USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The annals of Albany, Vol. I > Part 14
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
118
Reformed Protestant Dutch Church.
of a few thoughtless young persons. In vain the Colonel and Madame soothed and cheered him with counsel and kindness; night and day he mused on the imagined insult; nor could the joint efforts of the most respectable inhabitants prevent his heart from being corroded with the sense of imagined unkindness. At length he took the resolution of leaving those people so dear to him, to visit his friends in Holland, pro- mising to return in a short time, whenever his health was restored, and his spirits more composed. A Dutch ship happened about this time to touch at New York, on board of which the dominie embarked ; but as the vessel belonging to Holland was not expected to return, and he did not, as he had promised, either write or return in an English ship, his congregation remained for a great while unsupplied, while his silence gave room for the most anxious and painful conjectures ; these were not soon removed, for the intercourse with Holland was not frequent or direct. At length, however, the sad reality was but too well ascertained. This victim of lost popularity had appeared silent and melancholy to his shipmates, and walked constantly on deck. At length he suddenly disappeared, leaving it doubtful whether he had fallen overboard by accident, or was prompted by despair to plunge into eternity. If this latter was the case, it must have been the consequence of a temporary fit of insanity ; for no man had led a more spotless life, and no man was more beloved by all that were intimately known to him. He was, in- deed, before the fatal affront, which made such an undue impression on him, considered as a blessing to the place ; and his memory was so be- loved, and his fate so regretted, that this, in addition to some other oc- currences falling out about the same time, entirely turned the tide of opinion, and rendered the thinking as well as the violent party, more averse to innovations than ever. Had the Albanians been Catholics, they would probably have canonized Mr. Frelinghuysen, whom they considered as a martyr to levity and innovation. He prophesied a great deal; such prophecy as ardent and comprehensive minds have delivered, without any other inspiration but that of the sound, strong intellect, which augurs the future from a comparison with the past, and a rational deduction of probable consequences. The affection that was entertained for his memory, induced people to listen to the most romantic stories of his being landed on an island, and become a hermit; taken up into a ship when floating on the sea, into which he had accidentally fallen, and carried to some remote country, from which he was expected to return, fraught with experience and faith. I remember some of my earliest re- veries to have been occupied by the mysterious disappearance of this hard-fated prstor .- Mrs. Grant's American Lady, p. 170, et seq.
A rumor, not well authenticated, was common among the people, that he embarked, on his return, in the same vessel with the person appoint- ed to supersede him, and when made acquainted with the fact, very soon disappeared, and was supposed to have thrown himself into the sea.
Rev. Eilardus Westerlo .- This divine was born in the province of Groeningen, Holland, in 1738, and received a thorough university edu- cation. It was still a custom with the American churches to send to Holland for ministers to supply their pulpits ; and in answer to the re- quisition of the church at Albany for a pastor, Mr. Westerlo, who was then at the University of Groeningen, was induced to accept the call,
119
Reformed Protestant Dutch Church.
He arrived here in 1760, and entered upon the pastoral charge in Octo- ber of that year, having been previously installed in Holland. He proved to be a man of great powers of mind, extensive erudition, and became one of the most eminent ministers of the Dutch church in Ame- rica. He possessed caution and prudence, and great dignity of manners, yet was affable and courteous to all. His pastoral duties were discharged with exemplary fidelity over a field unusually extensive. He took a conspicuous part in severing the church from its dependence upon the mother country, and its reorganization upon the present plan. During the war of the American revolution, he took strong grounds in the cause of the people, and at a most critical time, when Burgoyne was advanc- ing on the city from the north, he animated and inspired the people by having his church open every day for the purpose of prayer and address. He died on the 26th of December, 1790, at a time of life when age had scarcely begun to impair his frame, and was buried in the family vault of Stephen Van Rensselaer, his funeral obsequies being attended by a large concourse from the city and neighborhood. Amid the arduous cares of his ministry, he found time to prepare a Hebrew and a Greek Lexicon, in 2 vols., folio, which remain in manuscript, in the posses- sion of his son, Rensselaer Westerlo, Esq.
