USA > New York > Orange County > Montgomery > The history of Montgomery classis, R.C.A. To which is added sketches of Mohawk valley men and events of early days, the Iroquois, Palatines, Indian missions, etc > Part 11
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the price of liberty and the value of worship. Altho Stone Arabia was organized nearly two hundred years ago and about it have oc- curred some of the most tragic events of the valley of the Mohawk, and its membership evidently originated the Tryon County Com- mittee of Safety (cf), and to it the nation is indebted for a large share of those human forces that gave independence and liberty to the Republic, yet, strange to say, we have never known of a history of this church to be written. The present effort is a duplication of an address given by the writer at the time of the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the building of the present stone structure. The first minister among the Palatine Germans in America was the Rev. Joshua Kocherthal, a Lutheran pastor who came over with the first Palatine emigration in 1709, under the favor and support of Queen Anne. For ten years he worked among his people, who had settled near Newburgh on the Hudson. His death occurred in 1719. In 1709 Kocherthal visited England and on his return in 1710, the Rev. John Frederick Haeger accompanied him, organizing on his arrival in New York City an Episcopal church. The missionary society of the Church of England paid him a salary of £50
annually. Hacger tried at first to win the Lutherans over to Episcopacy and when he failed in this, he turned his attention to the Reformed Germans. But the Church of Eng- land was not attractive to either, and Kocher- thal opposed his efforts. Haegar's work
was almost wholly confined to the Hudson ENTRANCE CREATED IN 1840 river settlements below Catskill. He died in 1721, for years having been neglected by the society that had sent him into the foreign field, tho his letters are piteously appealing for support. The third minister to serve the Palatines was the Rev. John Jacob Ehle. The oldest record book of the Lutheran church of Stone Arabia bears on its cover the statement that the original church here was organized by Ehle in 1711, but this is an error, both because Ehle did not come to America until October, 1722, and because the Pala- tines did not come into this section from Schoharie in any consider- able numbers until about the same year. Most of the original settlers had come by 1710. The Rev. Ehle, as his predecessor, Haeger, was an Episcopalian, having been ordained by the bishop of London, in August, 1722. He was a Palatine and educated at Heidelberg. At first his work was among the German settlements on the Hudson, though he supplied Kinderhook frequently, at which place he married Johanna Van Slyck in June, 1723. From 1742 until the time of his death in 1777 at the age of 92, his entire ministry was spent in the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys. On February 8, 1762, Rev. Ehle wrote Sir William Johnson protesting vigorously against certain Bostonians who were proposing to establish schools among the Mo- hawks as well as the Presbyterian faith. He, doubtless, spent some years in regular service at both Schoharie and Stone Arabia and the 6724-1730 settlements between, but after 1750 his work was confined mainly to the Mission established near Palatine (then called Canajoharie), the building still standing and his adjacent residence, called also Fort
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Ehle, situate a short distance east of the Fort Plain N. Y. C. depot. In his latter years he devoted most of his time to his work among the Indians to whom in 1750 he had been appointed a missionary, and with the Rev. Peter H. Van Driesen (dec. 1738), was given valuable land tracts by them in appreciation of his services. Ehle's descend- ant's still occupy this land. not much documentary Evidence on
Judean mission -
The Rev. Michael Weiss (Weitzius he sometimes wrote it) was the first ordained Reformed minister to labor among the Palatines of the Schoharie and the Mohawk valleys. Born in the Palatinate, a graduate of Heidelberg at 18, ordained in 1725, he came to America two years later (with 400 others) sent there by the Palatine consis- tory. For four years he worked in Pennsylvania, then came to Scho- harie country in 1731, going the next year to Coxsackie, where he re- mained four years, and in 1730 and for seven years stationed at German Flatts (Fort Herkimer). From German Flatts he went to Rhinebeck in 1742. No mention is made in the existing records at Stone Arabia of the service either of the Revs. Ehle or Weiss, but we know the former often preached here, and Weiss, doubtless, frequent- ly supplied this pulpit during his pastorate at German Flatts. After two other pastorates Weiss died at Gosenhoppen, Pa., in 1762, at the age of 62. During his years in the valley, Weiss, as Elle, worked among the Mohawks. Weiss wrote quite a graphic description of the Indians. The Rev. Johannes Schuyler had four pastorates, two of which were at different periods in Scho- harie, involving