USA > Pennsylvania > The Reformed Church in Pennsylvania : part IX of A narrative and critical history, prepared at the request of the Pennsylvania-German Society > Part 4
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Blumer's Letter. 43
point de prier le maitre de la Moisson, qu'il envoïe des ouvriers, car la moissson est grand et il-y-a peu d'ouvriers. Je suis Messieurs mes très cher Freres en J. C. Votre très humble Serviteur, Abraham Blumer.
Northampton, communement Allenstown ce 28 de Novembre 1774. Aux Conducteurs, Anciens, Diacres, et Committès . de l'Eglise françoise Reformée à la Nouvelle-York." 43
43 TRANSLATION : Dear Brethren in Jesus Christ, particularly the Duke of Mizepoix. In his absence to
I regard myself as honored by the receipt of two of your letters at once, one of the eleventh of July which I received on the 21st of this month, and a du- plicate of the same which was delivered to me a day later, that is to say on the 20th of the present month. Concerning the propositions which you present to me in the said letters, I regret that I do not find myself in a position to re- spond to your wishes. It is true that I spoke the French language a little some years ago, but I honestly confess that I never comprehended that lan- guage to such a degree as to perform satisfactorily all the duties incumbent on a minister settled in a French church, and at present, for want of practice in French, I have in great measure forgotten even that. You tell me in your kind letter that you have been informed that I preached in French some time ago in Germantown, but permit me to inform you, my very dear brethren, that it was not I, but the companion of my voyage to this country, Mr. Boehme, minister at Lancaster, who preached a French sermon in Philadelphia in the month of May last. Possibly you would have more assistance to hope from him than from me. But as the views of that gentleman are unknown to me, I believe the most certain way of obtaining a faithful minister for your church would be to write to some pious and zealous minister of a French church in Holland, and I do not doubt that if you explain your situation, he will en- deavor to persuade some minister without a charge, who may always be found there, to undertake the voyage to New York.
In the meantime may Jesus Christ, the faithful, good and sovereign pastor of His faithful ones, dwell among you with His word and His spirit, and you, my dear brethren, do not cease to pray the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth laborers, for the harvest is great and the laborers are few.
I am, my very dear brethren, in Jesus Christ, your most humble servant, ABRAHAM BLUMER.
Northampton, commonly called Allenstown, Nov. 28, 1774.
To the leaders, elders, deacons and committees of the French Reformed Church of New York.
-
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The Reformed Church in America.
The French community of Lancaster has entirely dis- appeared, though some of the more eminent families- such as the Le Roys and Du Fresnes-are not yet entirely forgotten. In Berks County the French element was larger than in Lancaster, but there appears to be no sufficient evidence that religious services were conducted there in the French language. 44 The families claiming Huguenot descent were, however, numerous and influential. In looking over a tax-list, dated in 1759, we find in Oley such names as De Turk, Delaplaine, Barto, Bertolet, Madeira, and Roshon; in Maxatawny, LeVan, DeLong, Shara- din, Chapelle, Queery and Wildrout; in Exeter and Union Townships, Burgoign, Brissence, Huet, Lebo (Le Beau), Mizell, and many others. Now it is no doubt true that many of these were Germanized before they crossed the sea, but there were others who could speak French.
That the Reformed Church was greatly benefited by its French accessions will hardly be denied. They were an active, energetic people, who naturally became leaders in the communities in which they dwelt. Many eminent ministers of the Reformed Church in the United States have been of Huguenot descent. John Jacob LaRose- the pioneer of the Church in Ohio-belonged to the family in Lehigh County who now generally write their name Laros. Jacob Descombes-author of a volume on " Bap- tism "-was thoroughly German, but took pleasure in re- calling Huguenot traditions. Frederick Dallicker, pastor at Falkener Swamp during the concluding years of the eighteenth century, is said by Harbaugh to have been originally named De La Cour. This is probable enough for many similar changes have undoubtedly occurred.
44 The traditions concerning French preaching in the Alsace Church, near Reading, appear not to be sufficiently authenticated.
45
French Surnames.
The late Rev. W. F. P. Davis, of Reading, ought to have been called De Wees ; and my old friend the Rev. William F. Colliflower was said to have been remotely descended from the Goranflot (or Goranflo) family.