Dominie Bassett .- In 1793 Benjamin Lincoln, Timothy Pickering and Beverly Randolph passed through Albany on their mission of peace to the Indians at Niagara. They were accompanied by delegates from the society of Friends, among whom was William Savery, an eminent mi- nister, under whose faithful preaching while in England, Elizabeth Fry was transformed from a gay girl into a steadfast Christian, and a phi- lanthropist of world-wide renown. The commissoners were received with great civility here; Dominie Bassett waited upon them, and intro- ducing himself promised to offer up prayers for the success of their pious design, and added that a thousand or more people would unite with him in his supplications. He seemed to the good Quakers to be a good-natured, tender-spirited man.
Ancient Customs .- The pyramidal roof and belfry of the old church are familiar to the present generation, from the print of it; but where is the remembrancer of its customs? The men sat with hats and muffs during divine service, and in the midst of the dominie's sermon, uprose the deacons and presented to each hearer a small black bag, containing a little bell, borne on the end of a staff, somewhat resembling a shrimp net. In this way the contributions were collected. The tinkle of the bell roused the sleepy and diverted for the moment the busy thoughts of the traders from muskrat and beaver skins. The bags, with their load of coppers and half.joes being duly replaced, the dominie resumed the broken thread of his discourse. The Indians are said to have dreaded the coming of a Sunday before they had closed the sale of their peltry, for to their apprehension it seemed that the man in black spoke sharply to the people about the bargains they had been driving, and that the drift of the sermon might be guessed at by the lower prices offered for their skins on Monday. The practice of taking collections for the poor during the sermon was discontinued in 1795.
Antiquities of the Old Stone Church .- In demolishing the old church, care was taken to preserve only a small portion of the armorial bearings
120
Reformed Protestant Dutch Church.
on the stained glass windows. The late Killian Van Rensselaer, writing to Charles R. Webster, from Washington, in March, 1806, says: " I had no idea the old church would have been so soon demolished. I would have given a great deal to have been in Albany when the windows were attacked, for I would certainly have given $100 for the old family coat of arms. I had directions from Mr. Oliver Wendell in Boston, to obtain the glass containing his family arms at any price, and in case of his death to deposit it in the Cambridge Museum. Pray make some inqui- ries about the remnant saved, and if possible save it for me, as well as the Van Rensselaer arms. You will find the name at the foot of the glass on which the heraldry appears." One of the old church windows is preserved, a small one, in a shattered condition ; also the pulpit and the weathercock, and a bag and pole, with which it was customary to take the contributions, which was done in this wise. The minister paused in the midst of his sermon, when the deacons arose, and taking up these implements, brought them to a perpendicular position against their shoulders. An address was then pronounced from the pulpit upon the collection about to be taken in aid of the poor members of the church, and the ceremony was then accompanied by the singing of the choir. This was designed to give solemnity to the rite. The form of the re- ceptacle concealed the amount of the gift, so that the munificent were not incited by ostentation, nor the needy to deposit their scanty pittance with diffidence. The collection so taken, however, was not unfrequently plentifully mixed with a variety of coin unrecognized by the statute, consisting of any substance that fell into the bag with a chinking sound. The deacons, to rid themselves of this class of contributors, procured a number of shining, open plates, for the purpose ; but their chagrin may be imagined, when, on presenting themselves thus equipped before the audience, they found some of the honest burghers expressing their in- dignation at the innovation, by turning their backs upon them. A little war, wordy but bloodless, ensued ; the plates, however, carried the day, and still maintain their place; and the gleanings eleemosynary are sel- dom mingled with base coin ..... The stone step which was placed at the entrance to the porch on the south side, still retains its original position in the street, and points out the precise spot of the vestibule to the ancient sanctuary, and is the indentical stone which was impressed by the foot- steps of several generations, in passing to their devotions. It may be discerned when the streets are in a tolerable state of clean- liness, on the left of the cross-walk that leads from Douw's Building to the Exchange ..... When the church in State street was about to be removed, the trustees of the church at the Boght, where Mr. Bassett then officiated, applied for the old pulpit ; but it having been resolved to preserve that relic in the church, they next applied for the pew doors and hinges, which were granted to them .. . . . In July, 1802, Mr. William Groesbeeck, who had been clerk of the church for a great number of years, died, and the desk he had occupied was hung in mourning. He was succeeded by his sons, Cornelius and David, who were the last of the voorzingers.