some thirty years or more, the first for a score of years following 1735. During this first pastorate lie supplied Stone Arabia and German Flatts, where liis name is to be found on the earliest subscription list toward the completion of the partly built church. By some he is thought to have been the man who organized the Stone Arabia church. The first consistory record is dated October 24, 1743, yet members were admitted into the church and so recorded as early as 1737. Ten members joined in 1739 and seven in 1740. There is a baptism in 1739 of Henry Richard Loux, the son of Adam Loux. The church early in its history was an Independent Reformed church, probably from the beginning the Lutherans having their own organization. There is a record showing that at first consistory gatherings were largely verbal meetings with no records. Rev. Schulyer was a member of the first Coetus (1738), first Dutch minister to be ordained in this country, which act was approved by the Classis of Amsterdam. We are inclined strongly to believe from conditions that prevailed at German Flatts, that one of the first things done at Stone Arabia was the organization of a church, without doubt as early as 1725. It may be that the earliest baptisms, marriages and admissions to membership were regarded as a part of the work of the Schoharie church. The earliest record extant of the consistory
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is dated October 24, 1743,-"Johannes Schuyler, Praedeger of Scho- harie and Steinrabie; Dietrich Loux and Jost Snell, elders, and Ser- venus Duiker and Adam Loux, deacons." This is the first minister mentioned in the extant records. Rev. Schuyler left Stone Arabia and Schoharie in 1756 to succeed Rev. Curtenius in the Hackensack, N. J. church, where he remained ten years, returning next to Scho- harie where he died on April 16, 1779, aged sixty-nine. He was buried beneath the pulpit of the old stone church, erected toward the close of Schuyler's second pastorate, later used as a fort. Rev. Schuyler married Annatje Veeder of Schenectady in 1743, and had six children. His sixth son, Philip, was the builder of the Stone Arabia church in 1788. Philip was also engaged on the Inland Lock Navigation Co. under Gen. Schuyler, to whom he was distantly related. His only daughter, Margaret, became the wife of Andrew Van Wie of Florida (Montgomery county). A sister of Rev. Schuyler, Elisabeth, was the wife of Gosen M. Van Alstyne, who built the old stone house, the first in the present village of Canajoharie, still standing, and, by some erroneously thot to be Fort Rensselaer. Mrs. Margaret Snell of Herkimer was a great grandaughter. The names of the minister and those of his two sons, Peter and Philip, are carved in the stones of the old Fort at Schoharie.
The "Rev. Johannes Aemilius Wernig" is the way this successor of Schuyler spells his name in the record. Under date of July 14, 1751, the church of "Stein Rabien," testified to the Classis of Amsterdam (Holland), of the good character and correct standing of their pastor. The letter is in German and is signed by 32 names as follows: Peter Lutz, Johannes Schnell, Henrich Fehling, Johannes Jost Snell, Sev- erinus Deigert, Wilhelm Wermuth, Henrich Lauchs, Casper Kock (Cook), Peter Kremps, Gottfried Helmer, Friederich Bellinger, Jr., Friederich Bellinger, Johann Leonhardt Helmer, Henrich Lauchs, George Koppernoll, Henry Herkel, Jacob Krauz, Adam Lauchs, Frederich Getmann, Conrad Kutz, Johann Henrich Klock, Wilhelm Lauchs, Johannes Kremps, Wilhelm Koppernoll, Leonhardt Helmer, Robert Gerder, Adam Wabel, Johannes Fehling Johannes Snell, Jr., Dietrich Lauche, Johannes Henrich Riemenschneider. The church decided to call Wernig, who had already declined to go to Lancaster, Pa., but a year elapsed before the Classis of Amsterdam replied, who said that Wernig had exhibited no evidence that he was even a can- didate (his papers were not satisfactory), much less that he was a minister. They seemed to have investigated his Heidelberg record, for they admit he is a licentiate, but his examination for the ministry was not sustained. Therefore Classis votes that Wernig must come to Holland to be examined before they can approve the call of the Stone Arabia church. This was the action of July 17th, 1752. On September 14, 1752, Wernig writes from Stone Arabia a long letter to his friend, the Rev. John Ritzema of New York city. It is full of scathing rebuke for the disturbers in the field, and replete with fine sarcasm for some of the preachers whom Wernig claims "serve the flock only for the wool that is in it." He wants to be examined by the New York City Reformed ministers, which request was refused September 17, 1753, and says he can't go to Holland, among other reasons, because lie has married a wife, and hasn't any money, and on his first voyage over he came near dying of sea sickness (Eccles. Histy. N. Y., V. 3162, 3285). After leaving Stone Arabia (he also
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served Canajoharie and Schoharie) all trace of him is lost. Rev. Sommers of the Lutheran church married Mr. Wernig to Anna Maria Schnell on July 2, 1751.
