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 18
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Van Dyck, Lawrence H. (1807-1893) 1861-1867-Amherst '30-Auburn '33-Stone Arabia.
Van Hee, Isaac J. (1868) 1897-1905-Rutgers '93-N. B. '96-Thousand Isles, Fultonville-Detroit, Mich.
Van Horne, Abram (1763-1840) 1795-1840-Fonda (Caughnawaga).
Van Horne, David (1837-1867)-Union '64-N. B. '67-Theo. Sem. Refd. U. S .- Dayton, O. Licensed by Montgomery Classis.
Van Keuren, Benj. (1800-1865) 1824-1825-N. B. '24-Charleston Second, Mapletown, Westerlo (Canajoharie).
Van Kleek, Richard D. (1800-1870) 1834-1835-Union '22-N. B. '25- Canajoharie.
Van Liew, John C. (1806-1861) 1850-1856-N. B. '32-Ephratah, Stone Arabia.
Van Neste, Geo. J. (1822-1898) 1875-1878-Rutgers '42-N. B. '46- St. Johnsville. Also at Lodi 1853-1865.
Van Nest Rynier (1739-1813) 1793-1813-Schoharie.
Van Olinda, Douw (1800-1858) 1825-1831 and 1844-1858-N. B. '24- Johnstown, Mayfield, Union, Palatine, Mapletown, Sprakers, Fonda.
Van Slyke, Evert (1862-1909) 1876-1885-Rutgers '62-N. B. '65- Syracuse First.
Van Vechten, Samuel (1796-1882) 1823-1824 and 1841-1844-Union '18 -N. B. '22-Johnstown, Mapletown, Mayfield. Fonda's Bush, Union, Fort Plain.
Van Vranken, Adam H. (1824-1880) 1851-1865-Rutgers '48-N. B. '51-Glen.
Van Vranken, Francis V. (1835) 1866-1874 and 1882-1892-Union '58 -N. B. '61-Glen, Fultonville. Also at Lysander 1861-1866- Albany, N. Y.
Van Zandt, Benj. (1809-1895) 1862-1869-Union '33-Auburn '36- Canajoharie, Sprakers.
Van Zee, Chas. W. (1867-1903) 1900-1901-Rutgers '90-N. B. '93- Amsterdam, Trinity.
Vaughan, Jonah W. (1851-1913) 1884-1889-Rutgers '78-N. B. '81- Owasco.
Veenhuizen, A. B. (1814-1895)-Pastor at Pultneyville 1853-1885.
Verbeck, Guido F. (1830-1898) 1898-Auburn '59-(cf Owasco).
Vermilye, Ashbel G. (1822-1905) 1863-1871-N. Y. Univ. '40-N. B. '63 -Amsterdam First.
Voorhees, Henry V. (1826-1897) 1851-1852-Rutgers '47-N. B. '50- Geneva.
Wack, Charles P. (1807-1866) 1831-N. B. '29-Caroline.
Wack, John J. (1774-1851) 1803-1817-Stone Arabia, "Sand Hill," Ephratah, Stone Arabia (Preached 14 years after being dropped.) Wales, E. Vine (1816-1878) 1850-1861-Oneida Inst. '39-Auburn '43- Sprakers.
Ward, John W. (1801-1859) 1824-1831-Col. N. J. '21-Princeton Sem. '23-Union (Chenango) Presb.
Warnshuis, Henry W .- 1877-1880-Pastor at Naumburgh, New Bre- men, West Leyden-Port Royal, Va. (Presby.)
Warren, Ulysses Grant (1872) 1915-Syracuse '96-Columbia-Yale '99-Syracuse, First-Syracuse, N. Y.
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY CLASSIS
Watson, Thomas G. (1836-1900) 1861-1869-Hobart '57-N. B. '61- Cato, Woolcot.
Weber, Jacob. 1871-1879-Mina, West Leyden-Yonkers, N. Y.
