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FIRST REFORMED CHURCH OF
POUGHKEEPSIE.
1 STEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 03584 9543
GC 974.702 P86V Van Gieson, A. P. Anniversary discourse and history of the First Reformed Church of
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/anniversarydisco00vang_0
ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE
AND
HISTORY
OF THE
FIRST REFORMED CHURCH
OF POUGHKEEPSIE.
BY THE PASTOR,
REV. A. P. VAN GIESON, D.D.
maakt
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE CONSISTORY. POUGHKEEPSIE. 1893.
POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y. PRESS OF A. V. HAIGHT, 12 LIBERTY ST.
CONTENTS.
TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY.
PAGE.
ORDER OF SERVICES, .
7
ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE,
.
13
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.
ORGANIZATION, 31
INCORPORATION, 31
SEAL, 33
UNION WITH CHURCH OF FISHKILL,
34
SUCCESSION OF MINISTERS.
CORNELIUS VAN SCHIE, 35
BENJAMIN MEYNEMA, 46
JACOBUS VAN NIST, . 54
HENRICUS SCHOONMAKER, 55
ISAAC RYSDYCK, 57
STEPHEN VAN VOORHEES, 64
SOLOMON FROELIGH, 65
JOHN H. LIVINGSTON, 67
ANDREW GRAY, 69
CORNELIUS BROWER, 71
CORNELIUS C. CUYLER, 71
72
SAMUEL A. VAN VRANKEN,
ALEXANDER M. MANN, 73
GEORGE M. McECKRON, 75
A. P. VAN GIESON, 76
SUCCESSION OF ELDERS AND DEACONS, 76
SUNDAY SCHOOL, 82
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Twenty-fifth Anniversary.
PAGE.
EDIFICES FOR WORSHIP.
FIRST EDIFICE, 84
SECOND EDIFICE, 91
THIRD EDIFICE, 94
FOURTH EDIFICE, 98
PARSONAGES.
FIRST PARSONAGE, 101
SECOND PARSONAGE, 104
THIRD PARSONAGE, 106
LANGUAGE, 107
FORMATION OF SECOND CHURCH OF POUGHKEEPSIE,
109
MISCELLANEA.
ARMEN KAS AND ARMEN GELT, 112
PALLS,
115
SUBSCRIBERS FOR CALL TO HOLLAND, 116 FIRST THINGS.
FIRST BAPTISM, 119
FIRST MARRIAGE, 119
FIRST RECEIPT FOR SALARY, 120
SEATS IN FIRST EDIFICE, 121
DEED CONVEYING FIRST PROPERTY, 122
CHRONOLOGICAL CONSPECTUS, 124
PRESENT ORGANIZATION, 127
Twenty-five years having elapsed since the installation of the Rev. A. P. Van Gieson, D.D., as pastor of the First Reformed Church of Poughkeepsie, on the morning of Sunday, October 16, 1892, services were held in the church according to the order recorded on the pages immediately following. The congregation of the Second Reformed Church of Poughkeepsie manifested their fraternal affection by omitting their own service in the morning, and uniting in worship with the congregation of the First Reformed Church. The Rev. William Bancroft Hill, the pastor of the Second Church, was in the pulpit with the pastor of the First Church, and took part in the conduct of the services.
ORDER OF SERVICE.
SUNDAY MORNING,
OCTOBER 16, 1892.
ANTHEM,
-
Te Deum.
.
INVOCATION AND LORD'S PRAYER.
HYMN.
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty !
THE READING OF THE LAW.
. RESPONSIVE READING (Congregation standing).
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
Serve the Lord with gladness ; come before His presence with singing.
Know ye that the Lord He is God ; it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves ;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise ;
Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good ; His mercy is everlasting ; And His truth endureth to all generations.
I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.
Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together. Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord.
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Twenty-fifth Anniversary.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem ; they shall prosper that love thee.
Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.
For my brethren and companions' sakes I will now say, Peace be within thee.
Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another.
God be merciful unto us, and bless us ; and cause His face to shine upon us.
That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.
Let the people praise thee, O God ; let all the people praise thee.
O, let the nations be glad and sing for joy.
For thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth.
APOSTLES' CREED-(Congregation standing).
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth ; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord ; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost ; born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate ; was crucified, dead, and buried ; He descended into hell ; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth upon the right hand of God the Father Almighty ; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost ; the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints; the forgiveness of sins ; the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
GLORIA PATRI.
