Unity Without Uniforlllity: An Exploration into the History of the Churches of Rhinebeck, N.Y. by Thea Lawrence

efore I embark on this expedition into the pas t, I must explain carefully and painstaking ly the tenta tive nature of m y inquiry . I ask the reader, therefore, to understand that this paper represents Bonly an "exploration. " If I am successful , there will be others following my lead- others intrigued by the door I have opened. Rhinebeck is a town on the east bank of the Hudson Ri ver, approximately halfway between and Albany. It is a charming village with a reasonabl y prosperous middle class, tree-lined streets, distinguished o ld houses, and, most noticea ble of all, numerous and beautiful historic churches. There are six in the village itself and four in outlying areas. T hey represent Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, Reformed, L utherans, Metho­ dists and Baptists. This is a lot o f churches for a population of less than three thousand. Though over three hundred structures are li sted in the

The H udson I'alley R egionaL R eview, September 19tH . Vo lumc I. Numbn 2 97 Nati ona l Historic Village District, few have been so continuously in use over a long time as these buildings. It has been said, quite accurately, that the history of Rhinebeck is the history of its churches. In no way is Rhinebeck dominated by an unconventional type of relig ion. T he Sunday services present a visual scene pretty much likeany to be seen in mainline churches across the nation. The behavi or of the worshippers is circumspect in the extreme; they are careful to do everything as St. Paul admonished, "decently and in order. " T he sermons are neither unusually intellectual nor inordinately passionate. One is not deluged with g lossalalia nor edified with prophecy from the congregation. T hough there is a chari smatic prayer group and several home Bible study groups, they keep a low profile. If an y of the churches owes its vita lity to the recent "Full Gospel" movement, it is not immediately apparent. There are no miraculo us happenings reponed. The last great rev iva l meetings took p lace during World War I. My thes is is simply that the history of Rhinebeck and its churches, if examined closely, exhibits, if not uniqueness, at least some peculiarity. And what makes this history so strange? It has been marked by an unusual degree of mutual cooperation. In a word, an o utside observer would see nothing odd. But Rhinebeckians know abo ut something that the outsider cannot see. T hey know that alongside the six visible churches stands an invisible seventh which occasiona ll y surfaces into view and might correctl y be ca lled the Church of Brotherl y Love. T he ideal of brotherhood is certainly a preoccupation of the twentieth century. Is Rhinebeck's seventh church simply an image of the Consulta­ tion on Church Union? Or does it derive from an o lder source? T hat ques tion is easy to answer. Rhinebeck's union worshi p services go back to the Civil War and cooperation among denominations even earlier. T hinking of each persuasion as a room in a ho use might be of benefit in grasping the complex nature of this community. If I may borrow an image from C.S. Lewis, I will make this point more clearl y. In his book, Mere Christianity, he speaks of such unity as "a hall o ut of which doors open into several rooms."

In the ma ller of ecumenism today, it is hardly surprising that Christian churches should be trying to make up their differences. Like Republicans or Democrats, they close ranks when under fire; in this respect they are no different from any beleaguered faction . It is no secret that their influence is being eliminated fro m all aspects of public life. Non-Christians view the ecumenical movement as a last-ditch fight aga inst inevitable extinction. In mergers and interfaith conferences, they see a kind of desperation.

98 Perhaps they are right. But none of this is reflected in the churches of Rhinebeck. Each o ne is still stubbornly what it is. Lutherans separate from Reformed on fine matters of doctrine just as they did in 1729. Catholics continue their devotion to Mary, and Episcopalians, however much they admire Pope John Paul II , will have nothing to do with papal infa llibility; Methodists remain confirmed Wesleyans, and Baptists consider immersion the only valid form of .

When a ll this is considered, the figure o f the house with its six separate rooms can be seen to be a valid ana logy. But the union Lenten services add a mys terious dimension to this basic picture. In the background hovers an enigmatic form suggesti ve of the Spirit of Co-Inherence which Charl es Williams claims has seldom appeared since the Apostoli c era.) It is the presence of this spirit that gives Rhinebeck its distinction. While American churches elsewhere are feverishly pursuing a common denominator, Rhinebeckians have possessed one for nearl y three centuries. T he following pages will establish this plain matter of fact. What I am hoping to determine here is the etio logy of this curious hi tory. The method I have outlined seems to me the proper one. I am convinced that the exploration of this matter will revea l a fertile fi eld for further investigation, not only into historical trends, but also into the role of the small tcwn in the great moral and ethical revo lution of our time. There are two kinds of clues which are particularly relevant in a search for the origins of the idiosyncratic nature of Rhinebeck. T he first show primarily what happened in the religious denominations themselves both before they came to Rhinebeck and after. The second kind is composed of local fa ctors both of social climate and political weather. These cl ues are inextricabl y woven together in the histori cal fabric, and I shall not try to separate them. I believe they will emerge from the facts by themselve .

