American Lutheranism - Friedrich Bente

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first German Lutheran congregation in the State of New York. After spending the winter in the city, they settled on the right bank of the Hudson, near the mouth of the Quassaic, where Newburgh is now located. Every person received a grant of fifty acres and the congregation five hundred acres of church land, which, however, the British Governor in 1750 awarded to the Episcopalians. In July, 1709, Kocherthal, entrusting his congregation to the care of Falckner, whose acquaintance he had made during the winter in New York, returned to London to obtain, through a personal interview with the Queen, grants of money which were needed to supply the utterly destitute colonists with the necessary means of subsistence until the land was made arable. He returned in June, 1710, with a multitude of emigrants in eleven ships. But, while 3,000 had sailed from London, only 2,200 were destined to reach their homes in the New World, 800 having died while en route and in quarantine on Governor's Island. A tract of land comprising 40 acres for each person was assigned to them at the foot of the Catskill Mountains, about 100 miles north of New York. They settled on both sides of the Hudson, naming their settlements East and West Camp, respectively.

      23. Hewing Their Way to the Mohawk Valley.—The immigrants had been promised prosperity; but the English officials were actuated by selfish motives and shamefully exploited the colonists. They were ordered to engage in the production of tar and pitch, and were treated as slaves and Redemptioners, i.e., emigrants, shamefully defrauded by "the Newlanders (Neulaender)," as Muhlenberg designated the conscienceless Dutch agents who decoyed Germans from their homes and in America sold them into slavery, at least temporarily. The contract for provisioning the Palatinate colonists was let to Livingston, a cruel and greedy Scot, from whom (Governor Hunter had purchased the land on which the Palatinates were settled. Livingston now sought to enrich himself by reducing both the quantity and quality of the food furnished to the colonists. Hunger was common among the settlers, becoming especially acute in winter, as they had not been given sufficient time to plant crops for themselves. Dissatisfaction spread throughout the ranks of the Palatinates, and when the Governor refused to heed their appeal for relief, fifty families left the settlement and hewed their way through the primeval forest to the Mohawk Valley, where they obtained fertile lands from the Indians and founded the Schoharie congregation in the winter of 1712/13. The governor declared the fugitives rebels; but still more followed in March, making their way through three feet of snow. The Lutherans of Schoharie were the first white people to live at peace with the Indians. In order to obtain a clear title to the lands in the Schoharie Valley, which the governor refused to grant them, John Conrad Weiser was sent to England. On his way he was plundered by pirates; in England he was thrown into a sponging house on account of debts. After regaining his liberty, he was compelled to return to Schoharie broken in health and without accomplishing his purpose. The result was that 33 families left Schoharie and settled in Tulpehocken, Pa., in 1723. Among those who remained in West Camp was Pastor Kocherthal. He continued faithfully to serve his congregations, including Schoharie, until his end, December 27, 1719. He lies buried in West Camp. A weather-beaten stone slab marks his resting-place. The inscription calls him "The Joshua and pure Lutheran pastor of the High Germans in America on the east and west bank of the Hudson." In the original the epitaph reads complete as follows: "Wisse Wandersman Unter diesem Steine ruht nebst seiner Sibylla Charlotte Ein rechter Wandersmann Der Hoch-Teutschen in America ihr Josua Und derselben an Der ost und west seite Der Hudson Rivier rein lutherischer Prediger Seine erste ankunft war mit L'd Lovelace 170⅞ den 1. Januar Seine sweite mit Col. Hunter 1710 d. 14 Juny Seine Englandische reise unterbrach Seine Seelen Himmlische reise an St. Johannis Tage 1719 Begherstu mehr zu wissen So unter Suche in Welanchtons vaterland Wer war de Kocherthal Wer Harschias Wer Winchonbach B. Berkenmayer S Heurtein L Brevort MDCCXLII." (111.) The successors of Kocherthal were: Justus Falckner, until 1723; Daniel Falckner, the brother of Justus, who had served several German congregations along the Raritan, till 1725; Berkenmeyer; and from 1743 to 1788 Peter N. Sommer, who preached in thirteen other settlements and baptized 84 Indians. He died October 27, 1795. Sommer's aversion to the Halle pastors probably was the reason why he took no part in the organization of the New York Ministerium at Albany in 1786.

      WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER BERKENMEYER.

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      24. Activity in New York.—In New York Falckner was succeeded by W. Ch. Berkenmeyer (1686–1751). Berkenmeyer was born in the duchy of Lueneburg and had studied theology at Altorf under Dr. Sontag, a theologian whose maxim was, "Quo propius Luthero, eo melior theologus, The closer to Luther, the better a theologian." Upon request of the New York congregation the Lutheran Consistory of Amsterdam, in 1724, called him to serve the Dutch congregations in the Hudson Valley. While en route to his new charge, he was informed that a vagabond preacher by the name of J. B. von Dieren, a former tailor, had succeeded in ingratiating himself with the New York Lutherans, and had been accepted as their preacher. Nothing daunted, Berkenmeyer continued his journey, landing at New York in 1725. At the first meeting of the Church Council he won the hearts of all, even of those who had been instrumental in foisting von Dieren upon the congregation, who now stood convicted as an ignorant pretender, and therefore was dismissed. Dieren continued his agitation in other Lutheran congregations until Berkenmeyer in 1728 published a tract fully exposing the character of the impudent impostor. From the beginning Berkenmeyer's labors were blessed abundantly. Bringing with him money collected by the Lutherans in Amsterdam and receiving additional financial help from London and the congregations of Daniel Falckner, Berkenmeyer was enabled to resume the building operations in New York begun as early as 1670 (1705). On June 29, 1729, the New Trinity Church was dedicated. Berkenmeyer's parish covered a large territory. In addition to New York, Albany, and Loonenburg he served the congregations at Hackensack, Raritan, Clavernack, Newton, West Camp, Tar Bush, Camp, Rheinbeck (where a new church was dedicated on the First Sunday in Advent, 1728), Schenectady, Coxsackie, and in the Schoharie Valley. In Schoharie he baptized the infant daughter of Conrad Weiser, who eighteen years later became the wife of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. In the absence of churches, Berkenmeyer preached in private dwellings or, more frequently, in barns. At one of these services fourteen children were baptized in the "Lutheran barn" of Pieter Lassing. (176.) This immense parish was divided in 1731, Berkenmeyer removing to Loonenburg. Pastor Christian Knoll of Holstein was called to take charge of the southern congregations in and about New York. Berkenmeyer delivered his farewell sermon November 26, 1732, and sixteen days later Knoll preached his first sermon. In 1734 the Lutheran clergy received an addition in the person of Magister Wolff, who succeeded the aged and infirm Daniel Falckner at Raritan and five other congregations in New Jersey. In the same year the three Lutheran pastors and a number of congregations organized the first Lutheran Synod in America, with Berkenmeyer as chairman. Its first and only convention of which we have record was held at Raritan, August 20, 1735; nine congregations were represented by delegates. The chief business of Synod was to settle a quarrel between Wolff and his congregations, one of the charges preferred against the pastor being that he read his sermons instead of delivering them from memory ("statt aus dem Haupte zu predigen"). Peace was restored, but temporarily only. Berkenmeyer continued his ministry in Loonenburg for twenty years. Like other Lutheran divines of his day, the Swedes and Salzburgers not excepted, he kept two slaves, whom he himself united in marriage in 1744. Also during his declining years Berkenmeyer experienced much sorrow. His end came on August 26, 1751. The closing words of his epitaph are: "He has elected us in Christ before the foundation of the world; there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." In the same year Knoll, who, owing to disputes arising from the language question, had been compelled to resign at New York, took charge of the Loonenburg congregation and continued there until 1765.

      25. Berkenmeyer's Sturdy Lutheranism.—Though not clear in some points and, at times, rigorous in discipline, Berkenmeyer stood for a sound and decided Lutheranism. His orthodoxy appears from the very library which he selected and brought with him for the congregation in New York, consisting of twenty folios, fifty-two quartos, twenty-three octavos, and six duodecimos, among them Calovius's Biblia Illustrata, Balduinus's Commentarius in Epistolas S. Pauli, Dedekennus's Consilia, Huelsemann's De Auxiliis Gratiae, Brochmand's Systema, etc. Owing to his staunch orthodoxy, Berkenmeyer also had an aversion to the Pietists, and refused to cooperate with Muhlenberg

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