Weidman, Paul (1788-1852) 1820-1826 and 1837-1852-Union '18-N. B. '20-Schoharie, Manheim.
Weidner, David C. (1877) 1902-1905-Rutgers '99-N. B. '02-Haga- man-Ridgewood, N. J.
Wells, Ransford (1805-1899) 1830-1833 and 1857-1868-Rutgers '27- N. B. '30-Fultonville, Canajoharie.
Welles, Theodore W. (1839) 1865-Rutgers '62-N. B. '65-Paterson, N. J. Licensed by the Montgomery Classis.
Wessels, Peter A. (1841) 1882-1884 and 1903-Williams '76-Drew '78 -Auburn '79-Columbia, Auriesville (S. S.)-Amsterdam, N. Y. Westervelt, John P. (1816-1879) 1858-1859-Rutgers '37-Ephratah.
Westfall, Benj. B. (1798-1844) 1827-1828 and 1838-18-44-Union '23- N. B. '26-Owasco Outlet, Stone Arabia, Ephratah.
Whitbeck, John (1812-1888) 1849-1850-Rutgers
'37-N. B. '40- Arcadia, Caroline, Henderson.
Whitbeck, Richard M. (1838) 1863-1866-Rutgers '59-N. B. '62- Mapletown. At Tyre 1865-1868-Lenox, Mass.
Whitney, Wm. W. (d1903) 1886-1889-Ephratah (cf).
Wiley, Charles (1810-1878) 1845-1855 and 1859-1865-Princeton '31- Auburn '35-Yale Div. '36-Utica.
Williams, Melanchton B .- Col. N. J. '14-Pastor at Lysander 1834- 1837.
Williams, Richard R. (1843-1915) 1870-Union Sem. '70-Canajoharie. Willoughby, Henry C. (1866) 1904-1915-N. B. '96-Fort Plain-Fort Plain, N. Y. (After February 1, 1916, Schenectady, N. Y.)
Wilson, Frederick F (1831-,1910) 1870-1872-Rutgers '58-N B. '62- Mohawk. Also at Cato 1872-1873.
Wilson, Peter Q. (1831-1902) 1882-1889-Rutgers '58-N. B. '61- Ephratah, Cranesville.
Winfield, Aaron Burr (1815-1856) 1844-1851-Owasco Outlet.
Wortman, Denis (1836) 1880-1883-Amherst '57-N. B. '60-Fort Plain -East Orange, N. J.
Wurts, Wm. A. (1838) 1863-1868 and 1871-1816 and 1893-1901-Lafay- ette '59-N. B. '62-Canastota, Lysander, Hagaman-Sharon Springs, N. Y.
Wyckoff, Garret (1855) 1885-1887-Rutgers 8'1-N. B. '84-Curry- town-Red Bank, N. J.
Wynkoop, Richard (1798-1842 1826-1827-Col. '19-N. B. '22-Cato.
Yates, Andrew (1772-1844) 1828-1835-Yale 1793-N. B. 1796-Chitten- ango.
Zabriskie, Albert A. (1843) 1868-1869-Rutgers '65 -- N. B. '68-Inter- laken-Bloomington, N. Y.
Zabriskie, Francis N. (1832-1891) 1863-1866-N. Y. Univ. '50-N. B. '55 -Ithaca.