When in the sixteenth century the character of what had come to be known as Christendom was changed by inner revolution, the first spokesman for the new era was the German, . Following came a Swiss, Ulrich Zwingli , who impressed the German people nearl y as much as Luther had. Whereas Luther was mostl y concerned with Christianity as a fa ith rather than a system of works, Zwingli pointed out that "faith without works is dead." But in a movement called impelled the Reformed Church toward New Testament principles rather than the severe doctrine of Calvin and John Knox. The University of was the seedplot for such preaching in both the Lutheran and Reformed bodies. Laymen were encouraged to take part in informal

99 meetings for prayer, Bible study and hymn-singing. The relatively mild Heidelberg Catechism of the Palatine EleclOr was used, particularly in the Rhineland and the duchy of Wuntemberg. Unlike the churches of Holland and Scotl and, the Reformed Church in Germany li ved peaceably with its Lutheran neighbor. 2 With the exception of the Dutch Republic, the Germanic states generall y eschewed strict Calvinism. Meanwhile, a third force, the Church of England, published T homas Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer as the first vernacular transla ti on of the La tin Mass. T he " Prayerbook" church was later to develop into the " Bridge" church between the Catholic and Protestant poillls of view. But in the beginning, each of these three Protestant sects- L utheran, Reformed and Angli can-were cl oser lO the mother church in Rome than to any future recusalllS. H owever, there shortl y ap peared on the continent a recalcitrant sect known as Anabaptist for its dogma of bapti sm by immersion. T hese p urists set the stage for all the nonconformist sects that were to proliferate in the fo ll owing century, groups whose only common denominalOr was Sep­ arati sm. It was not so m uch their beli efs as their manners that outraged the orig ina l Protes tants. In Amsterdam , the ultimate stronghold of the Calvinist fa ith, stern church men outdid the Spanish Inquisition by p ublicly cutting o ut the heart s of Anabaptists, Az tec style.:! T he fifth type of ch urch lo arise in reaction lo the Roman church was typified by the Wes leys and other preachers of "The Great Awakening" and could be call ed the "Miss ionary" church. By the nineteenth celllury, the offshoot called Methodists had generated m iss ionaries who strea med to every country on the globe. T h us the si x churches which came lo Rhinebeck were se t in their mo lds before they arrived. Although these major ways of approaching the gospel of Jesus Christ d id not come o n the local scene according to their appearance in the worl d, there is still a kind of logic in the way that they did come lOgether, as will be seen.

T he first church to be built IJl Rhinebeck was a union church of Lutherans and Zw ingli Reformed. Immigrants from the Rhenish Palatinate had moved from Governor Hunter's "East Camp" on Livingston's Manor to a crossing of the King's Highway on the Beekman Patent. It might be sa id that the Rhinebeck hOll se of churches began here as a one-room cabin. When the Palatines arrived in Ameri ca, they had with them two remarkable men, Rev. Joshua Kochenhal and Rev. Johann Friederich Haeger. Kochenhal, a Lutheran minister, was chiefl y responsible for the long trek to the new world. It was he who had originally petitioned Queen Anne for help in 1708 and accompanied the first forty-two families in 1709.4

100 He went back to England and re-crossed the ocean in 17 IO with the large group that Governor Hunter brought over to make pitch at the Camp." The early period of the Palatine settlements in Columbia and lIster counties is well-documented elsewhere, and I will only refer to it as far as it concerns Rhinebeck. Haeger served the Zwingli Reformed group. He had been employed by the London Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to preach to the Germans and, incidentally, to convert them to the Church of England 6 We have no reason to believe he made any serious attcmpt to do so. It appears that both Kocherthal and Haeger were of Pietist tcmperament and spent more time on the New Testament than the teachings of either Luther or Zwingli. The immigrants were about evenly divided and began to bicker as soon as they landed in America. 71t would seem that Kochcrthal and Haeger devoted much effort to reconciling their differenccs.

When thc governor discontinucd subsidiza ti on of the colony in 1712, thirty-five families, attracted by the inducements of Henry Beckman, moved south across the Schuyler Patent (now Red Hook) to his patent where they erected a lillIe log church. probably the first in Dutchess County. It is likely that there was a school in tl1(' shared building, not only for the German children, but also for children of the scat tered Dutch settlers to the south who attended church in Kingston.s It is thought that they began this venture around 1715 . Though the site of the church became known as Kirchehock (church-corner). the fanncrs cal led the surrounding countrys idc on which thcy li ved "Rcin Beck. " presumably because it resembled their Rhineland home and showed Beekman their gratitude for the freeholdings h(' had sold to thelll. Judge Beekman, the patmtec, died in 171(j. allli his son, Co\. Henry Beekman, fell heir to the li on's shar(' of the patent.9 For all practical purposes, hc was th(' landowncr in th(' days wh('n th(' land was being scttled. a nd he disposed of it as he pleased. l Tnlikt' other patentces in the val\cy, he sold the land outri ght. Thc Palatines found Hollanders already settled to thc south of th(,111. A group called the "Five Partners" had purchased land on the river from the Sepascot Indians in 1686 and acquired a Royal Pat(,nt in 1688. JlIdge Beekman had patented the large inland acrcage in l691 j and cstabli shcd a mill on a stream that flowed into the Hudson. The river settlement was ca ll ed Kipsbergen after the two partncrs \\'ho had a lready settled there, Jacob and Hendrick Kip.TO Judge Beckman's father, \Villem Beccklllan, had been a burgomaster in Nieuw Amsterdam in the 1650s. It is possible that the Kips of Kipsbergen are the same Jacob and Hendrick who were burgomasters in the ci ty a t the same time. TT

