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 9
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
73
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY CLASSIS
place he went in 1852 to Fort Herkimer (German Flatts) and con- tinued there until 1857, when he ceased the active work of the min- istry. Mr. Stark preached for several years at Mohawk, Frankfort and Fort Herkimer on every Sunday, covering the eleven miles with horse and wagon. His first pastorate of twenty years was at West Brattle- boro, Vt. (1820-1840). Rev. Elbert Slingerland came to Mohawk in 1865 and after a couple years work became a pastor emeritus, and died in 1875 at the age of seventy-five. This was his second pastorate, the first occuring during 1855 and 1856. He also preached at Haga- man (cf) and Chittenango in this Classis. Rev. John W. Hammond followed Slingerland in 1856 and staid thro 1859. He had several other pastorates in the Dutch church, and died in 1876, soon after the close of his pastorate at Roxbury, N Y. Rev. Charles D. K. Nott succeeded Mr. Hammond in 1859 and preached for five years, when he entered the Presbyterian church ministry. Then came the second pastorate of Mr. Slingerland, of which we have spoken above. Rev. G. D. W. Consaul (later pastor at Herkimer-cf) supplied the pulpit at Mohawk during 1867-1869, at which time he was ordained by the Classis of Montgomery. Rev. Frederick F. Wilson became pastor in 1870, coming from the Scotia church, thro a part of 1872. After a few other short pastorates he became inactive, about 1890, and twenty years later died at Asbury Park, N. J., in 1910.
Rev. Francis M. Bogardus was called to Mohawk in 1872 and resigned in 1876. He continued in the active pastorate for twenty years more, and has for some years been living retired at Asbury Park, N. J. Rev. John G. Lansing (son of Dr. Julian Lansing, a missionary at Damascus) was born in Syria at Damascus in the street called "Straight." He was licensed and ordained by the Montgomery Classis in 1887 and installed over the Mohawk church, which pulpit he occupied for three years. After a second pastorate of five years at West Troy (1879-1884) he was made Professor of Hebrew in New Brunswick Seminary, which chair he occupied for fifteen years when he resigned to take up editorial work at Denver, Co., where he died in 1906. He was the author of several volumes on Old Testa- ment exegesis, and the founder in the Reformed church of the Arabian Mission. Rev. James Edmondson was licensed by the Mont- gomery Classis in 1868; the next record of him is as supply at Cicero (1879-1881), from which field he was called in 1881 to the Mohawk church which he served until some time in 1886, when he went to Sedalia, Mo., where he died. In 1882 Rutgers gave him the degree of Ph. D. Rev. John H. Brandow succeeded to the pastorate in 1886 and resigned in 1888. He was ordained by the Montgomery Classis. He went from Mohawk to the Oneonta Presbyterian church, from which field he canie back into the Reformed ministry in 1895, and settled at Schuylerville. In 1905 he was called to Schoharie, and was there until 1908 when he became the Albany Synodical Mission- ary which position he still fills, with residence at Albany, N. Y. The next pastor was Rev. Albert Dod Minor who was licensed in 1879 by the Classis of Montgomery, and ordained and installed over the church at St. Johnsville (cf). In 1888 Mr. Minor came to the Mohawk field, at the same time, and for a few years following his resignation from Mohawk (1891) supplying the pulpit at Fort Herkimer. . Mr. Minor died in 1910. Following Mr. Minor was the Rev. Ira Van Allen (previously pastor at Owasco), who was installed pastor
74
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY CLASSIS
in 1892 and remained thro 1898, to be succeeded by the Rev. Edward J. Meeker, who was ordained in 1899 by the Montgomery Classis and installed over this church. Mr. Meeker also supplied Fort Herkimer. He resigned in 1903, going to Highland Park church, New Brunswick, N. J. He returned to the Classis in 1909 and took up the work at Glen, now in the Lodi church. Rev. Charles W. Kinney who followed had already had a pastorate at St. Johnsville (1893-1899), having gone from that field (cf) to the Presbyterian church of Hobart, N. Y. In 1906 he returned to the Classis and was installed over the Mohawk church (also supplying Fort Herkimer) which church he continued to serve until 1911 when he went to the Schoharie church. Since 1913 he has been in the Schuylerville Reformed church. The present pastor of the church, Rev. Oscar E. Beckes, was called from the Manlius Presbyterian church in 1912.