156
Reformed (Dutch) Church X
historical Rotes
Church Emblem
The seal of the Reformed Church in America dates back to 1556, and is built upon the seal or shield of Prince William of Orange, the leader of the Reformation in the Netherlands. The present shield goes back to its official use in 1826, when the pillars were added to give it an ecclesiastical bear- ing. The stars at the top of these pillars suggest the heavenly life. The motto on the top ribbon is manat Latin and means, "Without the Lord all is Vain," while the nether ribbon is in Dutch, meaning, "Union makes Strength." The various armorial bearings on the three shields originate from the fact that the Princes of Orange were also lords of other principalities. When a number of Provinces came under one leadership the right to make use of the emblem of all centered in one person. Thus we have on the large shield the four shields of Nassau, Katzenelnbogen, Vianden, and Dietz. On the small shields at the centre, composing the second shield, are those of the united provinces of Cahlons and Orange, while the very smallest shield, which is divided into squares, is there by the reason of the marriage of Jane of Geneva to one of the princes of Orange. It is interesting to note that the first quarter of the large shield bears the arms of Nassau, the capital of which was the birthplace of William the Silent, Prince of Orange. It has a lion rampant, surrounded by seventeen billets, representing, it is said, the union of the ten states of the Netherlands with the seven states of Holland, under the rule of William. The princes of Orange received a recognition from the Emperor, Charles V, which permitted them to place the Imperial crown above the helmet, which is the emblem of bravery in time of war. The Coat of Arms is now the accepted emblem of the denomination. The armorial device fittingly recalls the glorious work of William the Silent, founder of freedom. Its Latin motto reminds the church of its entire dependence on Almighty God, while its Dutch motto bespeaks man's needed help, and its pillars direct our thots to the stars and beyond them to the hills from whence cometh our help.
The Dutch Church in the Mohawk Valley
The Reformed Church in America is the oldest evangelical body on the western hemisphere. As the pioneer, therefore, of those doctrines; and form of government, believed to be the most in har- mony with the Scriptures, and the American constitution, she oc- cupies a unique place in the annals of the States. While the Holland Dutch first came to the New World in 1609, and at once established
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their church and school, it is noteworthy that all elements of the Reformed churches of the American continent-from France and Switzerland, and the German Palatinate-the churches of the Reform- ed faith established in Virginia (at times meaning the Atlantic coast lands), and Maryland, and Pennsylvania-all turned to the Classis of Amsterdam (Holland) for men and money. The archives of this Classis, from 1582 to 1816, contain a voluminous correspondence from all these fields. From 1609 to 1664 the religion of the Dutch church was the recognized religion of the country. Even up to 1693 it was the most respected of all of the denominations because of its Christian tolerance and charity to all. In 1693 the Colonial Assembly of New York passed an act whereby the Protestant Episcopal church became the religion known to the law, and from 1693 to 1776, besides sup- porting its own ministry, the Dutch church was forced to contribute to the support of the church of England. In prior years the Dutch churches were always accessible to the clergy of the English church who conducted the Anglican services in them. The act of the New York Colonial Assembly was the result of the alliance of the Church of England with the Royal Cause. As a secondary result it was the rebellion of the colonists to the church of England that ensued in the rebellion of the colonies against the English government. It was not so much a religious as a political rebellion. The church of England wanted a hierarchy in America under foreign domination, and in New York and Virginia was as intolerant as in the mother country. When the Revolution broke out every clergyman of the established church in New York, New Jersey and New England was an out-and-out Tory, and this was probably true of all the other colonies. It was due to their inherited reverence for distinction of rank. In New York the antagonism was so great that in a sense the Revolution was a re- ligious war, the members of the established church being loyalists and the dissenters all whigs. Altho Washington was a member of the Church of England all his army chaplains were dissenters, and thro the war he attended their meetings. After the war all this was changed.
