USA > New Jersey > The early Germans of New Jersey : their history, churches, and genealogies. > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67
59
REV. CARL RUDOLPH
much more esteem and reverence for religion and the service of God, than in the rough regions of Pennsylvania."
What a high tribute this was to a people who had been so much abused by one who had usurped the office of the ministry and used it entirely for his own selfish gain. Yet their suffer- ings were not over and we shall see that they were still to eat their bread with affliction and have their drink mingled with tears, for we are told that " In the meanwhile the condition of these congregations, although they were free from this Wolf, was very lamentable. For eight years there were no confirma- tions, no sacrament, and everything was in decay. The con- gregations now turned to H. M. Muhlenberg, who had been among them in the year 1745, as arbitrator in connection with pastors Knoll and Wagner. He says in his journal, Dec. 16th, 1748 : "The situation of the Raritan congregation is as fol- lows : (1) Wolf still remains there, and will agree to nothing, but would rather rot there to affront the congregation than go elsewhere ; (2) Another preacher also remains there with his wife and children, by the name of Langenfeld, who had served half of the congregations eight years before and, tired of preaching, carries on farming, and like Wolf remains a mere spectator ; (3) The Hamburg ministerium also intends to take part should the Halle ministers enter the field, and pastor Berkenmeyer stands watching and would like to stir up Wolf to another law suit with the congregations, if a Halle man is settled there ; (4) The congregations have become in the high- est degree demoralized by twelve years of litigation ; (5) They are afraid to sign a call, as they should, and desire to have full liberty to call and dismiss their own pastors. They have neither a church building, a school house nor a parsonage, and would like to receive some help from the reverend fathers [at Halle]."
The churches in which they had previously worshipped must have been sold by Rev. Wolf, or perhaps were considered un- worthy of the name being simply rude structures of unhewn logs.
" Muhlenberg yielded to their requests and visited them in the fall of 1745, conducted catechetical instruction, confirmation
60
EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
and the Lord's Supper. John N. Kurtz spent December of that year there and gave instruction and preached. In 1746 Muhlenberg visited them a second time and Kurtz spent three months there in the summer. In the spring of 1747 J. H. Schaum was sent thither with careful instructions from Muh- lenberg, and spent the greater part of the year there. But in November of the same year [1747] the miserable CARL RUDOLPH came hither with pretended greetings from H. M. Muhlenberg, and genuine recommendations from the wretched Andrea, which recommendations were opposed to the association with Pennsylvania pastors, and with which he gained a certain fol- lowing. In the meanwhile the friends of Muhlenberg were soon enlightened upon the character of the reprobate. But the congregations were once more disturbed and embroiled, and Kurtz was sent thither in March, 1748, to restore quiet. He remained four weeks. On the 25th of July Muhlenberg set out again thither on a visit, accompanied by a teacher, Loeser. The result was highly pleasing., Hitherto the people had formed four small congregations and there had been preaching now here, now there. But now out of the members of the four congregations, one church council was formed with three elders and two wardens from each of the congregations."
The Carl Rudolph referred to by Muhlenberg was a disrep- utable man who had crept into the ministry and was enabled to work a great deal of mischief at first in North Carolina, where he had barely escaped hanging by running away, then in Penn- sylvania, where he had opposed Muhlenberg and the evangel- ical preachers, even by the use of the public prints, and finally in New Jersey. He obtained a call from a part of the congregations. But when information about him came from Philadelphia he was forsaken by all but a few. In the mean- while, however, he had proved himself a worthy successor of the abominable Wolf. Although he claimed to be a Prince of Wurtemberg and therefore of noble blood, he acted in every- thing but a princely manner. He was a thief and was detected in stealing a coat from Valentine Kraft; was also licentious and in the habit of getting drunk in the taverns.
Such was the second regular pastor of these early congrega-
REV. WILLIAM S. DELP.
REV. JOHN P. KRECHTING.
