Year Book of the Holland Society of New-York
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*4 J Gc M, L,' 974.7 H71 PUBLIC LIBRARY Cc ALLEN CO., IND. ^^2084 FORT WAYNE GENEAL-OOV COL-UECTION ALLEN , COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 833 01 47 7400 YEAR BOOK OF The Holland Society OF New York 1913 BERGEN BOOK PREPARED BY THE RECORDING SECRETARY Executive Office 90 West Street NEW YORK CITY Not Copyrighted Publicity Invited Note;— This Sociely is not responsible, as a body, for the facts ju^\ opinions aJvantcJ in any of its publications CONTENTS BERGEN RECORDS: page Introduction i Historical Sketch 5 __ Baptisms 20 5 Index 109 . ADA4INISTRATI0N: ) Constitution 127 By-laws 134 Badges 138 Accessions to Library 145 MEMBERSHIP: Former Officers 151 List of Members 162 Necrology 191 472084 MEETINGS: Poughkeepsie 205 Smoker 209 Hudson County Branch 211 Banquet 215 Annual Meeting 270 New Officers, 1913 28i In Memoriam 295 Press of V. A. Bassette Comfany Sprinciield, Mass. - ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Henry L. Bogert, President—Portrait Frontispiece — Bergen -The First Church and Stockade i Half A/Ioon—Initial Letter i Seal—Amsterdam in New Netherland 3 & 224 Rev. Cornelius Brett—Portrait 4 Bergen—The Second Church; Pryors Mill at foot of Hill 5 The First Parsonage— Initial Letter 5 The First Church of Bergen 6 The Door Stone of the First Church 6 The Second Church of Bergen 8 The Door Stone of the Second Church 8 The Present Church of Bergen 9 The Door Stone of Present Church 9 Seal—The Bergen church 11 Seal—The Reformed church 12 Coat of Arms—Van Winkle 15 Bergen Petition for a Clergyman 16-19 Edward Van Winkle, Recording Secretary— Portrait 126 Badge of the Society 138 Button of the Society 144 Arthur H. Van Brunt, Treasurer—Portrait 150 John T. Conover, Corresponding Secretary— Portrait 204 Baltus Van Kleeck, house— 1702 205 Hutspot—Initial Letter 205 Bergen Columbia Academy 211 Andrew Carnegie—Portrait 214 Jonkheer J. Loudon—Portrait 220 Mayor Gaynor—Portrait 232 BERGEN RECORDS ^^^BR^ ^-^^^«^fe_,t\^,,^.'^^^^;;^^ ^ THE BERGEN CHURCH RECORDS Mijne Heeren, HE genealogical records of The Re- formed Protestant Dutch Church of Bergen, now Jersey City, N. J., will appear in the Year Books for 1913, 1914 and 1915. The present book contains the Register of Bap- tisms from 1666 to 1788. The Year Book for 1914 will contain the Marriages and the Register of Members; while the Burials, Minutes of the Consistory, etc., will appear in the Year Book for 191 5. The records, as they are here presented, have had unusual care in preparation and have withstood the criticism of reviewers, many years, without showing any flaw. As early as 1880 Theodore Melvin Banta obtained permission from the Consistory of the Bergen Church to copy the "Church book" and in 1888, Thomas Edward Vermilye, Jr., as a member of a special committee of the Society on Records of the Ancient Dutch Churches of America, made a literal translation on loose leaves which is now in the library, marked for identification. Copy A, page 1-2 15, and which contains the "Register of Members and Baptisms". In the same year Dingman Versteeg, our present library clerk, copied 2 THE HOLLAND SOCIETY copied and translated the Marriages, Burial Records, and Minutes of the Consistory, marked Copy A, page 217-314. Both of these translations were made under the direction and supervision of Theodore Melvin Banta as chairman of the committee, above referred to, of which Mr. Vermilye was a member. In the years 1899 to 1903 a tabular transcript of the above-mentioned records was made in a bound volume by Sterling Potter, and marked Copy B, under Mr. Banta's personal direc- tion as Secretary of the Society. This book was then taken over to Jersey City, carefully compared with and corrected from the original by Dingman Versteeg, covering a period of many days. The Reverend Cor- nelius Brett, D. D., present pastor of the Bergen Church, has spoken with full appreciation of the "patient, painstaking work" of Mr. Versteeg and is on record as to the accuracy of this contribution to the colonial history of the church and New Jersey. The Register of Baptisms, printed in this volume, is complete, commencing January i, 1666, continuing to December 18, 1788. There appears to be a break, from 1669 to 1673, of four years, during which time the children may have been entered upon the records of New York or other churches. In after years it fre- quently occurs that children, born at Bergen, were baptized in New York, the record appearing "baptized in New York". In presenting this Register of Baptisms in tabular form, all notes given in the original record of a