121
Reformed Protestant Dutch Church.
Burial Customs and Ceremonies .- The burial ground for a great num- ber of years was the present site of the Middle Dutch Church, where the bodies are said to have been found lying in some places three or four tiers deep. The dead were removed from under the church in State street to this ground, after it had been selected for a place of burial. When the church was built, the grave stones were laid down upon the graves, and covered over to the depth of three feet, and we are told that it was customary, when the ground was wholly occupied, to add a layer of earth upon the surface, and commence burying over the top of the last tier of coffins. There is now in the possession of Mr. Harmanus Bleecker, a book of burials in this church yard, embrac- ing about 35 years. When the basement of the house occupied by Mr. E. H. Pease was excavated, the boxes were discovered in which the bodies of the revolutionary soldiers, killed or deceased during that war, were buried. These relics have been frequently disturbed by the im- provements constantly going on. After the lot was abandoned as a place of burial, the new church yard was located south of the Capitol Park in the vicinity of State street. The graves were many feet above the surface of the lots, as they now are, vast excavations having been made in that part of the city .. ... The Indian commissioners previously spoken of, are said to have witnessed a burial, and been surprised at the ways of the people. No women attended the body to the grave, as they had been accustomed to see; but after the corpse was borne out, they remained to eat cakes, and drink spiced wine. They retired quietly before the men returned, who resumed the fast and regaled themselves. Spiced wine, and cakes, and pipes were provided, and wine was sent to the friends of the family. The best room in the house was specially appropriated as " the dead room," and was rarely opened but to be aired and cleaned.
Sale of the Pasture .- In 1791 the consistory directed "'the ground commonly distinguished as the church pasture," to be laid out into lots. They lay on the " west side of Court street, leading from the ferry to the town." At this time a gate swung across the way a little above Ly- dius street, and a common road from thence to the ferry lay along the bank of the river through the pasture. Although the names of some of the streets in that region have been changed within a few years, several of them still bear the names of the ininisters. The area which they in- tersect was once the property of the church, and when sold produced less than a hundred dollars a lot. These have since been filled in to a considerable extent and rendered valuable. There were comparatively but few lots built upon south of Lydius street, between Pearl and Broad- way, so late as twenty years ago, though now teeming with a dense population.
The parsonage, or as it is termed in the charter, the minister's house, which belonged to the congregation, and was occupied by Mr. Westerlo during the last six years of his life, was the building more recently known as the Bleecker House, and was taken down three or four years since, to make room for Bleecker Hall. The first preaching in English was by Mr. Livingston, about 1776; in 1782 Mr. Westerlo began to preach in English, and Mr. Bassett, his colleague, was the first set- tled English pastor.
11
122
· Evangelical Lutheran Ebenezer Church.
EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN EBENEZER CHURCH.
The edifice occupied by this congre- gation as a place of worship, is plea- santly located on the corner of Pine and Lodge streets. It is constructed of stone, and is said to be a very creditable specimen of architecture, though of ra- ther moderate size. The corner stone was laid on Thursday, Sept. 16, 1816, by the Rev. Mr. Mayer, the pastor, as- sisted by Philip Hooker, the architect. Its dimensions are 40 by 60 feet, and the expense of its erection was about $25,. 000. In 1848 it was repaired, and its interior thoroughly renovated, at an ex- pense of upwards of $4,000.
