USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II > Part 71
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" The Kill of Kitchawong," mentioned near the beginning of the preface, is the stream now known as Croton River.
The first reeord in the list of church members is dated 1697, and runs thus: "1. The Right Hon., pious, very wise, provident Lady Catharina Philips, widow of Lord Frederick Philips, who very praise- worthily did here advanee the cause of Religion. 2. Abraham De Reviere. 3. Isaae Sie (Sen); and 4, Esther, his wife, &c.
The first reeord in the list of elders and dea- cons is dated 1697, and runs thus: "1. Elder Abraham de Revier, Deacon Jan Ecker. 2. 1698, Elder Ryck Abramse, Deaeon Wolfert Ecker." The two deaeons here mentioned both afterwards beeame elders,-Jan Ecker in 1704 and Wolfert Ecker in 1706. The one last-named is the person referred to in Washington Irving's story of "Wol- fert's Roost."
It was required in those days to publish the bans of marriage, and prefixed to the list of those thus united is this preamble: " And First we find accord- ingly that on the 30th Octo., Anno 1698 (after three distinct proclamations of the Bans previously made in the Church, the following persons were Confirmed in Marriage in the presence of God and his Church),
292
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
viz .: 1. Octo. 30, 1698, Abm de Revier and Rachel Van Weert." He was "Borit itt Holland, ou the Island of Cadsand," and she " on Long Island (Mid- dle Bush)." 2. "Sattte date. Jan Van Dyck and Geesje de Groot." Botlt born "on Long Island, in Brooklyn."
The first record in the list of baptisms is dated April 21, 1697, and was that of Rebecca, child of Jan Heyert and Maria, Itis wife. The witnesses were "Ryek Abrams and Tryntie," Itis wife.
Among other tltings in explanation, tlte translator of the old Dutch records says : "On a fragmentary part of a detached and mutilated leaf tlte following appears, as near as it can be deciphered :
"Peter Buys and Jan Van Weert have made an order concerning the Pall for funerals, that the charge for its use, for an Adult shall be four Gilders, and for a Minor tiro Guillers, and that Pieter Foesnur be chosen for undertaker and bell-ringer, or sexton, and that Jan Ecker (in the absence of a Minister) be the one to conduct the services in a Christian manner, and that he walk before the procession to the grave."
The translator states that he found tuch difficulty in understanding tlte precise value of the currency spoken of in the record. He says: " In commencing the following pages I was at a loss to know what kind of money the figures were intended to denote, as the manuscript has no characters prefixed to the several sums collected and paid, to show whether it was dol- lars attd cents or pounds, shillings and pence, but I took it to denote the latter, as that was the prevailing method of keeping accounts in my youthful days. Accordingly I so denoted the first page, until I came to the items of £30 for wine, £13 for bread for the Communion ! I thought this incredible, and resolved thenceforth to put down the naked figures, leaving the reader to denominate thent for himself. But finally I discovered it to mean so many Gilders and Stirers. These are Dutch coins. A Gilder is a Gold coin of 20 Stivers in value, and a Stiver is nearly 2 cents our money. So that a Gilder is worth about 38 cents it American coin.
" It will be seen on page 354 tltat after A. D. 1745 the Gilders were discontinued, and thenceforth pounds, shillings and pence prevailed."
The last record in the Dutch language is entered upon the minutes under date of April 28, 1777. What retitains is in English. Oddly enough, the last is a Dutch mitnuite, whose correctness is certified to in Latin by Dontinie Ritzenita, in these words : "Quod attestor, J. Ritzema, V. D. M." " Which I attest or certify to be correct, J. Ritzemna, Minister of the Word of God."
It is an interesting curiosity and tlte translation is tltus given entire :
"AR Minister, I have subscribed with Hendricus Storm as Elder, and Jacob Van Waert und Petrus Sie as dencons, at the house of Jan Hat- mond, where we opened the Church Chest, and put therein the following Collections :
" 1. from the Widow of Jan Storm what she had saved
from what her Husband hund collected white n Deacon ..