Under date of May 30, 1755, the Coetus (predecessor of the General Synod) asked permission to ordain and install John Mauritius Goetschius over the church of Stone Arabia which they say is a "German Reformed church north of Albany .... for sometime past imposed upon and tossed about and injured by German (ministerial) tramps. It is far distant and has little strength; but it longs for the Gospel ministry .... if not helped now in this way .... it is liable to become totally scattered." But the Classis of Amsterdam under date of April 5, 1756, writes that it will not permit Mauritius Goetschius to be installed at Stone Arabia to which he had been called. Mr. Goetschius was a physician, and was licensed in 1754 and was at Schoharie in 1757-1760, and doubtless supplied Stone Arabia during these same years or a part of the time. He was ordained at Scho- harie on December 14, 1757. His next and last pastorate was at New Paltz, an itinerary of thirty miles. Here he died in 1771. He practiced medicine all his life. He was one of the original trustees of Queens College. The Rev. Abram Rosencrantz occasionally served Stone Arabia during the years 1756-1758, and a second time from 1760 thro 1770. Rosencrantz was one of the original patentees of the tract known as "Stally's Patent," in the town of Little Falls. He was a graduate of one of the German universities and at the time the fore- most divine west of Schenectady. His first work was at German Flatts (cf) and Canajoharie in the old "Sand Hill" church, where he labored from 1752 to 1758. A brother in the ministry was working among the German families scattered along the route from Schoharie to Utica, but died (1752) just before Abram came to America. In 1758 and 1759 he was called to a work among the Germans in New York city, but in 1760 he returned to the Mohawk valley, preaching in Stone Arabia, Canajoharie and German Flatts. He supplied this church for ten years from 1760, spending the remainder of his life, about 40 years, at German Flatts. Rosencrantz married Anna M. Herkimer, a sister of the general. He died on Fall Hill, in 1796, and was buried beside his brother under the pulpit of the old stone church at German Flatts (Fort Herkimer). While pastor at Stone Arabia Rosencrantz received £70 annually as his salary, Canajoharie and German Flatts also paying a similar amount (in all $525).
