USA > New York > Dutchess County > Fishkill > A discourse delivered on the 12th of September, 1866, at the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the First Reformed Dutch Church, Fishkill : with an appendix, furnishing a brief historical sketch of the associated churches of Hopewell, New Hackensack, Fishkill Landing, and Glenham > Part 2
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Mr. VAS was born and educated in Holland, and came to this country under the auspices and direction of the Classis of Amsterdam. From the records of the Church at Kingston during his pastorate, his labors appear to have been remarkably successful. Large numbers were received into the church during his ministry. Between April, 1712, and December, 1715-a period of less than four years-one hundred and sixty-seven persons were added to the church. In 1717 thirty-four professed their faith in Christ. After a pastorate of a little more than twenty years Mr. VAS resigned his call, but continued to reside at Kingston until his death, at the advanced age of ninety-six.
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The first pastor of the United Churches of Pough- keepsie and Fishkill was the Rev. CORNELIUS VAN SCHIE, who had been educated in Holland. He was installed in office by the Rev. GUALTERUS DUBOIS, of the city of New York. October 4, 1731. The earliest printed minutes of our church in this country bearing date sixteen years subsequently to this period : we have no further knowledge of Mr. VAN SCHIE, but that, after sustaining the pastoral relation to these churches till 1738, he was released from his charge and removed to Albany. being called to be the col- league of Dominie VAN DUESSEN. In this charge he continued to labor till August 15. 1744. when he died at the age of forty-one years. His last sermon was from Revelations ii, 10: " Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life."
The second pastor was the Rev. BENJAMIN MEY- NEMA, who was also educated in Holland. The cer- tificate of his Professor of Theology, dated April, 1727, speaks in the most flattering terms of his at- tainments and industry: His pastorate here com- menced in 1745 and continued till 1755, when he resigned his charge. Of his subsequent history we know very little. It is said that he died September 9, 1761. and was buried in the yard of this church.
The third pastor was the Rev. JACOB VANNIST. The strife between the Coetus and Conferentie par- ties was about this time beginning to rage with vio- lence, and Mr. VANNIST having been educated in this country and ordained by the Coetus: the Confer- entie, in an official letter to the Classis of Amster- dam, dated October 12, 1758, thus complained of the
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acts of the Coetus: " They proceeded in the spring to make a candidate of one HARDENBERGH, and after- ward, even last week, made him the minister of Raritan : and, further, two other candidates, one VAN- NIST called to Fishkill and Poughkeepsie, and one BARCOLO." -- Minutes of Synod, i, p. 102.
Mr. VANNIST's ministry was of brief duration, being continued only for two years and a half. God took him in the very spring-time of life. An aged member of our church informed me that her mother (who died at a very advanced age, and at whose fu- neral services I officiated nearly thirty years since ) has frequently spoken to her of Mr. VANNIST's in- terment, at which she was present, the grave being dug under the pulpit of the old church, on the site we now occupy. The stone erected to his memory stands at present against the rear wall of the church, directly back of the pulpit, bearing this inscription in the Dutch language : "JACOBUS VANNIST, Preacher of the Holy Gospel in Poughkeepsie and Fishkill, died 10th April, 1761, in his 27th year."
After the death of Mr. VANNIST the Coetus party of Poughkeepsie, Fishkill, Hopewell * (organized 1757). and New Hackensack+ (organized 1758), presented a call (a copy of which is in our minute- book ) to HENRICUS SCHOONMAKER. This call is dated December 11, 1763. So strong and bitter was the opposition of the Conferentie party to Mr. SCHOONMAKER that, at his ordination at Poughkeep- sie, they closed the doors of the church against him,
* See Appendix B.
+ See Appendix C.
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and the services took place under an apple-tree not far distant from the present site of the First Dutch Church. At a meeting of the Conferentie, held June, 1764, the elder ISAAC BRINCKERHOFF, of Fish- kill, being one of the members: PETER VAN KLEEK, elder, and JOHN CONKLIN, deacon of Poughkeepsie, appeared before the assembly with a complaint against the ruling consistory of the congregation for making a call upon one SCHOONMAKER. In the let- ter of the Conferentie to the Classis of Amsterdam they complain of "the tyranny of some consistorial persons at Poughkeepsie, who were picked out of the congregation by the Coetus ministers to serve the ends of the Coetus by unlawfully thrusting (ten to one in the congregation being opposed ) upon Pough- keepsie and Fishkill that SCHOONMAKER, whom they last autumn made a candidate, and now have made a minister."-Minutes of Synod, i, p. 115.