2. from Pieter Hick 2 15 10
3. from Jacob Burckhout .3 7 4
4. A residue of old Coppers, which we exchanged at the rate of 12 for a shilling . . 0 4 315
€× 14 11
" After this the Chest was delivered over to Pietrus Sie, with the key* given to llenricus Storm.
" Quod Attestor,
" J. RITZEMA, V. D. M.
The task of making a complete translation of the old Dutch records involved a herculean labor, but it fell into good ltauds and it was admirably done. The respected translator, who has now entered into the Heavenly rest, wrote to the authorities of the First Refornted Church, to which the record properly be- longs, from Brooklyn, under date of August 28, 1876, in the following terms :
" Deur Friends: I have just completed the Records of the venerable Old Dutch Church in your locality. When you presented me the origi nat in its mntitated condition for inspection, I had no hesitancy as to my competency for the nundertaking, but the cursory examination then made, gave a very inadequate conception of its magnitude, as yon will see in the sequel. Since the day I left you at Tarrytown some two months since, I have been diligently engaged from 5 A.M. till 6 r.M. (taking off two hours for meals) in the prosecution of the work. While the New Book was being made (in which to copy the record) I trans- lated the reading matter into good Euglish on detached sheets of paper for Revision, so as to avoid the necessity of making a single interpola- tion. But in recording nearly 20,000 names of a peculiar order, especially those of the feminine gender, a few erasures were to be expected, since no one but a person like myself, to whom those unpronounceable names of Holland orthodoxy were as familiar as household words, could have succeeded in preserving their originality. In many instances the name of the same person is differently spelled, according to the predilec- tion of the several writers, so as to make almost another name. . .
"And now I will give you some idea of what the Book contains. There are 2,450 Baptisms, ubont 400 Church members, and about 400 Marriages, besides all the Ellers and Deacons during the existence of the Church, being elected every two years, when their predecessors wonld retire after presenting their accounts for settlement.
"Approximate number of names to be found in the New Book :
" Church Members. 400
Put in the Index in Alphabetical Recapitulation order .
Marriages, 400 pair .
Baptisms, 2,450 of 5 names, the Child, 2 Parents and 2 Sponsors 12,250
Again 2 names of each ; Index, The Father and Child . . 4,900 All the several changes of Elders and Deacons, with other incidental names
19,500"
The church, whose beginnings are elironicled in these ancient records, was destined to have a lottg and vigorous life. While it was in a sense the mother of many other churches in the county, it preserved its own unity unimpaired for almost one hundred and sixty years, or down to 1851, when the original body, by the organization of the Second Reformed Church of Tarrytown became two bands. Under the Dutch regime, under the English, during the Revolutiont. through the period of the confederation, and after the adoption of the National Constitution, the elturch lived on, and is living still. Its pulpit in all that titnie Itas been filled by a sttecession of thirteett tttin- isters, citlter as pastors or stated supplies. Their names are the following :
1. Rev. Guiltiam Bartholf, from 1697 to 1724.
2. Rev. Frederick Mutzelius, from 1726 to 1750.
3. Rev. Johannes Ritzema, from 1744 to 1776.
293
MOUNT PLEASANT.
4. Rev. Stephen Van Voorhees, From 1785 to 1788. 5. Rev. John F. Jackson, from 1791 to 1806.
6. Rev. Thomas G. Smith, from 1808 to 1837.
7. Rev. George Dn Bois, from 1838 to 1841.
8. Rev. Joseph Wilson, from 1845 to 1849.
9. Rev. John Mason Ferris, from 1849 to 1851.
10. Rev. John W. Schenck, from 1849 to 1851.
11. Rev. Abel T. Stewart, from 1852 to :866.
12. Rev. John B. Thompson, from 1866 to 1869.
13. Rev. John Knox Allen, from 1870.
It was the Rev. John F. Jackson, the fifth in this list, of whom the tradition is still repeated that when he was about to leave the church, on account of some trouble that grew out of the too free use of his tongue by a member of the consistory, the dominie, in his last public service, gave out to be sung Watts' para- phrase of the 120th Psalm. He read all the six stan- zas with great force of elocution, but when he came to the fifth he entered into the spirit of it with pecu- liar interest, and, turning around, he looked signiti- cantly down upon the consistory man whose unruly member had caused the trouble, while he pronounced the words in sonorous tones,-
"Now passions still their souls engage, Aud keep their malice strong : What shall be dono to enrb thy rage, O thon devouring tongue !"