The development of the Dutch church in New Netherlands, as Manhattan was first called, is an interesting story. The church was organized in 1628 by Rev. Jonas Michaelius, and a small structure built within the Fort at the lower end of what is now New York City. The first minister at Fort Orange or Beverwyck (Albany) was Johannes Megapolensis, who arrived in 1642. He was the first Protestant missionary among the Indians in America, antedating John Eliot's work in New England by several years. He learned the Mohawk language, regularly preached to them, received them as mem- bers into his church, and was on the friendliest terms with them, both in their tepees and in his own home. In the Mohawk valley proper the first settement of the church was at Schenectady, an out-station of the Albany church from 1662 to 1670, when the first definite or- ganization there is recorded. The first established minister at Sche- nectady was Rev. Petrus Tesschenmacher (1684-1690), a graduate of Utrecht, who was killed at the burning of Schenectady by the French and Canadian Jesuits on February 8, 1690. Schenectady was the most remote settlement from Albany at this time, being founded by Arent Van Corlear in 1662. For a hundred years the little congregation at Schenectady was exposed to the ravages of the French and
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Canadian fanatics, twice suffering almost total extinction. For a century the street now called "State," under whose pavements lies the dust of the early settlers, was called after 1690 the "Street of the Martelaers" (Martyrs). In other Notes we have spoken of the Iro- quois, the efforts made to educate and evangelise the Indians, the various missions among the Amerind, and in the main portion of the book the work of the churches west of Schenectady. Ten years after the first massacre there the Rev. Barnardus Freerman, for so he wrote his name, became pastor of the church, and did a great work among the Mohawks, especially. He remained six years, but so great was his kindness and so successful his work among the Indians, that five years later we find the Mohawks petitioning the Governor of the Province for his return to their castle. For some reason the treatment accorded the Dutch ministers by these Aborigines was far different from that given to the Jesuit priests. The first church build- ing at Schenectady was destroyed in 1690, the second, built in 1703, was converted into a fort in 1734; the third, built of stone, as its predecessors, had the high pulpit and sounding board, raised seats for the men, lowly ones for the women. For eighty years this building was used, when in 1814 a fourth structure was built of brick, which was burned in the fire of August, 1861, when the present edifice, one of the finest in the country, was constructed. The ministers of this church often itinerated in the Mohawk valley.
Reformed Church in America-Doctrine, Confession, Custom
The Reformed Church in America is a product of the European revival known as the Reformation. Other articles in this book speak of its history in general, and in the Mohawk Valley in particular, and of its progress or development in America. In this note we want to refer, very briefly, to its doctrine, its confession, and its customs. The basic belief or creed of the Church is to be found in the Word of God, which is its rule of faith and conduct. Other expressions of faith are accepted merely as guides for the culture of the individual soul or as aids toward the administration of the kingdom of God in the church. A trinity-statement of belief forms the ground-work of the doctrines and confessions of the church.
The Belgic Confession, formed in 1561, puts in an orderly fashion our belief in God, the Trinity, Faith, the Church, Salvation thro Christ, and the Judgment. Since 1619 it has been tenaciously adhered to by the Reformed Church in America. While Calvanistic in its conceptions of the truth, its focus is on Jesus Christ, the world's Saviour, Who alone can impart the divine life.
The Canons of Dort is an after-growth of the controversy that ensued the adoption of the other two-the church's interpretation of the Confession and Catechism. It dates back to 1618 when repre- sentatives of the Reformed Church of Europe met at Dordrecht to define more clearly certain statements of the Belgic Confession. What is generally known as the "Five Points of Calvanism" was the result of this conference, and was adopted, later, by the Reformed Church in America. In these Canons of Dort is expressed the firm belief of the Reformed Church in God's absolute sovereignty, in man's original sin which can only be done away with by divine regeneration,
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in the necessity of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, and in God's plan of salvation.
The customs of the Reformed Church in America are, mainly, peculiar to its organization, settled fixtures of its constitution and forms of worship. The General Synod has oversight of the ad- ministration and worship, the latter being semi-liturgical. Conse- quent with the changing years and the varied environment of the church, the Constitution, as well the forms of worship have under- gone change, yet there has always been a reverent deference paid to the originals, and any change has always first received the approval of the entire church. Among the usages made prominent in the Church is the established order of worship, including the responsive reading of the Psalter and Commandments, and the use of the Lord's Prayer and Apostles Creed. For three centuries now the ministry, besides declaring their belief in and acceptance of the doctrines of the church, have obligated themselves to preach on the Heidelberg Catechism. The elders who have the spiritual oversight of the church often sit together near the pulpit, visit the congregation with the minister and must always be present when the sacraments are conducted. The entire service or worship of the church is centered in the sacraments, the Lord's Supper and Baptism, regarded as signs and seals of Christ's covenant with His people and their expression of love and loyalty to Him. Other forms are prescribed for the ordination of the ministers, elders and deacons, reception of mem- bers, catechetical instruction arranged for, and other organizations meet the varied social and spiritual needs. The weekly prayer ser- vice is intended as a school of Christ wherein piety, personal service and brotherly love is taught. From the inception of the church there has always been a charitable spirit of toleration toward all other sects, and a cordial co-operation wherever possible, with every evangelical force making for righteousness.
