Church historian Mark Anderson has been compiling a detailed record of the background of our congregation(1),

Anderson, Mark J., For All the Saints: Christ's Lutheran Church, Woodstock, New York, 1806-2006 [Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2006], pp. 1-28. (Close) and the following words are just a brief overview of the years before the founding of Christ's Lutheran Church in Woodstock:

Lutherans in America

In the seventeenth century, there were few Lutherans in America. A couple of congregations gathered in 1649 in the Dutch colony of New Netherlands--one in New Amsterdam (now Manhattan) and the other in Fort Orange (now Albany)--but the authorities were appalled at this attempt to worship outside the Dutch Reformed Church. The Lutherans, considered as heretics from the established Calvinist doctrine, were fined and threatened with greater fines if they persisted in their error. Lutheran Pastor Johannes Gutwasser was apprehended in 1659 and deported.

The situation for Lutherans did not improve when, a few years later, the English seized New Netherlands, renaming it New York. Now the ruling elite was Anglican, the majority of the population was still Dutch Reformed, and the Lutherans remained a tiny, despised minority. In 1671, Pastor Bernhard Arnzius was sent from Amsterdam to care for the original congregation, which he did until his death in 1691.

Then the little congregations turned to the Lutheran Swedes who had settled near Philadelphia. In 1703, the Bishop of Sweden authorized the ordination of Pastor Justus Falckner, the first Lutheran ordination in America. Pastor Falckner was able to save the two faltering congregations, and by 1715 he had started seven more congregations. He was traveling 1,200 miles a year to serve them.

Meanwhile, the powerful forces of Catholic France's "Sun King," Louis XIV, were invading Germany. Louis had revoked tolerance for Protestants in France in 1689 and was now determined to roll back the Reformation in the rest of Europe. Lutherans in the Palatinate (Pfalz) region of the German Rhineland suffered especially the depredations of French fire and sword. Many thousands of Lutherans fled the Palatinate to find refuge in the England of Protestant Queen Anne.

This queen authorized a program to transport the Lutheran refugees to New York, where they were expected to pay for their voyage and their land by providing tar for British ships. Pastor Joshua Kochertal and his congregation of 61 were settled near what is now Newburgh in 1709. They were given 2,000 acres of land, to be divided among them, and they were promised £20 per year and 500 acres for the support of their pastor. In 1710 some 3,000 more Lutheran refugees were transported into the Hudson Valley, where they settled at Rhinebeck, Wurtemburg, East Camp (Churchtown), and West Camp (where they would become known as the congregation of the Palatine Lutheran Church of St. Paul's). Pastor Kochertal cared for all these people in eight German congregations until his death in 1719. Then Pastor Falckner took over these congregations, adding them to his own Dutch congregations.

Later the Lutheran congregations in the upper Hudson Valley were served until 1751 by Pastor William Berkenmeyer, who had settled in Loonenburg (Athens). This well-educated and hard-working pastor was, in 1734, the first Lutheran leader in New York to prepare a church constitution for use by congregations: the General Church Order for the Congregations Adhering to the Unaltered Augsburg Confession.

Orthodoxy, pietism, and rationalism

The General Church Order constitution reflected Pastor Berkenmeyer's orthodox approach to Lutheranism. Like his "old school" colleagues in Hamburg and northern Germany, Berkenmeyer insisted on a rigid adherence to the doctrinal concepts of Martin Luther, a pessimistic world view, and a dogmatic, authoritarian preaching and ministry style. Orthodox Lutherans put strong emphasis on the difference between Lutheranism and the Roman Catholic views on such concepts as the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist; they also stressed the difference between Lutheranism and the Reformed (Calivinist) views on such concepts as predestination.

Reacting to the apparent rigidity of prevailing orthodox thought was pietism, a movement that influenced not only Lutherans but also Methodists, Moravians, and other Protestants. Pietists stressed the necessity for personal faith developed within small, organized groups that met for devotional readings and spiritual support. The pietists were also concerned about the secularization of the church, although their own emphases often included both educational and social concerns, missionary work, and spiritual conversion. A leading spokesperson for the pietist movement and an important mentor for a large portion of the Lutheran clergy in the eighteenth century was Professor August Herman Franke at the University of Halle in Germany.

