History of St. John's

July, 1947
Revised edition October, 1970
Printed by the Enterprise & News
St. Johnsville, New York

The Preface

BICENTENNIAL EDITION

When the 200th anniversary celebration of St. John's Church was being planned, it was thought that the celebration would be incomplete if it did not follow the outstanding precedent of the 175th celebration by updating and re-publishing Dr. Thomas' comprehensive history and membership record. What everyone had accepted as an extraordinary piece of work by Dr. Thomas is now received with even greater appreciation. The committee has come to realize that matching his quality of work is an enormous, and often impossible task.

The members of the Bicentennial Historical Book Committee were Roger Scofield, chairman, James Bellinger, Mrs. Elmer Brown, Mrs. Harlin Devendorf, Mrs. Elizabeth Horne, Wayne Miles, Mrs. Roger Scofield, Mrs. Ross Westhuis, and Rev. Ross Westhuis. All of these people contributed hard work and countless hours

The committee is indebted to several people who wrote specific articles. Mrs. Walter Wagner and Mrs. Ruth Walrath wrote the article on the Church School: Mrs. Edward Goralski, the article on the ministry of music; Mrs. Wilfred Forster, the article on the Guild for Christian Service; and Mr. Nellis Smith, the article on the Men's Club. Mr. Roger Scofield took the current photographs for the Bicentennial Edition.

W. ROSS WESTHUIS
St. Johnsville, N. Y.
September 16. 1970

The Preface

When the 175th Anniversary celebration of St. John's, Church was first planned for the Fall of 1945 it was thought desirable that at last a permanent record be made of the great adventure which is her history. Booklets had been printed at odd times such as the occasion of the 150th anniversary in 1920, in 1933 , and in 1937 but never has a comprehensive history and membership record been published. This book therefore is long overdue. Yet it cannot be said even now that a full history has been written of St. John's. So detailed is it and so interwoven with the great episodes, of the early Mohawk Valley days that it would take many more hundreds of pages to do it full justice. Rather this is a summary. There are innumerable facts left out for want of time and space. For these silences the writer begs, to be excused.

Though this book has been well over a year in preparation it was at last published in haste and though it has been checked and rechecked, errors, undoubtedly remain. Need for economy caused the alteration of the book's format and forced the exclusion, of the 56 pictures of service men and women which bad been gathered. Their service records, however, are included.

The writer is indebted to the late Miss Helen Horn for the brief history of St. John's which she prepared for the 150th Anniversary booklet; to the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society for the transcription of our church records and to Royden W. Vosburgh, who edited them; to Lou D. MacWethy for his many publications of early Valley history; to Nelson Greene of Fort Plain for his detailed volumes on the History of the Mohawk Valley; to the Rev. W. N. P. Dailey and his History of Montgomery Classis and for his several letter; and to the late Howard Shafer and his unpublished Centennial History which deal with the history of St. Johnsville from 1938 to 1938.

The writer is indebted for personal help to Stanley Iverson, editor of the Enterprise and News who has who has made numerous books and pamphlets available; to Mrs. Lester Rockefeller for her assistance in the Reaney Library; to Milo Nellis for his stimulating comments and suggestions, also for several photographs; to Adam Horn and the Reaney Library for permission to reproduce several valuable early photographs; to Edward J. Sheehan at the County Archives Office and his able assistant; to Mrs. Seward Walrath for her detailed write up of the history of the Missionary Society; to Mrs. Luella Mosher and her fund of information concerning the Ladies' Aid; to Mrs. Metta Bartle and many others who like her have shared their memories; and to my wife who has always been, ready to listen, to offer helpful criticism, and to encourage.

NORMAN EDWIN THOMAS
St Johnsville, N.Y.
July 19, 1947

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I
In the Beginning
Let My People Go
Klock's Church
Peace Along the Mohawk
War
The First Dominie
What's in a Name?
Stage-Coach and Canal-Boat Era; the John Jacob Wack and David DeVoe Ministries, 1812-1830
The Iron Horse; the Meyer-Stryker-Murphy-Meyers Ministries, 1830-1845
The Dawn of Memory; the Knieskern Ministry
Yield Place to New, the Lodewick, Van Neste, Minor, Furbeck, and Kinney ministries, 1872-1899
The New Century, the Hogan, Perkins and Ficken Ministries, 1899-1929
The War Years; The Christiana, Geddes, Westra and Thomas ministries
Until today; The Crounse, Short, Geddes, and Westhuis Ministries

THIS BOOK IS
DEDICATED TO
ALL IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH
WHO WITHIN THESE HALLOWED WALLS
HAVE HELPED REAP
THE HARVEST OF FAITH

" Grace be unto you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ."

IN THE BEGINNING

In the year 1787 the Constitution was adopted as the law of the Land, and the United States was born. In that same year the written history of St. John's Reformed Church began with its incorporation in accord with the then new State Law. Five men, Colonel Jacob Klock, Peter Schuyler, Jacob Fehling, Christopher Fox, and Jacob G. Klock, were elected Trustees of the "Reformed Calvinist Congregation in the upper part of Palatine District in the County of Montgomery," by the people who worshiped in the old log structure which has always been known as Klock's Church.

But the real history of our Church reaches back into time far beyond the year 1787; far beyond the year 1725 when Klock's Church probably was built; beyond the year 1519 when the Reformation began; beyond the medieval centuries; back almost two thousand years to the earthly Life of Jesus Christ our Lord. St. John's Church began when Jesus began to preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God; it began with His healing, His teaching, and His loving of mankind. It began with His dying on a Cross and His rising again. It began on the day of Pentecost when a group of uncertain, disillusioned failures were suddenly captured by a world~conquering Faith. For St. John's Church began when the Christian Church began, the true Church of which Jesus said, "When two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them."

The only Church is where Christ is. St. John's has grown out of the many centuries during which men have gathered in His Name. We are a part of the great stream of Faith; we are nurtured by the great men of old, by the Apostles, by the Gospel writers, by Paul, Ignatius, Augustine. They are part of us. We are nourished by their spiritual riches.

We are a Reformed Church, the Church of the Reformation, because the examples of these great followers of Jesus Christ were increasingly ignored by the established Roman church. As the modern era dawned in the 16th century the voices, of those who called for Christ were stilled. The Roman institution no longer remembered our Lord as a living Saviour. The grace of God had been supplanted by the bookkeeping of men. Forgiveness of sin was paid for, not prayed for. The divine Love that brought Christ to the Crow was lost to the glitter of gold.

Accordingly, in 1517, a monk of the Roman Church named Martin Luther, nailed to a chapel door at Wittenburg, Germany, his objections to the innumerable vices of Romanism prevalent at that time. A few years later a brilliant young French student named John Calvin voiced the principles of the Reformation by calling for a great advance to the true Church of the New Testament. His book entitled, "The Institute of the Christian Religion" proclaimed the sovereignty of God and the centrality of Christ and won immediate acclaim. Its popularity among the seekers after truth, however, won the unfavorable notice of Roman authorities. Steps were taken to silence him but John Calvin was safe in Switzerland, where he had found refuge in the city of Geneva. There the seeds of the Reformation bore the fruit of Faith. The Church of Christ was reborn.

Calvin agreed with Martin Luther on many things. Together they laid the foundations of what is known as Protestantism, which means, not "To protest against" as is popularly supposed, but "To testify for," to testify for Christ. This is the meaning and genius of Protestantism. On this basic article of Faith all Protestant churches agree. As years passed the Protestant Church in central and eastern Germany and in the Scandinavian countries took on the characteristics of Lutheranism, with its emphasis on liturgy, while in Switzerland, France, southwestern Germany, and the Netherlands, the Reformed Church with its emphasis on preaching, was the stronger.

The men and women who first formed the congregation of Klock's Church came to America in large part from the Palatine region in southwestern Germany. Thus it is explained why the congregation at Klock's Church called itself, "Reformed Calvinist." We are a Church of the Reformation; we testify to Jesus Christ our Living Lord. We are therefore a part of the true Church, as old and as eternal as Christ is.

Of the five original trustees, only one, Peter Schuyler, bears, a truly Dutch name. Although a large majority of the early congregation was of Palatine origin, St. John's nevertheless became affiliated with the Dutch Reformed denomination and it is important to understand how this came about.

When the Reformation sun dawned over Europe in 1517, Holland was a part of the Holy Roman Empire. The Emperor Charles V and his successor Philip II of Spain took vigorous steps to quench the light of the Reformation Gospel. They burned at the stake a many Protestants as they could find. In 1567 Philip sent a large army into the Netherlands under the dreaded Duke of Alva, and it was the Emperor's boast that he beheaded or burned at the stake 18,000 Hollanders. Many thousands more were exterminated by the cruel Spanish Inquisition. The Hollanders banded together under the leadership of William the Silent to resist the persecutors. In 1579 the Dutch Republic was formed, and two years later issued its declaration of independence. By 1594 the Dutch had succeeded in driving the alien armies out and Freedom's first banner was unfurled. The Dutch Reformed Church survived its test of bloody persecution and with its victory nourished the weds of religious freedom and democracy.

The free Dutch speedily established channels of commerce with the Orient. In 1609, while searching for a northwest passage to the east, the Englishman, Henry Hudson, in the employ of the Dutch, made his famous discovery and small colony was soon founded at New Amsterdam. The colony was founded primarily for the Indian trade, but as it grew a need was felt for spiritual guidance and in 1628 the first ordained minister, the Reverend Jonas Michaelius, arrived. His little congregation met at first in the loft of a horse~mill, and later the first church was erected near Bowling Green. That little stone church is now the famous Marble Collegiate, the oldest Protestant church with a continuous history in America.

But many of the early Dutch traders journeyed up the Hudson River to settle at Fort Orange, now Albany. There a colony flourished under the patron-ship of Killian Van Rensselaer, a wealthy jeweler of Amsterdam. In 1642 the First Reformed Church of Albany was established by the Reverend Johannes Megapolensis who subsequently made vigorous efforts to convert the Mohawk Indians to Christ. He learned the Mohawk tongue and frequently journeyed into their valley, to become the first Protestant missionary to the American Indians. He, along with the Dutch traders, almost immediately established friendly relations with the Indian people. In fact, the Dutch usually got along well with their Indian neighbors.

