History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 169

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224

USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 169
USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 169

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Elias Barger.

Abraliam leyer.

Andrew Blaew. Daniel Hendrickson.

Cornelius Bennet.

Isaac Jansen.

Hendrick Blaew.

Peter Kemble.

Aeric Bennet.

Paul Le Boyton.

John Buys.

Cornelius Low.

Teunis Montague.

Francis Costigin, Cornelins Cornell.

Christopher Probasco.

Peter Cochran.

Dirck Schuyler.

695

CITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK.

Jacobus Schureman.

Peter Moon.

Samuel Mulford.

Cornelius Suydadı. Headrick Schenck. Roelef Seebring.

Paul Miller. Andrew Norwood.

Roelef Nevius.

Frederick Outgelt.

Jacob Ouke.

Abraham Ouke.

Aaron Sutfin.

William Ouke. Jen Probasco. Jan Van Nuys. Roelef Voorhees.

Dirck Vao Norstraad. William Van Der Rype.

Johannes Voorhees. Folkert Van Noorstrand. Jeremiah Van Derbilt.

Hendrick Van Derbilt.

Arie Van Ardalen.

Jan Van Buren.

Dirck Van Veghton,

Dirck Vao Allen. Johannes Martians Van Ilar- lingen.

Benjamin Van Clef.

Aris Van Derbilt.

Abraham Van Deursen.

Abraham Van Doreu,

Arie Van Clef. Mione Van Voorhees.

Peter Voorlees.

Lucas Voorlees. Gerrit Voorhees.

Frederick Vao Lieuwea.

Hendrick Van Derbilt.

Christian Van Doren. Headrick Van Lieuweo.

Johannes Messler. Paul Miller.

Leffert Waldron.

Johannes Meyer. Peter Metselaer.

Philip Young.

Among these names Dr. Steele makes special men- tion of the following :

JAMES HUDE was one of the prominent citizens of New Brunswick, and held in high esteem. His father was a Scotch Presbyterian, and fled from the religious oppressions of the Old World to enjoy the freedom promised in the New. Mr. Hude filled all the civil offices in the city, and spent most of his life in the service of the government. He was one of the judges of the pleas for eleven years, a member of the Assem- bly in 1738, one of the Council of Governor Morris, and for several terms mayor of the city. He was a man of great benevolence, and at his death, Nov. 1, 1762, the New York Mercury, in an obituary notice, speaks of him as "a gentleman of great probity, jus- tice, affability, moral and political virtues." His resi- dence was in Albany Street, in the house known as the Bell Tavern, the original part of which is one of the oldest buildings in the town. He does not seem to have been a communicant, but his children were all baptized by Mr. Frelinghuysen and appear on the church register.

PHILIP FRENCH was a man of great liberality and distinction. He came into possession of Inians' pat- ent, and one of the streets of the city bears his name.

JACOB OUKE was one of the original members of the congregation and a prominent elder. He was

several times mayor of the city, and held " an office which had been created by Mr. Frelinghuysen to meet the growing demands of his large charge."

MINNE VAN VOORHEES .- Perhaps no name was more prominent than this in the early church records. Dr. Steele calls him "the distinguished elder." He was one of the ancestors of a large family of this name in Middlesex and Somerset Counties.1 He came to this vicinity from Long Island about the year 1715, and two years after, on the organization of the church, his name was placed on the roll of com- municants. He resided at first on the property known as the College Farm, and was the proprietor of a large tract of land in that vicinity, including the mills below the city. Subsequently he removed to New Brunswick, where he resided till his death, which occurred about the year 1734. He was elected to the office of elder in the church when quite a young man, and was a ruling spirit in the congregation, being always a stanch supporter of Mr. Freling- huysen. When the latter was exhausted by his ex- cessive labors he would frequently call upon Mr. Van Voorhees to " take the evening lecture in one of the neighborhoods, and he would conduct the services with great edification. ... His descendants were connected with some of the most distinguished fami- lies of the city,-the Pools, Neilsons, Abeels, Bennets, Schuylers, Van Deursens, and Hasserts."

In addition to the above, the Van Derbilts, Schencks, and Van Harlingens deserve mention as equally prominent. The list embraces the names of about one hundred heads of families, showing that in 1735 there was a large congregation here, built up under the ministry of Mr. Frelinghuysen.