SCRIPTURE LESSONS.
GLORIA IN EXCELSIS.
PRAYER.
HYMN-(Congregation standing).
Come, thou Almighty King !
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Order of Service.
SERMON.
PRAYER.
OFFERINGS-Offertory.
" How beautiful are the feet." HYMN-(Congregation standing). From all that dwell below the skies.
DOXOLOGY.
BENEDICTION.
SUNDAY EVENING.
On Sunday evening the pews on the ground floor of the audience room were occupied by the Sunday School and the Young People's Alliance, and services were held in accordance with the following order :
ANTHEM.
INVOCATION.
HYMN.
Stand up ! Stand up for Jesus !
SCRIPTURE LESSON.
PRAYER.
HYMN.
Praise Him ! Praise Him ! Jesus our blessed Redeemer.
ADDRESS BY MR. J. ELTING DEYO, President of the Young People's Alliance.
HYMN.
To God who claims our highest praise.
ADDRESS BY MR. CHESTER A. GEORGE, Assistant Su- perintendent of the Sunday School .*
* Milton A. Fowler Esq., the Superintendent of the Sunday School was unavoidably absent, greatly to his regret and that of the congregation.
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Twenty-fifth Anniversary.
HYMN.
Onward, Christian Soldiers !
ADDRESS, BY REV. PHILIP W. PITCHER. HYMN.
All hail the power of Jesus' name ! BENEDICTION.
MONDAY AFTERNOON.
On Monday afternoon services were held as follows :
REV. WILLIAM BANCROFT HILL, presiding. ANTHEM.
I will magnify thee, O Lord.
READING OF SCRIPTURE, BY REV. WAYLAND SPAULDING. PRAYER, BY REV. C. H. SNEDEKER.
READING, BY REV. ERNEST CLAPP,
Of letters congratulatory from the Washington Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Rev. J. Elmendorf, D.D., Rev. Henry L. Ziegenfuss, D.D., Right Rev. Boyd Vincent, D.D., Rev. Prof. T. S. Doolittle, D.D., Rev. Prof. D. D. Demarest, D.D., Rev. Henry N. Cobb, D.D., Rev. Paul D. Van Cleef, D.D.
ADDRESSES CONGRATULATORY, BY
REV. WM. BANCROFT HILL, pastor of the Second Reformed Church of Poughkeepsie.
REV. DAVID J. BURRELL, D.D., pastor of the Collegiate Reformed Church of New York.
MR. DANIEL R. THOMPSON, member of Consistory. REV. FRANCIS B. WHEELER, D.D., pastor of the Pres- byterian Church of Poughkeepsie.
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Order of Service.
REV. JAMES NILAN, D.D., pastor of St. Peter's Church of Poughkeepsie.
REV. BENJAMIN E. DICKHOUT, pastor of the Reformed Church of Fishkill Village.
REV. CHARLES W. FRITTS, D.D., pastor of the Re- formed Church of Fishkill on the Hudson.
ANTHEM.
Hear us, O Father.
ADDRESS, BY REV. J. G. VAN SLYKE, D.D., pastor of the First Reformed Church of Kingston.
BRIEF RESPONSE, BY REV. A. P. VAN GIESON, D.D.
SOLO.
My heart be ever faithful.
BENEDICTION.
MONDAY EVENING.
On Monday evening a reception was given by the ladies in the Lecture Room, at which a "Loving Cup" of silver was presented to the pastor. The presentation address was delivered by REV. DENIS WORTMAN, D.D., pastor of the Reformed Church of Saugerties, and was responded to by the pastor. The inscription on the cup is as follows :
PRESENTED TO THE REV. A. P. VAN GIESON, D.D., ON THE COMPLETION OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF HIS PASTORATE, BY THE
FIRST REFORMED CHURCH OF POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y.
Oct. 17, 1892.
DISCOURSE.
II Cor. 4 : 5, " For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord ; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake."
Thus does the Apostle Paul declare the substance of his preaching and the relation which he sustained to those to whom he preached.
The substance of his preaching is presented first, nega- tively. "We preach not ourselves." I am not seeking to make myself conspicuous, to display my own gifts, oratorical or otherwise, to win favor for myself, or to advance my own personal interests, in any way whatso- ever.
Then is added, positively ; " We preach Christ Jesus the Lord." All thought of self is swallowed up and lost in thought of Him. My sole aim is to make Him con- spicuous, to display His beauty and majesty and saving power, to win favor for Him, and to advance the interests of His kingdom in the world.
