USA > New York > Ulster County > The history of Ulster County, New York > Part 36
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But while we glory in our Dutch ancestry, we are not unmindful of the multitudinous strains of that French Huguenot blood which were trans- fused into the veins of our progenitors. This blend of the characteristic qualities of the vivacious Gallic race with the more plodding Batavians, issued in a product which united the better elements of both. And in the fact that the Dutch provinces offered asylum from the persecutions of neighboring realms, where the benignant air of toleration en- couraged the growths of a pure religion, there was imparted a liberal breadth and kindly sympathy which allowed the diversities of faith. A freedom from tolerance and narrowness has been a constant aspect of people of Dutch stock. While they have not been indifferent in main- taining a purity of creed, no bigotry nor zealotry have incited them to brandish the sword of persecution.
From a people incorporating such distinguishing elements, the Dutch Church of Ulster County traces its direct sources. From the time of its transplanting two and a half centuries ago, it has preserved the birth- marks which avouch its noble parentage.
The Dutchman under alien skies reproduced precisely the type of doc- trine and modes of ecclesiastical government which had prevailed in
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Holland. It is suggestive that it was not until the year 1800, that the Colonists or their children would consent to abandon the use of the Dutch language in public worship.
These facts predetermine the phases of our history as a denomination in this county. They imposed on our expansion some limitations which de- layed our thorough Americanization, and were the occasion for the up- springing of diverse churches which declined to be assimilated with a body which so long remained essentially foreign. This foreign adhesion is illustrated in the case of the old mother-church in Kingston which re- fused to sunder its ecclesiastical relation with the Classis of Amsterdam until near the beginning of the nineteenth century. But notwithstanding this perpetuation of an old world type, it was the Dutch Church which, in a human way, created the spiritual climate and fructified the soil, which has enabled churches of different orders to spring and flourish about us. Their vitality is the transferred legacy and endowment of such Christian forces as have issued out of the loins of the church which we still fondly call "Dutch."
The moulding of the moral history of Ulster County is to be largely credited to influences and impulses which had their birth in the old Dutch Church of Kingston, and which incited the various ecclesiastical activities of our present time. The earliest crystallization of the religious instincts of our fathers culminating in the formation of a church in Kingston-then called Wiltwyck, and afterward Esopus, is overhung with a mist of obscurity. The earliest annals recite that on the 29th day of May, 1658, and the day following, being "Ascension Day," "the people having no church edifice, assembled at the house of Jacob Jansen Stoll, to keep the festival." They appear to have had at this time no minister in full orders, but were served by a schoolmaster, who was appointed as a "Voorleser," i. e., whose office virtually corresponded with that of a Curate in the Church of England, whose duty it was to act as a lay reader, and catechise the children and instill the elements of Christian faith.
Tradition has named the first appointee to this office, one Andrus van der Sluys. The name of Andries Jacobus van Slyke, has also been named by one authority as this person. From exact similarity of meaning, i. e., a sluice-way, the one name may have been substituted for the other. This Voorleser was appointed by the Colonial Governor Petrus Stuy- vesant. That his appointment was justified is seen by the fact that a spirit
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was developed under his curacy which took shape in a definite church organization, according to the polity of the mother country, which was predominantly Presbyterian. In August, 1659, this newly-formed church invited Hermanus Blom from Holland, to become its pastor. They prom- ised to provide Dominie Blom with a good farm or bowerie, house and barn, cows and oxen, and pay him 700 guilders, i. e., $280, at beaver valu- ation, to commence from the 5th of September, in 1660. Entering on his ministerial duties, he made the first record, in the first volume of the books of the church, as follows:
"I, Hermanus Blom, the first preacher in the land of Esopus, preached my first sermon on the 12th day of September, 1660, having arrived there on the 5th day of the month in the Company's yacht."
The Reverend Blom was born in Amsterdam in 1628, and graduated from Leyden University in Theology in 1652. After seven years service in Esopus, he returned to Holland. His original commission reads, he was "ordained to preach on water and on the land and in all the neigh- borhood, but especially at Esopus." He appears to have been a man of superior parts, under whose pastorate the young Church rapidly devel- oped. The Dominie being a virtual autocrat, largely shaped by his per- sonal force as well as his official character, the opinions and life of the nascent community. It must have been an idyllic state of things when a true and faithful servant of God could thus dominate the entire population.