10 1 By the time the Germans arrived at Rein Beek, the Five Partnels were either living on their property or had sold off lots to fri ends and relatives. T here were additional Dutch at Beekman's Mill where the King's Highway met the SepascOl Trail. These men were, without exception, members in good standing of the Dutch Reformed Church in Kingston.12 T his church had fro m the beginning taken its stance from the Classis o f Amsterdam, that council of stern-visaged Calvinists who ruled their church everywhere with an iron hand. It was around this church that the city of Kingston grew and developed. 13 On that side of the ri ver, man y congregati ons had difficulties with their pastors. Both the Lutheran pastor of Rareton, New Jersey , and the Reformed dominie of the Kingston church were, each after a lengthy contest, forced to leave. The Dutch dominie was accused of slander, criminal threa ts , cruelty to his wife, disorderl y conduct, intoxica tion, suborna ti on of perjury, and the grossest immorality. He was suspended aro und 1690, and the Dutch were left without a pastor during the seulement of Kipsbergen and Bt'ekman's lill. Meanwhile, the people were served by a ziekentrooster (v isitor of the sick), but the next pastor, Petrus Vas, did not arrive until 1733. 14 Kocherthal died in 1719, Haeger in 1723, and both congregations at Kirchehoek had to shift for themselves. There is somewhat of a m ys tery abo ut what actua ll y went on for the next ten years. The only solid informati on is that the Lutherans sold their interes t to the Reformed in 1729 and built their own church across the highway. They called it "The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sl. Peter's." We do not know the exact rea on for this separation; there were at the time no pastors to arbitrate quarrels. There is some evidence that when young Lutherans married into a Reformed family, they joined that church. There is clearly a concern for denominational identity, if nothing else. I am tempted to describe the sca ndalous rows that finall y severed Sl. Peter's from other Lutheran churches in the New York . Butthat is another story. What interes ts us here is that the rift did occur and thereby sent the Rhinebeck Lutheran churches in a different direction.

The bare fa cts are as follows. A self-appointed superintendant named Berkenmeyer, whose church was a t Loonenburg (Athens), initiated in 1733 a campaign of vilification against Johannes Spahler, the new pastor of the Camp and Sl. Peter's. Spahler's leuer to Amsterdam, included in Lutheran anna ls, tes tifies that he was concerned that the congregations left unsupervi ed bet""een 1719 and 1733 had few members that knew either the Lord's Prayer or the Ten Commandments. IS Berkenmeyer, on the other hand, was shocked tha t Spahler used, in tead of the round, unleavened

102 wafers prescribed for Lutheran communion services, square-cut homemade bread. Worse ye t, he refused to sign the church constitution which Berkenmey'er had drawn up for the churches in New York, preferring instead the Rhenish Church Order. 16 Apparently in the beginning Spahler's congregations supported him, but eventua ll y Berkenmeyer won. While seeking local assistance in his fi ght to depose Spahler, he made several visits to Rein Beek families, stay ing for a week at a lime.17 In 1737, Spahler was driven out, and Berkenmeyer became the nomina l pastor of the Camp and St. Peter's. As soon as his authority was es tablished, he forgot about the east bank churches for nine year - except to note Ihe arri va l of "Rhynbek" collecti on money.18

By this time, the Dutch had finall y esta blished their own church on Ihe Rhynbeek Fl atts (formerl y Beckman 's Mill ), and a second group of Lutherans had arrived from the duchy of Wurttemberg. They settled further from the ri ver, choosing high ground to the south and naming it the Wurtemberg Hills. T he fact that their existence is no t mentioned in Lutheran annals demonstra tes the extent to which the people in the newly organized Rynbeck Precinct were neglected by Berkenmeyer during his "pastorate." It is probable tha t they re lied on the prayer meetings, Bible study and hymn-singing they were accustomed to in their homeland. Whatever kind of man Spahler had been-fiend incarnate as Berkenmeyer saw him, or a much misunderstood man-one thing is o bvious. He spent time with his pa ri sh and tried to inculcate Biblical principles . As for Berkenmeyer, with the exit of the " interl oper," his interes t waned. When Jo han Christova l Hartwig was sent from Germany in 1746 to assume responsibility for the Camp and St. Peter's, he observed a church body in the same ignorance Spahler had found them. Unlike pahler, however, he signed Berkenmeyer's constitution . In spite of this, Hartwig, too, fell afoul of the pastor at Loonenburg. 19 He could not help commenting on the distressful condition in which he found the congrega­ ti on after nine years without preaching, teaching, or communion. In one leiter to the Ministerium at H amburg, he complains that children had gone to first communion witho ut instruction, and at least one man did not know the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, or the Ten Commandments. 2o Hartwig travell ed the countrys ide between the Camp and St. Peter's, ministering also to the Lutheran communicants in the Wurtemberg Hills, even ho lding services in private homes. His lungs were bad, and he frequently had to recupera te at the home of his fri end and former teacher, Henry Muhlenberg, who was in charge of Lutherans. Berkenmeyer, as an "Orthodoxist," hated Muhlenberg and his Halle University Pietism. In view of this, it is not surprising that Hartwig also