The majority in the congregations of New Hack- ensack and Hopewell were attached to the Conferen- tie party, and it appears that Mr. SCHOONMAKER did not preach in either of these churches, the few in these places who were the adherents of the Coetus attending the services at Poughkeepsie and Fishkill. It was in these two churches that the unhappy spirit springing from their opposite views was manifested.
After the death of Mr. VANNIST, in the year 1763, the Conferentie party of the United Churches sent a call to the Classis of Amsterdam, to be dis- posed of according to their wisdom. This call they placed in the hands of the Rev. ISAAC RYSDYCK, who, on his signifying his acceptance of it, was installed
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pastor of these churches in September, 1765. Mr. SCHOONMAKER therefore officiated in this vicinity nearly two years previously to the commencement of Mr. RYSDYCK's pastorate. In the spring of the same year in which Mr. RYSDYCK was installed ENGLEBERT HUFF, a member of this church, died and was buried in Hopewell, near the east wall of the church. The silver tankard we use in the celebration of the Lord's Supper was presented to the church January, 1820, for the perpetuation of his memory, and bears the fol- lowing inscription : " Presented by SAMUEL VERPLANCK, Esq., to the First Reformed Dutch Church in the town of Fishkill, to commemorate Mr. ENGLEBERT HUFF, by birth a Norwegian, in his life-time attached to the Life Guards of the Prince of Orange, after- ward King William III. of England. He resided for a number of years in this country, and died with unblemished reputation at Fishkill 21st of March, 1765, aged 128 years."*
And in this connection it may not be out of place to remark that the two massive silver plates we use in the celebration of the Lord's Supper were given to the church in 1836 by three ladies, in memory of a loved sister recently deceased, Miss LETITIA VAN WYCK, her name and the time of her death being
* A number of years since a friend related to me, as a tradition- ary story, for the truth of which, however, he could not vouch, that on one occasion, in the days of his widowhood, Mr. HUFF made an evening call on a young lady. When he entered the house he found that another young man was also paying his addresses to the lady, who was thus favored with the simultaneous attentions of two gentlemen, in whose ages, however, there was a marked difference, the one having attained twenty-one years, the other one hundred and twenty-one.
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inscribed on each. What better or more endearing monument could be devised for the perpetuation of the memory of a loved one ?
We have no records to show how the pastors SCHOONMAKER and RYSDYCK, themselves of different opinions and the leaders of opposing parties respect- ively, discharged the duties of their office. Certain it is that the feelings of the partisans in the associated congregations were characterized by the most bitter animosity, leading at times to acts of shameful vio- lence. It is said that in this village, at one time, the leaders of the Coetus party broke open the doors of the church with an axe, and the heads of families sat during the service with clubs in their hands. Mr. SCHOONMAKER continued laboring in this Church, in connection with Poughkeepsie, till 1772, when, Poughkeepsie being made a separate charge, his labors were restricted to it for the next two years. In 1774 he accepted the call from the church at Aquack- ononck, in New Jersey. There, as I was informed by his son (the late Rev. Dr. SCHOONMAKER, long time pastor of the churches at Jamaica and New- town, Long Island), he continued to labor in the Gospel until he became Emeritus, and there he died in the year 1816. A grandson is now laboring in the ministry of the Dutch Church at Rotterdam. in this State.
Mr. RYSDYCK, though a member of the Conferen- tie, never manifested that bitterness of spirit which was evinced by many of his party, but, while decided in his views, was gentle and peaceable. In the letter of the Conferentie to the Classis of Amsterdam, dated
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October 22, 1765, they say : "The Rev. Mr. RYs- DYCK has been received with extreme love and joy, and he gives promise of being a man of great useful- ness in our church, especially in his own congrega- tion, where he labors with discretion."-Minutes, i, p. 126.
At the meeting in which the plan of union was adopted, held in New York June 16, 1772, "the reverend meeting of ministers and elders of the Dutch Reformed Churches of the Provinces of New York and New Jersey, for the consummation and ratifica- tion of the union of the churches," we find among the members HENRICUS SCHOONMAKER, V. D. M. at Fishkill and Poughkeepsie ; Mr. PETER MONTFORT, elder," and "ISAAC RYSDYCK, V. D. M. at Pough- keepsie and Fishkill ; Mr. RODOLPHUS SWARTWOUT, elder." Of this assembly Mr. RYSDYCK was the pres- ident. The plan of union then adopted prepared the way for the peace of the church ; but it was not to be expected that all the discordant elements then ex- isting in the church would at once be harmonized. The waves of the sea still continue to roll tumultu- ously after the storm has subsided; and the church, after the dissolution of the parties which had so long rent her, continued for a time to feel their influence.