The first Church edifice was constructed of logs, in 1661, on ground now occupied by a barn of the late Augustus H. Bruyn. This first rude building was, two or three years later, replaced by a commodious stone structure on the southeast corner of the present Church-yard. This, later, became a point toward which the scattered inhabitants of outlying districts as far away as New Paltz, Stone Ridge, Woodstock, and Saugerties con- verged Sunday by Sunday. Space forbids a recital of the quiet growth which advanced until the Revolutionary period; for several generations the history of religious life in Ulster County coincided mainly with the history of the Church now commonly designated as "The First Dutch." The imposing Charter of this Church, written on a large sheet of parch- ment, was issued by the English Government, under whose care the young colony had passed, and bears the date of Nov 17, 1719.
The several Churches of the Reformed order which sprang up in the adjacent parts of the County, were all progeny of the mother in Kings- ton, and some were directly due to her incubating influence. The
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history of any particular Church in this contribution to the story of Ulster County, from the nature of the case, as well as the limitations of space, can consist of little more than superficial annals and statistics. Back of these are impalpable spiritual elements which distinguish a true Church of God from various human organizations, and which are beyond the compass of narration.
In chronological order, the first Church springing from the loins of the mother Church, was the Reformed Church of New Paltz. The Hugue- not Refugees from France and the Palatinate who had found among the Dutch in Kingston, welcome and hospitality, withdrew in a body to the fertile and beautiful valley of the Wallkill, and directly organized a Church where they might worship in their native French tongue. Under the moulding hand of the Rev. Pierre Daillie, its formal life began in 1683, since which time its uninterrupted life has grown into noble proportions. For a number of years, it stood apart by itself without ecclesiastical relation to the Denomination in this country. In 1772, it became affiliated with the general body of the Reformed Church. Until this date, its people had refused to take sides in a schism which unhappily divided the entire Dutch Church, and which is known as the Coetus and Conferentiae controversy. The point at issue was the question whether the Church should find its ministry in our native soil, for which the Coetus party contended, or whether they should be drawn only from the schools of the Netherland, as the Conferentiae faction resolutely con- tended. The sharpness of the controversy laid an arresting blight on the expansion of the Church, nowhere more unhappily than in Ulster County, and neutralized to a material extent the advantages of prior occupancy, while it afforded opportunity to other ecclesiastical bodies to press in and possess the land. Moreover, the tenacity with which the Dutch congre- gations clung to the use of their original language, long after the English tongue prevailed as the vernacular in social and business life, operated as a limitation on expansion.
The Americanization of the Church has long since effaced almost the recollection of these phases of an earlier life. In no Church of the County have the surviving spirit and vigor found more conspicuous illustration than in the well-equipped and influential Church of New Paltz.
The next Church to crystallize in an organization in 1701, was that at Accord, in the town of Rochester-coinciding with the beginning of the
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life of the community itself. It shared for several years, the fostering care of the Revs. Petrus Vas and G. W. Mancius of Kingston. The certificate of incorporation of this Church was executed in 1788. After enjoying the intermittent services of occasional supplies of its pulpit by Theodorus Frelinghuysen, Schureman, and others, in 1766, the notable Dirick Romeyn was ordained, and as Pastor, took charge of the three Churches of Rochester, Marbletown and Wawarsing. He has been described as "unquestionably the first man in our Church in his day, and among the first in the entire American Church." This particular Church appears to have bred men of exceptional power, among whom may be named Martinus Schoonmaker, and Henricus, his brother, Cornelius D. West- brook, John Hardenbergh and James B. Hardenbergh.
What is now known as the Reformed Church of Saugerties is, so far as the ecclesiastical organization is concerned, identical with the old Church of Katsbaan. The first house of worship was built in 1732 on the beautiful hill where the present Church of Katsbaan now stands. The early records of the Church yield little matter for history. The twin Church of Saugerties was separated from Katsbaan in 1839.