NAUMBURGH REFORMED CHURCH
This village lies a mile east of Castorland, a station sixty- five miles north of Utica on the Black River division of the New York Central R. R. Be- 10 hind Castorland is the story of an attempt to found in the - wilds of the New World by an exiled nobility and clergy of the old regime in France, a secure retreat from the horrors of Revolution in the Old. In August, 1792, a French company bought a large tract in the Macomb Purchase, on both sides of the Black river, 610,000 acres. Later two-thirds of this was given up. Castorland means the "land of beavers," the Iroquois term being Couch-sach-ra-ge, "Beaver Hunting Country." A pamphlet descriptive of the place was published in Paris, where the details of the settlement were most elaborately planned-an im- practicable Utopia, doomed at its inception to failure, tho many took shares. The founding of Castorland is a story well worth reading, tho terribly tragic in its conclusions. One finds its counterparts in the Jacobite settlement at Cape Fear, or the Huguenots at Port Royal, or Arcadie in Nova Scotia, or New Sweden on the Delaware, or New Am- sterdam on the Hudson. Ancient Castorland lives now only in poetry and history-a story of highly colored but unfulfilled promise, of bright hopes forever deferred, of man's titanic but fruitless endeavor, of woman's tragic tears.
The Reformed church is situated on what is known as Macomb's Purchase, who owned practically the land of the whole county. The western part was sold to New York City capitalists while the east- ern section went to a French company at Paris (cf West Leyden). In the early part of the last century a French nobleman by name of James Donatien Le Ray, Count de Chaumont, who had come to man- age the land, gave to the Prussian settlement now called Naumburgh, sufficient land (about an acre) for school and cemetery purposes, and about thirty acres for the church. He could afford to be thus gener-
75
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY CLASSIS
ous for he owned 348,205 acres in Franklin, St. Lawrence, Lewis and Jefferson counties. This was in 1852, and the church, which had been already organized in 1850, was a Lutheran body. In 1855 the Re- formed church, by request of the Lutheran Synod, took over the con- gregation and Classis organized a Reformed church. Naumburgh is a small village about sixty-six miles north of Utica in Lewis county on the Black river, while the church is about a mile from the village. The first Reformed minister to serve the church was Rev. William Wolfe, who came in January, 1855. There were eighteen charter members. As long as New Bremen Reformed church was in ex- istence (cf) the pastors at Naumburgh supplied that pulpit also (six miles distant). The parsonage was built during Wolfe's pastorate. He remained until 1860. He went to 3d Hackensack, and in 1866 was preaching at Plainfield, N. J. Rev. Carl Becker was called in 1860 from 3d Hackensack and was the pastor for nine years. In the early part of 1870 Rev. John Boehrer of Damascus, Pa. became the pastor, remained five years, during which time extensive repairs were made upon the church building. There were sixty-nine members at this time, and a Sunday School of thirty-five. Boehrer's pastorate began in fine spirit but its close ended in the refusal of the entire congregation to attend the services. He resigned on June 1, 1876. He worked for the American Tract Society for some years after leav- ing Naumburgh, and spent the last years of his life in Buffalo, where he died in 1913.