103 ca me under condemnation. Berkenmeyer circulated four pamphlets against Hartwig, accusing him of secretl y cherishing Moravian errors.21 The charge of Moravian heresy seems to have arisen directl y out of Hartwig's fri endship with Muhlenberg. Both men stood by the , but they were from Halle, and Berkenmeyer was from Hamburg, a su'onghold of the Formula. Concord£a.e. In the eighteenth century, an attack on Moravianism within the Lutheran Church was in reality an attack on Halle. Hartwig answers Berkenmeyer's accusa tions by denying them, charging him and his fellow pastors with servingonly their own appetites. In a letter to the Ministerium a t Hamburg he call s them "' Epicureans" and tell s of their followers at Sl. Peter's attacking him in church, tearing off his wig, hitting h im in the fa ce, and trying to drag him forcibly from the church. "Are any such things indeed heard of in Christendom?" he cries. "The good people are few in number, and they are timid."22 When Berkenmeyer bro ught his pastors from the west bank to the Camp in 1750 to depose Hartwig, he did not succeed. Muhlenberg a ttributes this to a loyal fo llowing which Hartwig had managed to establish at Sl. Peter's. 23 It is probable that these people were chiefl y farmers from the Wurtemberg Hills. Berkenmeyer died in 175 1, and Hartwig was left in peace until he joined Lord Jeffrey Amherst's army as chaplain in 17.18.24 During much of this time, though they had built a meeting place. the Dutch at Rhynbeek Fl atts had no pastor of their own . Sometimes Petrus Vas and George Wilhelm Mancius of Kingston took care of both Reformed churches; occasiona ll y someone ca me from the Camp. Al l the pastors who are li sted for either church between 1731 and 17 c l7 are Dutch. chiefl y Mancius. Between 1750 and 176:3. the church on the FlallS had a full-time pastor. Bet ween 176:3 and 1769. Manci us and a man from the Camp took turns serving both Kirchehoek and Rhynbeek FlailS.

Mancius appears to have been a prince among pastors. He served not o nl y the Kings ton, Rhynbeek FlallS and Kirchehoek churches. but also occasionall y bapti zed a Lutheran baby. After that both Reformed churches acquired their own permanent pastors. a German for Kirchehoek and a Ho llander for the Flatts. 2s During this time the Dutch Reformed Church in America had begull a development that was to change its direction. The younger men had demanded a provincial assembly in New York to free themse lves from the Classis of Amsterdam. This they call ed the Coetus. In 175-4 the Coetus began to ordain ministers. At the same time, Calvinism was disappearing inLO a whole-hea n ecl adoption of the Heidelberg Catechism.26 Cut off as they were from their mother cllurches, the different congrega- tions in the precinct viewed intermarriage as a matter of little consequence. The effect must have been to rub off the Zwinglian and Calvinist corners from the Rdormed Churches. Removed from the in-fighting of the synod, Lutherans began to grow away from the Camp Church with which they shared their pastor.

After twelve years with Hartwig, the Wurtemberg farmers were ready for their own ch urch. It was erected as soon as the new pastor, Johan Friedrich Reis, arrived in 1760. This church was named St. Paul 's as the companion church to St. Peter's. Both congregations were under control. On the eve of the Revolution, we have two Lutheran bodies in which the Pietist view, represented by Hartwig and Reis (a lso a fri end of Muhlenberg), has supplanted the fussy dogmatism of the Berkenmeyer faction. In the other, the Calvinist Dutch are, through the Coetus, modifying their stringent notions of preterition, and the Zwinglian Germans are ca utiously joining with them. The British government has finall y decided on " Rhinebeck" as the correct spelling of the precinct, but German pastors still write " Rein Beek" and Dutch pastors " Rhynbeek."