The life of the Church of Marbletown, now known as Stone Ridge, dates from the year 1737. North Marbletown was organized in 1851, and was an offshoot of Stone Ridge.
Another Church which dates from the Eighteenth century is that at the place described as Klein Esopus, organized in 1791, and incorporated in 1793. The picturesque old brick edifice crowning a hill at Ulster Park remains a center of hallowing influence.
The Reformed Church of North Esopus at Port Ewen, an offshoot from Klein Esopus, was organized in 1851, since which time it has steadily grown in membership and usefulness.
Another Reformed Church which also dates from the Eighteenth century is that of Bloomingdale, which took definite shape in 1796.
Very nearly coinciding in their antiquity are the Churches of Shokan, organized in 1791, and Woodstock, in 1799.
The first to decorate the beginning of the Nineteenth century was the Church of old Hurley, which began its independent existence in 1801.
The earlier half of the Nineteenth century was the fecund age of the Dutch Church in Ulster. A wave of fervor and zeal manifested itself at widely separated points. This was expressed at Roxbury in 1802, in
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the Church which has recently been reconstituted as the Jay Gould Memorial Church. Next following in 1807, the Church of Flatbush was started. The Reformed Church of the Clove (High Falls) also dates from 1807. Dashville Falls was originated in 1831. The Church of Guil- ford crystallized in an independent organization in 1833. Next in order of time were Plattekill in 1838 and the village Church of Saugerties in 1839. Blue Mountain emerged into history in 1851 in the same year, as stated above, with Port Ewen and North Marbletown. Shandaken Church took form in 1854. Next following the Churches named came the organi- zation of the Church at Rosendale in 1843; its branch Church at the Plains assumed shape in 1897. West Hurley followed Rosendale in 1848.
The vital and prosperous Fair Street Reformed Church of Kingston, a swarm from the over-crowded hive of the First Dutch, was formed in 1849. Blue Mountain began simultaneously with the Churches of Port Ewen and Krumville and North Marbletown in 1851. In 1864, St. Remy was constituted an independent Church, though under the care of a neigh- boring Pastor.
The Church of the Comforter in Kingston, frequently called the Church of Wiltwyck, owes its origin, in 1863, to the generous enterprise of a single Christian family, whose large benificence has since been amply justified. In 1876, the Church of Lyonsville was born; in 1891, that of Gardiner ; and in 1898, that at Brown's Station, whose expressive name is "Church of the Faithful." By the proposed reservoir of New York this last is destined to be effaced.
The Churches thus far enumerated are confederate in two groups, known as the Classis of Ulster and that of Kingston.
The Classis is the unit of ecclesiastical power in the Reformed Church, and has supreme control in the government and supervision of individual Churches and in the settlement and removal of ministers. It holds two regular sessions each year in the various Churches in rotation, at which reports of the individual Churches are rendered, as well as such special sessions as occasion may require. It is constituted by a Minister and one Elder from each Church.
Other Churches lying outside the jurisdiction of the two Classis of Ulster and Kingston, though within the bounds of Ulster County, are those of Shawangunk, whose organization is uncertainly placed by some as early as 1737; and that of New Prospect, constituted in 1815.
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The Wallkill Valley Church was incorporated in 1869; New Hurley in 1770; Plattekill in 1839; Ellenville in 1840; Wawarsing, at Napanoch, in 1845. These Churches in their respective localities continue to yield gratifying evidence of abounding vitality while illustrating a wide-spread leavening influence.
The mere dates and annals to which this sketch confines us, while exhibiting the external chronicles of the Reformed Churches which have sprung up within the bounds of the County of Ulster, are manifestly incompetent to unfold all the lore of history of which they are the external exponents. They avouch a high measure of spiritual devotion and earnest- ness; and the usefulness and prosperity which have accompanied their growth attest the sanction and favor of Heaven. As qualified by human conditions, some of them, very few indeed, have suffered impoverishment and decline, from changes in secular fortune which have befallen them ; but the greater number remain in abounding usefulness and expanding power, as citadels of the Kingdom of God in this County.
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CHAPTER XXXVI. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
By MONSIGNOR, THE VERY REVEREND RICHARD LALOR BURTSELL, D.D.