The story of how Domine Megapolensis and his friends saved the life of Isaac Jogues, a French Jesuit Missionary, by helping him to escape from the Mohawks, is often told. Domine Megapolensis hid Jogues and then helped him to board a vessel bound for New Amsterdam, from whence he made his way to France, only to return to Canada to be recaptured and killed. The shrine at Auriesville is dedicated to his memory.

Of perhaps even greater significance in the history of our Valley is the story of the Reverend Peter Tesschenmacher, who also became a martyr for Christ. Peter Tesschenmacher was educated at the University of Utrecht in Holland. He came to America and preached at Kingston; he journeyed to South America as a missionary and then returned to become the first minister to be ordained by the Dutch Reformed Church in America. He preached to the Delaware Indians and then in 1682 came to the Mohawk Valley. The missionary work begun by Donrime Megapolensis had been continued by his successors, notably the Rev. Gideon Schaats. During these years a new colony called Schenectady had been established and a Reformed Church was organized. Demme Tesschenmacher was called to this pioneer field and there he labored faithfully for eight years.

But in 1690, on a Saturday night, in the dead of winter, a party of French troops sent from Canada by Count Frontenac, accompanied and guided by a group of traitorous Mohawk Indians who had been converted to Romanism by the Jesuits at Fonda and transplanted to Canada some years before, suddenly attacked the settlement and viciously laid it waste. The church and the homes were burned, the town destroyed, 60 lost their lives, and the few who survived fled during the bitter night through the desolate wilderness to Albany, twenty miles away. Among those murdered was Domine Tesschenmacher. His head was severed from his body, impaled on the end of a pole, and displayed in triumph on the long march home to Canada.

Despite the terrible setback the town of Schenectady was rebuilt and has grown to be a great city, a stronghold of the Reformed Faith and the home of Union College, founded originally by members of our Reformed denomination. The Dutch continued to prosper and slowly made their way westward into the valley. Although after 1664, when the English wrested control of the new world from the Dutch, the new governors tried to subordinate the Reformed Church to the Anglican Church, they met with little or no success. The Dutch people rallied and established the American way of complete severance of Church and State.

One of the successors to Dommes Megapolensis and Schaats as minister at Albany's First Reformed Church was the Rev. Petrius Van Driessen. He preached there for more than twenty years, from 1712 to 1738. He journeyed frequently through the land of the Mohawks and won many converts and much appreciation. In 1722 he petitioned the King's council at Albany for a license to build a mission church in the Mohawk Country. A few years later in 1725, Hermanus Wendell sold a tract of land, part of the Harrison Patent, to Hendrick Klock and Christian Hauss, "excepting an acre of low land in a square ." Upon that same square acre, about a mile east of St. Johnsville, a rude log church was built which we know as "Klock's Church." We do out know when the church was built. We suppose that it was built by the Reverend Van Driessen and his friends shortly after 1725, as a mission to the Indians who lived nearby at Indian Castle, and as a place of worship for the new settlers on the Harrison Patent. Whenever this little church was built and whoever built it, the history of St. John's Church as an individual congregation began with its building.

Thus we see how the Dutch Reformed preachers prepared the way for their German brothers. The foundations for spiritual ties were laid. Many years afterward in 1829, St. John's turned to the Dutch Reformed Church and made it its denominational home.

We now come to the epic story of how the Harrison Patent came to be settled. We shall see who the people were who worshiped at Klock's Church.

LET MY PEOPLE GO

Four of the first five trustees of Klock's Church, Colonel Jacob Klock, his nephew Jacob G. Klock, Christopher Fox, and Jacob Fehling came from families which took part in one of the greatest mass migrations in history, the coming of the Palatines from their homeland in southwestern Germany to the new world.

The Palatinate was an ancient principality on the Rhine River about two thirds the size of Connecticut. Among its great cities were Manheim, Worms, Spires, and Heidelberg its capital, site of the famous University founded there in 1337. The province abounded in good farm land; the people prospered and were noted for both their hospitality and their culture. Their open~mindedness to ready acceptance of the principles of the Reformation and made the land a happy haven to thousands of refugees, fleeing from the blood purge of the Dutch Protestants at the hands of the Duke of Alva and his troops. Protestants fled from all parts of the Netherlands, from the Dutch provinces in the north and the Belgic Provinces in the south. It is likely that sometime during these years, among the many families which fled to the Palatinate for safety, at least one, of Dutch origin, was called Klock. The refugees found temporary peace in the new land; their children were educated in the fine schools there; they inter~ married with the Germans and in time became Germanized in language and customs. A member of the Klock family named Hendrick, born at Hesse Cassel in the year 1668, is of especial importance to us. For he in mid~life participated in the great migration to America, and after many adventures built a home one mile east of present day St. Johnsville.

A terrible series of wars broke out in Germany, from 1618 to 1648, during which seventy-five per cent of the German people were exterminated and the entire country ravaged. With the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, Charles Louis succeeded his father as ruler of the Province and the period of wars turned to thirty years of peace.

In tragic time, however, the peace was shattered once again, this time by the savage enmity of Louis XIV, King of France, whose armies seared the beauty of the land, destroyed its produce and slaughtered its people. The first army came in 1674, a second in 1680; in 1688 a great horde of 50,000 troops reduced the land to a near wilderness. Protestants and Roman Catholics alike were, murdered. Another army marched its burning way in 1703, still another in 1707.

The cruelty of the repeated invasions was unhappily abetted by an unusually severe winter in the year 1708. It was said that by November, wood would not burn in the open air. In January of 1709 wine froze into solid blocks of ice, birds on the wing fell dead; western Europe was paralyzed. Even the swift flowing Rhone River was covered with ice and for the first time in recorded history the sea froze sufficiently along the coasts to bear even heavily laden carts. The fruit trees were killed, the vines destroyed. Husbandmen and vine dressers comprised more than half the subsequent emigration. In their desperate need, in the midst of the desolation caused by war, winter, and heavy taxes, the people turned to the one ray of hope, the new world. They eagerly responded to the many advertisements sent through the land by English companies. Soon the trickle of refugees became a flood. The Rhine roads were dense with weary travelers carrying their worldly goods in carts or bearing it all on their backs. Many traveled down the river by boat. Farmers along the way fed and sheltered them; the people of Holland especially offered them what meager hospitality they could afford until ships came to carry them across the Channel to England, where they encamped, 6500 strong, on the Blackheath, in London.

The British Government was alarmed by the unexpectedly large masses of German people. Though they dwelt in tents on the heath; were peace~loving, gentle folk; they yet had to be fed and the Royal larder soon ran low. A large group of the refugees was sent to northern Ireland; another group was sent to the colonies, Virginia and Carolina, in the new world. But the problem of settling the remainder seemed to be well solved to the mutual advantage both of Queen Anne's government and the Palatine people, when Colonel Robert Hunter, newly appointed governor of New York and New Jersey, proposed to send a group of 3000 Palatines across the Atlantic to manufacture naval stores. This proposal found favor became Britain's prosperity depended upon her navy; and her navy depended upon a goodly supply of tar, pitch, turpentine, and hemp. In 1696 John Bridget and several others had journeyed to New England and the Hudson Valley and had reported that naval stores could be manufactured there in large quantities. The British Government was greatly concerned because the Swedish Tar Company, the main source of supply, held a monopoly on the trade and increasingly made the stores difficult to obtain. Profiteering prices and unusual trade restrictions, especially in time of war, alarmed the British Government and forced it to seek a secure and sufficient supply elsewhere. Thus it seemed a happy thought to provide the Germans a home and at the same time to engage them in the manufacture of the badly needed naval stores. Another important factor in the minds of the British commissioners was the fact that the French were dangerously encroaching upon English settlements. Albany was weak; Schenectady had been ravaged; Boston was threatened; and the English allies, the Iroquois Indians, had been reduced from 2,800 to 1,321 fighting men, many of whom favored the French. Thus the English saw in the hardy Germans possible buffers against French invasion.

Arrangements were forthwith made for the passage to the New World. A redemptioner covenant was signed which made the Palatines virtual indentured servants. Ten ships were engaged to carry the migrants at the low rate of five pounds, ten shillings per head. At the end of December the ten ships met in the Thames River; the Palatines boarded them and then ensued six long months of misery . For the convoy refused sailing orders and plied the Channel Coast until April 10th, before getting under way. The people Suffered from the foul air and vermin; some below deck never saw the light of day. Little children died like flies; the fleet was decimated by ship~fever, a form of typhoid, carried by fleas and body lice. 2,814 Palatines embarked; but 446 died on the way. The first ship arrived July 7th, the last, August 2nd; one was wrecked off Long Island. Upon landing in New York the people met an unfriendly citizenry which feared the dreaded fever. The newcomers were encamped on Nutten or Governor's Island. Living wretchedly in tents, the numbers were further lessened during the summer by 250 deaths. Orphaned children were apprenticed out, most of them never to be seen by relatives and friends again.

In the Fall of 1710, 1,874 Palatines sailed up the Hudson to Livingston Manor, near present day Germantown, and to West Camp across the river. Several sites had been considered, such a the Schoharie valley, but were found to lack the necessary pitch pine trees. The British government already owned the 6,300 acres of West Camp and John Bridget had recommended Robert Livingston's land on the east side. Both tracts were surveyed and five towns were marked out, three on the east side of the river and two on the west. The Germans cleared the ground, built themselves simple huts, and faced their first American winter.

The cruel winter months left them bitter and rebellious. In May of 1711 they protested vigorously, indicated that they would not remain on the Hudson, and insisted that they be allowed to migrate to the Schoharie Valley. Unrest was abetted by the lack of suitable supplies necessary to the manufacture of naval stores and by the absence of the only competent instructor in the industry, John Bridget, who had returned to England. The Palatines were farmers and had no stomach for this alien business in an alien land. Justice was arbitrary; he food became progressively worse and in 1711 Governor Hunter was pre, occupied with the second Canadian Expedition, an attacking force which included 300 Palatines in its ranks.

But the decisive factor was the withdrawal of support by the British government, a change in policy which was the result of a change in party, for the Tories had superseded the Whigs and looked with little favor on the project. The government simply refused to pay the large bills entailed in supporting the Palatine people and soon Governor Hooter had spent over 20,000 pounds of his own money. By September 12, 1712, his personal funds were exhausted and he was forced to cast the immigrants adrift. The once promising naval stores enterprise was now a failure. The government turned to the Carolinas in the south for its new supply.