In the period including the war of the Revolution there seems to be no record of any settled pastor or regular supply, the Rev. John Daniel Gros and the Rev. Rosencrantz occasionally serving the church. The church records show this. The Rev. John Daniel Gros, once a New York city pastor, also for a while professor at Columbia College, was an unusually well learned man for the time. He was an ardent patriot and served as chaplain in three different regiments. The last few years of his life (1802-1812) were spent in the vicinity of Fort Plain on a farm, and he lies buried at Freysbush in this county. There are no records of baptisms or marriages, or even of consistory after 1771 thro 1776 tho very likely the former records were made, especially by Rosencrantz in the German Flatts register. For a decade after this the history of the church is unknown. The Battle of Stone Arabia, occurring near the church (October 19; 1780) is treated of in the Notes. The Johnsons and Butlers and Brants
fork E_
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were raging the country with the help of the Indians. The 1779 raid was a cruel one but the 1780 devastation was inhumanly brutal. In the Reformed church cemetery is a monument erected in 1836 to the memory of Col. John Brown who lost his life in the Battle of Stone Arabia. It ought to be a patriotic shrine to which we might make regular pilgrimages in remembrance of the price paid by our forefathers for liberty and justice. The present stone church was erected in 1788 by Philip Schuyler, the sixth son of the first re- corded pastor of the church. The consistory at the time was John Zielly, Jacob Eacker, Arnout Vedder and Johannes Koch, elders, and Frederick Gettman, Adam Loucks, Casper Cook, and Michael Ehle, deacons. The history of the church from this time on is more definite. At the completion of the building Rev. D. C .A. Pick came to the work. He, later, served German Flatts (cf). He remained at Stone Arabia for ten years. In 1795 the church gave five acres of land to the Union Academy of Palatine. A two story frame building was erected opposite the church in 1799. Maj. Andrew Finck was behind this project. The Legislature was about to establish several new seats of learning and this was to be one of them. However, Finck's neighbors vehemently objected to the school, saying that "too much learning made bad farmers." The title to the land was questioned, the administration was sued, and Finck was forced to yield. Later Finck gave the land for the Fairfield Seminary in Herkimer county, for which school in 1814, $5,000 was raised by lottery. This was burned in 1806 and the school given up.
Pick was a great orator, likened by some to Martin Luther, and crowds waited upon his preaching. He was suspended from the ministry about 1800. In 1802 on a visit to New York city, he dropped dead on the street. During this pastorate the church con- nected itself (January 20, 1790) with the Classis of Albany, and on May 31, 1791, it was incorporated as the "Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Stone Arabia." An inventory of church property filed at Fonda, January 3, 1794 is signed by D. C. A. Pick, V. D. M., Adam Loucks, Hendrick Loucks, Frederick Gettman (elders), and Jacob Snell, Christian Finck, Nicholas Van Slyck and John H. Van Wie, deacons. In 1797 a parsonage was built. For eight years or not until 1788, when this church was erected during Pick's pastorate at a cost of $3,378, the people had no other place of worship, except a temporary frame structure. Sir John Johnson with Captains Thomas and Brant came from Montreal by way of Oswego with their hired Indians and after devastating Schoharie reached Fort Hunter October 17, 1780, and proceeded west, destroying every building as far as Fort Plain, including Caughnawaga. From Keder's Rift (Sprakers), 150 men attacked Fort Paris, the stockaded store of Isaac Paris (tortured to death by the Indians at Oriskany in 1777) and burned the Dutch and Lutheran churches. The Dutch church burned was erected in 1738. The Lutherans rebuilt theirs, the present structure, in 1792, Rev. Dr. Philip T. Gros preaching the dedication sermon.
Rev. Isaac Labagh came to this church from Kinderhook in 1800, and remained three years, preaching in German Low Dutch and English. While pastor here he also preached in the Reformed Cal- vinist church of Minden (Canajoharie having been divided) and, oc- casionally at Sharon (New Rhinebeck), Schoharie county, to which place he went in November, 1803. In 1827 he returned to the valley
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and spent a few months at Utica. He died July 4, 1837. It is re- corded that John Dockstader of Stone Arabia was paid seven shillings for bringing up the minister's wagon from Kinderhook in 1803. Rev. John Taylor in his Journal of 1802 writes that he visited Stone Arabia and found Dr. Grotz (Gros) in the Lutheran church and Rev. Lubauch (Labagh) in the Dutch Reformed church. He spells the name "Stone- rabia," and adds that the Dutch pronounce the last word as if spelled "robby." The longest pastorate in the church was that of Rev. John J. Wack, extending thro nearly a quarter-century from 1803, the year of his eall, tho during most of these years Mr. Wack was not in good standing in the Classis. The Minutes of Albany Particular Synod (1817) refer in detail to the trouble, Among the officers at this time were, Elders Thomas Getman, Lutwig Rickert, John P. Grames, Wm. Smith, Jacob Snell, David I. Zieley, Adam Lipe, Peter G. Getman, and Deacons Jacob I. Eacker, John Gray, Richard Luts, and Christopher C. Fox. He also supplied the Tillaborough field, and for a few years, also, the church at Ephratah. His life and work is spoken of in detail in the record of the "Sand Hill" church of the extinct churches. On his death, May 26, 1851, Wack was at first buried in the church hill cemetery at Ephratah, but later the body was reinterred at Fort Plain. The Rev. Isaac S. Ketchum was graduated from New Brunswick in 1821 and entered at once upon his ministry in this community, serving at Manheim (cf), Danube (Indian Castle), Salisbury and Stone Arabia from 1822 thro 1830. He also occasionally preached at the Columbia, Second Herkimer, and Remsen Snyder's Bush Churches, and from 1829 thro 1836 he preached at Ephratah in connection with Stone Arabia. Ketchum was an intimate friend of President Martin Van Buren, who commissioned him to remove some Indian tribes beyond the Mississippi and received the thanks of Van Buren for his success- ful work. He spent the closing years of his life on a farm near St. Louis, and died in 1863, aged 67 years.