61
REV. CARL RUDOLPH
tions. He, probably, had a written call but remained only for a year and then went to Philadelphia, enlisted in the army and disappeared from sight. Muhlenberg says of him in one of his letters : " In this year (1747) just before the arrival of Handschuh, the godless so-called Prince of Wirtemberg, had crept in as a preacher, and in the pulpit and wherever he went slandered our colleague most shamefully. And as some well-disposed people were imposed upon by him, there arose two parties. One fought for our honor and industriously carried on all the beneficent and spiritual work. The other fought against us and indulged in abuse. Revs. Kurtz and Schaum did not labor without some results, but they were too weak and inexperienced in such emergencies and did not pos- sess at all times the power of speaking prudently, and this was to the advantage of the other party. The Prince conducted himself so satanically that the very worst elements of the com- munity turned against him and drove him away. Thus his coarsest calumnies even among his least respectable adherents were our best apologies. When the farce came to an end, both parties came to us and begged us for God's sake to forgive them and continue to help them.
" We gave them a book of condensed 'lessons.' I was com- pelled therefore to make a visitation upon the last of July, 1748. I found by investigation that only a few restless ones had stirred up the people and had said that no preacher would ever come to them from our college in Europe and that they ought to accept the Prince, who had shown himself to be a pious man from the beginning. When all four of the congregations [what are now Lebanon, Whitehouse, Pluckamin and Fox Hill or German Valley], were met together I was about to withdraw from them and said that we could not have anything more to do with them. The poor youth, the heart-breaking expressions of souls awakened by us, and the tears of the widows so affected me, that I had to promise not to wholly abandon them. They all begged in a pitiful way that we would give them our youngest brother, Mr. Schaum, if we could not give them any other, that they might not be wholly forsaken. After a long time I consented to this, if my colleagues were not opposed. I
62
EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
then chose out of each congregation three men for a common church council, which the best of the congregations had advised and determined upon. These twelve deliberated together with regard to a church building. They wished to build a spacious stone church in some central spot, from which the most distant members would be about ten miles away. Three congrega- tions were united in respect to this. But in the fourth there were a few stubborn ones, who did not agree with the rest but, decided to build a church of their own among themselves. The liberty was given them to build as many churches among them- selves as they wished. The three congregations and a few men from the fourth have estimated the cost of the building at 300 and some pounds besides their labor, and they have already subscribed 240 pounds and commenced to build. As we now intend to send Mr. Schaum to them as a matter of necessity, for a long time we thought of his disposition, so weak for such a critical place and the poor congregation (York) across the Susquehanna did not wish to spare him."
This brings us to the pastorate of the third regular pastor namely, John Albert Weygand, and the building of the New Germantown church.
CHAPTER VIII.
REV. JOHN ALBERT WEYGAND.
INCE Schaum could not be taken away from York, the candidate, John Albert Weygand, whom Muhlenberg had re- ceived into his house at New Providence a short time before, was sent thither in November, 1748, but the congregations remained under the oversight of Muh- lenberg, under which it had remained since the fall of 1745, and he had occasionally visited them and preached and admin- istered confirmation and the Lord's Supper. For the others had not yet received ordination. Only in special and excep- tional cases did Muhlenberg decide that Weygand might offer the communion to individual sick people, but this was disap- proved in Halle. On the whole Weygand showed himself capable and faithful, but made a serious mistake in his all too early marriage with the daughter of a VanDieren, who had only just come among them. Yet Muhlenberg counted thirty young people in August, 1749, who were prepared for confirma- tion, and the new church was under roof so that the accession of the separating congregation was not needed. At the meeting of Synod in 1750 the ordination of Weygand was deferred, but was performed on the second of December of the same year by Brunholtz, Handschuh, Hartwig, Kurtz and Schaum, and the beautiful stone church which did service for nearly 80 years, was dedicated at the same time. On the 4th of the previous October, Muhlenberg had again visited Wey- gand, and, as opportunity offered, had met with his father- in-law, VanDieren. Now the particular congregations of Rach-
64
EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
eway and Leslysland and Fuchsenberg, disappeared and the one central church in what is at present New Germantown, Tewks- bury township, Hunterdon County, N. J., took their place. Weygand remained in the service of the congregations until the beginning of the year 1753. Then he accepted a call, when a disturbance had arisen, to the Hollandish-Lutheran congrega- tions at New York and Hackensack and labored among them until 1767.