The financially orphaned Palatines were taken by surprise; they faced the winter with great anxiety. Many were forced ultimately to "boil grass" and the children to "eat the leaves of the trees. I have seen old men and women cry that it should almost have moved a stone. Several have for a whole week together had nothing but Welsh turnips which they did only scrape and eat without any salt or fat and bread," wrote the Reverend Haeger, one of the Palatine ministers.

Within the next five years many Palatines moved elsewhere, to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Southern New York. Some came to terms with Robert Livingston and settled permanently on his lands. But the larger part yearned for land of their own and determined to defy Governor Hunter. Deputies were sent the Indians in the Schuharie region who thereupon sold their lands for the third time, as they had in 1695, and again in 1710. In the autumn of 1712, 150 families moved up to Albany and Schenectady; but fifty of them pushed on, cutting a new road to Schoharie, where with the help of the Indians they survived the wilderness winter. The following March the other 100 families followed them, traveling with roughly~made sledges through snow three feet deep. Seven villages were established extending from present day Schoharie to Middleburg. Rude huts were built of logs and earth; bark was wed for roofing and skins covered the doorways.

Suffering was intense and would have been fatal had not the Indians guided the hapless pioneers to supplies of wild potatoes and strawberries. Corn was planted and additional supplies came from the Dutch Church of New York which sent liberal gifts of corn, pork, bread, and money. Because the farmers were without tools they ingeniously fashioned their own plows, shovels, forks, mortars, mixers, etc., out of wood. Later, when things were more settled, they manufactured their own household furniture. At the first the hausfrau did all her cooking in outside ovens until fireplaces could be built with the accompanying bar for hanging the pots. Pitch pine knots were used for light; deer and beaver skins were fashioned into breeches, skirts, and caps.

Large families were the rule, often with as many as twenty children; but a large proportion died. The maidens married young, were robust and strong; within one week of their arrival at Schoharie four children were born. Despite the lack of spiritual leadership the settlers were law-abiding and moral under the rule of listmasters, like Christopher Fox and John Conrad Weiser.

In the meantime trouble was in store for the Palatines. Seven Partners had purchased the Schoharie lands from Governor Hunter in Albany and considered the settlers there as mere squatters, without rights. Attempts were made to settle the land, but the Palatines forcibly chased the newcomers away. A sheriff came with a warrant for Weiser's arrest but the women of the community knocked him down, threw him into a hog pen and tied him to a rail upon which he was driven six miles back toward Albany. The Palatines wanted lands of their own. After much trouble a group finally left the Schoharie region for Pennsylvania at the invitation of the governor, to settle near the Susquehanna River. Another group was invited by Burnet the new Governor of New York, to settle on a tract of land on the Mohawk above Little Falls; still another group led by John Christopher Gerlach, was awarded the Stone Arabia patent. Others came to terms with the Seven Partners and remained in the Schoharie valley; but the group that interests us, made up of just a few, led by Hendrick Klock, chose to Settle on the Harrison Patent.

Unlike the Stone Arabia and Burnetsfield (Herkimer) Patents, the Harrison Patent was purchased by a group of aristocrats led by Sir Francis Harrison, purely for speculative purposes. They bad no intention of settling on the land. The Patent extended from a point east of "Garoga" Creek westward to East Canada Creek, and was purchased from the Indians in 1722 for 700 beaver skins. Hendrick Klock, however, paid 250 pounds for his tract, a great sum in those days, and it is a mystery how he was able to do this, for the Palatines were poor. It is supposed therefore that although Hendrick Klock, now in his fifties, lived for a time with his wife Maria Margaretha and four children among the Palatines in the Schoharie Valley at Hartmansdorf, his real Occupation was that of an Indian trader. Milo Nellis, local history enthusiast, bases this supposition on the fact that Hendrick Klock's family Bible records that he came to America in 1708, a forerunner of the great migration.

At any rate, Hendrick Klock had the means to pay a great sum of money for a large portion of the Harrison Patent. He bought lot No. 11, upon which the so-called Fort Klock was built by his son Johannes in 1750, and half of lot No. 13, which contained the reserved square. Upon this lot he built his home, later inherited by his son, Colonel Jacob Klock. Upon this lot also he was buried in the year 1760 at the age of 92 in the little cemetery beside 'Klock's Church.'

This briefly is the story of the Palatines. Four of the five original trustees were of Palatine origin. A man named Henrich Fahling landed in New York in 1710, lived with the Palatines on Nutten Island and then ascended the Hudson with them. Jacob Fehling was probably a direct descendant. Another man, John Christopher Fuchs, was in the same group, sent as me of the deputies to the Indians. He became a listmaster and then head of one of the Palatine villages in Schoharie. Christopher Fox was probably a direct descendant. During these years Hendrick's eldest son, Jacob, was growing into young manhood.

Years later in 1756 Jacob's brother, George, along with brother~in~law, Christian Nellis, who lived nearby on lot No. 12, secured title to the Klock and Nellis Patent, the land in the hills, Youker's Bush and Crum Creek. This land, too, was settled by German families. These for the most part were the people who laid the foundations for our beloved St. John's Church.

KLOCK'S CHURCH

As has already been shown, it is probable that Klock's Church, the forerunner of St. John's, was built about the year 1725 by the Rev. Petrius Van Driessen with the help of Hendrick Klock and his friends. But the probability is so uncertain that it remains only a guess; the origin of the old church is shrouded in mystery.

Some have said that the old church was not built until 1756 when, it is supposed, 'old George' Klock, Colonel Klock's brother, built it. Others have maintained that it dates from the year 1770, the year the church is supposed to have been organized and upon which date we have based our recent anniversary celebrations. Still others argue that it was not built until after the revolution, about the year 1787 or 1788 when the church was incorporated. And yet, agreeing that no one knows the facts, it still seems most probable that the church was built long before these latter dates.

We have definite knowledge that the 'square acre' was reserved in Hendrick Klock's deed and that the Rev. Van Driessen sought and secured permission to build a mission station at that time. We know also that some years later he was granted a liberal gift of land by the Mohawk Indians in appreciation of his missionary efforts among them and that this land was in the same general neighborhood, opposite the Indian Castle, extending westward from East Creek. These are facts.

But there are no facts available which point to the year 1756 as the probable date or to George Klock as the builder. This is the date usually given but the tradition seems to be of phantom origin. Neither is there any evidence to support the 1770 theory. The Rev. Albert Dodd Minor, writing in 1881, cited the year 1770 as the year of organization but gave no reasons for choosing that date. Nor was there any celebration of the centennial anniversary in the year 1870, as there was at the Palatine Church, which was built in the year 1770. Even less credible is the year 1787 or 1788, for if the church were but four years old, the Consistory in 1792 would hardly have considered overtures to move to Zimmerman's Creek and build a new structure. Neither would the church be decayed and fallen apart by 1812 when Domine Dysslin died, nor would it have disappeared altogether by 1816.

The slight evidence available seems to indicate that 1725 is the most probable date for the building of Klock's Church. No other date seems to be as satisfactory, and we knew in addition that Stone Arabia and German Flats (Herkimer) settled about the same time by Hendrick Klock's comrades, saw the building of houses of worship almost immediately. Klock's Church was probably similar to them, built of wood with simple benches within, allowing ample room for the Indians, who lived nearby at their castle.

For some time too, the church was undoubtedly used as a school house. A teacher named Henry Hayes gave the children rudimentary instruction, which in the case of some of them, proved to be excellent training. George Bauder, of Stone Arabia, told the historian Jeptha Simms that he studied there in the church and that he also attended a Service there with his bride sometime before the Revolution. The high standards of the school are seen readily in the correspondence of Colonel Klock. Despite his Palatine background he used the English language easily. He wrote as a well educated man and was not at all the ignorant dolt described so inaccurately in Drums Along the Mohawk.

In later years a separate school house was built below the church. Its foundation was uncovered some years ago and Milo Nellis testifies to its location. Church and school served side by side, adjacent to the growing cemetery, close by Colonel Klock's home. The sacred triad was a symbol of the characters of our forefathers. Around the three institutions a new way of life prospered, a life free of persecution, intolerance, tyranny; and for long happy years, free of the scourge of war.

The Palatines were a peace loving people. They had fled from the repeated useless ravages of war to find peace in a new land. As they cleared the lush wild wilderness, built their homes, and planted their crops in the virgin fields, they took care also to make friends with their Indian neighbors. They desired not to rule or exploit, neither to conquer nor destroy; they simply sought to live at peace. Klock's church on the hill, the school, and the home symbolized a new way of life, the American way.

PEACE ALONG THE MOHAWK

One of the truths most difficult for the modern to realize is that there was a well~rounded culture, a crystallized 'way of life' in America before the United States was born. We so readily regard the past as merely a preview of the present that we forget that men were born, grew old, and died in the Mohawk Valley before the days of '76. When we view the dead past of history with attempted objectivity, we too quickly assume that superior air which regards all things past as inferior, is incomplete. We casually view the pre-Revolutionary days as mere stepping stones to the present. We forget that the people who lived in that day regarded their lives, their loves, their joys and sorrows, as all important. Little conscious of their destiny, they lived in and for their day as we live in ours. They were not in their own eyes the forerunners of a great nation; they were that nation.

A culture was established in the valley as closely knit and as definite as our own. The highest circles of society were entertained at Johnson Hall with as much fuss and finesse as may now characterize these same circles. People were rich, poor, middle class, artisans, farmers, boat~men. They loved and hated, and fought and sought, and the little things of life bothered them as much as in our day. There were snobs, back~slappers, agitators, social~climbers. Gossip flowed its swift and careless streams. Men courted and women let themselves be courted. People were people.

Peace held sway. The Dutch and Germans were hard drinkers. There were many taverns, several in and about Zimmerman's Creek; each tavern an imbiding place as well as an abiding place. Mugs of beer were quaffed with frequent gusto, as well as glasses of "the hard cider of the Mohawk, potent enough to cause the knees of a modem man to tremble." Ox~carts on the road and 'bateaux' on the river kept the taverns busy and roaring. Crews of from two to eight men operated the large and flat bottomed river boats which handled the bulk of the river traffic. Sharp~prowed, from 16 to 20 feet in length, they could carry as much as several tons of cargo. Nelson Greene tells how "Cleated boards ran along each side of these batteaux, on which men stood with faces toward the stern and set poles in the river bottom. Then they walked along the cleats and thus pushed the boat along." Twenty rapids had to be won between Schenectady and Fort Schuyler (Utica).