In 1737 the plan of procuring a college was dis- cussed at a joint meeting of the consistories held at Raritan ; it was agreed to, and application was made to Holland, but no suitable assistant could be pro- cured. In this emergency Mr. Frelinghuysen resorted to an expedient no less novel than it proved success- ful, that of appointing helpers, after the manner of the apostles (1 Cor. xii. 28), from among those most gifted in exhortation and prayer, and of the most ex- emplary Christian lives in his own congregations. The appointments were as follows : North Branch, Simon Van Arsdalen ; Raritan, Hendrick Bries and Teunis Post; Six-Mile Run, Elbert Stoothof; New Brunswick, Hendrick Fisher, Roelef Nevins, and Abraham Ouke. These men held the office during

1 The ancestor of the family of Voorhees in this section of country was Steven Coerte, or Coers, who emigrated from Holland in 1660, on the ship " Bontekoe" (Spotted Cow), and settled in Flatlands, L. I. Ilaving ao surname they subscribed themselves " Van Voorhees," or " from le- fure Hees," the place in Holland whence they came. Steven Coerte married Willempie Roelefse, and died about 1684. His son, Lucas Ste- vense, married oa Long Island. and six of his children emigrated to New Brunswick and vicinity. Hans (Jau) Lucas married Neetlije Nevius ; Cetryatje Lucas married Roelef Nevius : Roelef Lucas married Helens Stoothof; Minne Lncas married Antje Wyckoff; Wilmetje Luces mar- ried Martin Nevius; Albert Lucas married Catryotje Cornell .- Genealogy of Bergen Family, p. 61.

Petrue Sleight. Abraham Schnyler. Gerset Stoothof. Johannes Seebring. Lucas Smack.

John Ten Broeck. Isaac Van Noorstraod. Dirck Van Arsalen. Headrick Van Deursen.

Gerrit De Grow. John De Witt. G. De Peyster. Frans Dilden. Hendrick Dally. Gideon De Camp. Philip French.

Charles Fontyo. Hendrick Fisher. Abraham Foutya. Folkert Folkers.

Jacob Fontya. Jaques Fontyn. Johannes Folkers. Isaac Fontyn. Johannes Van Norden. Christopher Van Norden. Frans Van Dyck. Nicholas Van Dyck. Court Van Voorhees.

William Williamson. Lawrence Williamson.

696

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

life, and one of them became a lay preacher and catechist.

Of the events towards the close of Mr. Freling- huysen's life Dr. Steele thus speaks : " In the summer of 1744 he bought of Daniel Hendrickson, of this city, a farm of two hundred acres, for which he paid £550. This property is located at Three-Mile Run, and is a part of the land occupied by the late John Brunson. Here he built a spacious house, a part of the founda- tion of which was used in the construction of the edifice now standing. At this place he probably re- sided at the time of his death,1 which must have occurred about the commencement of the year 1748, when he had not yet reached his fifty-seventh year. He is buried, according to all the evidence we can gather, in the old yard of the Six-Mile Run Church, and a spot is still pointed out as his last resting- place." 2

But his deeds live after him. When he came to this field he found it spiritually dead and unculti- vated ; when he was called away he left behind him a strong body of Christians and the savor of an ex- ample and life which exerted a moulding and en- nobling influence upon a large circle of society. Tennent, Whitefield, Edwards, and Alexander speak of him as one of the great lights of the American church, the latter remarking, " If you wish to find a community characterized by an intelligent piety, a love of order, and all that tends to make society what it should be, seek it among the people of Somerset and Middlesex. And their present character is owing very much, under God, to the faithful preaching of the gospel under old Dominie Frelinghuysen."

Dr. Steele, speaking of the character of the children for piety, says, --

"We attribute this fact mainly to the piety and religious instruction of the mother, Eva Terhune. They were baptized in this church, and their names appear upon our regieter. Theodore was settled in Albany from 1745 to 1759. He is represented to have been frank and popular in his manders, earnest and eloquent in the pulpit, and blameless in his life. He sailed for Holland in the year 1759, with the expectation of returning to hie field of labor. The date and circumstances of his death are not known. His memory Was very precious in the church of Albany, meriting the tribute paid to him of ' the apostolic and mnuch- heloved Frelinghuysen.'