The Rev. John W. Schenck, the tenth in the list above as serving the church between 1849 and 1851, was, in some sense, a colleague of the Rev. John M. Ferris. The edifice of what is now the Second Re- formed Church having been built in 1837 to meet the growing demand of the village people, who found the old church too remote and inconvenient, there were two church buildings belonging to one and the same organization. As there was but one pastor, the Rev. Mr. Schenck was invited to act as an assistant to the Rev. J. M. Ferris, and to preach in one church while he preached in the other. Mr. Schenck was not installed.
It was during the ministry of the Rev. Abcl T. Stewart that the erection of a new church edifice in the village was undertaken by the First Reformed Church, and happily completed. The division of the old church into two organizations took place in No- vember, 1851. The Rev. Mr. Stewart accepted the call of the First Church, the new name which it took at that date, in July, 1852. In the following Octo- ber a committee was appointed to find and report a proper site for a new church edifice. In December the congregation unanimously resolved to build. In due time the work was completed, and on May 24, 1854, the church was solemnly dedicated to the worship of Almighty God, the religious service being chiefly rendered by the Rev. George W. Bethunc, D.D. In this new edifice the congregation has worshipped ever since. The church is out of debt and reports a mem- bership of two hundred and forty-seven communi- cants.
The elose eonneetion of this church with the old burying-ground, which originally lay on the four
sides of the old edifice, and still lies on three, -- name- ly, the north, east and south, renders it proper that some account of that ancient sleeping-place of the dead should here be given. Application having been made to Mr. Benjamin F. Cornell, the very intelli- gent and capable superintendent of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, who now has the old burying-ground in charge, he kindly responded by furnishing the fol- lowing statements, not only in regard to the old burying-ground itself, but also in regard to the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, which adjoins it, and which may be said, in a sense, to have grown out of it :
"OLD SLEEPY HOLLOW CHURCH AND YARD.
"As to the question of the Old Congregation of the Reformed Dutch Church of the Manor of Philipsburgh having worshipped in a log honse for a time prior to the erection of the stone Church still standing, which the tablet states to have been erected in 1699, I can only say, for myself, that I know that Washington Irving, a careful and competent searcher of all traditions among which any facts bearing upon the case would likely be found, believed it to be true.
"And I have heard from him, and 1 think from others, but cannot now distinctly remember from whom, that some casnal reference to it exists in one or more letters not long since extant, written before the erection of the old church still standing, the authors or recipients of which were of or connected with the Van Cortlandts.
"Nevertheless, it may be possible, but not likely, that the central or Manor-Ilonsc, which had early existence, may have been opened by the first occupant for such purpose. It was originally bult of logs, and as I have always understood is still, at least in part, of that material.
" The O.d Dutch Church, as we now call it, though simple and nupre- tentious, almost rude in its architecture, doubtless well-befitted the day of its erection. It frouted the south upon a sloping green between the Manor-Ilonse and the road, with a shed for teams at its west end, and exteudiug northerly along where the west line of Broadway now is, with a burying-ground for slaves behind it to the west, and one for their masters in the rear of the Church on the north, which acquired the name of yard when partially enclosed at a later day. But rnde as the structure was, tradition if not history holds that recourse was had to the mother country for some of the appliances required for its completion, among other things the pulpit and the communion table that so long ex- cited the pride of the simple tenants of the Manor; which treasures of veneration, if not of art, were allowed to be taken away, it is said to New York, at one of the several invasions of modern improvement.
