USA > Pennsylvania > Historical notes relating to the Pennsylvania Reformed Church, V. I > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24
In the course of time the Reformed people of Germantown crystallized into a congregation. On the 20th of May, in the year of Our Lord Jesus Christ 1710, says a cotemporary record, Mr. Paulus Van Vleeq was in- stalled pastor of the Church of Jesus Christ at Shannninie, Bensalem, and Jermantown, and the neighboring villages. A congregation was organized by this minister, to meet the needs of the Germantown people, on the 4th of June, 1710, under the name of the Whitemarsh church, with Hans Hendrick Meels as senior elder, Evert Ten Heuven junior eller, and Isaac Dilbeck senior deacon. On the 25th of December, 1710, the officers installed were: Evert Ten Heuven, senior elder; Isaac Dilbeck, junior elder; William Dewees, senior deacon; and Jan Aweeg, junior deacon. On the same day, Christmas, 1710, Sibes Bartels and Marytje Hendricks his wife, and Kasper Staels, were admitted to membership upon pro- fession of faith. The recorded members of the congregation in 1711 were: Hans Hendrick Meels, Isaac Dilbeek, Jan Aweeg, Antonie Geert Yerkes, Geertruij Reinbergh, Marritje Blomerse, wife of Isaac Dilbeck, Catrina (Christina ?) Meels, wife of William Dewees, Annchen Barents, wife of J. Pieterse, Maria Selle, wife of Gerret Ten Heuven, Evert Ton Heuven, Johannis Jodden, Johannis Revenstock, Geertrui Aweeg, Elizabeth Schipbouwer, wife of Evert Ten Heuven, Elsje Schol, Sibillae Revenstock,
41 -
HISTORICAL NOTES.
wife of Hendrick Tibben, Margaret Bon, wife of Kasper Staels. Pastor Van Vlecq's ministry apparently ended here in 1712.
About the year 1720, John Philip Behm, a parochial schoolmaster, then just arrived from the Palatinate of the Rhine, began to hold religious meetings among the Reformed settlers at Whitemarsh and elsewhere. On the 23rd of December, 1725, he administered the communion to twenty- four persons of the congregation which he had previously organized at the house of William Dewees, who then lived in the Crefeld district, on the Wissahickon. This congregation maintained an existence until 1745.
In 1727, George Michael Weiss, a regularly ordained Reformed min- ister, a graduate from Heidelberg, was chosen pastor of the Reformed congregation then organized in Philadelphia. About the same time he was placed over the High Dutch church at Germantown. On the 24th of November, 1729, he was more specifically placed in charge of the Phila- delphia and Germantown congregations by the ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church of New York city. Pastor Weiss then and there de- clared his desire to become subordinate to the Classis of Amsterdam, and promised to endeavor to bring his Germantown and Philadelphia congre- gations into similar relations. At the same meeting the New York minis- ters engaged to urge the Amsterdam Classis to send over whatever moneys had been collected in Europe in behalf of the congregations of Mr. Weiss at Germantown and Philadelphia.
Weiss went to Holland the following Spring in quest of funds for the churches, but when he returned to America he did not resume the pastor- ate at Germantown and Philadelphia, but preached in the Province of New York for some years, and then came back to Pennsylvania, engaging in pastoral labors in the interior.
JOHN BECHTEL.
In 1726, John Bechtel, a native of Weinheim, about twenty miles north of Heidelberg, came to Germantown. "Reared in the German Reformed Church, and being an earnest, pious man, two years after he settled in Germantown," according to John W. Jordan, of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, "he began to hold religious meetings for his Reformed brethren in the town, and was instrumental in doing much good prior to the arrival of Schlatter and the organization of a Synod. At first he kept these meetings in his own house, not only on Sundays, but every morning and evening on week-days. The congregation which he gathered built a small church on Market Square, and in 1733 he was given a call as pastor, and a license to preach was sent him from Heidelberg Univer- sity. * * * He was not ordained, however, until April 18, 1742, and then by Bishop Nitschman of the Moravian Church." What place of worship the Reformed people of Germantown had prior to the building of the church referred to by Mr. Jordan is not at present clear. The pains- taking and exceedingly thorough editors of the English edition of the
42
HISTORICAL NOTES.