For the common people along the Mohawk, life was rough and hard, but it had room for recreation. Sports of all sorts were very popular. Fighting was frequent, impromptu, and without rules; horses raced along the public highway each year at Herkimer; foot racing was frequent sport and during the winter horse~sleigh races, were held on the river ice.

But leisure in those days was bard won. Farming, with its endless drudgery of chores, took its toll of time. Life and work were slow~paced. Men spent many days in the fields, planting their corn, wheat, hemp, flax, peas and potatoes, and accomplished no more than what could be done now in a few hours. Farm tools were crude and usually hand-made; the only machines were wooden; beams were joined with pegs; much of the cloth was home-woven. For the women as for the men life offered little rest. How much then they must have cherished the old Church with its quiet hours of worship and prayer! The pioneers roundabout, farmers, most of them, from the south, north, cast and west trudged many miles to attend the infrequent services. Preachers were scarce in those days and when Domme Rosencrantz or a fellow minister journeyed over the hills from Stone Arabia or Schoharie or Herkimer, the word was sent far and wide and Sunday in Klock's church would find the preacher busy with baptisms, weddings, and belated funerals.

How deeply grateful they must have been, filled as they were with the realization that they were free to worship as they pleased, free to live at peace, far from the terrors of the harassed homeland across the sea! Some of the younger people perhaps took it all for granted, but pioneers like Hendrick Klock must have told them often about the great adventure of coming to the new world. They must have instilled in the hearts of their children a love and thankfulness for freedom.

Perhaps, as Hendrick Klock's oldest son Jacob approached his fortieth year, about 1750, he rejoiced in the security of his home, and, as he thought of his wife and growing family be mused that God had been good to him. Perhaps, as he stood on the sacred hill above his home and looked down at the placid Mohawk, mirroring in its stillness the beauty of a drowsing sun, he thought in his heart that surely he was fortunate because he could look forward to years of peace and contentment. Life seemed so secure.

WAR

I have tried to point out the seldom~realized fact that life in the Mohawk Valley during those early years had reached a peak of economic, religious, and social stability. It is wrong to think of these as years of war and transition because once the land was settled, and, after months of back-breaking labor, cleared, the soil was found to be abundantly rich. Farming became well established despite the fact that wolves were so numerous that livestock had to be locked up at night. So rich was the Valley that it became the granary of the American colonies.

And it must be understood also that the mutual friendliness of settlers and the Indians would have endured had it not been for outside disturbances. The stronghold of the Mohawks was located at Indian Castle, a few miles west of Klock's Church. The Indians had thought highly of the old Dutch Domines Megapolensis, Schaats, and Van Driessen and now they regarded their white neighbors with esteem. Old King Hendrick, Sachem of the tribe, was a personal friend of many of the settlers in the arm. When preachers came to the old Church white men and Indians worshiped side by side. They were destined to become enemies, not of their own volition, but through the destructive influence of certain external forces.

One of these external forces was the onslaught of civilization itself. The Indian villages were invaded by the strange demoralizing habits of the white men. The Indian way of life was corroded by the 'acids of modernity.' They caught the diseases of civilization; its guns, its whiskey, and its lust; without catching also in sufficient quantities the vaccinating health of Faith. The Evangelical efforts of the preachers were offset by the few bad examples who practiced the opposite of what the missionaries preached.

A second external alien force was that of the French, spearheaded by the Jesuits at Fonda early in the 1600's. The French fought the Mohawks and the Dutch as much as they were able, as at Schenectady in 1690, but in the 1750's their rivalry with the English assumed precedence, becoming a struggle to the death. The Mohawk Valley, with its settlers, figured importantly in the ensuing French and Indian War. The star of Sir William Johnson was in its ascending sky. He energetically set out to enlist the settlers in the fray and many German Palatines and Dutch, along with hundreds of Indians, were included in the ranks at the Battle of Lake George in 1755 during which old King Hendrick was slain. The next year a fort was built near the Castle, designed for its protection, and Colonel John Butler was put in command. On Much 26, 1757, a force of French Canadians and Indians assaulted Fort Bull at Wood Creek, two miles cast of present~day Rome. In November of that same year a similar party attacked German Flatts, massacred many of the settlers, and destroyed their homes. The following April another force attacked the south side but this time they encountered stern opposition from the settlers led by Lieut. Nicholas Herkimer.

As the strength of the French waned and the might of the English grew the British forces took the initiative and the Valley knew the tread of the marching of countless feet. The first large force to pass through the Valley was led by Colonel Bradstreet who proceeded westward to Oswego to cross Lake Ontario and successfully attack Fort Frontenac at Kingston. The second force, led by Sir William Johnson, marched through in 1759 and continued on to Fort Niagara, where the English defeated the French and captured the Fort. The third army was the largest, made up of 10,000 men led by the great General Amherst, and it marched west and north in 1760 to the conquest of Montreal, the climactic blow which forever ended the tenure of the French Empire in the northeast. Included in these armies were the sturdy sons of the Mohawk Valley, learning the dread arts of war even as their fathers had learned them long before.

All this was but a tragic preview, a dress rehearsal to a drama of death, the outbreak of the Revolution in '75, a war which is regarded generally as the beginning of a new nation but which in the Mohawk Valley marked the end of a prosperous, well~rounded way of life.

To Jacob Klock and his friends, the outbreak of war was not a surprise. For the conflict grew out of a long series of differences mused by the third and most important external force, the activities of the British government led by King George III and represented in the Mohawk Valley by Sir William Johnson. Though it has long been the fashion in this locality to honor Johnson as the 'greatest' or 'most influential' man in the Colonies prior to the Revolutionary War; though he is lauded by his biographers and revered by old and young alike, in truth lie and all he stood for was probably the most evil thing to happen in the entire history of our Valley. That he accomplished some good cannot be denied; but a man's goodness and badness must always be measured according to his opportunity.

It is said that Johnson made peace with the Indians but in truth the Dutch and the Germans never had trouble with the Indians until be came. Had it not been for his influence the Mohawk Indians would have stood by their German friends during the War; the Valley would not haw been turned into a charred ruin and the bodies of two hundred Palatine sons would not have rotted beneath the August sun at Oriskany. In fact, had it not been for what Sir William Johnson stood for, the Revolutionary War itself might not have been fought.

He represented the medieval spirit of feudalism. He wanted to establish in he new world the privileges of landed estates which he could not attain at home. He wanted to become a feudal lord. He wanted to own a vast estate and he wanted vassals, not free men, to work it. Inevitably, he and all he stood for came into direct conflict with the sturdy Dutch-German valley settlers. They had paid dearly for their land in blood and sweat. They resented the aristocratic pretensions of Johnson Hall. This resentment found a leader in the person of George Klock, brother to Jacob, builder in 1760 of the stone house two miles west of St. Johnsville, now the home of Mrs. Ella Hillabrandt and her son. George Klock bought some land on the south side of the river which Johnson coveted for himself. A legal battle followed during which Johnson accused Klock of every villany imaginable including fraud and winebibbing. Yet in truth George Klock had paid well for his land while, in direct violation of British law, Johnson had negligible cost' title to the 'Royal Grant' west of Little Falls, consisting of many thousands of acres of land. Johnson proclaimed himself a friend of the Indians as he amassed wealth at their expense, devoured their lands, and at every opportunity did his utmost to offset whatever good moral influence the pioneer preachers of the Gospel might have had. His 'friendship' with the Indians was built upon a quicksand of liquor, lust, and blood.

Many of the Indian conferences at Johnson Hall ended as drunken orgies. His military alliances with the Indians depended upon a constant supply of liquor. When rum gave out at Fort Niagara, for example, the Indians deserted en masse. Johnson effectively helped demoralize the red men further by his utter sex abandonment. Legend has it that he fathered a hundred Indian children and the more deeply the impartial historian searches the valley records the less exaggerated this legend seems to be. One of the Indian squaws, Molly Brant, lived at Johnson Hall as his mistress and bore Johnson seven or more children. He took her as he took Catherine Weisenberg some years before without the 'bother' of marriage.

Johnson's encouragement of the scalp business was yet a greater evil. It began during the English conflict with the French. Johnson maintained that if he didn't pay the Indians for French scalps the enemy would pay them for English scalps. There is little evidence of real 'friendship' in this admission. This practice of course paved the way for his son's leadership of the Indians during the war. As a Tory, in company with Joseph Brant, he paid the Indians liberally for American scalps, a custom, incidentally which the settlers seldom indulged in. This then was Johnson's 'friendship' with the Indians, a friendship of liquor, lust, and blood.

Of course, Johnson did some good. He brought some settlers to the neighborhood of Johnstown; he was very able in settling disputes among the Indian tribes. As Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the Colonies for the British Government he was undoubtedly one of the most influential men of his time. But how much more, it seems to the writer, should the name of Colonel Jacob Klock and his neighbors be honored and revered. Instead of regarding him as a dullard and his fellow German farmers as ignorant backwoodsmen, as has long been the custom, they should be upheld as fine examples of the men who made victory in the Revolution possible; men of courage, energy, and principle, men who when all seemed lost yet went on to win. Colonel Klock and his friends are symbols of progressive America. Johnson for all his influence is a symbol of reactionary feudalism.

Colonel Klock and his neighbors, the Nellis's, the Failings, the Foxes, the Bellingers, the Zirnmerman's, and the Snells continued in the quest of freedom from all the old~world tyrannies. They were alert to anything which threatened this hard-on freedom and as early as 1774 they proceeded to organize a Committee of Safety to protect the Valley from the possible Tories in their midst, centering around Johnson Hall and Sir John Johnson (son of Sir William who died in 1774). The first meeting was held in a tavern in Stone Arabia; and later meetings were held frequently in Colonel Klock's home. It was this Committee of Safety which protested against Sir John Johnson's reactionary policies and soon formulated one of the most remarkable documents in Colonial History, an actual Declaration of Independence, 14 months before the real Declaration was proclaimed at Philadelphia in 1776. This Declaration was signed, among many others, by Colonel Klock.