Reformed Church in America-Development and Progress
The Collegiate Reformed (Dutch) Church of New York City is the oldest Evangelical church in America, having been organized in 1628 by Rev. Jonas Michaelius, tho in the coming of the Dutch to Manhattan in 1609, religious work was immediately begun. A third of a century later (1664) when New Amsterdam surrendered to the English, there were eleven Dutch churches in the Province. The denomination has today more than seven hundred churches and about a hundred and fifty thousand members whose gifts for all purposes last year were nearly two and a quarter million dollars. The story of the development of the church thro its three centuries is punctuated with tragedy and triumph, with some errors of judg- ment, mayhap, but withal a large-hearted tolerance and a genuine devotion to the interests of the people as a whole. Not long after the foundation of the work on Manhattan an effort was made by the English to establish an official church. Domine Megapolensis, and his son, Rev. Samuel, who had to do with the terms of surrender, saw to it that the rights of the Reformed church were protected, and religious liberty guaranteed to the Province However, tho by far the stronger body, the Dutch church was compelled to pay tribute
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HISTORICAL NOTES
to the Church of England in addition to supporting their own. They had brot from the Netherlands their traditionary love for religious freedom, and when the English, and German, and French came, they accommodated themselves to these peoples, gave them the free use of their churches, and afforded them services in their mother tongue. In return the English Governors gave their Church favorable grants, and made the existence of the Dutch church a very hard task.
Another impediment in the progressive development of the Dutch church was the administration of all affairs by the Classis of Holland which ruled with rigidity for a century and a half. The discussion that naturally ensued over this condition ranged ministers and churches into opposing camps, and much turmoil and strife was engendered. Perhaps the chiefest obstacle to the progress of the church was the set determination of the older element to cling to the preaching in the Dutch language, notwithstanding the large influx of English speaking immigrants. One's sympathy is with the Dutch of that day whose antipathy to whatever was English was natural, considering how they had been treated by the Established Church of England or those who represented that church-and considering how the war lords of England conducted their campaign against the settlers, in the Hudson and Mohawk valleys, with the aid of the savages. And this suggests that the prescribed environment of the field of the Dutch church had not a little to do in the way of re- tarding its development, since it was around New York city, in New Jersey, and in the Hudson and Mohawk valleys, that the brunt of the Revolution was felt, with the French Wars preceding and the Border Wars following. The men who made up the Colonial army at Oriskany, and the members of the Committee of Safety of Tryon County, were almost wholly identified with the Dutch church. There were twelve of these churches in the Mohawk valley to four of the Lutheran and two of the Church of England. The conditions pre- vailing in America during most of the eighteenth century had a tendency to check the Holland immigration which had begun so auspiciously in the seventeenth.