Recognizing the personal excellence of many of the early Huguenots, and fully appreciating the value of their contribution to the social life of the Reformed Church, it can hardly be doubted that from an ecclesiastical stand- point the race manifested certain weaknesses which the historian can hardly ignore. Muhlenberg, who knew them well, once expressed his surprise that the people who in France had endured dreadful persecution and had sacri- ficed house and home for the sake of their faith, should in America manifest so little zeal for its preservation. Though they were numerous everywhere they established no churches, except in New York and South Carolina, and even in these provinces their efforts for ecclesiastical or- ganization were of the slightest. In Pennsylvania, where- ever they found Reformed Churches they joined them as a matter of course, and often became prominent members ; but elsewhere they connected themselves with the English churches, or became sectarian leaders, like DeBeneville and others. We are not blaming them for this tendency, but merely mention the facts to show that if they had held together they might have accomplished more for the advancement of the Church to which they rightfully be- longed.
That, besides those we have mentioned, there were iso- lated representatives of other nationalities goes without saying. Here or there a wandering Irishman or Welsh- man settled among the Germans and his descendants as- sumed the language and customs of his neighbors. In eastern Pennsylvania there was also a little settlement of
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The Reformed Church in America.
Hollanders which was during the provincial period con- nected with the German Reformed Church, exerting an important influence on its early history. To this settlement we shall have occasion to refer hereafter.
"THE STEEL-YARD." Warehouses of the German Hansa in London in Seventeenth Century.
TOS
RI
CHAPTER IV.
THE S. P. G.
Early Missionary Activity-John Frederick Haeger-John Henry Haeger -Germanna.
HE Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts-which, for the sake of convenience is often des- ignated by initials-was founded in London, in 1701. Its original purpose was "to develop the colonial Church and provide for the wants of the Indian tribes," but its establishment marks an epoch in the history of missions throughout the world.
That this great society became interested in the German migration to America was entirely natural. Its records inform us 45 that " the arrival of a body of ' poor palatines' in England in 1709 enlisted English sympathy," and for some years the missionaries of the society endeavored to provide these people with the preaching of the gospel.
45 Digest of the Records of the S. P. G., p. 61.
(47)
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The Reformed Church in America.
There have been writers who have regarded this work without sympathy, as an effort of sectarian proselytism ; but it should be remembered that in those days denomi- national distinctions were less marked than they became
RINIS
SI
ARTIBVS TRA
OS
NS.
SOCIETATIS DE PROMOV
NI
NGELIO
MOVENDO
the Gift of the Society for propagation parts 1704 the Gospell in Foreign
BOOK PLATE OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL.
in later times. The Church of England had, in 1618, sent delegates to the Synod of Dordrecht, and all over the continent it was fully recognized as one of the Re- formed Churches. Stilling says : "The Anglican, that is
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English Missions.
to say the English Church, is only different from the rest of the Reformed Church in this, that it has an episcopal form of government. Are the Swedish and Danish churches not Lutheran because they have bishops? Does the garment make the man?" The English Church was, in those days mild in doctrine and inclined to strengthen its Protestant elements; and the German ministers who en- tered its service and conformed to its usages, had no idea that they could be regarded as renouncing the faith of their fathers. The "S. P. G." was active among the French ' Reformed of the Carolinas. Among its earliest mission- aries were Francis Le Jau, D.D., a native of Angiers, France, who died in South Carolina in 1717, and Francis Varnod, who is simply described as " a foreigner." There were also a number of Swiss who had received episcopal ordination from the English bishops, though they may not have been directly in the service of the "S. P. G." Graffenried, though a layman, had been " licensed by the Bishop of London to read service to the colonists." 46 " Rev. Joseph Bugnion, a Swiss minister," to whom we have already referred, " was induced to have Episcopal ordination laid upon him by the Rev. Dr. Clagett, Bishop of St. David's." 47 Dalcho, in his "History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina," mentions several ministers of this type who are otherwise unknown. The Rev. Henry Chiffele is said to have been a missionary of the "S. P. G." who was ordained by the Bishop of Lon- don as late as 1744. We suppose him to have been the same person as " a Swiss named Tschiffeli" who joined with Sebastian Zouberbuhler and a certain Simon, "a
46 Good's "History of the Reformed Church in the United States," p. 60. 47 " Bernheim," p. 96.
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Rheder" to found a settlement on the Santee.48 His suc- cessor was the Rev. Abraham Imer, who arrived in the province in 1760 and died in 1766.49 The Rev. John Ulrich Giessendanner, who located in Orangeburg District, and his nephew who bore the same name, were also Swiss min- isters who entered the service of the Church of England. They labored faithfully, but the fruit of their labors was not gathered by the church in which they were born.