* * * The preceding section has had to do primarily with clues that show factional divisions within denominations. It is now my task to present clues which will tell us how Rhinebeck people responded to the new society in which religious views were tempered by the dispensations implicit in the First Amendment. Even before the war was over, Rhinebeck­ ians were making themselves felt on the state and na ti onal level. There were Livingstons and their relatives from Rhinebeck at the Fourth Provincial Congress at White Plains on July 9, 1776. They helped to draw up the proclamation which placed religious rights on the same plane as civil rights. It ca lled for a day of " fasting, humiliation and prayer to Almighty God" to be kept throughout the new state. T he Rev. John Henry Livingston, great-grandson of Judge Bee kman, explained it this way: It is proper that a ll men within this State should beli eve for themselves and worship God according to the dictates of their consciences witho ut depending upon fell ow subjects, sister churches, or even the civil magistrates in religion. This prerogative a ll men possess, and it is no t a new grant or a ny gift from the State but the natural ri g ht a nd justdemand of every rational creature.21 An important clue can be extracted from H enry Beekman 's decision to sell rather than lease to the settlers on his land. '''' hile leaseholders in Columbia County, lower Dutchess and the Catskills were repeatedl y engaged in anti-rent wars, Rhinebeckians were their own landlords. It is a truism that free men are more tolerant than slaves.

105 The village that grew up at Rhynbeek Flam was largely built on land which had been donated to the Dutch Reformed church by Beekman or his heirs. Moreover, members of this church were the chief sponsors of additions to the religious community. It was a staunch member of the church, Dr. Thomas Tillotson, who endorsed Freeborn Garrettson, the Methodist preacher who organized classes in the village and brought the "King's Messengers" to Rhinebeck. It was Tillotson's sister-in-law, Catharine Livingston, who was to marry Garrettson and make her home a center of Methodism in America. It was the mother-in-law of both Tillotson and Garretlson, Margaret Beekman Livingston, who was to bring Robert Scott, the friend of John Wesley, to found a classical school and organize a Baptist church. She also tended the Lutheran Hartwig in his last illness. 28 These Reformed people bring to mind the magnanimity of George Wilhelm Mancius. Toward the end of the century, the reformed churches at Kirchehoek and the Flam were in close association. The German pastor from the Camp and the Rhynbeek dominie generally shared the local membership according to where they lived. When the Kirchehoek building was destroyed by a tornado in 1801, those who remained in Rhinebeck either melted into the Dutch congregation or became Lutherans. It seemed that Germans who were strong in the Reformed religion were willing to travel two miles to the south while those less doctrinaire but with deeper ethnic roots went across the road.

In 1786 the old wooden structure of St. Peter's was replaced by a stone edifice designed on the meeting house plan. Thus came into being the most venerable landmark in the present town of Rhinebeck, the "Old Stone Church" which has been a National Historic Site for a number of years. When the influential Frederick Quitman arrived in 1798 to take over the duties of all Lutheran churches in the area, he conducted services alternately in German and English at St. Peter's, St. Paul's, and in Columbia County. During his term, St. Peter's became the center of in Dutchess and Columbia counties. Another clue which should shed some light is the presence of so many public figures connected with the Livingstons. When Morgan Lewis, husband of Gertrude Livingston, became governor of New York, he instituted the New York State public school system. He supported the teaching of religion of a non-sectarian kind to inculcate those doctrines that united rather than divided Christians.29 In 1805 Rhinebeck welcomed the Union Free School No.5. Immediately apparent was the fact that parents were not going to take their children out of the pastor's classes in the parsonage and turn them over to some state-appointed pedagogue.

106 Until 1839, local schoolmasters had little to do. Then a village school was built which eventually absorbed most of the children, and the pastors were freed. No one seemed to care, for the curriculum was the same. The public school stressed what Hartwig had found so lacking in his own church-the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments. This practice continued into the twentieth century in Rhinebeck.

The Rhinebeck Gazette began to record local events in 1846 and has continued to the present day. The earliest issues show the founder, Edward Smith, embracing the Temperance Movement. In the churches, abhorrence of drunkenness was an emotion that crossed denominational lines. Of all social issues of the day, this was foremost. Churchmen throughout the state were much exercised by it. By 182,7 the New York Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church had begun to urge its clergy to take a stand, and the next year the Methodists had revived John Wesley's stern opposition to the manufacture and sale of ardent spirits by any member of the church. The New York Temperance Society asked members to abstain from the use of strong spirits. Tavern keepers and grocers were pressured to curtail or end the sale of hard liquor.30 At that early date, wine with meals was still an acceptable practice. The Society had no trouble gaining members in Rhinebeck, but even in this limited context, Rhinebeck exhibited an evenness that amounted to eccentricity. In this town, Temperance did not mean Prohibition. As the state leaders kept driving the movement further toward total abstinence and statewide prohibition, Rhinebeckians began to balk. They disliked the allack on the use of wine at the communion table. The chief village spokesman on the question of alcohol abuse was the Reformed pastor, Dominie Lillie. He held no brief for hard liquor but stood his ground firmly on the subject of sacramental wine, referring to Prohibitionists as "untempered mortar in the walls of Zion."31 Although Episcopalians had been meeting for worship in Rhinebeck since early in the century, they were without a church until 1852. They met in the Methodist or Baptist church or a downtown commercial building. A priest came from nearby Hyde Park, and the wine served at the eucharist was the real thing. Finally after a thirty-year period of near-autonomy, the bishop sent a priest named Richard Adams to establish a parish and build a church. The building was erected entirely by Rhinebeck men. With five rooms, our house was nearly finished. Another ten years passed before the Irish Catholic railroad workers who had settled along the river felt the need of their own church. In 1862, one Father Scully came to organize a parish which stretched from Poughkeepsie to Albany with its center in the church of St. Joseph's in Rhinecliff. By the