Note that, according to the apostle's own representa- tion, the substance of his preaching was, primarily, not doctrine, but a person. He knew that doctrine, however true and logically constructed it might be, could not save men, and that, if saved at all, they must be saved by a living Person ; even the Lord Jesus Christ, putting forth for them and upon them His own personal power, and doing for them what they were unable to do for themselves. All the doctrine that is contained in the epistles of Paul (and, as we all know, there is a great deal of it, and some of it not easy to be understood) was
4
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Twenty-fifth Anniversary.
put there by him in order that it might be as a pedestal on which the personal Christ might be exalted, and as a glass through which the personal Christ might be viewed. That living personal Christ he adored with an adoration scarcely if at all inferior to that of the angels. Him he loved, with a love so intense that it set on fire his whole being. In and for Him he lived, and for Him he was ready, if need be, to die. Living in and for Him, he had found true life, the only life that is fit for a man to live ; and therefore he preached Him ; that living, personal Christ ; made it his whole business to tell others about Him, in order that others might be drawn to Him, and so become partakers of the same glorious and eternal life. In these letters to his Corin- thian brethren he tells them, not only that he preached Christ Jesus the Lord, but also that he was determined to know nothing among them save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Such was the substance of his preaching. Then follows his conception of the relation sustained by him to those to whom he preached. "And ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." The Apostle had learned that the only true nobility lies in service ; according to the word of the Master, " Whosoever will be great among you let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you let him be your servant." In learning and practising that lesson he had come into a blessed fellow- ship with Christ, for Christ himself took upon him the form of a servant and in order to serve sinful men humbled Himself even to the death of the cross. In learning and practising that lesson, the apostle rendered acceptable service to Christ. Elsewhere he calls himself "Servant of Jesus Christ," but he remembered, as it becomes us all to remember, that it is impossible for us to serve Christ directly. Exalted as He is at the right
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Discourse.
hand of the Majesty on high, He is above the need, and beyond the reach, of any direct service from us his creatures. The only way in which it is possible for us to render service to Him is that of indirection ; by serving men whom He loves, and for whom He died; and, to stimulate us to such service, He has said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Therefore, the apostle served Christ by serving men. As one called to the ministry of the Gospel he served men in the highest things ; those which appertain to eternal life. To that service he devoted all his energies. In it, like his Master before him, he "emptied himself " ; through long years of self-sacrificing toil and hardship and peril, first pour- ed out, without stint, the strength of life, and finally, beneath the headsman's axe outside the walls of Rome, poured out life itself.
Thus did the great apostle exemplify in his own person his lofty conception of the ideal minister of the Gospel. As I stand here at the close of twenty-five years of ministry among you, I feel, more deeply than any of you can feel, how far I have fallen short of that ideal. For that I humble myself before you, and still more before God.
But nevertheless, standing consciously in the presence of Him who searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins of the children of men, I can and do say with all honesty, that I have ever and earnestly striven towards that ideal ; and that, knowing that I have no sufficiency in myself, I have ever and earnestly sought sufficiency from God. You will bear me witness that I have preached not myself but Christ Jesus the Lord ; not, indeed, as the apostle did, for I have not his gifts of eloquence and inspiration ;- but to the best of the poor ability which God has given me. Christ Jesus the Lord is to me the
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Twenty-fifth Anniversary.
chiefest among ten thousand and the one altogether lovely, the Son of God, the Revealer of the Father, the only and all-sufficient Saviour of sinful men, the Found- ation of my most precious hope, the Source of my sweetest joy, the very Life of my life, the most glorious and most loveable Being in the whole universe ; and you will bear me witness, that, whatever else. I may have failed to do, I have not failed to do my very uttermost, with God's help, to exalt Him before you, and to shew forth and magnify before you His majesty, and beauty, and atoning love, and saving power, to the end that you may be persuaded to accept, and trust, and love, and serve Him.
You will also bear me witness that I have been your servant for Jesus' sake. I have served you in love-with a love that has grown deeper and stronger with every passing year. I have served you unselfishly. Most generously have you given me of yours, but I have sought not yours, but you. I have served you with ever increasing sympathy. Your sorrows have been my sorrows, and your joys, my joys. I have endeavored to serve you not only in the pulpit and sanctuary, but also in the house and by the way. How well or ill, how efficiently or inefficiently, I have served, it becomes not me to say, or hardly even to think. The record for a quarter of a century is made up ; it cannot be made now other than what it is; and very humbly, and with a sorrowful sense of shortcoming, I leave it with you, beseeching your charitable judgment, and with God beseeching His forgiveness for all that has been amiss.