Halle Reports-Rev. Dr. Schmucker and Rev. Dr. Mann-say the corner- stone of a Reformed church was laid here in 1719 by the Swedish pastor. However this may be, as late as January 9, 1733, in a list of church edifices in Germantown reported by Arent Hassert, Jr., a native of Hol- land, but long a resident of Philadelphia, no mention is made of a Re- formed church. He wrote: Germantown is six English miles from Philadelphia. It has a large Quaker meeting house (the name by which the Quaker churches are called), a High German Mennonite church, and a similar one in which the Crefeld or broken Hollandish is used. Has- sert's report. was made at the request of the Synods of South and North Holland and is preserved at The Hague.
We come now to the first purchase of land on Market Square for a church? It was a lot containing one-eighth of an acre of ground. It was conveyed on the Sth of November, 1732, by Henry Frederick, of German- town, carpenter, and Anna Barbara, his wife, to John Bechtel, turner, Christopher Meng, mason, Jacob Bauman, carpenter, and George Bensel, yeoman, in trust for the Reformed congregation. In the trust deed made by these persons, on the 9th of November, 1732, it is recited that "said land and premises were so as aforesaid conveyed unto us by the direction and appointment of the inhabitants of Germantown aforesaid belonging to the High Dutch Reformed Congregation . . . in Trust to the intent only that we, or such or so many of us as shall be and continue in unity and religious fellowship with the said High Dutch Reformed congregation, and remain members of the same . . . shall hold it for the benefit, use and behoof of the said congregation forever and for a place to erect a meeting house for the use and service of the said congregation." The description of the lot was as follows: Beginning at a stone set for a corner (by the Germantown Market Place), being also a corner of Nicholas Delaplaine's land, thence by the same northeast eight perches and four foot to a stone set for a corner, thence southeast two perches and seven foot to a stone set for a corner by land late of John Midwinter, thence by the same south- west eight perches and four foot to a stone set for a corner by the said Market Place, thenee by the same northwest two perches and seven foot, to the place of beginning.
(To be Continued. )
WORDS, GOOD AND EVIL ..
Through the car our words fall upon the minds and hearts of others. like seeds of good or evil. On soil prolific do they fall. By us they are quickly spoken and forgotten. We think, perhaps, they will die with their sound. But they will take root somewhere; the pure or impure seed will sprout and mature into a harvest in some soul. We keep no account of them. God has the record. -B. BAUSMAN.
:
49
HISTORICAL NOTES.
List of Huguenot Galley-Slaves.
RELEASED BY THE KING OF FRANCE IN THE YEAR SEVENTEEN HUNDRED
AND THIRTEEN AND SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN.
The Church authorities at Dordrecht gave permission to the editor of Historical Notes, the carly part of 1896, to examine the voluminous records stored in the archives in the Augustiner Kerk, in that city. Two or three days were spent in looking over the contents of the shelves and closets in the large room used as a business meeting place. In one of the large bundles of pamphlets, manuscripts and records, was hidden away a thin, dingy pamphlet, unstitched, uncut, without a cover, folded as it left the printer's hands. Owing to the great mass of material stored, and the limit- ed time at a visiting foreigner's command, this particular pamphlet, after its title had passed before the examiner's eyes, was, as were hundreds of others, turned down, and one after another placed upon it. Something in the title of the pamphlet, however-the words "des Protestans qui ont souffert la peine des Galeres, "-had taken hold in the mind of the seeker for historical facts. He turned back to the pamphlet, looked through its pages, read among the names some familiar in America, and quickly de- cided that here was something clearly identified with men who themselves, or whose descendants, had enacted a part in the history of Pennsylvania, and a greater part in the history of the Reformed denomination whose members came from the Continent of Europe to the shores of America. The first impulse was to copy parts of the pamphlet; the next to copy it entire. It was now late in the afternoon, and the train for return to Rot- terdam was soon due. Then the fear, which often haunts the ardent an- tiquary took hold of the writer. "I have it now ; perhaps to-morrow will be too late. The doors of the archives may be closed against me after to-day; the coveted paper may elude me." These fears proved groundless. The next morning, the 27th of January, 1896, the kind under-sexton of the church, A. Kwikkers by name, greeted the stranger as pleasantly and received him as hospitably as he did the day before.