This same Committee of Safety formed the leadership of the militia, the motley group of untrained farmers, which marched to Oriskany to be ambushed by St. Leger, Joseph Brant and his Indian friends. At this battle, during which General Nicholas Herkimer was mortally wounded, Colonel Klock was second in command. The militia fought heroically and though two hundred fell, seven Snell brothers and Klock's son~in~law, Colonel Ebenezer Cox among them, yet the enemy was stopped and the British strategy defeated. St. Leger's forces were not able to push through the valley to join Burgoyne's army coming from the north. Junction of the two forces at Saratoga might have turned that great victory for the patriots into defeat and the course of the war could readily have been reversed. All the men who fought and died at Oriskany August 6, 1777, came from the Valley; most of them were Dutch Germans, many of them were the very men who worshiped at Klock's Church.

But what is also of great importance, yet little realized, is that the war in the valley did not end at Oriskany but rather began there. With General Herkimer dead as the result of his wounds, responsibility for the valley's defense fell to Colonel Klock, then about sixty~five years old. Although Brant's Indians attacked again and again, General Washington nevertheless called repeatedly for more troops. Soon every able~bodied man was gone, either dead or fighting with the regular army. Colonel Klock had to rely on old men and boys both to defend the Valley from the Indians and also to plant, raise, and harvest the wheat and other crops . It was a hopeless task; yet Klock did not give up. He wrote letter after letter beseeching the regular army for troops adequate to hold their own against the enemy. But his pleas were denied. In November, 1778, he gathered his meager force together and marched through the bitter winter weather to Cherry Valley only to find that the village had been laid waste through the negligent inactivity of the commanding officer. He met jeers and reproaches for his late arrival from the regular army troops who had remained safely within the fort while the farms were laid waste.

And then, tragically, toward the end of the war, with his wife, family, neighbors all suffering from the near starvation caused by the repeated loss of the crops, with many of his friends shot or scalped by lurking Indians, Colonel Klock was forced to undergo the bitterness and shame of seeing one of his own sons turn traitor to the patriot cause and desert to the English forces in Canada. Yet the old man carried on, a bulwark in a barren land. In 1780, the 'Battle of Klock's field' was fought directly in front and to the west of his home. And then, after long agonies, finally came the peace. The land was laid waste; many of the sons of the Valley were dead; the people were destitute. Ridiculed by the many, honored by the few who really knew him, Colonel Klock lived until 1798, and was buried undoubtedly beside Klock's Church. And it is ironical that while the name of Johnson rings plaudits in the land, while a monument stands in the Cherry Valley church~yard honoring the colonel whose folly was responsible for the massacre there; yet the body of Colonel Klock lies forgotten, honored, and unknown. This story has been told in some detail because of the writer's belief that a great historical injustice has been done to a great man and a great people. We in 1946 cannot properly appreciate what it means to belong to St. John's Church except we better understand the men who first gathered in Klock's Church on the hill to worship Christ in spirit and in truth. The story of Colonel Klock is in a measure the story of Henry Failing, Christopher Fox, Jacob G. Klock, Peter Schuyler and the other stalwart men and women roundabout whose courage and Faith enabled our Church to stand through the ravages of war. The old Church on its lovely hill, overlooking the beautiful valley with its widely sweeping west~ward curve, witnessed the burnings, the scalpings, the countless raids, the hurry of flight, the steadier plodding sound of marching feet; and after it all was ended, when the final victory was won, it welcomed the homeless home.

THE FIRST DOMINE

Much of what has gone before is in a sense 'prehistoric,' filled with the blank spaces of uncertainty. Our factual knowledge of the history of St. John's begins with its incorporation, March 13, 1787, as the "Reformed Calvinist Church of the Upper Part of Palatine in the County of Montgomery," and the designation by the congregation of the five aforementioned trustees. This document of incorporation was signed March 20, 1787, by Johan A. Walrath and George Fox, and acknowledged before Jacob G. Klock, Esq., seven days later. Why the Church was not incorporated long before is readily understood when we realize that the State Incorporation law was not passed until April, 1784.

The very next year after its incorporation Klock's Church found itself sufficiently strong to call a full-time minister and the congregation chose a vigorous young man of Faith who had been led in a striking manner to make the ministry his life's work. Born of noble birth in the town of Burgdorf, Canton Berne, Switzerland (the land that cradled and nourished the Reformation), John Henry Dysslin (born 12/18/1752) left his homeland for the brighter promises of America. His voyage was interrupted by severe storms, however; he was shipwrecked, and in the mortal danger of the seas he vowed to dedicate himself to God's services should his life be spared. He was saved by a passing ship which landed in New York harbor. He thereupon returned to Switzerland, was educated for the ministry, set out once again for America, and was called, ultimately, to Klock's Church where he served from July 13, 1788, until his death in the Fall of 1812, the second longest pastorate in our history.

On his first Sunday at Klock's Church he baptised John Frederick, the son of Christopher and Catherine Hess Fox, the first of the approximately 683 baptisms he performed. Domine Dysslin served with great devotion and energy, ministering to the countryside roundabout, and in addition to his regular pastoral duties he preached frequently at the Mannheim Church at Snell's Bush and also at the Church at Indian Castle.

The outstanding achievement of his ministry was the erection of the new Church at Zimmerman's Creek in 1804, a move which proved to be farsighted and wise, for although at that time there were as many houses at Klock's Church and at East Creek, as there were at Zimmerman's, yet the village at Zimmerman's was destined to grow and the land upon which the Church was built remains today the loveliest corner in the village. The first step in the erection of the new church was taken in 1792 when Jacob Zimmerman, a soldier of the Revolutionary War, and owner of a grist mill on the creek, offered a large grant of land adjacent to his mill for the use of the congregation of the then aging Klock's Church. This land included within its bounds what is now John Street, West Street, Saltsman, Cottage, and William Streets and was bounded on the east by Church Street, on the south by West Main, on the west by the creek, and on the north by the hills. The trustees of Klock's Church accepted Jacob Zimmerman's offer and gave him a note to the amount of $49.52 dated March 5, 1792. John L. Bellinger thereupon purchased the note as his contribution toward the new church.

The congregation continued to worship at Klock's Church, however, for some years before action was taken. About 1802 John L. Bellinger was elected treasurer and he took the lead in promoting the enterprise. Work was started and after the expenditure of $1861.05~1/2, a great sum for those days, the new building was ready by January 2nd, 1804, for its first Congregational Meeting, at which Conrad Hellicoss, Andrew Zabriskie, John L. Bellinger, Jacob Zimmerman, Adam A. Walrath, and Henry Beekman were elected trustees; and the eventful step of adopting a new name for the new church was taken. Its official title now became the "Dutch Reformed Congregation of Sf. John's Church in Palatine Town, Montgomery County."

The church debt was soon liquidated; by 1806 most of the bills were paid. The long list of generous givers includes friends from far and wide, as well as the local farmers and townspeople. The sum of $146.50-1/2 was received from several persons in Albany, New York, etc.," and $88.73 was sent from "several persons by collections at Schohary, etc." The Fort Plain congregation sent the large sum of $129.75.

Those who gave toward the building of the new church were as follows: Jacob J. Failing, Frederick Bellinger, Jacob Zimmerman, Gideann Hess, Andrew Shaver, Philip R. Fry, Frederick J. Bellinger, John Youker, Henry J. Faling, Michael Keller, David Fensher, Adam A. Wolrath, Jun'r., Henry Hase, Lorance Rangel, Jesse & Simeon Daytons, Joseph Bellinger, John J. Faling, John Simerson, John Sponknavell John D. Faling, Caleb Forkener, Henry Beekman, John L. Bellinger, Peter B. Cook, George G. Klock, Adam A. Walrath, John Gibson, Melkerd Porter, Jacob G. Klock, Charles Newkirk, Conrad Hellicoss, Andrew Zabriskie, Michael U. Porter, George Flander, James Van Valkenburgh, Frederick Klock, Henry J. Timmerman, John Berdsley, John J. Klock Jur,. Peter C. Fox, Peter Van Drieson, Henry Bellinger, John Tinque, Joseph Clock, John C. House, Daniel Fox, Andrew Agident, Frederick H. Bellinger, Jacob H. Failing, Robert Batten, Frederick J. G. Bellinger, Peter H. Nellis, Nathan Christy, Joseph Klock Junr., Henry Hart, Peter Van Allen, John Hess, Peter March, Peter Moshier, John Van Volkenburgh, Henry Flander, Thomas Scott, George Hawn, Jacob G. Klock, Jur., Samuel Scott, Catherien Windecker, Jacob A. Kelle,r Grover Gilliam, Isaac Honeress, Adam Klock, John Cole, Peter Kelts, George Cox, Peter Storms, James V. Valkenburgh, Ludiwick Herring, Benjamin Lyon, Frederick Klock, Christeann Groves, Nicholus Coons.

Many of the incidental purchases, such as shingles, nails, rope, etc., were made at Andrew Zabriskie's General Store. James Wright, Jerard Barnes, J. Gillinad, and Adam Bowers were the chief workmen.

The new white Church faced eastward toward Church Street and stood beside the highway not far from the place where the present church stands. It was built of wood in the pleasant colonial style, with pillars in front. In the interior 41 pews and boxes occupied the main floor and upstairs a gallery filled three sides. An old fashioned high pulpit stood at the center opposite the two front doors.