About the period of the commencement of the revolutionary war, the Rev. SOLOMON FROELIGHI, then a young man, came to Fishkill and gathered around him the members of the old Coetus party, establish- ing a separate service, and organizing a consistory. All efforts to reconcile and unite the discordant par- ties were fruitless until May 12, 1778: when a meet-
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ing was held at Fishkill of the two consistories of the divided congregations, Rev. Messrs. RYSDYCK and FROELIGH both being present at this meeting, a recon- ciliation was effected on the following, among other, terms :
1. That in future there should be in Fishkill but one Low Reformed Dutch Church : and, to that end.
2. That the two consistories should be combined in one, so that half of each should remain in office. and this should henceforth constitute the ruling con- sistory. And thus this difficulty was settled.
Mr. RYSDYCK began and prosecuted his pastoral work in the associated churches in troublous times, and this not merely in view of the division of feeling which at that time rent the church. The inhabitants of these (then ) colonies had already, at the time of his settlement, begun to be restive under the denial of their rights and the weight of the burdens imposed on them by the English Government. The dark cloud portending was continually becoming thicker and heavier, till at last it burst upon the land : and from 1776 to 1783 the colonists were battling with a mighty foe for the acquisition of that national inde- pendence they believed God willed them to enjoy. During the seven years of the war, though no battle was fought in Fishkill, yet the town is memorable in the history of the times. As .in other parts of our country, so here there were diversities of sentiment and feeling. Party spirit ran high. It is said that one- third of the inhabitants were tories, who sympathized with the loyalists. But the other two-thirds were ac- tuated by a deep-seated spirit of patriotism, leading
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to cheerful sacrifices and earnest labor in promoting the cause of freedom.
During the war the ladies of the town were dili- gent in preparing linen and clothing for the army. Whenever there was a pressure for more, the State Committee say that they had only to make known their wants to the ladies of Fishkill.
In this village was the chief repository for the mil- itary and hospital stores of the Northern army. The convention appointed to prepare a Constitution for the State having been previously driven from New York to Harlem and thence to this place, sat in ses- sion in 1776 in the Episcopal Church in this village : and though they subsequently transferred their ses- sions to Kingston, where they completed their work, it was printed in this village.
Says the Hon. GULIAN C. VERPLANCK : "The Con- stitution of the State of New York was printed in 1777, and was the first as well as the most important book ever printed in the State. The people could find but one press in their domain with which to print this work of their representatives. It was done at Fishkill by SAMUEL. LOUDON," who had been a whig editor and printer in the city of New York, and who had retired with his press to Fishkill."- Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, vol. i, p. 693.
During the war a newspaper was published in this village, and, according to a statement in the Historical
* Mr. LOUDON occupied a dwelling on the site of the residence of JOHN C. VAN WYCK, Esq., and in his house the post-office was kept.
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Documents (vol. iii. p. 1195), " while the revolution- ary army was at Newburgh the printing was done by a press at Fishkill, as appears by the printed orders of the army of that day." And here it was that the sword of Washington, now in the Patent Office at the seat of Government, was made, still having on it the maker's name, J. BAILEY, Fishkill. Mr. BAILEY was a member of this church, and active in the erec- tion of the edifice we now occupy.
During the war a part of the army was located in this place, their barracks extending from the Van Wyck place to the foot of the mountain. The offi- cers' headquarters were in the dwelling now occupied by SIDNEY E. VAN WYCK, Esq .. well known to the readers of the " Spy " as the Wharton House. Near the residence, by the large black walnut trees, south of the road near the foot of the mountain, was the burial place of the soldiers. The Episcopal Church was used as a hospital, as was afterward the Presbyterian Church, about one mile and a half north of the vil- lage. In our old church the tory and other prisoners were confined, and from this building tradition teaches us that " Harvey Birch " ( ENOCH CROSBY ), hav- ing been arrested as a spy, effected his escape. Gen. LA FAYETTE is said to have had his quarters in the house now occupied by M. V. B. BRINCKERHOFF, Esq .. and while there had a sickness of six weeks' duration : and Gen. WASHINGTON, while in the vicinity, was oftentimes the guest of the family.