Rev. Benjamin B. Westfall came to Stone Arabia in 1838 and re- mained about seven years, or until the time of his death, which oc- curred in 1844 at the age of 46. Westfall was brot up on a Columbia county farm. In a nine years' work in Ulster county 300 were added to the church, and it was in the midst of a great revival here in Stone Arabia that Ketchum contracted a disease that ended his life. This man's soul travailed in birth for his people, that Christ might be formed in them, the hope of glory. During Westfall's pastorate the church was repaired and a bell bot, all costing $2,000. He died in Stone Arabia in 1844, as the tablet on the wall tells, and lies buried beneath the pulpit. The bell bot in 1839, cost $355, the repairs, be- side a complete renovation, including the closing of the east door, a window being substituted, the raising of the floor, change of seats, a new pulpit built, arch overhead filled in, gallery at front partitioned off, the steeple tinned and weather vane purchased, and belfry blinds put on. The membership at this time was 241, and in 1840 the report to Classis was most gratifying. When the next renovation comes to the old Stone Arabia Reformed Dutch church it is to be hoped that those who have it in charge will endeavor to reinstate the old pulpit, still extant, and bring back the interior to its old time beauty and symmetry. Charles Jukes had a seven year pastorate at Stone Arabia (1844-1850), beginning in 1844. He was an Englishman by birth, coming to America in 1830 and serving Presbyterian churches in
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Saratoga county and at Amsterdam. He came to this church from the Glen Reformed church (cf). His last pastorate was at Rotterdam, Schenectady county, where he died in 1862. Some of his descendants live in Fulton county. John Cannon Van Liew was 40 when he came to this church in 1851, remaining nearly six years. He had another short pastorate at Berne (Albany county) and died in 1861 at the age of 51. During the years 1857 and 1858 the Rev. Nanning Bo- gardus, who spent some ten years in the Classis at Fort Plain and Sprakers, was a stated supply. Mr. Bogardus' last pastorate was at Sprakers and he died in 1868. The only record of this ministry is to be found in a salary receipt. Other supplies in 1858 and 1859 were the Rev. Philip Furbeck, at the time pastor at Fonda (cf), and the Rev. G. M. Blodgett of whom we know nothing further. In 1859 the present parsonage was built at a cost of $1,337.
After an interim in the pastorate of some five years, the Rev. Lawrence H. Van Dyck was called to the church in 1861. There were 85 families and 103 members in the church in 1862. He had ministered to Presbyterian churches since graduation at Auburn in 1833, and for about 15 years at Gilboa and Helderburg, and at Bloom- ing Grove for 5 or 6 years before entering this field. Leaving here in 1867 he had a pastorate in Unionville, N. Y., next going to New Brunswick, N. J., in 1876, to become rector of Herzog Hall. He died in Brooklyn January 24, 1893, at the age of 86. Van Dycke was a most devoted pastor, his whole life an illustration of the Master's spirit and service. He wrote a history of the Montgomery County Bible society in 1867. His wife was Christina
Hoes of Kinderhook, sister of Rev. J. C. F. Hoes (cf Ithaca). A brother, Rev. C. V. A. Van Dyck was the noted Syrian scholar, and a sister, Jane Elizabeth, married Rev. Dr. T. W. Wells. The Rev. James Murphy Compton spent nearly thirty years laboring in the Classis of Montgomery, principally in the churches of Currytown, Mapletown, Columbia, Henderson and Sprak- ers (cf). His pastorate here and at Ephratah extended over four years from April, 1868. He died while pastor of the Columbia church December 12, 1891, and lies buried in that church cemetery. William B. Van Benschoten, after two pastorates in New Jersey of four years each, came to this church in 1872 (also preaching at Ephratah and labored here until he died in 1880 at the age of forty-five. During the last year of his pastorate the church and parsonage were repaired at a cost of $2,000. Prominent among the workers of this period were Conrad P. Snell, Henry Gramps, John Kilts, Reuben Graff, Erwin Vosburgh, Aurora Failing, Charles Loucks, Johannes Hess and Harri- son Brown.