Rev. H. W. Warnshius was ordained and installed over the church on June 26, 1877. In a brief period the church revived, the member- ship grew to nearly a hundred, the church became self-supporting, and the entire religious life of the community was quickened. This pastorate came to a close in April, 1889. Warnshuis later entered the Presbyterian church for work in Dakota. Rev. Peter A. Moel- ling came to the church in the latter part of 1880, and staid until the summer of 1884. He was succeeded by Henry Unglaub in 1885, who remained three years. During the years 1889 and 1890 the pulpit was occasionally supplied by the late Rev. J. W. Geyer of New York and Rev. F. E. Schlieder of West Leyden. Rev. Wm. F. Barny of the Seminary at Bloomfield supplied the pulpit during the summer of 1891 and 1892. In 1893, on his graduation from New Brunswick, Barny accepted a call to Naumburgh and was ordained by Mont- gomery Classis and installed over the church. He spent four years, the last of the settled pastors, resigning September 13, 1896. John Bombin (now of Hackensack, N. J.) a New Brunswick student, spent the summer of 1889 on the field and George Schnucker the summer of 1897. He is now at German Valley, Ill. Rev. Theodore F. Hahn, an ordained missionary of the Presbyterian church, spent the summer of 1903 on the field. For the past fifteen years services have been held occasionally, conducted by the Synodical and Classical missionaries, and others.
76
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY CLASSIS
OW ASCO REFORMED CHURCH
Cayuga county, in which Owasco is situated, was formed in 1790 from the Onondaga military tract, a large land area, pur- chased of the Indians, and used by the government for paying the land boun- ties given the soldiers of
the Revolution. Simeon De Witt (N. Y. State Sur- veyor-General) laid out this tract, giving classic names to most of the com- munities. Cammerhoff in 1750 wrote the name of the place, "Achs'-go." The first settler of the country was Roswell Franklin (1789). In 1792 Capt. John L. Hardenburgh bought six hundred acres of land near Owasco Lake. Col. Harden- burgh settled about three miles from the foot of the lake, his house being about where the Auburn City Hall now is. Auburn was called "Hardenburgh's Corners" until 1805. Here near Owasco was the settlement of the Alleghans who occupied the land for several centuries before Columbus came, and until the Cayugas conquered them. The place was called Osco or Wasgough (Owasco). The cele- brated Indian chief, Logan, was born here. The first of the Harden- burghs had come to America from the Netherlands in 1640. Sir John Hardenburgh was knighted by Queen Anne for gallantry at the de- cisive battle of Blenheim. Of his six sons (and six daughters) Johanes (1706-1786) lived at Rosendale, N. Y., and was a Colonel in the Ulster Co. Militia for twenty years, a Colonial Assembly member (1743- 1750), and also of the first Provincial Congress (1775). The old Hard- enburgh house is still standing in Ulster county. His son, Johannes, Jr., was Colonel of the 4th Ulster Regt. during the Revolution. Jacob Rutsen Hardenburgh, a brother, was Queens (now Rutgers) first college president. Leonardus Hardenburgh, son of Sir John Harden- burgh (b1714) had a son, John L., who was a Lieutenant in the 7th Co. N. Y. (1776), Adjutant in 1789, and Captain of Levies in 1782. Ten years later he came into this country where he died April 25, 1806. The first settlers in 1792 were Benjamin and Samuel DePuy and Moses Cortright from Orange County, and Jacob and Roeliff Brinkerhoff from Harrisburgh, Pa. In 1795 the families of Jacob Roeliff and Luke Brinkerhoff, Thomas Johnson, Jacob Loyster, An- drew Johnson, Abraham Bodine, Isaac Parsell, James Dales and Charles Van Tine came from the Conewago Reformed church near Gettysburgh, Pa. These later settlers met at Col. Hardenburgh's home September 23, 1796, organized the Owasco church, and, later (1797), built the first house of worship in Cayuga county. They found here on coming, the families of Adam Tries, Daniel Miller, Elijah Price, and Benjamin DePuy. Later came the Cuykendalls and Gumaers from Orange county (N. J.). Of the first missionaries there
77
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY CLASSIS
were Rev. Daniel Thatcher, and Rev. Asa Hillyer of Orange, N. J., Rev. Matthew Perrine, Rev. James Richards and Rev. Henry Miller, also of New Jersey, these last becoming teachers in Aubury Semin- ary. The organization took place at the home of Col John L. Hardenburgh, the founder of the city of Auburn on September 23, 1796. In 1796 Rev. Peter Labagh was sent to the western part of New York with Rev. Jacob Sickles. In Todd's Life of Dr. Labagh the latter is said to have organized Owasco in 1796. In 1797 the first church was erected, at a spot about midway between what are now Owasco and Owasco Outlet. It was built of logs, twenty-five feet by thirty feet, with four windows each eighteen inches square, and slabs for seats. It served the congregation for eighteen years. The first consistory consisted of Elders Jacob Brinckerhoff and Cornelius Van Auken, and Deacons Roeliff Brinckerhoff and Thomas Johnson. Col. Hardenburgh married the same year Martina Brinck- erhoff and the names of their two children, John Herring and Maria are on the Owasco register (1798-1800), Rev. Abram Brokaw, pastor. Col. Hardenburgh died in 1806. The consistory at the time of the building of the church consisted of Elders James Brinckerhoff, Thomas Johnson, Cornelius De Witt and Jacob Brinckerhoff, and Deacons Samuel Hornbeck, Abram Selover, Levy Boadly and Isaac Selover.