Having spoken these few words (and these with not a little reluctance), I cease from personal reference, and pass to that which is more important. God buries his workmen, but His work goes on. Men die, but the Church lives on. On this Anniversary both Church and -
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Discourse. -
Pastor are naturally brought into view, but the pastor sinks into insignificance beside the Church ; and there- fore the discourse will be occupied mainly with the history of the Church, and the blessings conferred on it by its Divine Head.
Until recently the full and corporate title of the ecclesiastical body of which this Church forms a part was, "The Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in North America." This name describes briefly its character and origin. It was called Protestant because it protested against the errors of the Roman Catholic Church. It was called the Reformed Protestant Church because on certain points of doctrine, of which the chief appertained to the coporeal presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper, it differed from Luther and the Church which was called by his name. It was called the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church because it was founded in this country by immigrants from Holland. The first church organized by these immigrants was that in New York, then called New Amsterdam. The date of its organization was 1628. It still exists and flourishes under the name of the "Collegiate Church of New York," and is believed to be the oldest Protestant church of any denomination now in existence in this country. The fathers who founded it, true to the excellent custom of their mother country, made haste to place alongside of it a school, and this school also still exists and flourishes. It was established in 1633, five years before the organization of Harvard College. It was established as a free school and has always remained such. It was the first free school in the land and is probably the oldest educational institu- tion of any sort whatsoever now existing in this country.
The next church founded by the Holland settlers was that of Albany, (then called Fort Orange,) which was organized in 1642. Slowly, other settlements were made
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Twenty-fifth Anniversary.
in the valley of the Hudson, and at first chiefly on the western side ; and hence the next churches in order are those of Kingston, (1659) of New Paltz, (1683) and of Tappan (1694). The first church on the eastern bank of the river was that of Tarrytown, organized in 1697. At the close of the 17th Century, these last named four churches were the only churches of any denomination whatever in the whole valley of the Hudson between New York and Albany. Early in the 18th Century the tide of settlement flowed more to the eastern bank, and hence we find a church in Kinderhook, organized in 1712, and churches in Poughkeepsie, Fishkill and Claverack, all organized in the same year, 1716.
Those were the days, not only of the swamp and the forest, but also of the tomahawk and war-whoop. The " Old Van Kleeck House," which was built in 1702 on what is now Mill Street by Baltus Van Kleeck, one of the earliest settlers of Dutchess Co., and remained standing until 1835, was a fortress as well as a house, for its walls were of stone, very thick, and were pierced near the eaves and in the gables with loop-holes for musketry. And there was sufficient reason for making it a fortress, for, although this county was in fact happily free from Indian incursions, there was no cer- tainty that such would be the case ; and the counties on the opposite side of the river suffered from such incur- sions, even down to the time of the Revolutionary War.
The precise date of the organization of the Church of Poughkeepsie was October 10, 1716. On that day Dominie Petrus Vas, who was then pastor of the church of Kingston, installed its first consistory, the elders being Michael Parmentier and Peter Du Bois and the deacons, Elias Van Benschoten and Peter Parmentier. The church of Fishkill was organized by the same minister
19
Discourse.
and almost certainly in the same year. In 1714, only two years before the founding of these churches, the whole county of Dutchess contained only 445 inhabitants and 67 heads of families. For several years both churches were without a settled pastor, but nevertheless maintained public worship as best they could ; sometimes having the reading of a sermon by a layman, and occa- sionally aided by a neighboring minister who preached and administered the Holy Sacraments. Such minister- ial aid, however, must, of necessity, have been of rare occurrence, for the nearest neighboring ministers were those of Kingston and New Paltz, and the records of the Church for that period show that the sacrament of baptism was administered not more than three times in any one year, more frequently only once, and in some years not at all.