The pamphlet, of which a copy was made in full, was an octavo. without date or imprint ; in three parts-the first seven pages, the second three pages, and the third eight pages.
As the transcription progressed, the mind was busy with imaginings of the sufferings of the faithful Huguenots. In America we know noth- ing of persecution for religion's sake. And we have no dark dungeons, or museums of instruments of torture, as is the case in many European cities, to remind us of the horrors of the inquisition and the religious wars. Note the bald, official announcement, void of expression of any feeling, of the release ordered by the king. Observe the great number of the vietims, as evidenced by the numbers, running far up into thousands,
44
HISTORICAL NOTES.
by which they were designated. The number of years of suffering, the highest twenty-eight, must thrill the heart of the sympathetic reader. These men suffered for the faith which we profess. What burden do we bear because of this faith ? They were wrested from their families these many years; their plans for useful lives were frustrated; every comfort and pleasure desired by noble souls . was denied them; year after year they wrought in ignominy, without a ray of hope, except beyond this world. The hard, cold facts of this official list may perhaps rouse to action the languid, dormant religious sensibilities which 1.bored theology, pulpit oratory, and the prayers of the faithful have not been able to quicken.
At several centres of learning the writer inquired for other such lists, but no one had seen any, and some doubted the existence of such. It was thought, by one well-informed archivist, that in the archives of the Huguenot Society in Paris, the names of some of the sufferers in the gal- leys might be preserved.
The title and contents of the pamphlet follow :
FIRST PART. LISTE Des Protestans qui ont souffert la peine des Galeres de Fran- ce, pour cause de Religion, &' qui ont été delivrez le 17. de Juin 1713. en consequence de l'ordre du Roy, cu date du 17. de Mai 1713.
DE PAR LE ROY.
A Majesté voulant que les Cent trente-six Forcats, servans actuellement sur ses Galeres, denominez au present Rolle, soient mis en liberté, à condition que dans le même temps, & sans delai, ils se retirent dans les pays étrangers; sinon & à faute de ce, qu'ils soient arrêtez & remis sur les Galeres, pour y. rester pendant leur vie; Sa Majesté leur faisant défense de rester dans le Royaume sous les mêmes peines, & or- donre aux Commissaires & Controlleurs ayant le dé- tail des chiourmes, de les faire détacher de la chaîne, moyenant quoi ils en demeureront bien & valable- ment déchargez. Mande Sa Majesté an Sr. de Tessé General des Galeres, & au Sr. Arnoul Intendant d'i- celles, de tenir la main, chacun selon l'autorité de sa Charge, à l'execution du present ordre. Fait à Marly le 17. de Mai 1713. Signe' Louis, Er plus bas, PHI- LIPEAUX.
45
HISTORICAL NOTES.
TRANSLATION. List of the Protestants that suffered the penalty of the French galleys for their religion and who were released June 17th, 1713, in consequence of an order of the King, dated May 17th, 1713.
By the King,
His Majesty desiring that the hundred and thirty-six convicts, now serving in his galleys, named in the present list, be put at liberty, on condition that at the same time, and without delay, they retire to foreign lands; if not, and in default of this, they may be arrested and replaced in the galleys, to remain there during their life; His Majesty forbidding them to remain in the reahn, under the same penalty, and orders Commissioners and Controllers having charge of the galley-crews to have their chains detached, through which act they are formally discharged. Sent by his Majesty to Sieur de Tessé, gene.al of Galleys, and to Sicur Arnoul, Intendant of the same, to carry out, each according to the authority of his office, the execution of the present order.
Made at Marly, May 17th, 1713.
Signed by Louis, and lower down-Philipeaux.