"Of the Old Yard, so long handled by successive generations of the De Reveres, as sextons, it may be doubted if Gray had a more fitting prompter to his beautiful Elegy, but its real history, who and how many are sleeping there, is left even more to tradition thau that of the Church itself. In latter years, even reaching past the time when the advent of the railway had brought on the invasion from New York, it was much neglected aud rauk with bushes and briers, but Irving loved it even as it was, often loitering and musing of a summer's day beneath the shade of large trees, a spot selected for his own resting-place in the cemetery, from whence the view of the Old Yard was clear.
"Passing by an unsuccessful attempt in 1868, the Old Yard was put in charge of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery by contract with the First Reformed Dutch Church in the spring of 1874, and so remains. Upon occasion of devising a plan for a New Register that should contain a record of all interments thereafter made in like manner us in the cemetery, an esti- mate was attempted of the whole number of interments from between 1645 and 1655, assumed as the probable time of their beginning, from such data of information as could be reached, and guided by a careful and laborions examination of the subject in all its bearings, it resulted in placing the figures at about 3193 down to the present time, that is, January 26, 1885, which is believed to be near the mark."
The following is the tabulated statement referred to, and kindly furnished, by Mr. Cornell :
OLD DUTCH CHURCH YARD.
The beginning in from 1645 to 165 -. An estimate from the best data attainable, two hundred and thirty-four years to 1885, by semi-decades.
F
-
4
they
294
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
Dates.
Interments.
Dates.
Interments.
Date. Year.
Interments.
Date.
Year.
Interinent
1650
3-
3
1770.
69 --
1850.
1
.
101-
1868.
19
172-
1655
1-
1773
74- 860
1851.
2 .
81-
1869.
20
171-2202
1660
1780.
74-
1852.
3
103-
861
1870.
21
143-
1665.
13-
1790 .
79-
1>54.
5
107- 456
1872.
23
1.12-
1675.
17-
50
1795
80-
1835.
6
103-
1873.
24
188-
1680
21-
1800
1805
87-
1857.
8
97-
201
1×75.
26
241-
1690
25-
1810
91-
1858.
83-
1876.
27
291-
1695
27-
1815
94-
1859.
10
1860.
93-
1878.
20
230-
1705
33-
1825 .
99-1721
1861.
107-
1879.
30
270-4251
1710.
35-
1830
101-
1862.
13
97-
92 1
1880.
31
1715.
37-
1835
109-
1×63.
14 .
113-
1881.
32
258-
1720.
40-
1840
111-
1864.
15
149-1502
1882.
33
287-
1725
43- 368
1845
113-
1730.
46-
1850.
107-2265
1735.
18-
1855
105-
1740.
51-
1860
103-
1745.
53-
1865
104-
1750.
55-531
1870.
114-
1755
59-
1875
183-2824
1760
62-
1880.
159-
1765
65-
1885
210-3193
Interred by the church in two hundred and twenty-two years . . 2704 By the cemetery in about twelve years
Total interments in two hundred and thirty-four years . . . . 3193 B. F. CORNELL., Superintendent.
May 15, 1885.
The inscriptions on page 295 were copied literatim et verbatim from tombstones in the old church-yard, and also the following :
" Here lies the body of
JAMES BARNARD. lle died March 4, 1768, in the 48th year of his age.
Tho' boisterous winds and Neptune's waves
Ilove tost me too & fro'
By God's decree yon plainly see
I'm harbored here below."
"T. M.
In memory of MR. ISAAC MARTLINGH,
who was inhumanly Blain by
Nathaniel Underhill, May 26,
A. D. 1779, In the 39th year of his age."
This was the person referred to in Bolton's History, vol. i. p. 347, in the following paragraph :
" In the summer of 1779 u strong detachment under the command of Colonel Emmerick advanced upon Tarrytown so rapidly that the Conti- Heutal guard, quartered ut Requa's house, were completely taken by sur- prise ; four of them were killed npon the spot, and the remainder, con- sisting of ten or twelve, were taken prisoners. On this occasion Isaac Martingh, a one-armed man, und Polly Buckhout, were also killed ; the Intter, supposed accidentally, from the circumstance of her wearing a man's hat."
