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.

Fort Herkimer Glebe Rents

In a previous paragraph the Peter Remsen deed is referred to, establishing the Glebe Rentals, the proceeds of which were to go toward the minister's salary.

The names of the lessees who paid glebe rents are recorded here as of interest to those now paying the same or to the descendants of the same. They are all on record in the County Clerk's office at Herkimer and the originals existing in the keeping of the Herkimer Church. The names are as follows with number of acres in parenthesis: Conrad Zacheonor (50), Elisabeth Zacheonor (43), John Jacob Casselor (38), Richard Caslar or Richard Jac. Kesslar (65), Steffanes Eyseman (135), Nicholas A. Staring (55 1/2), Adam N. Staring (55 1/2), Nicholas Kilts (50), Luke Odle (89 3-4) Paul Custor (50), John P. Woolaver (15 1/2), Henry Warner (89 3-4), Joel Doolittle (1), Peter Getman (36), John Getman (87 1/2), David Tygert (50) Johannes Bayderman (50), John Frank and Nicholas Frank (143), Andrew Piper (144), Francis Crouch (92 3-4), Daniel Morse (15), Henry Campbell (87), George F. Beauchert (8 6-160), Joseph Sackner (43) 3-4). Most of the rents began in 1800 and were twelve and a half cents per acre.

The present glebe rentals (1923) amount to about $125.00 a year, but annually there are protests registered and most of them are collected against the good will of the person paying. Of late years there has been a disposition to buy off these encumbrances, and the same has been done in some cases. The laws of 1851 gave the church the right to sell the land in the fee simple, the proceeds to be invested for the same purpose for which the trust was granted. By an act of the legislature in 1870 the leases then in effect were recorded in the County clerk's office at Herkimer and are a lien upon the property. In 1892 the Legislature empowered the Consistory to give quit claim deeds whenever expedient. On July 13, 1912, at the suggestion of the Montgomery Classis Missionary, Rev. W. N. P. Dailey, the existing members of the Consistory, Elder Lucius Shoemaker and Deacon Frank Staring, were authorized by Judge Irving R. Devendorf to deed the property of the church to the Classis of Montgomery, its governing body, which was duly carried out.

On Sept. 4, 1822, George Fox, the treasurer, reported that to date he had received $2416.93 and had disbursed $2301.16, leaving a balance of $115.82 from which is deducted two per cent on receipts (collecting the glebe rents), leaving a balance of $67.49. At this rate there was due from the glebe rents $546.05. Mr. Fox was appointed treasurer Jun 5, 1816, and the report might well cover the six years. At a meeting of the consistory, July 23, 1823, Mr. Lawrence Ford appeared in behalf of English preaching by Rev. Mr. Ketcham. Mrs. Ford said that "the German Flatts Church is the largest society existing in the State" and was abundantly able to support both Mr. Spinner and Mr. Ketcham; that Herkimer was not able to support a minister alone and wanted help; and that those who subscribed would become members of the society but the request was denied, and Classis approved the action of the consistory.

The Fort Herkimer Reformed Church Ministry

One of the early preachers at Herkimer, was Rev. Wilhelmn Berkenmeyer, pastor of the Loonenburg (Athens, NY) Lutheran Church 1731-1751. His diary in the Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa. tells us of visiting at the house of Hannes Hess (Johannes Hess had Lot No. 31 on the south side, next to the Welleven lot from which the acre was given for the church), and visiting Jurgh Dacksteder and Johan Jurg Kast on the north side. He held service in the church on Aug. 14, 1734. On this trip he had gone as far as Rynhard Scheffer's place, shown on one of the "Crown" maps (1756?) at what is now the site of Utica. The Lord's Supper was celebrated first at Dachsteder's house and on the following day at the church (Herkimer).

The first settled pastor at Fort Herkimer was the Rev. George Michael Weiss who resigned his charge at Catskill (Leeds) and Kocks Hackq (Coxsackie) on July 56, 1735, and doubtless came directly to this new field. The Ecclesiastical Records of New York have several references to Weiss' work. He was a Palatinate by birth (1700) and ordained May, 1, 1728. In company with 400 Palatine emigrees he landed at Philadelphia Sept. 18, 1727. After three short pastorates at Philadelphia, Skippack and Germantown, Pa. he became the first settled pastor at Schoharie in November 1731, where he remained but four months, going next to Catskill (Leeds) and was installed Feb. 25, 1732. Rev. Petrus Van Driesen of Albany officiating. On Nov. 25, 1733 he married Annatche, daughter of Captain John Bronck of Catskill. He remained here three years and then came to Burnetsfield (Herkimer), in its first settled minister, and was here until he accepted the call to the Low Dutch Church of Rhinebeck Flatts and the High Dutch Church of Rhinebeck in 1742. In 1746 he went back to Pennsylvania and was pastor at Goshenhoppen from that date until his death in 1761. His wife died June 2, 1765. Both were buried at New Goshenhoppen. While at Burnetsfield Dominie Weiss wrote a pamphlet treating of the lives and habits of the Indians which he sent to the Classis of Amsterdam (Holland). For nearly a decade following the Weiss Pastorate the services here were but intermittent, judging by what records there are. Rev. Peter Nicholas Sommer of Schoharie seems to have made semiannual visits to the congregation through the years 1743-1751, as are noted in his diary. The marriages he performed here as well as a list of his congregation are to be found in the Schoharie Lutheran Church records.

Following Rev. Weiss in the pastorate here was a Rev. Mr. Rosenkrantz, a brother of Rev. Abraham Rosencrantz, he successor. He came to this country with Rev. Johannes Aemilius Werning whom the Reformed Church at Stone Arabia sought (unsuccessfully) to be their pastor. The "Ecclesiastical Records of NY" tell us of the incident. When Rev. Mr. Rosencrantz died, after a very brief pastorate, perhaps in the winter of 1751-1752, Abraham Rosencrantz came to the church to take up the work, he call being dated June 5, 1752. He remained the pastor of this church, except for the year 1759, until his death Dec. 29, 1796.

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