In those days the custom of taking weekly offerings at Sunday Services was unheard of. Funds were raised popularly through the sale of the church pews and boxes to members and friends in the congregation. Such a sale was held in June, 1804 when the congregation finally moved from Klock's Church to their new home, with the following results:

Pew No. 1 Deacons Seats

2 Joseph G. Klock ---------------------------------------------------------- $30.00

3 Henry Bellinger & Frederick L. Bellinger ----------------------------------42.00

4 Frederick Bellinger & Andrew Shaver -------------------------------------40.00

5 William L Walrath ----------------------------------------------------------66.50

Box No. 6 Andrew Zabriskie --------------------------------------------------50.00

7 George G. Klock -------------------------------------------------------------76.00

8 Jacob G. Klock ---------------------------------------------------------------52.00

9 One half Michael U. Porter; 1/4 Benjamin Lyon; 1/4 Conrad Hellicoss---50.00

11 Jacob J. Paling & Thomas Scott ------------------------------------------- 25.00

Pew No.12 Free

Box No.14 Christeann Groff, John T. Paling, Jacob Flander & Peter H. Nellis 26.75

15 Peter Kels, John Kring, Jur., Henry M. Smith, Henry Flander ------------- 40.00

16 Jacob & Christopher Fox, each one half ----------------------------------- 50.00

17 Frederick Gitman ----------------------------------------------------------- 50.00

18 Jacob Zemerman ------------------------------------------------------------92.00

19 Jacob H. Failing & Henry J. Zimmerman ----------------------------------- 98.00

Pew No. 20 John L. Bellinger & Henry Beekman ------------------------------70.00

21 Adam A. Walrath ------------------------------------------------------------ 53.00

22 Conrad Hellecoss & John J. Klock ------------------------------------------ 41.00

23 Elders Seats

24 Free

25 John D. Paling --------------------------------------------------------------- 50.00

26 Peter Storms ---------------------------------------------------------------- 32.00

27 John C. House & Henry Hase ----------------------------------------------- 31.00

28 Frederick H. Bellinger & Henry Bellinger -----------------------------------30.00

29 Joseph Klock Jun'r., Mechail Keller, Henry Flander & Henry Hart -------- 30.00

30 John Cole & Samuel Scott -------------------------------------------------- 26.50

31 One half Catharien Windecker & John J. Faling; Christann Groff the

other half ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 25.00

32 Nicholus Shaver & John Euker --------------------------------------------- 20.00

34 Jacob Zimmerman, Henry J. Zimerman & Jacob H. Paling ---------------- 25.00

35 Cornelius C. Beekman ------------------------------------------------------ 25.00

36 Jacob A. Walrath & Adam Walrath ----------------------------------------- 32.00

37 John B. Klock ---------------------------------------------------------------- 35.00

38 Andrew Shaver & Frederick Bellinger -------------------------------------- 37.00

39 Henry Beekman & John L. Bellinger ---------------------------------------- 39.00

40 For ministers family

GALLERY SEATS

No. 1 George Flander ----------------------------------------------------------- 25.00

In addition to purchasing these seats the congregation also subscribed toward Rev. Dysslin's salary, pledging money, and some of them wood and wheat in addition. The list of subscribers includes many of those names already mentioned with the addition of John Banker, Melchert Bauder, Peter Isellord, Adolph Walrath, George Youker, Henry Borkdolph, John Vedder, John Ingersoll, Christeann Nellis, Jacob Youker, John Hase, and many others. From these long lists we may see how well supported the Church was in these early days. These pioneer leaders and their minister, Domine Dysslin, enlisted many in the work of Christ and His Church.

Much of what occurred during Domine Dysslin's ministry is unknown because two~thirds of the first Church record~book, kept in the German language, is lost, the pages torn out and destroyed. We do know, however, from the Treasurer's account book that the Domine's salary for the year 1804 was $117.19. It was increased to $119. In 1806 and to $120. In 1807. The salary of course was supplemented by sums subscribed toward ploughing the Glebe lands, food, wood, wheat, and other necessities.

We know also that Domine Dysslin made himself completely at home by marrying Anna, Colonel Klock's granddaughter; that he lived in the old Klock homestead, adjacent to the old church, and that the home was happy with the advent of five daughters and two sons. He was well regarded by the people and was considered by a missionary traveling through the Valley as "A Swiss, and a good character, and a man of learning."

And we know also that at his death in 1812 he was laid to rest in the churchyard on the hill. Tradition persists that his body rests at the site where once the pulpit of Klock's Church stood. No signs remain, no mound or stone; but in 1920 a tablet honoring his memory was placed on a large boulder near by.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

It seems that the history of St. John's Church is replete with unsolved mysteries. One such is the date of the building of Klock's Church. Another, even more controversial, arises from the uncertainty as to how the village of St. Johnsville got its name.

The name was not adopted officially until 1838, the year Fulton County separated itself from Montgomery, forcing the creation of a new township, St. Johnsville, separate from the Town of Oppenheim across the county line. But the name St. Johnsville goes back to the year 1818, when Henry Lloyd, a West St. Johnsville storekeeper, newly appointed by President Monroe as postmaster, called a public meeting which decided to call the new post-office by that name.

It would seem to the casual reader that there is little mystery in the selection of the name St. Johnsville, for the only church in the vicinity, built in 1804, and attended and supported by most if not by all of the people present at the meeting, had borne the name 'St. John's' for fourteen years. It would seem obvious that the first post office was named after the Church. And so in fact have many authorities believed. In his New York Gazeteer, published in 1860, J. H. French states, as a matter of fact, that the Town of St. Johnsville was named from St. John's Church, built in the village at an early day.' In 1880 the Rev. Albert Dodd Minor wrote a brief history of the church and he, too, stated that the town was named from St. John's.

Nevertheless, the matter has been the subject of much controversy which in itself has an interesting history. It began with the publication of Jeptha Simms' famous Frontiersmen of New York in which he stated that the new white Church was not built until 1818; and, accordingly, that the name St. John's was not adopted until that time. Simms concluded that the first post-office was named after Alexander St. John, a road commissioner appointed by the State Legislature in 1811 to supervise the construction of the new turnpike from the highway two miles east of the village to Johnstown. St. John lived in Zimmerman's Greek for several years while the new road was under construction and, undoubtedly, won many friends. Because of the error in setting the year 1818 instead of 1804 as the date for the construction of the new Church it seemed logical to draw the conclusion that the village was indeed named after the surveyor,

This false belief persisted for some years without contradiction because the records of the Church from the year 1795 to 1816 were lost. But the Rev. Philip Furbeck, minister at St. John's from 1888 to 1892, uncovered the Treasurer's account book for that early period and found therein that the white church was erected in 1804, and that the name 'St. John's' preceded the name 'St. Johnsville' by fourteen years.

Another secondary argument advanced to uphold the belief that the first post-office was named after the road commissioner is that Henry Lloyd, the first postmaster, and his most influential friend, Christian Groff , were both fast friends of Alexander St. John and therefore took the name St. Johnsville in his honor. This seems superficially credible until one finds that both Henry Lloyd and Christian Groff were loyal supporters of St. John's Church. On July 10, 1816, two years before the post-office was established, Henry Lloyd pledged $ 3.00 toward the salary of the new minister, Rev. David Devoe. It was the custom in those days, as each new minister came, to take such a list of subscriptions. This sum was paid faithfully through the following years and by comparison with the average pledge, was a very generous sum. Christian Groff, Jr., was a member of a family which had long been closely connected with St. John's Church. His parents were married by its minister (Domine Dysslin at Klock's Church) and he was baptised by the same good Domine. When the new church was built, his father purchased several seats. While we do not know whether these two men were members of the Church or not because the records are lost, we are sure that both Henry Lloyd and Christian Groff, Jr., were loyal supporters and probably both were members. Thus, it would seem that whatever friendship the two men had with Alexander St. John during his stay at Zimmerman's Creek, that friendship alone would surely not be uppermost in their minds or in the minds of the people as the determining factor in selecting the town's name when their own church was named St. John's and had been for so long.

It is probable that this controversy would never have arisen had it not been for Simms' gross errors. He wrote that the white church was not built until 1818; it was actually built in 1804. He wrote, that Rev. Devoe was preaching in the old Klock's Church in 1815; when in truth, Klock's Church was no longer standing in 1815 and Rev. Devoe did not come to St. Johnsville until 1816.

Simms also cites two men, Jacob P. Fox and Daniel Groff, who were still alive when he wrote his book, as stating that they never heard that the name 'had the least reference to a church.' In honor to the memories of these men we cannot conclusively contradict them. But it must be said that when Simms wrote his book there were many more people in the village who remembered when the post-office was named. Simms did not trouble himself to inquire of them because of his errors in dates which in his mind made it impossible for the post-office to be named after the Church. These errors make it necessary to discount his opinion altogether and to rely on the logic of history. We cite therefore the earliest authority, J. H. French, who wrote in 1860; Washington Frothingham, author of the History of Montgomery County who wrote in 1892 that 'both theories are plausible, but to that of St. John's Church is given more credence'; and Royden W. Vosburgh, who in 1914 did much original research into the history of the Church on behalf of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, and concluded, "I am finally of the opinion that the village of St. Johnsville received its name from this church. Some historians who claim that the village was named after the surveyor Alexander St. John, have been obliged to place the date of the erection of the church as between 1815 and 1818, in order to give color to their claim."

And yet there is no final proof. As it is impossible to say that the post-office was not named after the Church, so it is impossible to say definitely that it was not named after Alexander St. John also. In taking the name of St. Johnsville the people probably intended to honor both the Church and the man. But because in the year 1818 St. John's was the only church in the village; because the Church sheltered the people and the people in turn supported the Church, it is very likely that when they took the name St. Johnsville thoughts of their St. John's Church were uppermost in their minds and hearts.

STAGE, COACH AND CANAL-BOAT ERA

THE JOHN JACOB WACK AND DAVID DEVOE MINISTRIES

1812-1830

In the interim that occurred after the untimely death of Domine Dysslin in 1812 and before the coming of the next minister, Rev. David Devoe, in 1816, the Rev. John Jacob Wack, born at Philadelphia January 14, 1774, minister of the churches at Stone Arabia and Canajoharie from 1805 to 1828, acted in the capacity of supply minister. He preached often at St. John's and on August 21, 1814, installed a new Consistory by ordaining Henry Beekman, (second husband to Domine Dysslin's widow), John J. Failing, and Andrew Shaver as elders; and John H. Bellinger, Christian Walrath, and Christian Klock as deacons. 'Minister Wack' incidentally later was called to Ephratah and died there in 1851.

The second installed minister at St. John's was the Rev. David Devoe who was called by the two consistories of St. John's and St. Paul's Church in Mannheim (Snell's Bush) at a salary of $600. In half yearly payments to preach "two thirds of the time at St. John's and the remainder at St. Paul's." Five months of the year he was to preach two sermons each Sabbath day, half in English and half in German. The call was signed by the St. John's Consistory and also by deacons Sufremas Snell and Peter B. Snell, and elders Lorence Zimmerman and John Rasbach of St. Paul's.