After the Revolution radical changes followed; the domination of the Church of England ceased; the General Synod was formed for the administration of affairs in the homeland; later on a new tide of Holland immigration set in and the Reformed Church began to ex- pand in the west, notably in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. One of the very first establishments in Manhattan was the organization of a public school whose teachers taught the rudiments of education and at the same time comforted the people in their sorrow and practically did the work of the minister until his coming in 1628. This school is now the Collegiate Institute of New York City. Edu- cation was to be the handmaid of their religion, which is evidenced to this day in the educated ministry that has thro these centuries been one of the cardinal features of the Reformed Church. Some historians point to the names of the English on the first charter of Queens (Rutgers) but it was the petition of the Dutch ministers that caused Queens to be founded. After whatever English names appear might have been put ex-officio. It was the English who burned the college buildings soon after they were erected. Rutgers College, Hope, College, New Brunswick Seminary, Western Theological Sem- inary, and the other colleges and academies, in the home land, and
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on the foreign fields, where the Reformed Church is working, testify to the consistent attitude of the Church toward education and religion in their co-ordinate relations. Its missionary spirit has been keen from the very beginning. It was the first to preach the Gospel to the Red Men, while in these latter days of Indian Mission work, the name that stands above every other, both in the councils of the Indian as well in the mind of the church, and in the opinion of the Government is that of Walter C. Roe. Within a decade after the Declaration of Independence the Reformed Church began a definite work for Domestic Missions. From 1602 the Reformed Church of the Netherlands prosecuted foreign missions both in the East and West Indies. Modern Foreign Missions began toward the close of the eighteenth century, and the Dutch Church of America, uniting with the Presbyterian and Baptist churches, began an aggressive campaign at once. Later (1826) a union was made with the American Board. In 1832, while co-operation was still maintained with the American Board, there was a separate Board of Foreign Missions in the Dutch Church, and in 1857 it became independent. Its principal fields of operation are China, Japan, India, and Arabia.
"True Reformed Dutch Protestant Church"
The only defection that the Reformed (Dutch) Church in Ameri- ca has had for its more than two centuries of existence (except the Christian Reformed church) was the schism known by the above title, but so small and so devoid of influence was this secession that it was hardly worth while to call it a division. There were but two classes organized, one in New Jersey and the other here in Mont- gomery county, popularly called the "Wyckofite" church because one of the separatists was Rev. Henry V. Wyckoff whose personality for a generation kept the schism alive, tho for the most part thro the years it had but little more than a name. Its inceptor was Rev. Solo- monmon Froeligh of Hackensack, N. J., a professor in the church seminary recently founded, joined with whom were Revs. Abram Brokaw of Ovid, N. Y., Sylvanus Palmer of Union (Montg. Co.) N. Y., Rev. H. V. Wyckoff of the Charleston, N. Y. church, and Rev. J. C. Toll of Mapletown, N. Y., both in Montgomery county. The schism came in 1822 and was brot about largely by the limited atonement" preaching of Rev. Conrad Ten Eyck of Owasco, formerly of the Re- formed churches of Amsterdam, Mayfield, and Johnstown. It resulted in the suspension of the above ministers from the Reformed Dutch church ministry. In 1820 General Synod (R. P. D. C.) had re- solved that the Particular Synod of Albany should organize a new classis of Sharon, Rhinebeck, Johnstown, Mayfield, Westerlo, Middletown, Fonda's Bush, Albany Bush, Ovid, and the Second Church of Charleston, but this the Synod of Albany refused to do in 1821, because of the "disrespect and insubordination" shown by several of the pastors of these churches of the Dutch church. Nothing daunted, the dissenters met and moved to suspend the whole ministry of the Reformed Dutch church which action begun was not carried out. Later in ecclesiastical differences ensuing between these two classes each suspended the other and in terms that are not current in the language of religious bodies of this
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day. In New Jersey the spirit of contention was centered in the Schraalenberg church where one of two pastors had obtained un- fairly a title from the Governor to certain church property. Manu- script evidence is in hand of the writer to show that these men, headed by Prof. Froeligh, were preparing for some time for the break. We have gone thro the private correspondence of one of the malcontents, and have also looked thro the printed pamphlets and reports of their General Synods which were kept up for a quarter of a century, and we have failed to discover any logical basis for separation or any work the "Trues" did that was worth while. The General Synods were gatherings largely of a two-fold nature, to discipline and collect assessments with which to pay the traveling expenses of the delegates.
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