We have not been able to ascertain the precise date of the first establish- ment of a Lutheran church in Albany. The carly immigrants, coming from Holland, were principally Calvinists, with strong predilections for the princi- ples propounded by the Synod of Dort, and embodied under the name of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church; yet, although the predominating sect, they seem to have found many difficulties in the way of supporting their church, which was often without a pastor. Before 1630, however, the Lutherans had a church here, in spite of the opposition they met with; for they seem to have been the first sect which the dominant party thought necessary to restrain in their mode of wor- ship .* Application had been made at an early date, to the directors in Holland, to allow professors of this creed liberty to elect a pastor, and perform the free exercise of their religion in New Netherland. But these privileges were refused, and orders were sent over " to employ all moderate exertions to lure them to our churches, and to matriculate them in the public reformed religion."t Moderation is of little avail, where conscience interposes scruples. Fathers were compelled, con- trary to their principles, to assist at the baptism of their children in the Dutch church, and as well as the sponsors, to declare their belief in the doctrines promulgated by the Synod of Dort. Many who objected to this were imprisoned. In a letter dated March 10, 1656.# De Decker alludes to a certain placard drawn up and published by the authorities at Beverwyck, "against the congregation of some Lutherans, which has also been executed against the contraveners and disobedient." The Lutherans also sent over complaints, which led to the censure of Stuy- vesant, and the aggrieved were permitted to worship in their own houses. This, however, was not enough; they demanded freedom from interrup-
> O'Callaghan's History of New Netherland, p. 319-20, vol. 2.
} Albany Records, IV., 130.
# Fort Orange Records.
123
Evangelical Lutheran Ebenezer Church.
tion in their worship. The director general avowed his determination to enforce the law against schismatical worship. The Lutherans appealed to him, Oct. 24th, 1656, as follows: " We, the united brethren of the Augsburg Confession here in New Netherland, show with all due reve. rence how that we have been obedient unto your honor's prohibitions and published placards, unwilling to collect together in any place to worship our God with reading and singing, although we solicited our friends in our fatherland to obtain this privilege; who as our solicitors exerted themselves in our behalf by the noble directors of the West India Company, our patrons; when after their letters to us, containing their entreaties, they obtained that they resolved unanimously and con- cluded that the doctrine of the unaltered Augsburg Confession might be
tolerated in the West Indies and New Netherland, being under their di- rection, as is the practice in our fatherland under its excellent govern- men !; wherefore we address ourselves to your honor, willing to acknow- ledge your honor, as dutiful and obedient servants, with prayer that you will not any longer interrupt our religious exercises, which we, under God's blessing, are wishing to make, with reading and singing, till as we hope and expect, under God's aid. next spring, a qualified person shall arrive from our fatherland to instruct us, and take care of our souls." Accordingly, in July of the following year, the Rev. Johannes Ernestus Goetwater, a Lutheran minister, arrived with a commission from the consistory at Amsterdam, authorizing him to act as pastor to the Lutheran congregation at the Manhattans. The Dutch ministers, Megapolensis and Drisius, took active measures to procure his instant expulsion, demanding that he should be sent back to Holland in the same ship in which he arrived. Sickness alone prevented the immedi- ate execution of the harsh and unchristian mandate, and he was put on the limits of the city for the time being, and finally forced to embark for Holland .* The department at Amsterdam, although desirous of sooth- ing the feelings of the Lutherans, could do little to relieve their griev- ances, and in the hope of winning them over, ordered some alterations to be made in the formula of baptism, as then practiced in the American Orthodox church, to make it less objectionable.
The British dynasty brought with it full permission to the Lu- therans to follow their mode of worship. On the 13th of October, 1669, Gov. Lovelace publicly announced that he had " lately received letters from the duke, wherein it is particularly signified unto me, that his royal highness doth approve of the toleration given to the Lutheran church in these parts. I do therefore expect that you live friendly and peaceably with those of that profession, giving them no disturbance in the exercise of their religion, as they shall receive no countenance in, but on the contrary strictly answer any disturbance they shall presume to give unto any of you in your divine worship." It is supposed to have been about this time that the Lutherans erected a church and parsonage in Albany, where the Centre Market now stands. Capt. Abram Staets (or Staas t) obtained a patent of that lot on the 25th of October, 1653, which he sold to the officers of the Lutheran congregation on the 28th of March, 1680. The original deed, having the above date, which we have examined
* O'Callaghan's History of New Netherland, ii., 345, 346.
t He arrived 1642, in the same ship with Dom. Megapolensis, and is believed to be the ancestor of those who take the name of Staats.