" His second son, John, succeeded his father at Raritan in August, 1750, and died very suddenly while on a visit to Long Island, attending a meeting of the Coetus, in 1754. The third and fourth sons, Jacobue and Ferdinand, died on their return passage from Holland of the small- pox in 1753, and were buried at sea. They were promising young men, and had both received calls, the one et Marbletown, and the other at Kinderhook, N. Y. The fifth son, Hendricue, pursued his studies io this country, was licensed by the Coetus, and in 1756 settled over the church at Wawersing, Ulster Co. N. Y .; but in a short time he also died from an attack of smallpox, and was buried at Napanock. ...

"One of his daughters, Anna, was married to the Rov. William Jack- son, who for thirty years was the pastor of the church in Bergen ; she

died at the age of seventy-two, in May, 1810. And Margaret became the wife of Rev. Thomas Romeyn, whose only son, Theodore Freling- huysen Romeyo, was pastor at Raritan, in the same charge of hie grandfather and nocle, whose short and promising ministry of only eighteen monthe was brought to a close by his sudden death at an early age, amid the lamentations of a bereaved people.

"On the death of Mr. Frelioghuysen, the churches under his charge .. . immediately resolved to settle two pastors. Raritan, North Branch, and Milletone (now Harlingen) settled Rev. John Frelinghuysen, whose short ministry of only four years wae eminently enccessful."

His death has already been referred to. During his short ministry he instructed a number of candi- dates for the ministry in a house which he built of brick brought from Holland, still standing in Somer- ville, where Hardenbergh, Jackson, and others pur- sued their theological studies.

The churches of New Brunswick and Six-Mile Run united in September, 1748, in extending a call to

REV. JOHANNES LEYDT, a young man who had just completed his studies. He was born in Holland in 1718, educated in one of the universities ; came to this country with an older brother, settling first in the neighborhood of Fishkill, on the Hudson. The rec- ords of the Coetus held in New York, April 28, 1748, contain the first notice of him in these words : "The student Leydt, according to appointment, delivered a proposition upon 2 Corinthians iii. 6-8, and gave such satisfaction that he was likewise received with Van der Linde, to be examined in the morning, after reading the church certificate, from which it appeared that they had been communicants for some years." The elder Hendrick Fisher was a member of the Assembly, and presented a letter from the consistory of New Eruns- wick, " urging the speedy examination of the student, in order that their congregation, which was vacant, might employ him as a candidate, and, if satisfied, might call him." He was ordained ; a formal call was extended by the consistories, Sept. 27, 1748, and he became the second pastor of the churches of New Brunswick and Six-Mile Run.

" The first act of the consistories was to provide him a home ; accordingly they purchased a parsonage with fifty acres of land. This property was located at Three-Mile Run, and is known as the Skillman farm.

" Very shortly after his settlement Mr. Leydt in- terested himself in procuring a charter from the royal Governor for the churches originally embraced in the charge of Mr. Frelinghuysen." This is the instru- ment alluded to at the commencement of the history of this church. The first trustees under the charter were the two ministers, Rev. Johannes Leydt and Rev. John Frelinghuysen, with the several members of the consistories of the five churches. The first meeting of the new corporation was held at Raritan, Oct. 31, 1753, when Hendrick Fisher, one of the elders of this church, was chosen president of the board, and arrangements were made to carry out the provisions of the charter.

Mr. Leydt was a popular and able minister, and soon gathered so large a congregation as to call for

1 Dr. Steele seys, "He lived at one time in Burnet Street, as I find a reference to his * residence' in an old deed in my possession, but the precise location I have not ascertained. He spent his whole ministerial life within the honode of this congregation, and his family made this church their religions honie."

2 Is it not a striking fact that the minister who first broke ground fur the gospel of this new territory lies in an unknown greve?

697

CITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK.

increased accommodations. "The old building on Burnet Street was full, and as early as 1754 the plan was agitated for the erection of a new and more com- modious church edifice in a more central location." The subject, however, was postponed for several years. On the 12th of September, 1765, Philip French, Esq., a member of the congregation, conveyed as a gift to the consistory the plot of ground on which the pres- ent church stands. A building committee was imme- diately appointed, of which John Schureman was chairman, under whose management the new church was erected. It was completed and occupied by the congregation in the autumn of 1767, when the old church in Burnet Street was taken down and the lot sold to John Schureman. "The building was of stone, nearly square, and would seat comfortably four hundred persons. The cost of construction was £1097 138. 7d. It had a front entrance on Queen (now Neil- son) Street, and a side-door on Prince (now Bayard) Street. At the south side was a long pew for the ac- commodation of the public officers of the city, and on the north similar pews running parallel with the walls, which, it is said, were much sought after, ‘as one eye could be directed towards the minister and the other to anything that might require attention in the other part of the house.' Far off and up in a circular pulpit supported by a pedestal was the minister, beneath the old time-honored sounding-board. Two pillars supported the roof from the centre, which went up on four sides, ending in a small steeple. A bell was put up about the year 1775, and the sexton in ringing stood in the middle aisle, winding the rope during service around one of the pillars.1 The church was never desecrated with stoves, but in the midst of winter the good Dutchmen kept up what heat they could by an occasional stamp on the floor, and tradition says the dominie would keep warm by an extra amount of gesture."