The following is a corresponding statement in re- gard to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, also furnished by Mr. Cornell.
SLEEPY HOLLOW CEMETERV.
From Its fondation October 30th, 1819, to the end of its 35th Year, lan'y. 31st, 1885, With Notes.
SLEEPY HOLLOW CEMETERY, NOV. 12, 1885.
Rev. John A. Todd, D.D:
Dear Sir : In response to your inquiry, "Why it is assumed that the first Interments in whut is now the Old Dutch Church-Yard at Sleepy Ilollow were made as early as 1645 to 1655," I can only say that its probabilities seem to me to rest upon a variety of collated circum- stances, some of them well-known facts, and others resting in traditions more or less colored as they have been handled by the genius loci, constituting a lore, the study of which is somewhat archaeological. In a number of interviews with the late Washington Irving, at the cem- etery in question and at Sunuy Side, beginning as early as 1852, I learned that he believed the first interment to have been made abont the middle of the seventeenth century; and that a few babitations had been planted along the shore of the lower Iludson but a short tinta subsequent to the settlement of New Amsterdam, on Manhattan Island, in 1617.
And that a rendezvous for divino worship was early provided near to the mouth of the Pocantico Brook, even some little time before the manor of Phillipse had contirmed practical existence, or manorial habitation.
Basing this belief in part upon letters und other writings then ex. tant, of which he might then huve beeu custodian-but as to that, I do not remember that he spoke-it was natural that he should have diligently searched all sources of information iu his time available, for the purpose of a portion of the work he had in hand; his competency for the task cannot be doubted and should have great weight.
And great probability attends the conclusion to which he came when we consider the persistent thriftiness of the Hollanders of that day.
What more natural thun thut ports for trude should be pushed for- ward, and adventurous delvers in the soil and fisherman in the waters gather around them? That assumption agrees with what le known of the time taken for an ont-put of scattered inhabitants to an
1 May be short, i.e. too low the number indicated muking a total of 366.
2 Machpelah means public ground set apart for single graves.
34
237-
17
115-
1884.
35
222-3473
1867.
18
120- 831
By Register.
5475
In Machpelalı
1254
Private Lots
. 4221
7
85-
1×74.
25.
197-2997
1685
23-
1785
76-
1853.
94-
1871.
22
123-
1670.
1700.
31- 180
1820
97-
11
12
1865.
16
122-
18×3.
1866.
9
89-947
1877.
28
84-1253
1856.
489
The above is correct by the Chronology of the Register, but it is notable, as indicated by careful search, that there may be about 366 more. If so, say 5871 .- Add Old Dutch Church Yard by Sleepy Hollow Cemetery 489, making 6360. By Old Dutch Church in Yard 2704, mak- ing 9064, in 222 Years.
B. F. C., Snpt., May 15th, 1885.
The writer having addressed to Mr. Cornell a writ- ten request to be informed upon what grounds it was assumed that the first interments in the old church yard were made as far back as from 1645 to 1655, he received the following answer, which, it is proper to say, coincides fully with the tendency of his own in- vestigations.
295
MOUNT PLEASANT.
Hier Lyt Her Lichaam Van Abr™ Martlenghs Geboren. Den.3: Sept. 1693: Ende is Overleeden Den : 22: April 1761. Out zynde 67: Iaken 7: Maenden En 17 Dagen.
Hier Leid Begraven Sara Fochee Huisvrouw Van John Envers Geboren Den 20: October 1717 Gestorven Den: 26: December 1769: Verwagtende Ein Zalige OPstandinge Door Jezus Christus ten Jongsten Dage
In Memory of Cap. JOHN BUCKHOUT, who Departed this life April the 10 th 1785 Aged 103 Years and left behind him when he died 240Chil2 and Grand Children allo MARY the wife of John Bur+ died August 175 Aged 73 Years.
Hier Leyt Begraven Her Lichaam Van Hendrik Van Tefsel Geboren den 7 August 1704 Overleden Den 9 Maarr : 1771: our Zynde 66 karen. 7 Maanden. En 2: Dagen.