107 close of the Civil War, the Rhinebeck house of churches was complete. The Sons of Temperance represented all of the Protestant denominations and even included a few Irish names. In 1877, the Gazette reports that many persons adopted the Murphy Pledge and publishes a membership list of seven hundred and sixty-five. The young men were not fanatical but sometimes playful. They enjoyed such practical jokes as the letter sent to a local tavern keeper announcing a Temperance Union prayer meeting to be held at her home. She took them seriously and sought legal counsel.32 Across the river the town of Woodstock was seething with prohibition activity. By 1879, crusading ladies and clergymen had closed down the taverns and stopped the sale of liquor. They "were also eyeing tobacco, coffee and tea with prohibiting intent, while some were abstaining from salt, pepper and pickles on moral grounds. "33 Rhinebeck kept quietly aloof from such goings-on.

Lte in the nineteenth century Prohibitionists took charge of the movement. Rhinebeck did not approve. At a meeting of the Temperance Society on November 5, 1887, the following statement was issued: "The man who drinks his wine and his beer moderately and keeps sober is just as good a citizen as the man who abstains totally ... [the abstainer] has no closer walk with God."34 In 1892, the Christian Endeavor Societies of the village held an annual reunion at the Methodist and Baptist churches. A leader of the Temperance movement from Newburgh had been invited to speak. The Gazette reported it with characteristic editorial comments: Mr. Clearwater introduced Rev. Tuck. Immediately that gentleman began a tirade against both political parties because they were not advocates of Prohibition. Then he made an uncalled-for allack on President Harrison because he allowed the use of wine in the White House. Not satisfied, he insulted Vice-President Monon [a RhinebeckianJ ... Mr. Clearwater had to stop him and with trouble got him out of the pulpit. It is to be hoped that another such scene will never take place in this town. The Ullerances of such a fanatic will undo in ten minutes the work of years of a true apostle of Temperance.35 During this time of religious-political activity in the state, the Rhinebeck church population grew. By 1870, there were in the town four Lutheran, three Methodist, and two Episcopalian congregations. The capacious Dutch church served an expanded membership, and the Baptists had built a large addition to their little chapel. In Rhinecliff, as in the state at large, the Catholic population grew. Elsewhere hostility of Protestants toward Catholics was spreading. On the highest levels in the state, Protestant leaders were alarmed by the growth of the Cat~olic Church. Protestant journals cried out about the danger from

108 this alien and un-American religion,36 while the American hierarchy of the church itself was engaged in a heated debate. The ruling majority of conservative Catholics looked upon non-Catholic society as their greatest enemy, ready to crush the Church at the first opportunity. On the other hand, there was an influential element among piests and laity whose object was to spread Catholicism through the peaceful conversion of non-Catholics. In New York this movement was centered in the Hudson Valley.37 The Rhinecliff men were clearly of that breed. In nearby Poughkeepsie the priest at St. Peter's Church had in 1873 initiated a plan which was immediately imitated in other communities. He entered into a formal agreement with the city board of education to place two parochial schools at the disposal of the public school authorities. When a Catholic conference held at Buffalo in 1891 officially condemned the compromise as unwise and dangerous, the priest retorted through the press that "The plan has worked admirably for eighteen years ... It satisfies all intelligent people. "38 But it satisfied neither Catholic nor Protestant sectarians, and before the end of the century, it was discontinued throughout the state. Rhinebeckian John Jacob Astor had been persuaded by Cornelius Vanderbilt to sponsor a Protestant action group but dropped out after the quarrel became violent. His name is conspicuously absent from the illustrious roster of the later National League for the Protection of American Institutions (NLPAI). The Rev. J. M. King, pastor of the Union Methodist Church in New York City, was the league's general secretary.39 He was invited to lecture on a different subject at the Rhinebeck Methodist Church in 1892. The Gazette announced him as the chairman of the commission of the great Methodist Ecumenical Conference recently held in Washington, D.C. No mention was made of his anti-Catholic activities.40 Two years later when he appeared at the State Constitutional Convention at Albany, the Gazette ignored both him and the succession of witnesses who took their stand on state-church separation. Rhinebeck schools were still teaching from the Bible the tenets that were common to both Protestants and Catholics. The Gazette frequently reported on the fraternization of local groups of Catholics and Protestants as if nothing were more natural.