The services in the church were held on each al- ternate Sabbath. Mr. Leydt was a laborious minis- ter and a faithful pastor. He was a regular member of the Coetus, and a constant attendant upon the meetings of that body. On the erection of the Gen- eral Synod he was associated with Dr. Livingston in conducting the principal part of their business, and at their annual meeting at New Paltz in 1778 he was chosen president.2 Mr. Leydt was one of the promi- nent movers in the establishment of Queen's (now Rutgers) College. It was a measure designed to carry out the object of the Coetus; as that body had declared in favor of a ministry educated and or- dained in this country, a college was necessary to educate them. Mr. Leydt, however, seems to have taken a wider view, and to have considered the general

benefits of a college in relation to the State as well as to the church. In a letter to Dr. Livingston he says, " I humbly conceive that without a regular course of collegiate studies we shall never make any respect- able figure in church or State." As soon as the college was chartered, in 1770, it became easy to settle the controversy which had been long pending respecting independence of the church of Holland, and hence the events were alnost simultaneous, the approval of the church of Holland being granted the following year on condition that the Dutch Church in America should make provision in her constitution to provide herself with an educated ministry.

The pastorate of Mr. Leydt carries the history of the church through the period of the Revolution. He was a firm and earnest patriot, and took a warm in- terest in the struggle for independence. " He preached upon the topics of the day in such a manner as to rouse the patriotism of his people to a pitch of enthu- siasm. He prayed for the success of the American cause, and counseled the young men to join the army."

During the time the British army occupied the town, the winter of 1776-77, services were entirely suspended. Afrer the evacuation of the city, when the inhabitants returned to their homes they found everything in a most desolate condition. The work of destruction had been carried on indiscriminately and ruthlessly. It was a dark and discouraging time. But the people went to work to repair the havoc which had been wrought. "Our church edifice," says Dr. Steele, " underwent a temporary repair, and for some time was occupied on alternate Sabbathıs by the Presbyterian congregation, the blackened walls of whose building were left standing below Lyle's Brook." Mr. Leydt was immediately at his post, and preached for his people two Sabbaths in the month of July, the first services which he had been able to hold in the city since the beginning of December. . . . Indeed, during the whole subsequent part of his min- istry, which was brought to a close in 1783, the town was kept in a constant state of alarm. Mr. Leydt died suddenly of paralysis on the 2d of June, 1783, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, after having ministered to the church nearly thirty-five years. He had preached on the preceding morning, which was Sabbath, and about noon he was stricken down. His remains were buried at Three-Mile Run. None of his descendants are now living, although he left two sons, both of whom graduated from Queen's College and entered the ministry. Matthew was pastor of a church in Bucks County, Pa., and died Nov. 24, 1783. Peter was settled at Ramapo, Bergen Co., and died there June 12, 1796.

During the vacancy which followed the death of Mr. Leydt the pulpit was supplied by neighboring ministers. The next regular pastor was

REV. JACOB RUTSEN HARDENBERGH, D.D .- He received a call in October, 1785, but did not be-

1 " I have been informed," says Dr. Steele, " that the bell was taken down at some period during the war, and buried in the orchard where now stands Rutgers College, and restored to its place after the enemy left the city."-Discourse, p. 51 ; note.