W HILE the Dutch were following up their discovery of the Hudson River by their settlement of Esopus and Fort Orange, the Jesuits were extending their labors among the Indians inhabiting the present State of New York. The first missionary who entered about 1642 within the borders of the State, Father Jogues accompanied by a party of Hurons, was taken captive by the Iroquois or Mohawks. Though beaten with clubs and stones, his finger nails pulled, the index finger of both hands gnawed, the thumb of his right hand cut off by an Algonquin woman-a Christian-at the command of her Iroquois master, yet as soon as he had the chance, he instructed such Indians as he found disposed, in the mys- teries of the Christian faith, and baptized dying children. He afterwards made his escape by the assistance of Arendt Van Curler, who had pre- viously made several attempts in his favor. The Dutch protected him even at the risk of war, and paid the Indians one hundred pieces of gold for his ransom. The minister of Fort Orange, John Megalopensis, took a great interest in him. Sailing down the Hudson, they certainly touched at Ronduit-the redoubt to protect Esopus or Wiltwyck. Governor Kieft and the inhabitants of New Amsterdam received him with great kind- ness; the Governor provided him with a passage to Holland. In New Amsterdam, Father Jogues found only two Catholics, a Portuguese woman and an Irishman. Governor Dongan was directed by the Duke of York, to detach the Five Nations from the French, who had gained great influence through the zealous labors of the missionaries. To coun- teract this a Jesuit mission was established in New York, and the purpose was to form at Saratoga a Catholic village of Iroquois Indians under English influence. Fathers Harvey, Harrison and Gage actually started in New York a college, of which Jacob Leisler, a later fanatical usurper of the government, wrote to the Governor of Boston in August, 1689:
R. L. Burtsell
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"I have formerly urged to inform your Honr. that Coll. Dongan in this time did direct a Jesuit colledge upon collour to learn Latine to the judges West, Mr. Graham, Judge Palmer and John Indor did contribute their sones for some time but no boddy initating them, the colledge van- ished."
We read in the Records and studies, U. S. Cath. Histor. Society, Jan. 1899, Vol. I, p. 35, that from 1683 to 1690 "Fathers Harrison, Harvey and Gage, Jesuit ministers to the Catholics scattered through New York and New Jersey and traces of their ministrations are found from Esopus in Ulster County to Staten Island." Father A. E. Jones, S. J., in Griffin's Amer. Cath Historical Researches, Vol. XXI., Jan., 1904, tells of a Jesuit Father Francois Vaillant de Guesilis who on December 31st, 1682, was sent from Canada to plead for peace with Gov. Dongan, but was back in Montreal by the end of February following. Griffin in Amer. Cath. Hist. Researches, Jan., 1901, p. 12, says that this "Father Vaillant was at Cutaracony (Kingston, N. Y.) in the year 1688, escorted by two Indians who were sent by Gov. Dongan to prevent him from having any intercourse with the Mohawks, his former flock."
We have a curious item mentioned in Doc. Hist. N. Y., Vol. XI., p. 205 : "Some articles of value which heretofore belonged to the Canadian Jesuit, Valiand of Canada" 12 little patrenoster chains (rosaries) I priest's white surplice. Leisler writing to Governor of Boston, 7th April, 1690, wrote: "In searching Livingstone's house we found a case belonging to a French Jesuit of Canada and some Indian Categisms and the lesson to learn to make their God before they ate him, with crucifix."
In 1673 the enactment of the last of the Dutch Governors, reviving the Stuyvesant system, directed the local magistrates "to take care that the Reformed Christian religion be maintained in conformity to the Synod of Dordrecht, without permitting any other sects attempting anything contrary thereto." The Catholic English Governor Col. Dongan in 1683, had passed in the first legislative Assembly in New York the Bill of Rights which declared that "No person or persons which profess faith in God by Jesus Christ shall at any time be anyways molested, punished, disquieted or called in question for any difference of opinion or matter of religious concernment, who do not actually disturb the civil peace of the province."