The ground on which the present church is built was given by Martin Cuykendall. Three or four years were spent in the building of the second house of worship. In 1811 a subscription was made for the work, and in 1813 the seats were sold for $3,772 and $1,300 ad- ditional was raised. This enabled them to build in 1815. Rev. Abram Brokaw was the first pastor at Owasco. It was also his first pastorate and lasted twelve years, when he accepted a call to the church at Ovid, where he remained fourteen more years, or until 1822 when he joined the "True Reformed" or "Wyckofite" church, for which secession he was suspended by the Classis. Rev. George G. Brinckerhoff, from whose congregation at Conewaga, Pa. many families had migrated into Cayuga and Genesee counties, New York, and who was settled at Sempronius, N. Y. (near Owasco) supplied the pulpit until the coming of Rev. Conrad Ten Eyck in 1812. The entire active ministry of Mr. Ten EVER9-1830 "wa's in the Montgomery Classis at Mayfield, Veddersburgh (Amsterdam), Fonda's Bush, Sand Beach and Owasco, at the latter place preaching for fifteen years. In the call the churches at Owasco and Sand Beach (Owasco Outlet) promised each to give Mr. Ten Eyck $150 and 150 bushels of wheat an- nually. The nearest market at the time for wheat was Utica where it sold for a dollar a bushel. During his pastorate here, or in 1816, a great revival swept over the two congregations, resulting in ad- ditions to the churches of three hundred and fifty-one members. Three years later on complaint of a few members Mr. Ten Eyck was tried by the Classis on the charge of teaching a free and unlimited atonement. Both Classis and Particular Synod (to which body appeal was made) upheld the teaching and work of the good minister. This was in 1819. . At the close of his work in these two churches (1826) Mr. Ten Eyck retired from the active work of the ministry. His daughter Elizabeth, married Rev. Robert W. Hill, Auburn '26. Mr. Ten Eyck died in 1844 at East Gainesville in the eighty-eighth year of his age.
Rev. Israel Hammond succeeded Ten Eyck in the pastorate, com-
78
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY CLASSIS
ing in 1831, and remaining until 1839. He had two short pastorates later at Mt. Morris and Gorham, N. Y. He died in 1856. Rev. Wil- liam Evans was installed in 1839 and served seven years or until 1846, when he gave up the active work of the ministry. Rev. Jacob C. Dutcher came from New Brunswick Seminary to this his first charge and remained five years (1846-1850). After preaching for some thirty- three years he entered the consular service at Port Hope, Can. He died in 1888. Rev. Henry A. Raymond( father of Rev. Dr. A. V. V. Raymond) had a short pastorate of less than three years (1851-1853), but continued for twenty years in the work in other fields. He died in 1877. Rev. Wilson Ingalls followed Mr. Raymond in a twelve year service to the Owasco church (1853-1854). Mr. Ingalls studied theology under Dr. Nott of Union College and came from a ten year pastorate in the 1st Church of Glenville. Rev. George L. Raymond, Auburn '62, was a member of this church. He had a ten year pastorate at Blooming Grove, N. Y. He dicd in 1889. Following Mr. Ingalls came Rev. Alonzo Paige Peeke (1865-1872). After a pastorate of eight years in the Rhinebeck church, Mr. Peeke went west and served the churches at De Kalb, Ia., and Centreville, Mich. He gave a great deal of time and work to the institutions of the church at Holland, Mich. He was finishing a ten year work at East Millstone, N. J., when he died in 1900. He had two sons in the ministry, Louis Peeke, a Presbyterian pastor, and Harmon V. S. Peeke (born at Owasco), who since his graduation at Auburn Seminary in 1893, has been in the South Japan mission of the Reformed church. Rev. George H. Peeke (a brother of the former pastor) was called to the vacant pulpit and began work in the latter part of 1872 and staid until 1875. Mr. Peeke entered the Congregational ministry in 1876 and after twenty or more years in that denomination next began work (1898) in the Presby- terian church of Sandusky, O., where he died December 20, 1915.