In the year 1730 the two churches of Poughkeepsie and Fishkill united in calling a settled pastor for both. There was no minister in this country whom they could obtain, and they were not acquainted with any suitable minister in Holland beyond the sea. They were, how- ever, acquainted, at least by report, with certain clergy- men of high standing in Holland, in whose judgment they felt that they might repose confidence. Therefore, instead of calling some unknown person from Holland, they sent a power of attorney call to these clergymen of known standing, authorizing them to select and call some person who in their judgment would be suitable, to install him in Holland as pastor of the united churches, and then to send him to this country. This first call was made under the supervision of Rev. Vincentius Antoni- des, then pastor of the church of Flatbush on Long Island. It was, of course, in the Dutch language, and in that language is recorded in full on the books of this church and that of Fishkill.
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Twenty-fifth Anniversary.
This call was dated April 13, 1730, and was signed for the Church of Poughkeepsie by elders Peter Parmentier and Johannes Van Kleeck, and deacons Laurens Van Kleeck and M. Van de Bogart, and for the Church of Fishkill by elders Peter Du Boys and Abraham Buys and the deacons Abraham Brinkerhoff and Hendrick Phillips.
At the end of about fourteen months there came from the clergymen in Holland, to whom the call was ad- dressed, an answer, stating that they had selected the Reverend, godly, and learned Herr Cornelius Van Schie, and after due examination had installed him as pastor of the united churches of Poughkeepsie and Fiskhill.
Dominie Van Schie sailed from Amsterdam June 9, 1731, and arrived in New York September 9, 1731, being just three months on the voyage. On his arrival in New York he was received by Rev. Gaulterus DuBois, then one of the pastors of the Collegiate Church of New York, and was by him accompanied to Poughkeepsie. They arrived here on the evening of September 30th, went to the house of Mr. Laurens Van Kleeck, and were there met and heartily welcomed by the consistories of both churches.
Thus to their great delight the heart's desire of the people was gratified. They had a settled pastor of their own. But their delight was speedily followed by sorrow, for at the end of two years Dominie Van Schie accepted a call from the Church at Albany, and the Churches here were again pastorless ; and, although they sent sev- eral earnest and even pathetic calls to Holland and Ger- many, they remained without a pastor for eleven years. Nor was it surprising that they called so long in vain. The country was mostly a wilderness, the settlements were few and far between, and even in the settlements the people and their dwellings were widely dispersed,
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Discourse.
the people were poor, the streams were unbridged, the roads were lonely bridle paths through silent forests. New York was then in time five times as far from Am- sterdam as our missionaries in Japan are now from New York. No wonder it was not easy to find a Dutch min- ister, comfortably settled in Holland, who would be will- ing to go so far from home, and to exchange the comforts of a refined civilization for the hardships of an untamed wilderness.
But after long search the man was found in the person of Rev. Benjamin Meinema, who arrived here and be- came the second pastor of the United Churches in 1745, and so continued to be until 1756. After an interval of two years he was followed by Jacobus Van Nist, who was pastor for three years, from 1758 to 1761.
At this time there was raging a great controversy which convulsed our whole denomination. The parties were known respectively as the Coetus and the Conferentie. The point at issue was that of ecclesiastical independence. The church in this country was then a dependency of the Mother Church of Holland. In this country there was no ecclesiastical body higher than the consistory, which had no power of ordination. A vacant church could procure a minister only from or through Holland. If a young man born and educated in this country desired to enter the ministry, and a vacant church desired his ser- vices, the young man, however well qualified he might be, could not take charge of the church until he had first gone by slow sailing ship to Holland, and had there been ordained.
This dependency occasioned so much delay, and trouble, and expense, that to many, and especially to the younger men of the church in this country, it seemed intolerable, and they, therefore, took steps towards breaking away from it. To others, however, and espe-
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Twenty-fifth Anniversary.
cially to many of the older men, the very thought of breaking away from the mother church seemed nothing less than sacrilege. All history shows that although Dutch blood is ordinarily cool, it can get hot, and when it does get hot, it is apt to get very hot and to stay hot a long time, and such proved to be the case in this instance. The controversy was waged with fury and continued for many years. Not only the denomination, but the several congregations were divided. One part of a congregation locked the house of worship against the other part, ministers were assaulted in the pulpit, and tumults were frequent on the Lord's Day and at the church doors. The churches of Poughkeepsie and Fish- kill took part in the lamentable controversy. Each congregation was divided. In 1763 one party called the Rev. Henricus Schoonmaker, a young man, who had been born, educated, and ordained in America, to be their pastor. He accepted the call and arrangements were made for his installation. The other party got possession of the church edifice, and locked the doors, and the installation service took place under an old apple tree very near the place on which the edifice in which we are now assembled stands.
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