This was in accord with the instructions of James, Duke of York in 1679 to Governor Andros. Marius Schoonmaker, the historian of Kings-
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ton, goes out of his way to apologize for the revocation of this liberal spirit and the intolerance of Governor Bellmont under King William in 1700 when he sanctioned the law requiring Jesuits and Popish priests to leave the province by the Ist of November following under penalty of perpetual imprisonment. This Bellmont was the son of a Colonel Coote whose butcheries of Catholics in Ireland stand out horribly even on the records of that unhappy island. The preamble of the law is a tissue of lies : "Whereas divers Jesuits, Priests and Popish Missionaries have of late come and for some time have had their residence in the remote parts of this province and others of his Majesty's adjacent colonies, who by their wicked and subtle insinuations industriously labour to debauch, seduce and withdraw the Indians from their due obedience to His most sacred Majesty, and to excite them up to sedition, rebellion and open hostility to His Majesty's government."
The law enacted that every priest remaining in the province after the passage of the law, or coming in after November, 1700, should be "deemed and accounted an incendiary and disturber of the public peace and safety, and an enemy of the Christian religion, and shall be adjudged to suffer perpetual imprisonment. Any priest imprisoned under the act who escaped from his dungeon was liable to the penalty of death if retaken. Any one who harbored a Catholic priest was subject to a fine of two hundred and fifty pounds, and was to stand on the pillory for three days." The next year a law passed by which "Papists and Popish recusants were prohibited from voting for members of Assembly or any office whatever from thenceforth and forever. The usual oaths against Transubstantiation and of allegiance to the house of Hanover were taken by the members of the Council and other officials. An effect of these proscriptions was the hanging in New York of a Rev. John Ury in 1741 ostensibly on account of a pretended participation in the notorious negro plot, but in reality on account of his being supposed to be a priest. The few poor Catholics who lived there must have suffered many trials. A man did not dare avow himself a Catholic, says Watson: "It was odious."
It is pleasant to remember that Kingston is permanently connected with the memory of the Constitution of New York of 1777 which "guaranteed the free exercise and enjoyment of religious worship, not degenerating with license inconsistent with the public peace"-though against the wishes of some one who would exclude Catholics. John Jay's influence prompted
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the giving to the Legislature "discretion to pass an act to naturalize persons born out of the United States on condition of their abjuring all foreign authority ecclesiastical as well as civil"-the ecclesiastical abjura- tion being directed against Catholics. Congress, however, having re- served to itself the power of making laws of naturalization, this clause and the accompanying amendment became inoperative. By act of April, 1801, the clauses against transubstantiation and foreign ecclesiastical allegiance, were inserted in the official oath. Such Catholics as were in the city of New York in 1781-1782 heard mass in private houses. At the time of its evacuation by the British troops in 1783 they began, per- haps 200 in number, to assemble for the open celebration of the offices of religion. A Jesuit, Father Farmer, whose real name was Steenmeyer, was the first priest to officiate for them. He came on from Philadelphia occasionally for that purpose. The law of 1700 in regard "to Popish priests and Jesuits" was repealed by an express act of the Legislature of New York in 1804. The Catholics must have increased rapidly for to the petition got up by the Trustees of St. Peter's Church in 1806 for the abrogation of the obnoxious clauses of the official oath, there were 1,300 signatures, presumably of Catholics, as the wording of the petition would indicate. The petition was granted by the Legislature of 1806.
These facts explain sufficiently why not many Catholics had settled in New York during the century which elapsed from King William's reign and the triumph of American Independence. After this, however, there was an increase in the number of Catholics, not a few of whom scattered throughout the State. The needs of the greater number who remained in New York City retained, to a great extent, the services of the few priests whom they could obtain from abroad. Yet the priests would not omit going in search of those scattered, but began to look them up, lest they should be absolutely deprived of the ministrations of their faith; hence came the title of "roving priests" given to these early pioneers of the Catholic faith throughout New York.
The one first mentioned as likely to come in contact with Ulster County is a Father Arthur Langdill who was stationed in Newburgh by Bishop Connelly from 1817 to 1818. In Bishop Connelly's note book we find these notes : "Oct. 22, 1817. I addressed a letter to Rev. Arthur Langdill empowering him to celebrate mass, administer the sacraments and perform all priestly duties that do not require the Episcopal character throughout
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