Mr. RYSDYCK is described as of commanding per- sonal appearance : in his manners an old-time gentle- man. According to the custom of those days he usu-
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ally rode on horseback, wearing a cocked hat and white flowing wig, with the customary clerical dress. On the Sabbath he rode up to the church door, where the sexton was waiting to take his horse, and, dismounting, would pass into the church and kneel in silent prayer at the foot of the pulpit. Mr. RYSDYCK was a man of great and diversified attainments. A writer in the Reformed Dutch Church Magazine (vol. ii, p. 244) says : " Dominie RYSDYCK was in his day considered the most learned theologian in the Dutch Church. He was familiar with the classics. He wrote in Greek, and particularly in Latin, with as much facility as in his native Dutch, and in the Uni- versity of Groningen he was made as familiar with the Hebrew as with his mother-tongue and, great as were his attainments in the sacred and profane classics, his theological reading and attainments were no less extensive and accurate. His sermons were specimens of the analytical form of discussion. The body of the sermons were judicious and masterly dissertations, and the applications were practical and full of affec- tionate consolations, warnings, and reprovings." Dur- ing a part of his ministry Mr. RYSDYCK, in addition to his pastoral labors, had the charge of a grammar school, which had previously been established in Fish- kill and was the first academy in Dutchess county. Here, it is said, the Rev. Dr. LIVINGSTON and other men of note received their early academic instruc- tion. During Mr. RYSDYCK's supervision of this in- stitution the building used as the academy was located on the hill above the present residence of JAMES B. BRINCKERHOFF, Esq. After the revolutionary war it
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passed from Mr. RYSDYCK's hands and was transferred to Poughkeepsie. In the session of General Synod. 1772, after expressing their regret that it was neces- sary to postpone action with regard to the professor- ate, Synod resolved " That if in the interval any students should be desirous of being prepared for the holy ministry, they shall resort to one of the follow- ing places as best calculated to secure a learned educa- tion, viz: New York, Albany. Fishkill, Raritan, and Hackensack:" this resolution obviously, so far as respects Fishkill, referring to Mr. RYSDYCK's academy. Soon after his settlement a parsonage was built at Mr. RYSDYCK's request. being the first house south of the site of the Presbyterian Church, on the westerly side of the road. After his removal to New Hack- ensack this house was sold by the congregation and purchased by Col. DERICK BRINCKERHOFF. It is only within the last few years that it was taken down, the tenant-house now belonging to MATTHEW V. B. BRINCKERHOFF. Esq., occupying its site. In 1772 Poughkeepsie, withdrawing from the associated churches and becoming independent, Mr. RYSDYCK presented to Synod, for their approval, a call upon himself from the Church at Fishkill. additional to his former call. to preach to them alternately in the Dutch and English languages. for hitherto it seems he had only preached to them in the Dutch language. This call Synod approved under certain conditions. which were fulfilled. Mr. RYSDYCK continued to labor in the associated churches for some years subsequently, and, as appears, in New Hackensack and Hopewell till his decease. In Hopewell the record of mar-
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riages and baptisms by him extends to 1788, and in New Hackensack to 1789. His connection with the church at Fishkill evidently ceased some short time before his death. He was a member of Synod in 1789, but is recorded as V. D. M. at New Hacken- sack, while ISAAC BLAUVELT is noted as V. D. M. at Fishkill. He died November 20, 1790, at New Hackensack, and was buried under the pulpit of the church. The new edifice being erected a little north of the site of the old, Mr. RYSDYCK's remains still lie where they were originally placed, in what is now the pastor's plat. On an adjoining monument is this inscription : " The remains of the Rev. ISAAC RYS- DYCK, the first pastor of this church, lie in the south- east corner of this plat. He was settled over the churches of Poughkeepsie, Fishkill, New Hacken- sack, and Hopewell in the year 1765, and continued to minister in the three latter. churches until his death in 1790, when he was buried in front of the pulpit of the former house of worship which stood here from 1766 to 1835." During the latter years of his life it is said that he depended for his sup- port solely on the collections made on the Sab- bath.
In October, 1783. Mr. ISAAC BLAUVELT, who was born and had been educated in this country, pursuing his theological studies under the direction of the Rev. Dr. HARDENBERGH, presented himself to Synod for examination for ordination, he having received a call from Fishkill and Hopewell. . New Hacken- sack, it appears, was not included in this arrange- ment. Synod sustained his examination, and he was
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on the 26th of October ordained and installed, the Rev. ISAAC RYSDYCK preaching the sermon. From official records we learn that Mr. BLAUVELT gave one-third of his services to the Presbyterian Church in this vicinity. An agreement between the Presbyte- rian congregation and the congregations of Fishkill and Hopewell, dated January 10, 1783, recites " That the Rev. ISAAC BLAUVELT shall perform the functions of his ministerial office in the said three congregations in proper rotation. Rev. ISAAC BLAU- VELT shall perform service at Hopewell when Mr. RYSDYCK is to preach at Fishkill." In October. 1790, Mr. BLAUVELT having received and accepted a call from Paramus, N. J .. removed to that place, and afterwards fixed his residence in Westchester county, where he died at a very advanced age. I remember meeting him about thirty-seven years since in New York (at the house of my pastor, Rev. Dr. KNOX ), a venerable-looking old man. During his pastorate he resided in the dwelling still occupied as the par- sonage of the Presbyterian Church.