2 Minutes of Synod, vol. i. Gun's Life of Livingston, p. 143.

698

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

gin his ministry till the spring following, at which time he assumed the presidency of Queen's College. " His father, Colonel Johannes Hardenbergh, emi- grated from Prussia in the latter part of the seven- teenth century, and by purchase became the proprie- tor of a tract of land in Ulster County, N. Y., known as the Hardenbergh Patent. Jacob was born at Rosendale in 1738." He acquired his literary edu- cation at an academy in Kingston, and pursued his theological studies under the direction of Rev. John Frelinghuysen at Somerville. He was licensed to preach by the Coetus in 1757, when only twenty years of age. His preceptor dying suddenly, he was immediately called to succeed him in the pastoral charge, and in the month of May, 1758, he com- menced his labors in the five united congregations of Raritan, North Branch, Millstone, Bedminster, and Neshanic. Of two of these congregations he was relieved in 1761. In this extensive field he labored with great fidelity during a period of twenty- five years. He remained at Somerville until the year 1781, his church having been burned by the British under Col. Simcoe in 1779, and was not rebuilt till 1788. On his removal from Somerville he served the church at Rochester, Ulster Co., N. Y., until April, 1786, when he came to New Brunswick, having received the double call of the consistory of the church and the trustees of the college. The high estimation of his talents and qualifications thus indicated was not disappointed. He labored with the utmost zeal and devotion, and drew around him a strong congregation, who loved and honored him, not only for his qualities as a preacher but for the influence he had exerted during the struggle for independence. He had shown him- self capable of any sacrifice for the good of his country, and had suffered much personal loss and privation. He was the personal friend of Washing- ton, whose headquarters during several months were within the bounds of his congregation at Raritan, and who uniformly attended his church, taking his seat at the head of the elders' pew. On two different occasions he was selected by the citizens of New Brunswick to deliver the oration on Independence Day, and with all classes he was eminently popular.

Being a man of slender frame and predisposed to pulmonary disease, his labors were seriously hindered by feeble health, but his zeal and energy never fal- tered. Among his last memorable acts was the procuring of a charter for this church on the 30th of March, 1790. It was incorporated in accordance with the general law of the State, passed at Perth Amboy Nov. 25, 1789, under the name of "the Ministers, Elders, and Deacons of the Congregation of New Brunswick," the seal of the corporation being the device of a burning lamp in the centre, and around it the words, " Dutch Church of New Bruns- wick."

Dr. Hardenbergh died on the 30th of October, 1790,

in the fifty-third year of his age. The inscription on his tombstone, prepared by Dr. Livingston, is a beautiful tribute to his memory : " He was a zealous preacher of the Gospel, and his life and conversation afforded, from his earliest days, to all who knew him a bright example of real piety. He was a steady patriot, and in his public and private conduct he manifested himself to be the enemy of tyranny and oppression, the lover of freedom, and the friend of his country. He has gone to his Lord and Redeemer, in whose atonement he confidently trusted. He has received the fruits of his faithful labors and the reward of a well-spent life. Reader, while you lament the loss to society and his friends, go walk in his virtuous footsteps ; and when you have finished the work assigned you, you shall rest with him in eternal peace."

" Dr. Hardenbergh was the last minister of this church who preached in the Dutch language. His plan was to use the Dutch in the morning and the English in the afternoon. From this date all the records of the church are kept wholly in English, and the Dutch passed away forever.

" His wife, who was known by the familiar name of the Juforow Hardenbergh, was distinguished as one of the most remarkable women of her day. She was the widow of Rev. John Frelinghuysen, and in maidenhood Dinah Van Berg, born in the city of Amsterdam, Feb. 10, 1725. Her father was a wealthy East India merchant, who reared his family in the midst of the fashion and refinement of the city, but she early gave up her mind to religion, and while still residing in her father's house her attainments were so marked and decided as to arrest the attention of all who knew her." Her naturally strong intellect was developed by her early education, and the vigor of her mind was seen even down to the period of old age. We regret that space will not allow us to give a somewhat extended sketch of this woman, of whom it is said that both " at her first home in Raritan and in New Brunswick she has left a name which places her in the highest rank of female Christians." Those who desire a fuller account of her are referred to the excellent discourse of Dr. Steele, which we have made the basis of this church history. We quote one pas- sage given by Dr. Steele from her remarkable journal, wherein she relates her religious experience at the age of twenty-two. She thus commences : " It was the beginning of the year 1747, midnight had arrived and passed, and I continued in earnest supplication before the Lord, yielding myself anew to walk in his ways, and to cleave to his people. My heart went forth in earnest desire after larger measures of the renewing grace of the Holy Ghost. Oh, that old things might be made more fully to pass away, the power of depravity be brought into subjection, and the blessed image of the Lord Jesus be more fully transferred to me, and all things become new! My soul arose in petitions to God for the dear pcople of

699

CITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK.

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History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 169

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed. Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts Number of Pages: 1224

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224