In speaking of Weygand Muhlenberg expresses what seems to have the opinion in those days of the education required for the ministerial office. In a request for advice from the society at Halle, Germany, he says : "We would not willingly cause the least damage to the cause of Christ by precipitancy nor would we lose a nail from the structure by negligence. I have with this view written to the Raritan council and have left to their good disposition and judgment the agreement with Mr. Weygand, and am willing to give a permission to preach for one year. In the region of the Raritan a man must understand Latin or English, because in that section there are many of New England Presbyterian preachers, who cherish a great respect for Halle and the blessed orphan house, and like to have intercourse with men from there. An English preacher of the church once complained to me that he wished to talk in Eng- lish and Latin with Mr. Schaum, but could get no reply. I said that he perhaps did not understand his accent and pronuncia- tion."
Although Weygand was a vast improvement as a preacher and pastor upon his predecessors, as we see by the extracts from his diary, which shall be given later, yet he does not seem to have had either the wisdom of the serpent or the harmless- ness of the dove. For when he had gone to the meeting of Synod at Philadelphia, which was the second one after its or- ganization, with the full expectation of being regularly ordained, he was extremely mortified to be put off. And this was after the time had been set for his ordination and notice of it published. The reason for this was found in certain com- plaints that were made against him by his elders. The account of this is as follows :
65
REV. JOHN ALBERT WEYGAND
A MINISTER'S WOOING.
In H. M. Muhlenberg's manuscript diary at the date of Jan- uary, 1750, is found the following : "Mr. Weygand reported that he had married in December the daughter of a Mr. Van Dieren. Mr. VanDieren is by trade a tailor and had been for- warded to the province of New York in a complimentary man- ner with a stock of books by the court-preacher, Bohme, of blessed memory (Ziegenhagen's predecessor in London). His comfortable circumstances and edifying address, the scarcity of preachers, the independent ways of America, the high esteem of the Germans for the court-preacher, Bohme ; the man's own desire and longing had all co-operated in enabling him to obtain ordination. The preachers in New York would not consent to it, but showered imprecations and numberless reproaches upon him in the public press. The Swedish preachers in Pennsyl- vania would not consent to it. At length he was ordained by an old German preacher in Pennsylvania, named Herkel, and sent back with evidences of ordination. After this he preached and administered the sacraments for several years among a few congregations in the province of New York until he moved into New Jersey and labored for several years among the Low Dutch Reformed and Lutheran congregations in common. He was so accommodating there that he administered the com- munion to the Reformed after their manner, and to the Lutheran after theirs. But at last by this means both parties became at variance, said he was a hypocrite and cast him off. He did not live far from Raritan, visited us several times and would like to have taken charge of the mountain congregations in Upper Milford, Saccum, etc., but the Providence of God, whose leadings we desire to follow, did not so ordain.
"Weygand lived with one of the elders [Baltus Pickle, of Round Valley, New Jersey], who was a man of wealth and had helped on the building of the new church more than any other person, and had also provided out of his own means an organ and other things necessary for orderly worship. This man had two elderly (betagte) daughters. The older had died in the previous fall and the younger, whom I confirmed together with all his sons, was still living. This younger daughter was a
66
EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
virtuous person, had the womanly adornment spoken of in I. Peter, 2, 3-4, was industrious, very skillful in household matters and lacked only the outward beauty of a worldly sort. She was no doubt intended for Mr. Weygand. But he paid his brief respects to her father very abruptly and demanded his consent to be given within a quarter of an hour, and would not give the father the usual time for deliberation, threw the father over [figuratively of course] and then went straight to VanDieren's house and was married to his daughter by her father. After this he kept urging the congregation very strongly to buy a farm upon which he might live. But the people were engaged in the difficult work of building a church and were already in debt. Nevertheless they involved themselves in more debt and bought a farm. Mr. VanDieren then sold his place and bought a farm near his son-in-law. In this neighborhood there also dwelt an old retired preacher, Langenfeld by name, and eight miles off Mr. Wolf is now living."