The Rev. Rufus M. Stanbrough was graduated from New Bruns- wick in 1861 and at once took up the work at Manheim (cf), also supplying Indian Castle. He came to Stone Arabia in 1881 from a five years pastorate at Columbia (Herkimer county), remaining here for about five years. His next and only other charge was at West Hurley, N. Y. He exhibited an indomitable energy in his arduous ministry and was the personification of patience, faith and devotion. He died in 1894, at the age of 72. During Stanbrough's pastorate (1883) the organ was bot at a cost of $400. Occasionally services were held during the years 1886 and 1887. The Revs. P. H. Bahler (cf Manheim), F. S. Haines (cf Canajoharie) and Jas. Demarest (cf
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Fort Plain) filling the pulpit, the summer months being filled by Frederick L. Luce, a seminary student. The Rev. John A. Thomson on graduation from New Brunswick in 1887 assumed the pastorate in connection with Sprakers and remained nearly five years. At this time forty families were reported and seventy members. In the few years after leaving this field, Mr. Thomson served Sprakers (cf) and Maple- town, and a mission at East Palatine. Since 1902 he has had a pas- torate at Middlebush, N. J. During Mr. Thomson's pastorate the centennial of the construction of this church was observed. The morning program included a sermon by the Rev. Dr. DeBaun of Fonda, and an historical address by S. L. Frey of Pala- tine Bridge. In the afternoon, dinner having been served, addresses were delivered by Edward F. Jones of Binghamton, Lieutenant- Governor of New York, A. T. Worden, Senator Arkell and the Rev. J. W. Compton (pastor 1868-1871). After Mr. Thomson's pastorate the church had no regular ministry for another five years, or until the Rev. Charles L. Palmer came in 1897. Richard Van Benskor, a student, supplied occasionally in 1895, as did also Rev. Joel A. Loucks, a licentiate of Montgomery Classis, Isaac Messler, superintendent of the Kentucky mission work since 1905, preached here during the summer of 1896. The Rev. Charles L. Palmer became pastor in 1897, also serving the Ephratah church for three years, and since 1903-1914 was pastor of a Reformed church at Kingston. During this pastorate the church was again incorporated (May, 1899) and the Bible now in use was given by the Social union. Rev. Palmer is now at Marlboro, N. J. Since the year 1900 and until June, 1914, there was no settled pastor or stated supply, of the church, regular services having been held only during the three summer months of each year. Only sum- mer work by students has been undertaken during these years. A. C. V. Dangremond, now of College Point, L. I., was here in 1900 and 1901, and in 1902 and 1903 Garret Hondelink, now at Kalamazoo, Mich. supplied. For four years following no services were held in the church. In 1908 R. A. Stout preached during the summer. In 1909 Rev. E. J. Meeker, now at Lodi, supplied the pulpit for several months. Anthony L. Ver Hulst supplied during the summer of 1910, and for three summers R. A. Stanton, '14 of the Western Theological Seminary at Holland, Mich., was the supply. In June, 1914, Mr. Stanton was ordained by the Montgomery Classis and installed over the Ephratah (cf) and Stone Arabia churches. The present con- sistory is Harvey Gramps and John C. Kilts, elders, and Wm. Kent, Adelbert Laning and Chas. Vosburgh, deacons.
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