:By 1880, Rhinebeck had provided an atmosphere of harmony for religious groups for one hundred and fifty years. In that year its most extravagant program of interdenominational cooperation was launched. It began in January with the First Annual Week of Prayer, an institution which was to last well into the next century. In April Protestants showed up at the Forty Hours of Devotion at St. Joseph's Catholic Church. Before

109 Thanksgi ving they joined with Catholics to hear a visiting priest lecture on "The Papacy, Its Aims and Claims."41 In view of the religious war going on in the state, these events bear all the earmarks of a rebellion against denominational hegemony.

It is hard not to conclude that all of this brotherly love is directly due to the special qualities of the local clergy of all persuasions. They were without exception educated men. They were normally beloved of their congregations. The Gazette notes innumerable instances of a pastor returning to preach from his former pulpit. In the latter part of the century, Rhinebeck became a "clergyman's paradise," a mecca for ministers in their retirement years. There was something in Rhinebeck that responded to a distinguished man of the cloth, and these men continued to make their appearance one after the other. Even in the twentieth century, whatever criticism they may have received from their flocks, it has never been either of ignorance or misconduct. Though there is no mention of the big controversy in Albany in the spring issues of the Gazette in 1894, it is noted that Rhinebeck is becoming famous as a summer resort, "Where it is possible to obtain rest and quiet away from the seventeen year locust." The editor cannot resist a competitive dig at the Catskill Mountain House.42 This may not sound like religious news, but it bears directly on the difference between the attitudes of church people in Rhinebeck and the Catskills. Catskill mountain people usually belonged to the more rigid Protestant sects whose preachers had long focused on "the snares of the devil." They thundered against vacationers who desecrated the Sabbath, played cards, drank liquor, committed adultery, and contaminated the local young people.43 There was no such schism between the clerical and business interests in Rhinebeck. Church members were encouraged to create an environment attractive to quiet Christian vacationers. It was not unusual for a pillar of a church to take in summer boarders. Indeed clergymen and their families often headed the list of summer boarders, for Rhinebeck was both a resort and a cultural center. The clergy were not only the best educated group of the middle-class; they were also civic-minded. One was even elected president of the Village Improvement Society . . As the century moved toward its end, the Gazette contains much evidence to support such a view. When a pastor left for another job, it was normal to send him on his way with a eulogy. The following item appeared in the newspaper when the Catholic priest was transferred to Saugenies in 1892: We are exceedingly sorry to lose Father Murray from among us. During his stay in Rhinebeck he has won many friends from all denominations and was especially beloved by his flock. He has labored

110 hard and earnestly in the cause of Christ, and his work has already borne good fruits." Such appreciation is typical of the Gazette, and often an obituary is written for one pastor by another. In Smith's book, he devotes almost two pages to praise of the Lutheran William Strobel. It is no wonder that the clergy delighted to return to people who admired them so much. And they admired one another. A basic core of belief lay beneath the surface disagreements; this belief included the divine inspiration and final authority of the Bible. The history of revivalism in Rhinebeck has also a somewhat different complexion from that of the rest of New York. Charles Finney does not appear to have passed through the village. The local clergy disapproved of the emotional display that was Finney's stock in trade. They did not encourage preachers who groaned or shouted. They especially deplored the use of invective against unbelievers, a practice they considered unChristian. They would have agreed with the contemporary journalist, George Templeton Strong, who disliked "heated and morbid religiosity," observing that it was sometimes accompanied by irreverence, presumption, indecency, and other symptoms of a "mere epidemic religious fever."45

The first known revival meetings in Rhinebeck were held in the woods of Freeborn Garrettson by his own itinerant Methodist preachers, Billy Hibbard and Lorenzo Dow. Under Garrettson's supervision, such meetings were "decently" restrained. What is odd is that the truly big revivals in the village started in the last decade of the nineteenth century when the rest of the state had cooled off and was adjusting to a secular society. When evangelist C.M. Jones preached at union services at the Baptist church, the large building was unable to accommodate all who came to hear him. S. Hartwell Pratt spoke to the same overflowing crowds when he appeared at the Reformed Church.46 The clergy never ceased to hope for another Great Awakening. In 1906 the Gazette printed in its entirety the New Year's sermon of the Episcopal rector entitled "The Duty of a Christian Today." The Reverend Saunders took as his text Isaiah 32: 14-17 which prophesies an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He reviewed the movements of the previous century and the unf ulfilled hope for true renewal. Then he pointed out that "Christians are less disposed to quarrel among themselves than previously," and for that reason was inclined to think that there was a real work of the Spirit of God begun in the villageY In October of that same year, the Dutch Reformed church celebrated one hundred and seventy-five years of continuous service to the town. The dominie, in his public sermon, depicted Rhinebeck as a mICrocosm

III reflecting the great macrocosm of America which had been built on God's law. He ended his speech with these words: Let no man be deceived. Here is God's greatest experiment in freedom; it cannot fail ... This land is not to be the ultimate prey of those who are greedy for gain ... We do not boast merely of great men and ancient privileges. Our boast is in the Lord our God.48 In 1915, with war clouds on the horizon, the pastors of Rhinebeck invited the evangelist Gypsy Smith of Chester, Pennsylvania to hold a week of tent meetings. The committee in charge consisted of the five village ministers and laymen from each congregation. They elected the Methodist pastor as chairman and the Baptist pastor as music director. The event made the front page of the Gazette as "the most aggressive religious revival ever held in Rhinebeck." In August a tent was set up on the Methodist church green and about a thousand people gathered the first evening; three hundred answered the altar call. The meetings drew such crowds that they were extended to three weeks.