NUMERO
NOMS
Temps de Souffrance ANNE'ES
11869
Louis Manuel
24
11657
Antoine Mercier
24
20889
Salomon Bourget
16
13668
David Vole
22
35921
Jaques Pinard
3
25728
Jaques Fauché
12
9849
Abraham Rispail du Caston
25
11383
Daniel Crox
244
16583
François Rochebillaire
19
17552
Fiacre Diablain
20
20769
Daniel Boulonnois
16
21780
Daniel Gout, ou Etienne Gaut
15
21731
David Tessier
15
11860
Barthelemy Rossignol
24
13946
Jaques du Four
22
13674
Pierre Augereau
22
15912
Jean Daudet
20
.
46
HISTORICAL NOTES.
11380
Jean Molet
24
12323
Pierre Sauzet
23
14272
Louis Chapelier
21
11663
Jean Semaine
24
10319
André Gazeau
25
21820
Louis Izoire
15
21506
Laurens Foulquier
15
10313
Daniel Compte
25
16228
Elic Pichot
20
16229
Sanson Labuscagne
20
22519
Simon Pinot
23
12938
Jaques Dupon -
22
12954
Jean Guirand
22
23538
Jaques Drilland
16
20891
Benjamin Germain
16
22347
André Reschas
15
23521
Daniel Rougeau
16
14273
Pierre Maillet
21
21871
Charles Sabatier
15
21833
Jaques Souleyrau
15
11675
Louis Duelaux
24
13262
André Pelecuer
22
21863
Michel Chabry
15
7636
Pierre Boulogne
27
10222
Claude Sauvet
25
19320
Antoine Chabert
18
8381
Clement Patonnier
27
14669
Etienne Salles
21
11682
Jean Berru
2.1
15842
Jean Bicau
20
21812
François Courteserre
15
21841
Jaques Bruzun
15
9487
Jean Lostalet
26
12538
Guillaume Roux
23
19712
Daniel Arzac
17
21821
Gabriel Lauron
15
21825
Jaques Gastagne
15
12171
Antoine Perrier
23
21804
Jean Vestiou
15
12851
Israël Bouchet
23
23613
Josué Chaigneou
16
11669
Pierre Bastide
24
11868
Pierre Meynadier
24
11321
Joseph Courbiere
24
-
HISTORICAL NOTES.
47
12392
Jean Vincent Maillet
11668
Marc-Antoine Reboul
23 42-1 23
12162 11658
Pierre Chapelle
Jean Marcelin
2.1
Claude Pavie
14 15
11356
Alexandre Astier
14283
Jean Martin
11662
Antoine Perrier
21867
Etienne Jalabert
15
14268
Jaques Primarin
16231
Jaques Marteille
15913
Jaques Perridier
9942
Jean Vilaret
9390
Jean Francois Monblanc
23812
Jaques Durand
8069
Pierre Richard
11684
David Douvić
9486
Jean Cazalet
15933
Jean Pierre Clair
10327
Charles Bouin
11981
Abel Damouin
25719
Daniel Basque
12
11982
Etienne Damouin
23 19
24899
Jean Rouge
13
24296
Jean Bonnelle
13 27
7875
Cephas Carriere
15
7876 -
David Serres
27 27
11653
Jean-Baptiste Bancilhon
24
7877
Jean Serres
27
8755
Pierre Carriere
26
13962
Jean Barthe
22
13652
Pierre Barraca
10953
Jean Bourrely
24 2.4
10957
Pierre Lafon
.24
André Bousquet
17
Pierre Sonlegrau
15
8046
Pierre Quet
27
Antoine Grange
24
(To be Continued. )
3
26 20 25 23
17272
Jaques Ruland
7632
Charles Melon
11652
Elie Maurin .
11672
Michel Gasevel
19711
21840
11840
23808 21843
Jean Detempes
24 21 23
21 20 20 25
26 14 27 24
48
HISTORICAL NOTES. Marriages by Rev. George Wack.
COMMUNICATED BY W. H. REED, PH. G., M. D., OF NORRISTOWN.
Continued.