More interesting in connection with our present work is the career of two men who more justly deserve to be re- garded as pioneers of the German Reformed Church in this country. Until recently little was known concerning them, and the close resemblance, if not the identity, of their names was regarded as a curious coincidence. The researches of the Rev. William J. Hinke have, however, removed many difficulties, and the main facts in their his- tory are now sufficiently plain. In December, 1898, Pro- fessor Hinke contributed a series of articles on this subject to the Reformed Church Messenger, and these we shall chiefly follow in relating a somewhat remarkable history.
THE HAEGERS.
In the brief records of the great Palatine migration of 1709 the name of John Frederick Haeger frequently ap- pears.50 He seems to have been the only clergyman who was specially commissioned to minister to a great multitude of Reformed people. The royal family of England was Lutheran, and the Lutheran pastors of London were its official agents in caring for the religious necessities of the Palatines. No doubt these pastors, as well as the pastors
48 "Der Deutsche Pionier," Vol. 14, p. 9.
49 Dalcho's "History of the P. E. Church of South Carolina," p. 386.
50 The orthography of the name varies greatly. It has been written Hager, Hagar, Heger and Hoeger, but Haeger is probably most correct.
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The Haegers.
of the German Reformed Church of London, did all they could for the Reformed exiles ; but it seems probable that for some time the latter were to a great extent suffered to shift for themselves. At last, on the 20th of December, the Bishop of London, at the solicitation of the " S. P. G.," ordained John Frederick Haeger for special service among the Palatines who were about to be sent to the colony of New York. An old pamphlet relates, in a style intended to be humorous, how he was immediately called upon to perform ministerial acts.51
John Frederick Haeger was born in Siegen, then a city in the principality of Nassau-Dillenberg, in 1684, and bap- tized on the 18th Sunday after Trinity of that year. He was the third son of John Henry Haeger, who, as we shall see hereafter, was a teacher in the Latin school of Siegen, and subsequently became pastor of a village in its vicinity. The son was carefully educated-first at home and after- wards at the universities of Herborn and Lingen. Certifi- cates are extant which indicate his proficiency in scholar- ship. On the 14th of February, 1708, he was examined by the consistory of Siegen and licensed to preach the Gospel. The reasons which induced him to leave his fatherland are unknown ; but in the following year we find him in London, where on the 20th of December, 1709, he was ordained by the Bishop of London, for service " among the Palatines, New York." The " S. P. G." granted him an annual salary of £50, together with a present of £15 for books.
During his voyage to America Haeger suffered greatly. He says in his first report to the Society : " I was hardly a fort-night on ship-board but a violent fever seized me and
51 " The German Exodus to Pennsylvania in 1709," by F. R. Diffenderffer, p. 145.
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kept me for six weeks, even almost beyond hopes of re- covery ; which has been very expensive to me, our ships having lain long in the harbours, especially that of Ports- mouth, insomuch that I have not brought one farthing ashore."
On the 19th of June, 1710, Haeger arrived in New York. Almost immediately afterwards he began to preach in the City Hall ; but when Governor Hunter removed the Palatines up the Hudson he accompanied them. Here for several years he ministered to the Reformed people, as Kocherthal did to the Lutherans. In his letters he gives a full account of his trials and privations. "At first," says Professor Hinke, " he lived in a little log hut at Anns- bury, but later on he was able to build a frame house, large enough to hold about 200 people; ' the rest had to stay without.' Here he conducted his services for many years, till the Palatines dispersed through the whole Hud- son valley and the neighboring valleys. Then he became an itinerant preacher, travelling almost continuously from one settlement to another, dispensing to the hungry souls of his hearers the bread of life and the sacraments of the Church."
Haeger reported that on the 15th of August, 1711, he baptized an Indian, " using great pains in instructing him." He devoted some time to the study of the Indian language, and collected a small vocabulary, which appears to be lost. About the same time he served as chaplain to three hundred Palatines who engaged in an unsuccessful expedition against the French.