genea- logical value have been printed as foot notes at the bottom of each page. Items such as:—"born at 2 P. M." and "Born on Thursday at midnight" have been purposely omitted. In two instances where children were born "out of wedlock" wherein the sur- name assumed by the child is not given, the entries have also been omitted because of no genealogical value. All names have been faithfully copied as they ap- pear with all the variations in spellings and errors of the voorlesers; and where omissions occur, even though possible to supply, no inserts have been made. The record is thought to be truly represented. All entries have BERG EN RECORD S 3 have been arranged in the order of their dates of baptism and consecutively numbered for convenience in in- dexing. This work is published in the most likely form which it would have assumed if printed at the time the original entries were made by Bonaventure and Abraham Elzevier, who were the most famous printers of that time. The Elzeviers or Elseviers were a family of famous printers and booksellers of Leyden and after- ward Amsterdam; no fewer than fifteen of whom carried on the business in succession from 1580 to 1712. Their Pliny (1635), Firgil (1636) and Cicero (1642) are the masterpieces of their press, and in elegance of design, neatness, clearness and regularity of type, and beauty of paper cannot be surpassed. As far as practicable their typography and all of the peculiar characteristics of their works have been care- fully followed. The use of catch-words, signature letter- ing and half measure foot notes have been imitated exactly. The paper used in this book has been made to imitate the old paper of that day and the button of the Society is reproduced as a watermark. All of the illustrations have been made and engraved after the style of wood cuts then so popular. These cuts were engraved from photographs and descriptions and are historically correct as to detail and ensemble. The index was carefully prepared by William B. Van Alstyne, M.D., a member of our society who makes a specialty in statistical and genealogical work. The EYNDE ^^^^^~Tj^-2:^y- PRESENT DOMINE OF THE REFORMED PROTESTANT DUTCH CHURCH JERSEY CITY. NEW JERSEY THE REFORMED PROTESTANT DUTCH CHURCH of BERGEN IN NEW JERSEY FOUNDED 1660 # THE HOLLAND SOCIETY by a rectangular palisade, with a gate at the center of each side. Later a well was dug in the middle of the open square and a corner lot was reserved for a school. With the village came also the church and the school: in fact a condition made by each pioneer in accepting a grant of village lot or outlying farm was, that ministers of the Reformed faith should be provided and the edu- cation of the children secured. In 1661 the first municipality was created in the form of an inferior court whose decisions were subject to appeal in the general court in New Amsterdam. In 1662 Englebert Steenhuysen was engaged as voorleser w^^^sm^^'ss^mmsimsimmm-mimmsa ^r^d school- master. His contract re- A':1i-, quired him to teach the children in his own house and to conduct a service on each Lord's day, read- ing from a printed sermon in Dutch, furnish ed by The Classis of Amsterdam. There is also on file — BERGEN RECORDS 7 file in Albany a subscription list dated 1662'. In 1664 the record of members of the church in full communion begins. The earliest records are in the handwriting of D""" Henricus Selyns, a minister of the church of Breuckelen, Long Island, and later, after 1682, of the church of New York. In this original list we find the names of eighteen women and nine men. The record is evidently a copy from some earlier docu- ment and the break from the beautiful handwriting of the dominie to current entries is plainly discerned. The earliest services were probably conducted, like the school, in a private house: but tradition says there was built, within a few years, a log house, which served the double purpose of school and church. The first stone church was octagonal. ^ It stood south of the village just outside the palisade. One side of the interior was occupied by the pulpit opposite the door: three sides on the right and left of the door were provided with plain wooden seats, while the open space was filled with straight back chairs. The bell' hung in the peak of the roof and was rung by a rope which hung in the center. A succession of voorlesers followed Steenhuysen who left no records. In 1665 Reynier Bastiaense Van Giesen was installed and for forty-two years continued in office. He was succeeded in 1708 by Adriaen Vermeule who served for twenty-eight years and who formerly occupied the same position and that of town clerk at Niew Haarlem. In 1726 P.