St. Paul's Church has always been associated somewhat closely with St. John's. Pastor Devoe and four of his successors, Murphy, Myers, and Knieskern, all preached there even as Domine Dysslin had before them. The first Snell's Bush Church was built before the Revolution on land donated by Suffrenus Peter, Joseph, and Jacob Snell. It was burned during the Indian raids and later rebuilt to be replaced in 1850 by the present structure. In the year 1801 a missionary, the Rev. Caleb Alexander, while traveling through the country, noted that "Between Fairfield and Little Falls is a Dutch settlement called Manheim: rich farms, a meeting house, and a minister (Domine Dysslin)." The Snell's Bush Church, like St. John's, remained an independent German Reformed body for many years. It was incorporated in 1792 but did not become affiliated with the Dutch Reformed denomination until Sept. 17, 1822. Pastor Devoe was the regularly installed minister there from 1816 until 1822 when a new minister, the Rev. Isaac Ketchum, was called to serve Snell's Bush alone.

Pastor Devoe also preached frequently at the Indian Castle Church, built in 1769-1770 by Sir William Johnson on land owned by Joseph Brant as a Church of England mission among the Mohawks at the village there. The famous Rev. Samuel Kirkland, missionary and founder of Hamilton College, preached there often in the early years but Sir William was unable to find a regular minister. After the Revolution several denominations held services there on alternate Sundays until 1800 when a Dutch Reformed congregation was organized. Domine Dysslin and Pastor Devoe preached frequently at the Castle Church and numerous baptisms of children from that region are recorded in our Church records. In modern times, however, the Church has been led by Lutheran pastors.

The Rev. David Devoe was raised in the vicinity of Beaverdam, high in the Helderberg mountains. We first hear of him when the Church at Beaverdam petitioned the Albany Classis to grant him a preaching license despite his lack of training, for it was said, "They are incapable of receiving benefit from the Word and ordinances, unless they be administered in the German language." David Devoe possessed a 'competent knowledge of said language.' After two years of prescribed studies at New Brunswick Seminary the Classis granted the petition and he was ordained in 1812. In May, 1813, he was called to Middleburgh also and he preached at both churches until he came to St. John's.

Pastor Devoe's zeal and energy led to the organization of the Second Reformed Dutch Church of Oppenheim, the forerunner of the present church at Youker's Bush. This new congregation led a precarious existence for some years until 1830 when Lutherans and Reformed combined to build a church on the old Dievendorf farm within the bounds of Lot 33 of the Klock and Nellis Patent, halfway between present-day Crum Creek and Youker's Bush. This church prospered until after 1850 when the congregation separated to start the two new churches at Crum Creek and at Youker's Bush. The church burial ground re, mains in fair condition until this day and the frame of the old church stilt stands as the 'wagon house' on the 'Franklin Snell' farm.

In addition to his local preaching Pastor Devoe made a missionary journey westward to organize churches at Fayette in Seneca County and at LeRay in Jefferson County. He covered 1254 miles on horseback, visited 143 families, and preached 58 sermons.

Toward the close of Pastor Devoe's ministry, in the year 1829, St. John's finally united in full with its parent denomination, the Dutch Reformed Church. At a meeting of the Classis of Montgomery, held at St. John's Feb. 11, 1829, elder Christian Klock presented an application for reception 'under the watch and care of Classis.' The Classis readily assented and as elder Klock signed the prescribed formula St. John's became a full-fledged member of the denomination. In later years the word 'Dutch' was removed from the denominational title for the good reason that it was no longer Dutch but American. The official title of our denomination is now "The Reformed Church in America" and the denomination, like our home church, includes within its ranks vast numbers of ministers and members and friends who are not at all of Dutch extraction. Each individual church has had to fight its 'battle of the languages' over the years. In the case of St. John's, even though the name of the Church was 'Dutch' the language was German. But by the time Pastor Devoe took his leave the American language had prevailed and now the name "Reformed Church in America" is entirely appropriate.

While at St. John's Pastor Devoe married 165 couples, administered 900 baptisms, and received 72 new members. Nevertheless, the Church did not seem to prosper and he resigned his charge in 1830. In later years he supplied at Columbia, at Warren, and at LeRay, then at Houseville, in Lewis County. He died in that region in the year 1844.

The years of Pastor Devoe's ministry saw a vast and significant change in valley life for they marked the building of the Erie Canal. While Domine Dysslin lived and when Pastor Devoe came in 1816 life in the valley centered around the stage coach. The highway had been greatly improved in 1800 by the laying of gravel and the raising of the center of the road bed eighteen inches to facilitate drainage. The Utica,Albany stage made its daily run, leaving Utica in the morning to arrive at Canajoharie by night and then to push on to Albany the next day. But at its best, stage coach travel was rough and tough, and one of the main enterprises in the village was the maintenance of taverns and inns for the benefit of wayfarers. Long journeys in those years took days and weeks, not hours as they do today. Life was slow. Industry was hobbled by the speed of the oxcart, the only means of overland freight transportation. When Pastor Devoe came to preach, therefore, he found a majority of his congregation to be farmers and he himself kept a cow and did the many chores of farming on a small scale. Others in his congregation were millers; farmers could not travel far to grind their grain. Others were tavern keepers from along the highway east, west, and north. All these taverns, of course, served beer and whiskey in those days when there was no soda pop, and water was not a popular beverage.

Many of the congregation were craftsmen: blacksmiths, joiners, carpenters. Men, and women too, were self-sufficient, accustomed to caring for their basic needs in their own way. People did not buy things they needed, they made them. Money therefore was scarce. Pledges to the church of fifty cents a year were very welcome. Farmers who wished a money return for their crops were forced to take their wheat laden oxcarts as far as Albany. Many of the farmers made their annual contributions to the church in the form of food. On certain days the parsonage would be overloaded with hams, quarters of beef, bags of potatoes, apples, flour; and perhaps the busy housewives would add a piece of precious homespun cloth.

The church and the taverns were the social centers; and in the eyes of the people there was no necessary conflict between them. Weddings were seldom held in the church, for example, but were frequently held in the various taverns. People did not of course have the many outside interests that plague us today. They spent more time at home. The young men and maidens courted one another as always, but people in this vicinity tended to intermarry rather than to go far afield in matrimonial quest. This custom led of course to the occasional marriages of first cousins and other blood relatives. In earlier days this custom was necessary because there were few others to marry except Indians.

There was then a tremendous upheaval in the valley when the new canal was undertaken. The influx of contractors and laborers brought many strange faces to the area, different characters, new ideas. It was the influence of the contractors in fact that helped bring about the appointment of the first postmaster, Henry Lloyd, whose store in West St. Johnsville helped fill the need for supplies for the men working on the lock at Minden. When the canal was finished life in the valley was transformed. Soon the drowsy lad sitting atop the towpath mule, pulling the barge along at the gentle speed of four miles an hour, was a familiar sight. But though it seems slow to us it was to the people in that day an epoch~making improvement which afforded cheap, easy transportation and, even more important, cheap freight transportation. It was as exciting to the villagers at St. Johnsville in that day to take their first canal~boat trip as it now is to us to take our first airplane flight. Many of the barges were elaborately equipped with fancy accommodations, abundant with frills and ruffles.

The completion of the canal in 1825 saw the coming of the Averill brothers to St. Johnsville and the establishment of a new tannery-distilling industry which provided jobs for many. This was especially fortunate for the village because many of the north-side hamlets began to decline when much of the traffic was removed by the canal to the south side. In 1800 for example, before the canal was built, the village at East Creek was larger than Zimmerman's Creek and transacted more business than the village of Little Falls. But after the canal was built the village at East Creek gradually declined as Mindenville prospered. Stores were built on the banks of the canal and barges would pull up to enable passengers to make their purchases. No meals were served on board; passengers were expected to fend for themselves. We can picture the passengers, ladies dressed in their innumerable yards of this and that, men, too, stiff in their high collars, high hats, and boots, chatting or dozing on the barge roof, forced to bend or bow low whenever a bridge was passed, enthusiastically welcoming an opportunity to stretch their limbs at the frequent eating stops along the way.

Reverend Devoe during these eventful years, when he was not engaged in one of his periodic missionary journeys, lived with his family in the new parsonage erected at his coming in 1816 amid surroundings which were ideally suited to the placid rural life of the times. The parsonage stood in the midst of the meadow, at the foot of the hills north of the church. It still stands, near its original location, on Cottage Street; but it has been turned to face northward. It is easy to picture the minister and his family energetically doing the chores, milking the cow, feeding the horses, ploughing, dragging, planting, cultivating, cutting the wheat, husking the corn, digging the potatoes. And we can picture him, too, making his calls on horseback, dressed in black frock coat, bow string tie, Bible in hand, guiding his horse from house to house and on Sundays making his way up the winding road to Snell's Bush or across the river at the West St. Johnsville, on his way to Indian Castle.

THE IRON HORSE.

THE MEYERS, STRYKER, MURPHY, MEYERS MINISTRIES.

1830-1845.

The third ministry at St. John's, from August, 1830, to November, 1831, was that of Abraham H. Meyers, born July 4th, 1801, a graduate of Union College in 1827 and of New Brunswick Seminary in 1830 from whence he came directly to St. John's, bringing with him his bride, Hannah Blanchard, whom he had married while still a student. He was ordained and installed at St. John's October 26, 1830, and left a year later to accept a call to the church at Berne. He baptised 29 infants and adults; married 15 couples, most of them in Youker's Bush, and received 17 new members. We shall see more of Rev. Meyers for he returned to St. John's later and labored successfully for several more years.

The fourth ministry, almost as brief, was that of the Rev. Herman B. Stryker, from May 1, 1832, to May 1, 1834. Born April 2, 1794, at Port Richmond, Staten Island, the son of a minister there, Rev. Stryker graduated from New Brunswick Seminary in 1822. He was minister at Fairfield, New Jersey, and then at the Union Church at Amsterdam until he was installed at St. John's Feb. 5, 1833. Soon after his coming he undertook an intensive campaign to organize Sabbath schools in the valley and his father, Rev. Peter Stryker, preached in his place. This arrangement continued until 1834 when St. Paul's proposed once again to unite with St. John's in extending a call to a new minister. Pastor Stryker thereupon accepted a call to the Glenville 2nd Church in Scotia where he ministered for several years until 1837 when he was forced to resign because of ill health. He continued to preach occasionally many years longer until his death at Hugenot, Staten Island, Dec. 11, 1871, where he had acted as stated supply the last ten years of his life. During their stay at St. John's the two Strykers, father and son, baptized forty-three infants and adults, married nineteen couples, and received twelve new members.