When in 1712-'13 a large number of the Palatines re- moved to Schoharie, Haeger remained in the original set- tlement. He seems, however, to have made frequent journeys to Schoharie, and it was here that on the 22d of
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The Hudson Valley.
November, 1720, he married Conrad Weiser to his " Anna Eva."52 Weiser calls him " reformirter Prediger," and there can be no doubt that-notwithstanding his relations to the " S. P. G."-he was popularly regarded as belong- ing to the Reformed Church. That he sought to induce his people to " conform" to the Episcopal Church is suf- ficiently plain ; but though under the circumstances they submitted to the use of the liturgy, it does not seem likely that most of them appreciated the extent of the changes which it was proposed to introduce. It is possible that the London Society had some inkling of the state of af- fairs when, in 1717, Haeger's stipend was suddenly dis- continued. It was said, indeed, by way of extenuation, that the design of the Society was " chiefly the conversion. of heathens and infidels"; but there can be no doubt that it was elsewhere making strenuous efforts to gather the Dutch and Germans into the Church of England. There can, at any rate, be no doubt that the congregations which Haeger founded did not regard themselves as having sep- arated from the church of the fathers : for they were sub- sequently served by a long succession of Reformed min- isters.
On the 15th of November, 1715, the Rev. John Fred- erick Haeger was married to Anna Maria Rohrbach. The marriage was solemnized by the Rev. Joshua Kocherthal. At this time Haeger lived in the village of Queensbury, afterwards known as Kingsbury.
The few remaining years of Haeger's life were full of privation and suffering. He began the erection of a church in Kingsbury in 1715, but was unable to complete it for lack of funds. In a journey from Schoharie to Albany he was thrown from his horse and seriously injured. When
52 "Hall. Nachr.," 1, 449. Rupp's "History of Berks County," p. 200.
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The Reformed Church in America.
he was brought in a wagon to his home, the party was at- tacked by a number of drunken Indians who nearly killed him. He continued to work for some time longer, but died in the winter of 1721, or the spring of 1722. In 1721 the "S. P. G." voted him £50 for past services, but he did not live to receive the gift.
Such is the brief story of the labors of the man who must be regarded as the pioneer of the German Reformed Church in the province of New York. It is in itself suf- ficiently strange, but derives additional interest from the fact that it is now plain that the pastor of the earliest Reformed Church in Virginia was closely related to the missionary in New York. That the two men must have occasionally communicated may perhaps be taken for granted ; but on this point there is much obscurity, which future investi- gations may perhaps remove. Indeed we may venture to assert that the fact of this relation would hardly have suggested itself to any investigator, if it had not been rendered certain by the records of the fatherland. The traces of the activity of the Virginia pioneer-whose name has generally been written " Hoeger "-have always been regarded as peculiarly vague and elusive; but it is now possible to give a brief sketch of his somewhat remarkable career.53
JOHN HENRY HAEGER, the son of Henry Haeger, was born about 1644 in Antshausen, a village in Nassau. Of his early life nothing is known, but in 1678 he became teacher of the third class of the Latin school at Siegen. On the 3d of December, 1678, he was married to Anna Catharine Friesenhagen, daughter of Jacob Friesenhagen,
53 For further information we refer to Professor Hinke's articles in the Reformed Church Messenger (1899) and to Gen. John E. Roller's address at the Sesqui-Centennial services held in Hagerstown, Md., Oct. 20, 1897.
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Virginia.
mayor of Freudenberg. They had a large family, of whom John Frederick was the third son.
For many years John Henry Haeger was connected with the Latin school at Siegen, serving after 1689 as conrector, or assistant rector. That he was ordained a minister is evident from the fact that in 1703 he was promoted to the pastorate at Fischbach. Here he remained until about III when, as we are informed by Cuno, the historian of Siegen, he resigned his pastorate and went to America.
At this time Haeger must have been nearly or quite seventy years old. The reasons which induced him to undertake so dangerous a journey at his advanced years must of course be left to conjecture, though it should be remembered that the fever for emigration nowhere burned more fiercely than at Siegen; and, of course, the enthu- siasm of his son, who was even then in America, may not have been without influence.