The elders of the church and another person of equal im- portance were disturbed by these proceedings and brought against their preacher the following complaints :
1. Mr. Weygand had wooed the elder's daughter not as a minister should, but like a dissolute college youth.
2. He had used in giving the communion to two sick people, instead of the consecrated wafers, red sealing wafers with which letters are closed.
3. When the elders called him to an account for this he had replied that the ministers in Frankford on the Main did thus.
4. He had married the daughter of a man whose oldest son had become a Quaker in Pennsylvania, and whose oldest daughter had married Deyling, a Zinzendorfer.
5. He had thrown the congregation into heavier indebted- ness by impetuously urging them to buy him a farm.
6. Should his father-in-law come to live with him he might lead his son-in-law astray.
7. The congregation were at one time observing a day of strict fasting and prayer, which the authorities had ordered, when two of the elders, on coming into the parsonage after ser- vice, found the minister's wife busy at the spinning wheel.
67
REY. JOHN ALBERT WEYGAND
8. When he ought to have given the communion to a sick man, who was going to leave the church several hundred pounds, he was not at home but was engaged in doing his courting and was busied with his personal affairs.
Muhlenberg goes on to remark, "What this ferment may lead to only the future will show." Since the worthy fathers (on the other side of the ocean) could not find anyone to sup- ply the churches on the Raritan and Weygand came so oppor- tunely, I feel relieved of responsibility with regard to him, for I acted with deliberation and indeed under all the circumstances could not have done otherwise than I did. I find first in look- ing at myself and then in looking at others that the lack of faithful, steady and experienced laborers is a great hindrance to the spread of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. May the Lord have compassion upon us and send faithful laborers into his harvest."
Not long afterwards Mr. Weygand attended a meeting of the Synod of Philadelphia, when he expected arrangements would be made to ordain and install him over the congrega- tions on the Raritan. But what was his chagrin to find the above complaints against him presented by a committee of three elders, who asked that the ordination, already announced publicly to take place at a certain time, should be postponed at least until the new church was dedicated, and their pastor had had time to improve upon his past conduct. Says Muhlenberg "we dare not ordain him forcibly, as it were, but were at a loss what to do, and so also was Mr. Weygand, because it had been given out everywhere that he was to be ordained. The protest was indeed a very great punishment for Mr. Weygand since he had brought it upon himself by his frivolous behavior."
SOME NATURAL COMMENTS.
We do not find fault it is true with this decision of the min- isterium. It was the only thing to do under the circumstances. But we do think it is going a little too far, even for so apostolic and altogether adorable a man as Father Muhlenberg, to say that young John Albert, the warm-hearted young minister, should accept a wife, no matter how industrious and pious, who
68
EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
was "intended" (zugedacht) for him. For that no doubt was the very reason he got himself rejected. To be sure her father was rich and influential, but on the other hand his daughter was no longer in her teens and her beauty was confessedly not of a dazzling character. And suppose the other girl be taken into consideration. Because she hadn't been confirmed by the good old Doctor it doesn't follow that she wasn't beautiful both inside and out. She was certainly industrious or she would have preferred the church on a fast day to her spinning wheel. And it was pretty hard for the young minister that he couldn't have time for so important a matter as courting a wife. Now if it had only been the other girl, the rich man's daughter, they might not have said anything about the time or manner of his courting.
Perhaps Muhlenberg's remark in his letter of November, 1749, may explain matters somewhat. "They desired last year to have Mr. Kurtz for their preacher especially under the in- stigation of the principal member who had a marriageable daughter." So there was match-making going on in the church so early as 140 or more years ago. No wonder young John Albert rebelled against such deliberate scheming. He ought to have been ashamed to have had two strings to his bow, but there seems to have been this difference, one (or at least her father) was courting him and he was courting the other.
The man who was sick and was neglected by his pastor was no doubt Balthazar Pickle, whose legacy of a thousand pounds helped the New Germantown church through the trying times during and after the War of the Revolution.