148. July 17. Jacob Santman and Sarah Tunas.
149. July 18. Jonathan Stannard and Susanna Shettinger.
150. July 23. John Harry and Rachel Trexler.
151. July 24. Joseph Stockdale and Maria Sterrigere.
152. August 14. Jacob Horter and Margareth Kline.
153. August 25. William Fretts and Sarah Vanhorne.
154. August
30. Jacob Freyer and Anna Berge
155. September 27. John Nevel and Maria Zelger.
156. October 25. Samuel Owens and Maria Boose.
157. December 12. Henry Cook and Mary Leaser.
158. December 21. Daniel Streeper and Margareth Dewees.
159. December 31. John Greer and Elizabeth Ackerman.
160. October
31. Peter Dormier and Daley Zelner. 1815.
161. January
17. George Shive and Mary Knipe.
162. January
29. Lewis Hauser and Susanna Zelzer.
163. February
21. John Spere and Caty Kline.
164. February
28. William N. Laurnee and Cathrine Zearfoss.
165. March
11. Abraham Rhodes and Sarah Beaker.
166. March
19. Andrew Boier and Cathrine Clemmens.
167. March
21. Jacob Boose and Willamina Culp.
168. March
23. Jacob Casselbery and Elizabeth Stein.
169. April
16. Michael Peters and Tacy Bright.
170. April
30. Jacob Allebach and Susanna Meier.
171. August 20. Hezekiel Bradford and Sarah Lehman.
172. August 27. Charles Francis and Nancy Lower.
173. October
15. Casper Lehman and Mary Carver.
174. November 15. Isaac Keiser and Margareth Godshall.
175. November 12. Michael Hepman and Rachel Schellenberger.
176. November 16. Samuel Kneedler and Rachel Fetzer.
177. November 16. Henry Black and Suphia Hecht.
178. November 26. John Kerper and Cathrine Herp.
179. November 26. John Bisson and Susanah Shurtz.
180. December 7. Amos Kline and Martha Foster.
181. December 12. Charles Barns and Margareth Stout.
182. December 14. David Keesey and Cathrine Zimmerman.
183. December 21. Jacob Redifer and Susannah Engert.
184. December 31. Philip Koplin and Maria Jones. (To be Continued. )
HISTORICAL NOTES
RELATING TO THE
PENNSYLVANIA REFORMED CHURCH.
VOL. I. No. 4. August 10. 1899. $1.00 PER ANNUM. Edited by Henry S. Dotterer.
Perkiomen Publishing Co., 1605 N. THIRTEENTH STREET, PHILADELPHIA.
Random Thoughts.
The desertions from the Reformed Church to other denominations began away back in the carly Colonial years and continue to this day. John Peter Miller was the most noted case of the clergy, and John Bechtel and Henry Antes were of the best known of the laity, who left us in the early days. Those who have gone over to other communions in our time are legion. Every Churchman in every Reformed locality, can count scores of names-some inconspicuous, others widely known-who have, for reasons, expressed or suppressed, taken this step.
In the rural sections the membership of congregations holds together better than in the cities and large towns. This may be accounted for by the fact that the members grow up in our Church, are familiar with its ways and doctrines, and know little or nothing of other denomina- tions, with the exception possibly of the, Lutheran, which is much outwardly like our own.
.
In the cities it is different. Here a score or more denominations are actively in the field for proselytes. It is remark- able how many persons of Reformed ori- gin and training pass over to other Churches in the cities ; and it is especial- ly noteworthy to see the high stations occupied by them in their new relation. The remark has became quite common: "The Reformed make the best of Presby- terians," or "We have no more faithful Baptists than those who have come over from the Reformed Church." The most famous and most liberal Presbyterian layman in the United States to-day, is of Reformed parentage. Some of the best
known and most carnest layworkers in the Baptist, Congregational, Methodist, Episco- palian and Presbyterian congregations in Philadelphia were in the beginning men- bers of the Reformed Church. Why do they go over? They leave us ; but they give no reason.
Can there be something seriously wrong about our historic Church as conducted in America ? Is it doing its duty to Christ and His work ?
And this brings up the question, blunt- ly put-what is the Church for ? It would seem that there could be but one answer. But when we look around us, and observe the differing aims in our own congrega- tions and in those of our neighbors, we cannot conceal the fact that all do not think alike as to the mission of the Chris- tian Church. Here is a matter for serious thought.
