far succeeded, that I thought I could not preach, and did actually desist for several weeks; but it pleased the Lord to show me that it was a delusion, and I again betook myself to the work, and was enabled to preach with more accuracy than I had anticipated. The Lord was pleased to deliver me out of this horrible pit, and out of the miry clay ; since which I have uniformly enjoyed considerable peace and tranquillity of mind." *
In 1786 he received a call to the two congregations of Hackensack and Schraalenberg, which he accepted, and in
* This letter was written in his old age, nearly forty years after . ward.
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which places he continued to labor till his death, which occurred October 8th, 1827. With his life subsequent to his departure from us, we have but little to do. In 1791 he was elected Professor of Theology, in place of Dr. Meyer, of Pompton, who had died. In his new field, he found his churches divided into two parties, with two Consistories, on account of a difficulty which had begun fifty years before, and having tried to unite them, and failing, he took sides with the party which were very strenuous in doctrine, and opposed to the commingling of Christians of different names, virtually exalting doctrine above practical religion, and refusing to unite in the great efforts of Christian union and fraternization, under the power of which the Bible and Tract and Missionary, and other union Societies, were organized, until at last himself and four others seceded from the Dutch church in 1822, when he was seventy-two years of age, thirty-six years after his departure from Millstone. He was accordingly deposed from the professorship and the ministry by General Synod, and although the True Reformed Dutch church which he organized continued to increase, for six years quite rapidly,* since that time it has been steadily declining, and but few congregations of any strength remain. Yet the division caused an incalculable amount of bad feeling and of sin in Bergen county, and some other places.
With his departure from this place, the union between Nechanic and Millstone ended, (June S, 1786,) and Rev. Mr. Leydt, of New Brunswick and Six Mile Run, having died in 1783,+ that union was also dissolved, and now Six
* The Seceder church culminated in 1830, when they had thirty congregations.
t He died June 2d, aged sixty-five. His tombstone yet remains at Three Mile Run. His wife, Treyntje Sleght Egugnoort, died December
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Mile Run and Millstone enter into an agreement to call a minister together. They agree to pay £130 in equal parts, and to have equal services. In Millstone one-half the preaching was to be in Dutch, and one-half in English, while in Six Mile Run two-thirds to be in Dutch and one- third in English. Indeed these two congregations made a formal call to retain Mr. Froeligh, when he contemplated removing to Hackensack, but without success.
In the meantime, during the vacancy, John M. Van Har- lingen, the son of Ernestus Van Harlingen, of this place, and nephew of the old pastor of the same name at Sourland, was examined by Synod in New York, (October, 1786,) and licensed to preach the Gospel ; and on May 1st, 1787, the call of the two churches upon him was approved by Synod. He was ordained during the summer. His own father was one of his elders.
John M. Van Harlingen labored in these churches about eight years. It was during his ministry, that the title and incorporation of the church were finally fixed. Immediately after the Revolution, (1784,) they took measures to have their old English charter confirmed by the General Assem- bly of the State of New Jersey, and to have all their former legal acts ratified. This was secured on the condition that the allegiance required in the charter to the king, should henceforth be given to the State of New Jersey, (the union of the States not yet existing.) This was under Froeligh But in 1790, all the neighboring churches, whether col legiate or single, including our own, repudiated their old charters, that they might incorporate, according to the new law of 1789. In 1790, therefore, the Consistory became
2d, 1763, aged thirty-six. His daughter, Elizabeth, died October 27th, 1760, aged twelve, and Anne, died June 10th, 1760, aged seven months.
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incorporated under the laws of the United States and the State of New Jersey, by the name of "The New Corpora- tion of the Minister, Elders, and Deacons, of the Congrega- tion of Hillsborough." Six Mile Run being freed from the common charter of the five churches obtained in 1753, by the mutual relinquishment of the same in 1790, also became incorporated by herself this year. The union between our own church and theirs was ecclesiastical simply, but not corporate.
But each of the churches had a parsonage, and in refer- ence to this, they agreed that Mr. Van Harlingen should live in the parsonage at Millstone on the hill, and that Six Mile Run should sell theirs, (it belonging equally to the church of New Brunswick,) and that half the money they received, should be paid to Millstone, which should be con- sidered a full compensation. Accordingly, they sold their parsonage property to Mr. Jacob Skillman, for £390 16s. Sd., (proclamation money,) and paid £195 Ss. 4d. (or $4SS) to Millstone. It was situated about a mile and a half east of Six Mile Run Church, on the New Brunswick road. Here Dominie Leydt had lived for thirty-five years, and before him, near the same place, the first Frelinghuysen.
The Dutch language was now rapidly losing ground. Although used to a great extent as the language of the household, yet the theological and biblical expressions, owing to English education, were better understood in English. While twenty years before, Dominie Foering had been called to preach at Millstone, wholly in English, yet under Frocligh and Van Harlingen, the arrangement was changed, out of deference to the older people. The day after Christmas, however, in 1791, Consistory resolved that the services on the holidays, which do not fall on Sabbath days, shall henceforth be performed wholly in English.