Perhaps the most revealing comment was made in a letter to the editor from the Rev. W. C. Boomhower, the young pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church: As a Lutheran and unused to this form of religious work, I have been able to enjoy a religious forward movement absolutely devoid of anything freakish, extreme, unreasonable or objectionable . . . It is a victory for the thinking people of Rhinebeck ... The strong, safe point of Gypsy Smith's preaching is its foundation in the Word of God. The huge, blazing banner which says 'Rhinebeck for Christ' has been taken down, but its memory remains.49 How long the effects of this revival lasted is a matter impossible to determine. But I venture to say that some vestige of the feeling Boomhower expressed materializes each spring as the sap rises and the Lenten Wednesdays begin. In the beginning of the century, the Catholics moved into town, and church life was centered permanently in the village, although the Lutherans continued to support outlying churches. In the years between the great wars, the Gazette editor sometimes complains about cranky sectarianism and a decline in morals. In our own postwar era, the schools, businesses, and local governments are probably as secular as any in the nation. Though the clergy are all there for the baccalaureate service, their influence on the school is hard to detect. In spite of this, the church bodies themselves remain remarkably strong, and the friendship among their pastors doggedly maintained, especially since Vatican II allowed Catholics to worship with their "separated brethren." There are not, as in some other towns in the valley, accusations of "sheep stealing." All agree that there is only one shepherd of the Christian faith. My concern is the history of the churches.

11 2 Robert Frost has said that "the light of Heaven falls whole and white and is not shattered into dyes," but during the obscuration upon earth, one chooses one's color. I am tempted to label the six corporeal churches with theirs, but prudence dictates otherwise. ·Frost also said "Heaven gives its glimpse to those not in a position to look too close." So I still stand in the hall, but at a respectful distance, looking into the rooms where there are fires, and meals, and shelter from the storm. 0

Notes ICharles Williams, The Descent of the Dove (Eerdmans, 1939), p. 10. 2Andrew Landalc Drummond, German Protestantism Since Luther (London: Epworth Press, 1951), pp. 21, 59. 'George L. Smith, Religion and Trade in New Netherland, Dutch Origins and American Dellelopment (Cornell, 1973), fn. p. 224. 'Walter All en Knittle, Early Eighteenth Century Palatine Emigration (Ba ltimore: Gcm'ological Publishing Co., 1970). ' Ibid., pp. 1.<;8·159. 6lbid. , p. 161. 'Elaine Liepshutz, Many Remained There (Womelsdorf, Pa.: Tulpenhocken Settlement Historical Society, 1978), p. 14. sEdward M. Smith, History of Rhinebeck (Rhinebeck, 1881), p. 19. "Ibid., p. 21. IOlb id., pp. 7-11,15. "]. Paulding, "Affairs and Men of Nieuw Amsterdam in the Times Of Pieter Stuyvesant" (compiled from Dutch manuscripts, 1843), pp. 73-77. I2Smith, op cit., pp. 12-15. 13Andrew S. Hickey, The Story of Kingston (New York, 1952), p. 109. "Roswell Randall Hoes, " Old Dutch Church of Kingston" (New York State Historical Association, 1912), Vol. II, ( I). " Jay Webber, "William Christopher Berkenmeyer and the Struggle For in Colonial New York" (unpublished manuscript), p. 17. 16John P. Dern, cd., Albany Protocol (Ann Arbor: 1971), pp. 78, 85. 17lbid., pp. 205-206, 208, 217. ISlbid., pp. 375, 393, 398. 19lbid., p. 470. 2°Lutheran Church in New York and New Jersey, 1722-1760 (United Lutheran Synod of NY and N Eng: 1962). pp. 371, 385. 2Ilbid., pp. 371-372. 374, 384-385. 22Lut heran Church, op. cit., pp. 371-372. 2:IWebber, op. cit. , p. 21. 2

113 30David M. Ellis, James A. Frosl, Harold C. Syreu, and Harry J. Carman, A History of New York (Cornell , 1957), p. 309. :llSmilh, op. cit., p. 477. 32Rhinebeck Gazette, (.Jan. 14 , 1877). "Air Evers, The Catskills (New York: Doubleday, 1972), p. 477. "Gazette, (Nov. 5, 1887). " Ibid. , (Sepl. 9, 1892). 36Pratl, op. cit., pp. 227-228. "I bid., pp. 232-236. "Ibid., pp. 199-200. '9Ibid., p. 231.

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