The new minister, called by the two consistories at St. John's and St. Paul's, proved to be the Rev. James Murphy, born near Rhinebeck, New York, in 1788, a New Brunswick graduate in 1814. In coming to St. John's in 1834 from his pastorate at the Glenville 2nd Church he exchanged charges with the Rev. Herman Struyker.

St. John's during these years was united with the Second Church of Oppenheim (the original Youker's Bush Church) through a collegiate or joint Consistory which included six elders and six deacons, half from each church. This arrangement continued for many years except for the slight change in 1839 when St. John's added one deacon and one elder while the Second Church reduced its representation accordingly. Pastor Murphy thus preached at three churches and probably preached often at Indian Castle as well.

During his ministry ten new members were received into the church and eight baptisms were administered. Almost a year before he left St. John's his connection with St. Paul's ended through a misunderstanding. He had promised to reside in the parsonage at Mannheim if certain repairs were made; but when they were completed, he found that St. John's wanted his full-time services. It was not for long however, for in 18 3 7 he was called to the church at Herkimer, where he worked with Dr. Spinner in establishing a new church at Mohawk and at Frankfort. He died in Herkimer in 1857 having been honored with the degree of Doctor of Divinity. The Rev. Joseph Knieskern, minister at St. John's, participated in the funeral service.

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Following Pastor Murphy' pastorate Rev. Abraham Meyers returned to St. John's a second time to remain seven years until 1844. During this second ministry he administered 117 baptisms, performed 86 wedding ceremonies and received 118 new members. His obvious vigor and success testify to his able zeal for Christ. After leaving St. John's he labored long in His service. He returned to Snell's Bush in 1848 for a four year period and after many ministries died at Linlithgo March 9, 1886.

The years of these four ministries, from 1830 to 1844, were years of further change and growth in and around St. Johnsville and throughout the United States. In 1828 the stormy Andrew Jackson burst into the presidential office and a new and turbulent democratic spirit swept the land. In its wake came a surging power that was to revolutionize American life even more drastically than the building of canals. The year 1836 saw the completion of the Mohawk Valley's first bands of steel, the single track of the Utica-Schenectady railroad. As the Erie Canal had overshadowed the Stage-Coach and the oxcart so the railroad began to dwarf the importance of the canal. The State legislature sought to protect the canal by prohibiting the railroad from carrying freight except in winter, but the march of progress could not be denied, the iron monsters chugged their ruthless way; the age of speed had dawned.

The first locomotives and passenger carriages seem crude to us today but they seemed modern and streamlined to the people of the 1840's. It was a delight to clamber into a railway carriage, wooden and nearly springless as they were; and, sitting on top in the open air, to feel the swift rush of wind as they flew along at the mad speed of eight, ten, even fifteen miles an hour. For the first time in history a poor man could travel; a man no longer was forced to take a week's time out from work in order to journey a hundred miles.

St. Johnsville prospered during these years of pioneer railroading. The bountiful water of Zimmerman's Creek made the village a regular stopping point and the old wood-burning locomotives induced a thriving lumber industry. Acres and acres of land along the tracks were piled high with logs and cut wood of all sizes. The energy and business acumen of Absalom Thumb brought prosperity to himself and to many others in the village during these years until coal sup, planted wood as the locomotive fuel. Because St. Johnsville became a major stopping place a large depot was erected east of the present railroad bridge, which throve as a railroad restaurant in the days before dining cars and Pull, mans. In 1865, as the nation mourned the death of its great president, Abraham Lincoln, his body was carried in state through the valley on its way westward. The funeral train stopped at St. Johnsville and the restaurant employees were permitted to view his body.

The Mohawk Valley was the gateway to the great open spaces of the West. First on foot, then on horseback, by oxcart, by stage~coach, canal boat, railroad, the little village of St. Johnsville helped nourish the quickened life blood of the great growing land of the free.

By the close of Rev. Meyer's ministry in 1844 the basic pattern was set for the following decades. St. Johnsville was on its way toward becoming an industrial community.

THE DAWN OF MEMORY

THE KNIESKERN MINISTRY - 1845-1872

All that has gone before is beyond memory. Now dawns the years of St. John's history which in the year 1947, may yet be heard from living lips. There are those in our midst, Mrs. Loretta Cline, Mrs. Metta Bartle, Mrs. Al Fox, George T. Snell and others, who remember the venerable minister who preached at St. John's until '72.

Only two pastors at St. John's are honored with the old Dutch ministerial title of Domine. The first was Domine Dysslin; the second was Domine Joseph Knieskern whose pastorate of twenty-seven years forms an epoch in itself; an epoch which included the Mexican War in 1845, the westward expansion of the 1850's, and the tragic Civil War; a span of years that began with the presidency of James K. Polk and ended with that of Ulysses S. Grant.

Joseph Knieskern was born at Berne, New York, (near the birthplace of Rev. David Devoe) April 10th, 1810. He was-the first of St. John's ministers to attend Rutgers College where he graduated in 1838. He completed his studies at New Brunswick Seminary three years later. During his student days he was a beneficiary of the Reformed Church Board of Education and, contrary to custom, he resolved to repay the entire sum. By making payments continually over the years he was able to fulfill his resolve; he made the last shortly before his death. Sometime after his graduation from Seminary he married Miss Emily Williams and was ordained and installed as minister of the Second Reformed Church of Berne.

Upon coming to St. John's in May, 1845, the young preacher soon gave evidence of his progressive, effective leadership. Within three years the sum of $2,055 was raised to repair and renew the old white church. The building was lengthened, four feet in front, six in the rear; it was turned to face West Main Street; the ceiling was lowered, a new roof put on; part of the balconies were removed; and the pews were reversed, placing the pulpit between the two front doors. Another sum, raised by the Ladies' Aid, was used to purchase new carpets, a sofa, stoves, chairs, tables, and lamps.

Five years later, in 1853, a further sum of $530.00 was raised to purchase a new organ. The organ itself cost $500. The additional $30.00 was used to cut an arch in the ceiling. Of this amount $85.00 was raised by the Ladies' Aid by means of a festival. The following year another fund, of $441.00 was raised to paint the church and build a fence. Again the Ladies' Aid helped out by giving $96.

These were years of progressive activity at St. John's in spiritual channels as well as the temporal. Domine Knieskern conducted a number of revivals and at the climax of one, in March, 1859, received forty-five new members into the church at one time, a record that still stands. During his twenty-seven year pastorate he received 146 new members, married 258 couples and baptised 183 infants and adults.

His first St. John's wedding was that of 'Mr. Loadwick and Miss Brown' in 1845, the parents of our honored oldest member, Mrs. Loretta Cline. To Mrs. Metta Bartle falls the distinction of being the first living member of St. John's to be mentioned in the church record. A little baby girl, 'Maryette', daughter of Alvin and Caroline Timmerman Saltsman, was baptised by Domine Kneiskern June 5th, 1864. Other living members and friends who were baptised during those years were Katie, daughter of Peter and Anna Fox Nellis; George T., son of Oliver and Kate Ketchum Snell; and Seymour T., son of James and Mary Shults Bellinger.

Mrs. Bartle remembers well the parsonage in the meadow, the Domine, his wife, and daughter Helen. The figure of the tall, white chin-whiskered preacher, driving his horse and small carriage through the dusty village streets and the winding country roads was a near landmark of the times. He preached frequently at Snell's Bush and at Indian Castle but was especially busy with the congregation at Youker's Bush, still united with St. John's through the joint Consistory. After 1850 the original congregation decided to separate and form two new churches, the Crum Creek Lutheran and the Youker's Bush Reformed. In the years following, both congregations erected church buildings which are still standing on their respective crossroads.

During the honored Domine's ministry he too comforted his people through the vale and shadow of war. During the years of the Mexican War in the 1840's every able-bodied man between the ages of 18 and 25 was required to report every Fall for several days' training in the militia. Among the several who served actively was Martin Walrath, captain in the New York State Infantry.

But this was as nothing compared with the furor which resulted from the out, break of the Civil War in 1861. President Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers was answered by 300,000. The response from the young men of St. Johnsville was wholehearted and swift. A recruiting tent was pitched in the small village green at the corner of North Division and Main streets and to the music of fife and drum, hundreds volunteered to serve. Many St. Johnsville men served in the 115th 'Iron Hearted' Regiment, New York Volunteers, which when inducted at Fonda, August 26, 1862, numbered 1400. By the time it was mustered out at Albany, July 6, 1865, fewer than 200 remained. Lack of speedy communication facilities made the people news hungry almost to the point of desperation. The war was brought vividly and bloodily home when a young officer from the village, Major Jacob C. Klock, reminiscent of his famous forbear, Colonel Jacob Klock, was mortally wounded at the Battle of Winchester, and was brought home to die at the home of his brother-in-law on Railroad Street, now the residence of Mrs. Joseph Reaney on the renamed Kingsbury Avenue. The major was wounded in the shoulder, carried to the rear on an army~blanket stretcher, and somehow brought all the way to St. Johnsville by train. As he lay, enduring the weary weeks of suffering, the house was besieged by the families of the men in blue, ready to grasp eagerly at every straw of news. Major Klock's wound, by modern standards, was minor, but in that day, without the modern miracles of medicine and surgery, he came home only to die in his thirtieth year. There is no St. John's honor roll for the Civil War but we know that the streets of St. Johnsville were almost as empty of young men in those war years as they were so recently in the days of World War 11.

Civilians played their part too. Local citizens were responsible for the raising of funds needed for the payment of bounties to enlisting soldiers and their families. Supervisors George Timmerman and Peter F. Nellis led the way in raising these bounties, backed by justices Martin Walrath, Chauncey Nellis, and Jonathan Mosher. In September, 1864, James Bates, Alexander Don, and Morris Klock were appointed a committee to see that the recruiting quota was met and to raise the needed funds for the bounties.

Thus, as soldiers and civil