The time and circumstances of Haeger's removal to America have been a subject of some discussion. It has been generally believed that he accompanied Baron Graf- fenried's colony to North Carolina, and subsequently re- moved to Virginia with some of the survivors. According to recent researches, this supposition is, however, no longer tenable.54 In 1713 Haeger petitioned the " S. P. G." for aid to go to America, and the following statement appears on the journal of the society under date of Oct. 2, 1713. " Reported from the committee that they had taken into consideration the petition of Mr. Hager, father of Mr. Hager, the society's missionary among the Palatines in the
54 The recent biography of Graffenried, published by the Historical So- ciety of Berne, informs us (p. 25) that there was no minister in this colony of 1710, but that Graffenried himself had been authorized by the bishop of Lon- don to perform baptisms and marriages.
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province of New York, to them referred, and that they agreed as their opinion that the case of said Mr. Hager does not properly lie before the society." It is, therefore, evident that in October, 1713, Haeger had not yet crossed the ocean, and the fact appears from other sources that he actually came across with a company that arrived in Vir- ginia in April, 1714.
Concerning this colony of twelve families there has been much confusion, but the facts appear to be briefly as fol- lows : When Graffenried came to Virginia after the mis- fortune which had overtaken his colony in North Carolina, he was desirous of settling some of the survivors, but in consequence of difficulties concerning the title of lands the arrangements were not concluded. He arrived in London at Easter, 1713, and there found waiting for him a company of forty miners whom he had SEMPER TYP previously engaged to work for Governor Spotswood of Vir- NNIS, SI ginia, who was the pioneer of mining industries in that col- ony. At first Graffenried tried to induce them to return to their native country, but they were anxious to emigrate, and at last two Virginia merchants ad- ARMS OF VIRGINIA. vanced the money for their passage, which was probably re- funded by Governor Spotswood, for whom the immigrants engaged themselves to labor for a term of four years. Graffenried returned to Switzerland.
It was with this company that Haeger came to America. How the Governor settled them at Germanna, in what is now Orange County, has been elsewhere related, and we
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Governor Spotswood.
need not enter into particulars. The first settlers were mostly Reformed, though there were several Lutherans. 55 The number, however, rapidly increased. A second com- pany arrived in 1717, and these appear to have been mainly Lutherans. Afterwards there was a third company of forty families, concerning whom we have no particulars. It is possible too-though we have no direct documentary evidence on the subject-that among the early settlers there were some who had originally belonged to Graffenried's colony in North Carolina. During this early period, how- ever, Haeger was the only pastor.
In 1714 John Fontaine and John Clayton, of Williams- burg, visited Germanna, and have left us an interesting account of the place and of the conditions of the early settlers. "We went," says this account, " to the German minister's house, and finding nothing to eat, lived upon our own provisions and lay upon the straw. Our beds not being easy, we got up at break of day, and in a hard rain walked about the town, which is palisaded with sticks, stuck in the ground close to each other, and of substance to resist musket shot. There are but nine families and nine houses all in a line and before every house, twenty feet distant, they have sheds for their hogs and hens, so that hogstys on one side and dwellings on the other, make a street. The place staked in is a pentagon regularly laid out, and in the center is a blockhouse with five sides, answering to the five sides of the great enclosure. There are loop holes in it from which you can see all of the in- side of the great enclosure. This is intended for a retreat, in case of their not being able to defend the palisades from the Indians. They use the blockhouse for divine service. They go to prayers once a day and have two services on
55 " Hall. Nachr.," new ed., 1886, I., p. 576.
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Sunday. We went to hear them perform their service, which is done in their own language, which we did not understand, but they seemed very devout and sing the Psalms very well. This settlement is (1714) thirty miles from any inhabitant. They live very miserably. For want of provisions we were obliged to go. We got from the minister a bit of smoked beef and cabbage and gave him thirty shillings and took our leave. In less than three hours on our way we saw nineteen deer, and we lodged at Mr. Smith's at the falls of the Rappahannock."
It is said that the Germans were dissatisfied with the treatment which they received from Gov. Spotswood. At any rate the Reformed element, in 1718,56 left Ger- manna, and founded a settlement which they called Ger- mantown in what is now Fauquier County.57 They were accompanied by their pastor and by their excellent school- master, John Holtzclaw. The elders of the congregation were Johann Jost Merdten and Hans Jacob Richter. The descendants of these men now call themselves Martin and Rector.
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