A feature of our times is the congrega- tional Church paper. Many if not all of the Protestant denominations make use of them. In the Reformed Church they are mostly marked by ability. They do much good. The interests of the congre- gation are brought directly to the indi- vidual member's attention by this useful ageney in Church work.
Ponder for a moment any one of the names in the list of released galley vic- tims. Think of the sufferings endured by these champions of the Reformed Church of France. The five years' imprisonment of a Dreyfus on Devil island is not to be compared with the hopeless horrors of the galley. Every name is a witness for Christ. Every sufferer a shining saint before the great white Throne.
50
HISTORICAL NOTES.
Girkhausen, in the Mountains of Witgenstein.
BY HENRY S. DOTTERER.
In Number One of Historical Notes is stated how the manuscripts in the archives of the Reformed Church at Rotterdam revealed the place of John Philip Ley- dich's origin-the name of which was lost, forgotten and unknown to the Ley- dich family and the Pennsylvania Re- formed Church.
Ilaving learned whence Leydich came, my next desire was to learn more about the place. It is located amidst the north- ern spurs of the Rothhaar mountains, about four miles north of Berleburg, in the county of Witgenstein, province of Westphalia. The proprietor of the Hotel Utsch, the leading one in Berleburg, put me in the way of getting to Girkhausen. . It was by taking the yellow imperial mail wagon-kaiserliche Post Wagen-a one-horse conveyance, driven by a veteran of the war of 1871, who delivers the mail at the hamlets without regular post offices in that sparsely populated region. The places at which the mails are delivered and received are designated by the Ger- man postal department "Post Halte Stellen"-post stopping places. When the driver is approaching one of these stations he blows his brass post-horn, which promptly brings forth a person to exchange postal matter. My trip was made March 17, 1896. On the evening of that day I wrote from Berleburg as follows: "If I mistake not, this is Saint Patrick's Day. But I see no Irish around. . I went this afternoon by post coach to Girkhausen (one hour), where
of frame-work, and between the frames, lath-work plastered. The frames are a dark color and the plaster white, when not mud color. The one main street is rather dirty, from the American stand- point; the small, irregular side streets are mere paths or lanes. I went to the church, the bell tower, the parsonage. The Thurm, or tower, dates from the 11th century. It stands apart from the church. In earlier times the church was built against the tower, as the marks of the church roof on the sides of the tower show. A fire destroyed the church in part. A tree has grown out of the wall of the tower, perhaps thirty feet from the ground. The tower is square; its walls are crumbling, but the German govern- ment intends to repair it. It has two bells; a large one for Sundays; a small one for services hell at other times. I entered the parsonage. The minister was away, but the wife know what I wanted. I had written in advance. She brought out a pile of the church books. Mrs. Otto, the Frau Pfarrerin, made coffee and set out rye-bread, currant bisenits, butter and jelly. This is the hospitable custom. There came on a visit while I was there the wife of a clergyman located still higher up in the mountains. Mrs. Otto invited me to await the return of her husband and to stay over night. She kindly presented me with a photographic view of the dorf of Girkhausen. She showed me the interior of the church. It is very old and quaint, and has been within recent years decorated in decided colors, in which light blue is conspicnons. The Gemeinde Vorsteher handed me a brief statement of what the church records say about the father of John Philip Leydich."
. the Leydichs came from. . . . . My trip was intensely interesting. This dorf of seven hundred people is away from The Gemeinde Vorsteher, the head of the community, is G. Homrighansen. His family name is the same as that of the wife of John Philip Leydich. Mr. Homrighausen has placed me under many obligations by information com- municated since my visit to Girkhansen. railroad and government highway; is built on both sides of a brisk stream, which comes, from the mountains above, down through the narrow valley. When I reached there, I found myself in a typical mountain village, composed of straw-thatched and slate-roofed houses, barns, and work-places; some old, others This passage occurs in a Chronik pre- rather new. The sides of the houses are pared in 1892 by Gemeinde Vorsteher
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.