At the beginning of the pastorate of Mr. Alonzo Peeke the "Wyckofite" or "True Reformed Church," a secession from the Dutch church, which began in 1823, was disbanded, the building being sold to the Methodists, and now used by them. The successor to George H. Peeke was Rev. Alfred E. Myers (1893-1915 in the Collegiate church of New York City), who after studying at New Bruns- wick and Princeton, graduated at Union Seminary in 1870. He began his work in the Owasco Reformed church in 1876 and closed it in 1878. In the second year of his work a division occurred in the church, resulting in the organization of a Presbyterian body, which Myers served for six or seven years. Other pastors were Rev. H. T. Chadsey, Rev. Mr. Hoyt, and Rev. D. I. Biggar. Afterwards for a not install. few years this church was supplied by students from Auburn Semin- ary. Lying vacant for many years, after a few brief pastorates, it was finally sold by the Presbytery to the Roman Catholics (1912). Naturally the old Dutch church suffered severely from this defection and its serious consequences can be traced even to the present day. Rev. Robert H. Barr became the next pastor, coming to the church in 1880 and remaining thro 1883. In 1888 Mr. Barr went to the Associate Reformed church located at Newburgh. Rev. Jonah W. Vaughn's pastorate (1884-1889) came next, followed by that of Rev. Ira Van Allen (1889-1892). Mr. Vaughn died in October, 1913. Mr. Van Allen later served Mohawk (1892-1898) and for a decade now has been supplying the church at Owasco Outlet. Rev. John A.
79
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY CLASSIS
Rodgers an Auburn Seminary graduate supplied Owasco for ten years, or until April, 1903. He became a member of the Classis of Montgom- ery in 1896, but was never installed over the church. Rev. Robert Ivey was received from the Syracuse Presbytery in 1903, installed over the church in October of the same year, and resigned in March, 1905. Rev. J. Cassius Sargent became stated supply of the church in August, 1905, and continued until September, 1910. He joined the Classis of Montgomery at the Spring session of 1910, but was never installed over the church. Leaving Owasco, Mr. Sargent went to the Cato Presbyterian church (originally Reformed-cf) but in September, 1912, be became pastor of the Liverpool Presbyterian church. The change in the community is evidenced in the fact that during Mr. Sargent's supply of five years he had seventy-eight funerals. Rev. Geo. G. Seibert came to Owasco from a pastorate of six years in the Hagaman, N. Y. church (cf). He began his work at Owasco on January 1, 1912. Mr. Seibert was the first pastor, educated in the schools of the church and trained in the experiences of the denomina- tion that the Owasco church had had for twenty years. This century- old church, whose light has never ceased to shine, still holds its place of power in the religious life of the community. There is manifest a deepening love for denominational activities and an awakening zeal for missions at home and abroad.
