Three Rivers
Hudson~Mohawk~Schoharie
History From America's Most Famous Valleys

History of The OLD FORT HERKIMER CHURCH
German Flatts Reformed Church, 1723
By W. N. P. Dailey, D. D.
Published by the
St. Johnsville Enterprise and News
Lou D. MacWethy, editor
St. Johnsville, NY (Price 35 cents)

Thanks to Betty Hoagey for sending this for the web site!

Organized in 1723. Land given 1730 and 1773. Present edifice begun about 1730. A story of the Palatine people and their early struggles. Many names of first settlers. By Rev. W. N. P. Dailey, DD. Author of History of the Montgomery Classis, R.C.A.

Ministerial Duties Cover Wide Field

Following in the path beaten by Domine Rosencrantz, Rev. Mr. Spinner's field of activity was of wide extent in the valley. Glancing through his well kept records, except now and then his caustic comments, there are many marriages and funerals from the section farthest west down beyond Fort Plain. A list of his visits and ministrations would include Warrentown, Danube, Frankfort, Columbia, Minden, Fort Stanwix, La Ray, Little Falls, Oswegatchie, Boonville, Madison, Schuyler, Richfield, Deerfield, Whitestown, Litchfield, Otsego, Turin, Norway, Manheim besides the more immediate fields of Herkimer. Fort Herkimer and the adjacent country. In keeping the church records Mr. Spinner adhered almost wholly to Latin forms. He was a linguist of the highest type but the English language seemed to be a forbidden speech with him. With his ability to master languages he could have easily acquired the English in a short time, for records and preaching but to the very end he clung tenaciously to the Latin in the church registers and to the German in the church services. The same thing happened in the Hudson river and New York churches, to retard their development forever, the insistence of the old folks, and the ministry often, that they could not worship save in the Dutch language. It is still the case in the American churches of today where foreign languages, unintelligible to many worshippers, are employed. There probably was no period in all his ministry, from the very beginning, when the English language services might not have been employed to great profit for the community and to the sure development, of the churches. In Mr. Spinner's records one meets with agricola (farmer), ambo (both), ast (however), avuncula (aunt), filius and filia (son and daughter), caelibus and conjugisi (unmarried and married), gemelli (twins), maritus and uxoris (husband and wife), negri coloris (negro), natus (born), judica (chaste), vidua (widow), etc.

Mr. Spinner's first appearance before the Montgomery Classis was on the first Tuesday of May, 1802. Elders John Frank from Fort Herkimer and Peter F. Bellinger of Herkimer were also present. Prior to this Rev. Dr. John D. Gros of the "Sand Hill" church and Rev. John H. Dysslin of the St. Johnsville church had heard his recantation, and recommended him to the church at German Flatts and Herkimer and they had extended him a call. All this was ecclesiastically out of order, so Mr. Spinner appeared a second time before the Montgomery Classis, July 7-8, 1802, was examined, made a second recantation, and was admitted into membership in the classis, and arrangements made for his installation later on Ascension Day of 1803. On April 20, 1803, the call was approved and a committee appointed to install. A second call was brought to the classis on May 28, 1805 and approved. It is to be found in the Cox History. The salary was two hundred pounds ($500) a year, in semiannual payments, and thirty bushels of wheat. Herkimer was to pay eighty pounds and fifteen bushels of wheat and German Flatts the rest. The call is signed by Wm. Clapsattle, Nicholas Casler, Christopher P. Bellinger, Lawrence Shoemaker, Nicholas Steel, John Aasbach, and Conrad Hess for the Fort Herkimer church,and for Herkimer it is signed by John N. Hilts, Thomas Bell, Henry L. Klock, Stoffie Bellinger, Jacob G. Weber, Peter F. Bellinger, Melchert Thumb, Philip Herter, Christian Shelbach and John M. Smith. Domine Spinner's first residence was on the south side in a house on the glebe of the church where Mohawk is now, corner Main and Columbia streets. This house was burned Feb. 8, 1802, about a fortnight after the birth of the minister's first son, Francis E. Spinner, who became Secretary of the Treasury under Lincoln. Mr. Spinner next moved to a house a mile east of Herkimer but shortly afterwards he bought a three acre plot of ground at the foot of Prospect Street in the village which he made his home the rest of his life.