Hier Leyt Begraaven Het Lichaem Van Nicholas Storm Geboren den: 20: May 1755 Overleeden den: 12: July: 1774 Out Zynde . 19 lare. I . Maent En: 23. Dagen.
Memento Mori
In Memory of ANN the widow & relict of Edward Covenhoven She died Nov; 61797. Aged 63 Years 8 Months and 6 Days.
My cares are paft my bones at rest God took my life when he thought beft
296
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
equal distance from the initial points of settlement on the coast of New England, where the natives were friendly as the Manhattoes were liere.
The same thing was true around Philadelphia and elsewhere in America.
In addition to which a careful study of all that is readily access- ible of a statistical nature concerning the growth of population points to the same conclusion.
That there exists so little direct documentary evidence to sustain the assumption will not be thought strange when we consider the charac- teristic traits of the race chiefly engaged in the transaction, bearing in mund the fact that they have left absolutely nothing inconsistent with it.
I have thus brictly glanced at the answer to your question. A fuller examination of the case, such as a long habit of historical research enables, is omitted for want of time.
Respectfully Yours, &c. B. F. CORNELI., Superintendent Flerepy Hollow Cemetery.
SLEEPY HOLLOW CEMETERY. - Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, already referred to, which adjoins the Old Dutch Church burying-ground on the north, well deserves its fame as one of the most picturesque of all the eities of the dead in this country. It con- sists of about thirty-two and one-half acres, ex- tending northward from the upper line of the old church-yard, and lying between Broadway on the west and the beautiful Pocantieo Brook on the east, which takes a southerly course through the deep val- ley or glen so widely known as Sleepy Hollow. The stream flows over a ledge of rocks that lie across its channel at the northeast corner of the cemetery grounds, and, after falling in a foamy cascade into the pool below, its waters go on in murmuring ripples down past the rear of the Old Dutch Church and past Castle Philipse, the old Manor-House, and the old mill, until they finally empty into the Hudson. The ground in the cemetery is a yellow loam, slightly sandy, into which a grave can be cut as smoothly and silently as one euts down through a mass of closely packed flour. From the central elevation, sloping down both to the east and to the west, the spectator has a singularly lovely view of Sleepy Hollow and the western slope of Prospect Hill on one side and of the majestie Hudson on the other.
The cemetery organization owes its beginning mainly to the late Captain Jacob Storm, but in an im- portant degree also to his friend, the late Washington Irving. In 1849, while removing the remains of some of his family in the old church-yard, Captain Storm's strong emotional nature was stirred by the spade's displacement of human bones, in regard to which, with characteristic neglect, the Dutch settlers had left no memorial nor record.
His friend, Washington Irving, was present, and in speaking to him about it, the idea was strnek out of forming here a rural cemetery, where better care should be taken, and more accurate records be pre- served.
This incident, and the project that grew out of it, were much talked of, and many were found favorably disposed to the undertaking. A meeting was accord- ingly held in " the long room," over what is now Re mua's store, on the southwest corner of Washington
and Main Streets, on October 27, 1849. Patterson R. Hunt, was ealled to the chair, and James S. See was appointed secretary. There were twenty-five gentle- men who subscribed the roll of charter members, and a charter having been prepared in conformity with the general act for the incorporation of rural eeme- tery associations, passed by the Legislature in 1847, it was, on the next day, October 28, 1849, duly exe- cuted and recorded. It contained the names of Peter Van Antwerp, William P. Lyon, John K. Clapp, Pierre Wildey, Jaeob Odell, William Wood, Wash- ington Irving, Jacob Storm and J. Wesley Dixon as the nine charter trustees, classified for one, two and three years. Of these, two died in office, two left by resignation, and two remain, but William Wood is the only one who has held office continuously to this time. Pierre Wildey was elected president ; Peter Van Ant- werp, viee-president ; Jacob Storm, treasurer and su- perintendent; and Harvey Farrington, seeretary.
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