124
Evangelical Lutheran Ebenezer Church.
with a great deal of interest, is in good ancient Dutch, and was made by Robert Livingston, "Secretary van Albany, Colonie Rensselaerswyck ende Schaenheehtady." It recites that Major Abram Staas, in the pre- sence of Andries Teller and Cornelis Van Dyck, commissaries, conveyed the premises to Albert Bratt, Myndert Frederikse (A), Anthony Lispenard and Carsten Frederikse, elders and deacons of the Lutheran congrega- tion. The lot was described as being bounded on the east by the public highway, 12 rods 11 feet; on the south by the first kill and the common road, 21 rods 1 foot; on the west by the little kill, (cleyn killitie,) 6 rods 4 feet; and on the north by the old road, belonging to Mr. Pretty, Jacob Sanders, Johannes Wendell, Myndert Harmense, and Hendrick Cuyler, 23 rods 5 feet. Ryland* measure. It also states that the lot was already occupied by a Lutheran church, and a house in which the dominie lived. The consideration money is not stated, but it is distinctly set forth that the first and last penny were paid, which certainly puts a very creditable finish to the aspect of the transaction.
It will be seen by reference to the ancient map of the city, on another page, bearing date 1695, that the same spot is marked by a Lutheran church and burying ground, fronting on South Pearl street, and extend- ing from Howard to Beaver street; or rather to the palisades, which formed the southern boundary of the city at that point.
We have not been able to learn anything further of the history of this church, during the lapse of nearly a century; in the meantime a Ger- man Reformed congregation seems to have erected a house of worship on Arbor Hill (C). Although the Lutherans still had possession of their lot in Pearl street, yet it is recollected by some of the elder citizens, that about the close of the revolution they had no church, but held their meetings for worship in a private house on the corner of Howard and Pearl street, a front room in which was fitted up with seats sufficient to accommodate the few members belonging to the congregation at that time We believe there are no records extant to account for these things, or giving any information as to the origin or organization of the church. It is found, however, to have been regularly incorporated Au. gust 26, 1784, and on the 7th of September following, Rev. Henry Moel- ler was called. The trustees were J. P. Hildebrand, Charles Newman and Christian Ehring. The condition of the church at this time may be gathered from a letter written by Mr. Moeller in 1818, in which he says: "I wish, brethren, you would call to remembrance the condition of your congregation in 1784 and 1785, when you had no church, and I was your pastor. I traveled in company with an elder, the now de- ceased Mr. Ehring, to New York, Philadelphia, Schenectady, and adja- cent country, and collected, together with the generous donations of the citizens of Albany, and with what the cheerfulness of the poor congre- gation could afford, the sum of £640, which was esteemed a large col- lection of money at that time. The honest Mr. John Geyer, now de- ceased, was treasurer, and the building was paid for soon after it was finished. The congregation had engaged to pay me £100 salary, leaving to me one-third of the time free to attend the Low Dutch congregation at Loonenburgh. But finding that the congregation proved unable to pay me more than £50, besides furnishing me with fire-wood, I remitted
"This is the orthography in most of the ancient records. A Rynland or Leyden foot is equal to 12 3-8 inches English measure, and a Dutch or Amsterdam foot, about one inch less than the Rynland.
125
Evangelical Lutheran Ebenezer Church.
the rest, and employed myself in vacant congregations, some of them . laid in perfect wilderness, till I found my arduous task would waste my strength before the ordinary time of age, I took a call to Pennsylvania. : After twelve years you did me the honor to present me a second call. . I found the charge easier than before, but my travels to Hel lerberg and Beaverdam, which congregations were necessary to make up a neces- sary living, proved injurious to my health, to which was added the heavy expense of keeping a horse and chaise, and the increase of prices for fire-wood and other necessaries. I left you the second time, and am now comfortably settled for the short rest of my life."
The records of the church to which we have had access, extend no farther back than the 28th of May, 1786, when the communion was ad- ministered. The congregation then appears to have had no settled pas- tor. In the following year the trustees publicly expressed their acknow- ledgements for the receipt of donations, to the amount of £552 12s. 2d .; more than £214 of which, they say, was obtained in Albany and its vicinity. The total cost of their building was £640 ($1600). About ten years later a complaint was made of hindrances, and that their church was still unfinished.
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.