Our next pastor was the Rev. NICHOLAS VAN VRANKEN, whom some few of you still remember. He was born in Schenectady, May 24, 1762. After completing his preparatory studies he became prin- cipal of a flourishing academy in his native city, re- taining this position for six years. This academy was the germ of Union College. While engaged in the work of instruction he pursued a course of theological studies under the guidance of the Rev. DERICK ROMEYN, but completed his course in New York under the direction of the Rev. Dr. LIVING-
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STON. He was licensed to preach the gospel in 1790 by the General Synod, during the same session in which Mr. BLAUVELT was released from the pas- toral care of this congregation. In October, 1791, having received a call from the United Churches of Fishkill, Hopewell, and New Hackensack, he pre- sented himself before Synod for his final examina- tion. This being sustained, he was ordained and installed on the 23d of November, the Rev. ANDREW GRAY, of Poughkeepsie, delivering the ordination sermon. During the term of his pastorate Mr. VAN VRANKEN officiated at Fishkill two Sabbaths in the month, the other two being divided between New Hackensack and Hopewell. At the commencement of my labors in this church there were many still living among us who had enjoyed Mr. VAN VRAN- KEN's pastoral care, and who cherished a vivid and grateful memory of his excellence as a minister and a man ; but the most of these have in the interval passed away. Mr. VAN VRANKEN Was a man of fine attainments, literary and theological, a fervent and eloquent speaker, and a most devoted servant of God. The loss of our records precludes knowledge of the results of his ministerial labors in this church ; but the Rev. Dr. VAN CLEEF, of New Hackensack (the records of whose church are preserved), ob- serves in a note to Rev. Dr. MABON, the grandson of Mr. VAN VRANKEN : " His labors were blessed, if I may judge from the additions made to this church during his ministry." A man of strong affections, Mr. VAN VRANKEN was ardently attached to the churches committed to him by the Holy Ghost. and
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no inducement could prevail with him to sever his connection with them. He received a call from the - First Dutch Church in Albany and one from the church in Schenectady, but to each of these invita- tions his reply was that he would live and die with his own people. During his pastorate preaching in the Dutch language was altogether relinquished in the associated churches. I have been told by a ven- erable elder of this church, JAMES GIVEN, Esq., who but a few years since left us for heaven. that so inti- mate was Mr. VAN VRANKEN'S knowledge of his people, and so great his tact, that when, according to the old Dutch custom. the communicants stood around the pulpit to receive the sacramental elements from the hands of their pastor. who, as he adminis- tered, was wont to address such words to each as his circumstances seemed to require, Mr. VAN VRAN- KEN's quick eye in a moment took in individual pe- culiarities ; and to the one who best understood the Dutch he addressed himself in that language, while the next. as better comprehehending it, was spoken to in English. From all I have learned in former years, through my intercourse with those who had been his parishioners, but are now with him around the throne of God, he was a most faithful and de- voted and consequently a dearly loved pastor. Mr. COBB, in his sermon, tells us that an elder of the church in Poughkeepsie once said to him : " Dominie. I hear that a great woe has been pronounced against you-a woe upon the very highest authority. Woe unto the man of whom all speak well." One who knew him, writing to his grandson, says that "his
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personal appearance was prepossessing in the ex- treme : a perfect man and gentleman : his conversa- tional talent was finely developed, enabling him to make the best possible use of a large fund of chaste anecdotes, and rendering him a most agreeable asso- ciate, as well as an instructive one, to all classes." This statement agrees with all I have learned respect- ing him. While he never lowered his ministerial character, he richly enjoyed a jest. Tradition hands down an incident to which I have frequently heard reference made as illustrative of his humor. Having visited one of his parishioners, as he was about leav- ing, the latter said : "Dominie, the next time you come bring a bag and I will fill it with oats." On his next visit Mr. VAN VRANKEN did take a bag with him, but it was one of unusual dimensions-two large sheets having been sewed together for the pur- pose. His friend took the sack, and, paying the Dominie in his own coin, filled it with oats in the sheaf.
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