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Mr. Van Harlingen's ministry, if we may judge from the additions to the church, was successful. Thirty-four united with the church during the first five years of his ministry, two of these by certificate. During the last three, not one. We have seen before the same process of additions at first in the ministry of each of his predecessors. The first few . years they were blessed ; during the last years of their min- istry, no visible fruits appear.
Mr. Van Harlingen, for reasons not stated,* resigned in the summer of 1795, but continued to live in this village. He was a man of extensive acquisitions, and in June, 1812, when the plan of the Theological school was fully organized, such confidence was had in his abilities, that he was elected by the General Synod, Professor of Hebrew and Ecclesiasti- cal History, in place of Dr. Bassett, of Albany, who had just resigned. He was thus associated with Dr. Livingston and Rev. Sol. Froeligh. Dr. Livingston taught in New Brunswick. The other two were expected to teach at their own homes, as Dr. Froeligh had already been doing for twenty-one years. Mr. Van Harlingen was the translator of the English version of Vanderkemp on the Heidelbergh Catechism.
But his services in his new field were of short duration. The Master called him to his rest in about a year from his appointment. He died, June 16th, 1813, in the fifty- second year of his age.} His remains lie in the adjacent church-yard, awaiting the resurrection of the just.
After the resignation of Mr. Van Harlingen, (1796,) this
* His last text, as pastor here, is said to have been Jer. xx. 10.
t The Classis have recorded a lamentation, in their minutes, that since Dos. Condict and Van Harlingen have died, strict examinations of students must cease. (Vol. ii., p. 66.) Surely not very compliment- ary to the survivors !
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church first called Rev. Peter Lorre, who had been examined and licensed at the same time as Mr. Van Harlingen, and who was now laboring in the former charges of Mr. Froeligh, on Long Island. But he did not accept the call. But among the members of Classis who supplied the pulpit during the vacancy, appeared a young man from the Classis of Hackensack, in September and November, 1796, and in March, 1797, and with whom the people were well pleased. This was James Spencer Cannon. Six Mile Run again united with Millstone in the call, and he was ordained and installed at Millstone, May 1st, 1797.
He writes in the church record in his own hand, the date of his ordination, and adds concerning himself : "To whom, therefore, this church register book is committed, to pre- serve inviolate, and to transmit to posterity the acts and proceedings of the Dutch Reformed Congregation of Hills- borough, under my ministry among them."
He was born in the island of Curacoa, (one of the West Indies,) Jan. 28th, 1776. His father was of Irish descent, his mother of New England. Their home was in the city of New York, when not on the sea. James was sent to school to Dr. Peter Wilson at Hackensack, and in a few years his father was lost at sea. He completed his acade- mical education under Dr. Miller, Dr. Wilson's successor.
In 1794, he professed religion, under Dr. Solomon Froe- ligh at Hackensack, under whom he studied theology also till the spring of 1796, completing his course under Dr. Livingston, then on Long Island, and was, during that sea- son, licensed by the Classis of Hackensack, in company with Peter Labagh. After considering several calls which were made upon him, he settled over this and the neighboring church of Six Mile Run, at the time already stated Dur- ing the vacancy, and intending to continue united with Six
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Mile Run, the Consistory here sold their parsonage property, to Martin Shenck, for £400, proclamation money, to be paid in four equal payments ; £200 of this they paid to Six Mile Run. On the first of May of the same year, the two churches purchased a house and lot of land, containing twenty-two acres, about a mile west of Six Mile Run Church, and five acres of woodland near the Six Mile Run Church, on the same road, and fourteen acres of woodland on sand hills, in the Swamp, (of Cor. Barcaloo,) paying for all £624. Dr. Cannon lived in the parsonage provided, a few years, when it was sold, and the use of the money allowed him, while he himself bought a place at Pleasant Plains, where he con- tinued to reside until his removal to New Brunswick.
But we have now come down to the opening of the pre- sent century, and what wonderful changes have taken place! A century before, an almost unbroken wilderness, but now covered with enterprising farmers and artisans, and nine Dutch churches, not to speak of many others, in a circumfer- ence of twenty miles diameter. Raritan, the oldest church, had seen Hardenberg dismissed to the North, (to the churches of Marbletown and Rochester) in 1781, who five years later returned to this section to take charge of the church of New Brunswick, and to preside over the College. In 1793, the Lord took him home, and Dr. Ira Condiet suc- ceeded him there, for 18 years. Theodore Frelinghuysen Romeyn* had succeeded Hardenberg at Raritan, and in less than a year and-a-half, death called him away, at the early age of 25, (1784-1785 ;) and he had been succeeded by Rev. John Duryec in 1786, who labored at Somerville for thir- teen years, when, having taken charge of Bedminster and Whitehouse for a couple of years, he removed to Fairfield
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