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.

Successive Pastors

Following Rev. Petrie came Rev. John J. Quick, who had been at Currytown and Mapletown in the same classis. Mr. Quick's name appears in consistory records from Oct. 29, 1866 through 1867. Rev. G. D. W. Consaul, then of Mohawk and later for several years at Herkimer, supplied the church from 1869 through 1872. After Mr. Consaul came Rev. Wm. N. Todd, who was later Presbyterian pastor at McAllisterville, Pa., and Rev. Wm. Hoffman later in the Deckerville, Mich. Presbyterian church, and Rev. Mrs. Johns, a Methodist minister who died in 1885. After 1875 and for five years the pulpit was supplied only in the summers, and by seminarians. Rev. Dr. John G. Lansing, pastor at the time in the Mohawk church, and later Professor of Hebrew at the New Brunswick Seminary, supplied the pulpit frequently during the years he was in Mohawk (1876-1879). Then came Rev. Daniel Lord, M. D., whose great-great-great grandfather, Rev. Benj. Lord, was for sixty-seven years a pastor of the Congregational Church of Norwich, Conn. Dr. Lord was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (1844) and of New Brunswick (1847). He came to the church at Henderson, built in 1829 (now extinct), in 1851 and was there through 1856. After an absence of four years he returned to Henderson and remained until 1864. During 1873 through 1878 he was head physician in the South Side Dispensary of Chicago. For a third time he came to Henderson, in 1879, and supplied Henderson, Columbia, and Fort Herkimer. While preaching in the Jordanville church on Sept. 10, 1899, Dr. Lord was suddenly called home to his Lord. He had spent nearly thirty years of his life at Henderson and Jordanville (1851-1856; 1860-1864; 1878-1899).

Rev. John H. Brandow, pastor at Mohawk, supplied the church during 1886 and 1887, and Rev. Albert Dodd Minor, Mr. Brandow's successor at Mohawk, was here from 1888 through 1891. Succeeding him came Rev. Ira Van Allen from 1892 to 1896. He was pastor at the time in Mohawk and since leaving there has lived in Syracuse, and for many years has been the stated supply at the Owasco Outlet Reformed Church, near Auburn. Mr. J. Abrew Smith, a layman, supplied the church from 1896 through 1899. It was during his work there that the platform pulpit was built below the high pulpit and other changes were made. Rev. E. J. Meeker of the Mohawk church next filled the pulpit through the years 1900 to 1903. Mr. Meeker filled other pastorates in the Montgomery Classis. He died recently. During his short pastorate at Herkimer, Rev. Jacob Dyke preached occasionally at the church, and supplied regularly for a year beginning June, 1905.

From 1909 through 1911 the Rev. Charles W. Kinney preached here. Leaving the Mohawk Church Mr. Kinney went to the Schuylerville Reformed Church where he is still the pastor. In 1912, following work done by the Classical Missionary, Rev. W. N. P. Dailey, now of New York, the property was conveyed to the Montgomery Classis whose trustees administer the same. With the aid of Rev. J. Howard Brinckerhoff, at the time the pastor of the Herkimer Church, the church rights in the glebe rentals were successfully guarded, and some of the old church records rescued from private hands. For several years previous to 1917, when he resigned the pulpit of the Mohawk church, the Rev. Oscar E. Beckes supplied the pulpit at Fort Herkimer. The next pastor at Mohawk, Rev. Arthur B. Boynton, had the oversight of the pulpit and after him, his successor at Mohawk, Rev. Francis P. Ihrman. In order to perpetuate the character of the edifice it was thought best to secure it to the Classis that the religious purposed of its founders might be sustained through the years to come. While there is opportunity to aid in preserving the old stone church on the patriotic and historical societies of the valley, still the spiritual and social needs of the community are of paramount importance and the people who live in the environs of this nearly two hundred year old edifice may well take pride in their personal support of the same. We close the chapter with the ardent hope that for generations to come this sacred edifice that represents the prayers and longings and labors of a host of men and women through the centuries past may stand to inspire and encourage the people of the Mohawk Valley for the undiscovered futures that lie ahead.

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