But notwithstanding his very human weakness Albert Wey- gand seems to have been a sincerely pious man. This I think will be evident from the following accounts of his work as he recorded it in his diary. He little thought when he wrote this that it would be read so long afterwards by some of the . de- scendants of the very people to whom he was then ministering.
A MINISTER'S DIARY IN 1748.
SEPT. 22 .- I have arrived under many good omens among my congregation through the guidance of the Lord. On my arrival
69
REV. JOHN ALBERT WEYGAND
my host, Balthes Pickel, told me how Pastor Hartwich openly complained of Pastor Muhlenberg, because he removed Pastor Wolf from his office. This appeared very strange to me since I firmly believed that Pastor Hartwich stood by our association.
25th .- A man of the Reformed Church came to pay me a visit, under the pretext, that a man who had come over the sea with me, had praised me so much, that he feels compelled to get acquainted with me himself. He dissembled at first and asserted the absolute decree [Gnadewahl, i. e. the doctrine of election] and quoted all the arguments in its favor, in order to hear what I would have to answer. But afterwards he said that if a reformed preacher should preach the absolute de- cree of God, he would publicly contradict him.
N. B .- I thus learned that the majority of the common people agree with us with regard to the absolute decree of God. From another [German] Reformed man I learned that he had noted 100 passages which were against the absolute decree, and this number I increased for hit in a private visit. As to what belongs to the Holy Communion they slander us so much the more that I had advised our people not to dispute much with them over so high a mystery, but to answer briefly that we receive it according to the institution of our Almighty Jesus.
28th .- Set out with my host, Balthes Pickel, to visit the mem- bers, and to see what household worship they had and how they were off for books [prayer and song books]. This visit pleased various members of the council, who, on this account rode with us and informed me fully what sort of people they were. Among others we meet with a very sick woman whom I asked, after a previous inquiry about her sickness, how it was with her soui She answered that she cried night and day unto God, that He would have compassion upon one who was so great a sinner. After I had talked further with her, I prayed with her, sang a verse of the song, "Keep Me O Friend of My Soul," and commended her to the Lord. In the next house we visited I met a woman who said that we were not saved by faith but by good works. I answered her briefly, for night had already fallen. In the following visit we met two young married people, who had not been to communion in five years. The
70
EARLY GERMANS OF NEW JERSEY
reason of this was, as they said, that they had had no regular preacher and when Mr. Muhlenberg came over, they had always heard of it when it was too late.
29th .- Have spent the whole day in visiting, and, alas, have met many families in a truly pitiable condition. Many young people from 20 to 29 years of age, who do not know how to read or spell, have proposed to me, to prepare them for the communion. In the few days that I have been here I have found nothing but a wilderness.
Dec. 3d .- Again visited my people. On the way I talked with two German Reformed people, who lead truly Christian lives. Of these the man was blind. The Lord had on that account so much the more opened his spiritual eyes. After a short talk upon the only righteousness which avails with God, we sang some verses of the hymn, "The One on the Cross is My Dove." On my leaving him, he promised to give a contri- bution to our church, and begged me to visit them again.
Jan. 19, 1749 .- Laid the old Hendershid (Hendershot) in the ground. In this man God has given a wonderful proof of his love for sinners. This man had stained his soul with many sins of unrighteousness as I learned from people who had known him from his youth up. In order to bring him to a knowledge of his sins God had laid him upon a sick-bed for a year and a half. By chance Pastor Muhlenberg visited him three months before his death, and wanted him to be reconciled with his son from whom he had been alienated. But not even the most urgent pursuasions were of any use, and he wished to cite his son to appear before the last judgment as is the custom with many revengeful people. At the end of November, 1748, I also visited him and asked him if he was prepared for eternity, but he made himself out so pious, that I had almost never met a man so pious as he appeared to be. I committed him to the compassion of God and gave him the passage in Rom. Iv, 5 to think of, though not believing that it would subdue the hard- ness of his heart. Fourteen days afterwards he was reconciled to his son. Thereupon he expressed a constant longing to see me. On account of absence from home I did not visit him until the day before his death. He could scarcely whisper any
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.