OW ASCO OUTLET REFORMED CHURCH
The original name of this church was "Sand Beach," by which it is still best known. The church is at the head of Owasco Lake, situate about three miles east of the city of Auburn. The history of Owasco is to be read in conjunction with the story of the Outlet church, as the same pastors frequently supplied both of the fields. As early as 1807 efforts were made to build a church at the Outlet, and an- other effort was made in 1810. In November of 1810, pews in the new church (not yet erected) were sold for $2,3$8.50, while Asa Jackson gave an acre of land on which to erect the new building. The church was incorporated in December, 1810. The year of the organization of the church is put in 1812. The first preaching at the "Sand Beach" church was by Rev. Abram Brokaw, who was also the first pastor at Owasco (1796-1808). But before this, at both Owasco and Owasco Outlet, preaching services had been more or less regularly conducted by the missionaries, Revs. Daniel Thatcher and Asa Hillyer from Orange, N. J, and Revs. Matthew Larue Per- rine, James Richards and Henry Mills of New Jersey also, the last three becoming professors at Auburn Seminary. The nearness of both of these fields (Owasco and Owasco Outlet) to the Presbyterian
80
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY CLASSIS
Seminary at Auburn has afforded easy opportunities for the pulpits to be supplied by the students of this school, especially during in- terims of the pastorates. This has meant, naturally, longer lapses between the pastorates than should have existed, and it has also resulted in distinct loss, thro certain periods, of the influences of the two churches upon the work of the denomination. The first pastor was Rev. Conrad Ten Eyck who also preached at Owasco (cf). He came to the church in 1812 and remained thro 1826. In 1816 eighty- nine additions were made to this church (two hundred and sixty-two at Owasco). Domine Ten Eyck was followed in 1826 by Rev. Benj. B. Westfall (1827-1828), who, after ten years in the Rochester church went to Stone Arabia (cf) where he died in 1844. For two years (1828 and most of 1829) the pulpit was supplied by Rev. John Dunlap, who died while preaching here, and by Rev. Henry Heermance, who died in 1846 while pastor at Kinderhook. Rev. John G. Tarbell supplied the Owasco Outlet church for two or three years (1830-1832). He spent some forty years of his life as a missionary in Michigan, where he died in 1880. Rev. Leonard Rogers became the pastor in 1833 and remained thro 1834. He died a few years later (1838). He was suc- ceeded by Rev. Robert Kirkwood (1836-1839), who died in 1866. Fol- lowing Rev. Mr. Kirkwood came Rev. John G. Moule, a Presbyterian minister who supplied the pulpit thro 1839-1841, and was followed by Rev. Richard W. Knight (1841-1844), who later supplied Cato, Ly- sander and Wolcott (cf) and died in 1873 after he had been out of the active work for some twenty years.
Rev. Aaron B. Winfield was next called to the church from the Presbyterian church at Friendsville, Pa. Mr. Winfield remained at Owasco Outlet from 1844 thro 1850, when he went to the Paramus N. J. church in which pastorate he died in 1856. Following this pastorate, Rev. Samuel Robbins Brown was called to the church in 1851 and resigned in 1859 to go to Japan where he spent ten years in missionary work. He had previous to the Owasco Outlet work spent nearly the same time in China in a Chinese Boys' School. On a furlough to this country in 1869 he supplied the pulpit of the Owasco Outlet church for a year. At the end of this furlough he again re- turned to Japan and gave ten more years of his services as teacher in Yokohama and Nigata. He died at Munson, Mass. in 1880, in the seventieth year of his age. Guido Fridolin Verbeck joined the Cayuga Classis in 1859 and became a member of Montgomery in 1889. He He knew seven languages,
went to Japan with Dr. Brown in 1895. and added Japanese in a few years. He was a citizen of the world. He founded Japan's system of education. One of his early pupils was Count Okuma, the premier of 1915. Verbeck of all foreigners who ever entered Japan may be justly termed its new creator. He died in 1898 at Tokio and was buried with imperial honors. The wife of Guido F. Verbeck (Maria Manion), noted missionary in Japan, Mrs. E. Rothesay Miller, late of the Japan mission, who was Mary E. Kidder, and Caroline Adriance, names honored in the story of Japan's Christianization, were all members of this church during Dr. Brown's pastorate. Miss Adriance died at Amoy, leaving all her property to the Foreign Board. Mrs. Miller founded Ferris Seminary at Yokahoma, Japan. Miss Hequemborg also went in- to the foreign work (1873) from this church. Dr. Brown had the distinction of being the pioneer teacher in Christian education in
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.