[ Henry Melchior Muhlenberg ]

In 1741 Professor Franke selected Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (pictured at right) to bring order and unity to the growing numbers of Lutheran congregations in America. In addition to his great leadership talents and his thorough education at the University of Göttingen, Muhlenberg was fluent in several languages (he could preach in German, Dutch, and English); he was musically adept; and he was at least as indefatiguable as the pastors in New York. Muhlenberg's special charge was Pennsylvania, but as his fame grew, he was often called upon to help in a much wider area, from Georgia to upper New York. Part of Muhlenberg's undoubted genius was his ability to reconcile the orthodox Lutheranism of "old school" colleagues such as Berkenmeyer with the pietistic leanings of the younger clergy of the Halle school. (This theological tension still reverberates throughout the Lutheran churches in America today.)

This was the so-called "Age of Enlightenment," and both the orthodox and the pietist Lutherans were extremely uneasy about the influence of German rationalism in the universities and theological schools of the late eighteenth century. Rationalism asserted that a certain body of religious belief is inborn or can be acquired by reason rather than through revelation or the teachings of the church. Professor Johann Semler was considered the "father of rationalism" at Halle.

In America, however, these theological differences were less important than the immediate and practical concerns of church organization, church language, and the sources of trained clergy.

Church organization

[ Dr. John Kunze ] Pastor Berkenmeyer tried, unsuccessfully, to organize a synod after meeting with 3 other pastors and lay representatives in 1735, to consider the disciplining of another pastor. In 1748 Henry Muhlenberg managed to assemble 6 pastors and 24 lay delegates in Philadelphia into a synod called the United Pastors (which eventually became the Ministerium of Pennsylvania); their agenda included reports from the lay delegates concerning the effectiveness of their pastors, pastors' reports regarding their parochial schools, and the examination and adoption of a common liturgy. A generation later, in 1773, Muhlenberg's son, Frederick Muhlenberg, attempted to form a synod in New York. However, the New York Ministerium was not actually formed until after the Revolutionary War, in 1784, by Henry Muhlenberg's son-in-law, John Kunze, pictured here.

A brief explanation about the terms used for the organizations of Lutherans at this time. Borrowing from European models, distinctions were made between a synod and a ministerium. The Calvinists in Europe used the term synodical assembly for gatherings of clergy and laity for mutual guidance and deliberation. This term was infrequent among the German territories until the nineteenth century. A ministerium was a gathering of only the clergy for ecclesiastical business and for the examining, licensing, and ordination of candidates for the ministry.(2)

Here Anderson, pp. 9-10, is citing Scholz, Robert F., Press Toward the Mark: History of the United Lutheran Synod of New York and New England, 1830-1930 [Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1995], p. 22. (Close) In Pennsylvania and New York, the term was applied this way early in the eighteenth century, but by the close of that century, the organizations, though using the term ministerium in their title, were actually synods. Because the focus of this history is primarily from the early nineteenth century forward, the terms are used interchangeably.

The title for leadership was at first senior but quickly became president. The use of the term bishop did not occur until well into the late twentieth century, as part of the swelling tide of liturgical "renewal," which also brought changes to the vestments of Lutheran pastors and to their everyday clothing. The Missouri Synod still uses the term president rather than bishop for the ordained leaders of their synods.

Three of the eight pastors in New York State met in 1784, but a second meeting was not held until 1792. By then, the Age of Enlightenment had culminated in the French Revolution, the elevation of the goddess Reason in France, and the apparent triumph of Deism among national leaders in the United States. The constitution of the adjacent Pennsylvania Ministerium was revised to omit all references to Lutheran confessions, but for more than a decade afterward, according to Pastor Kunze, the New York Ministerium was free from rationalism.

Language

For Lutherans in America, language was an especially difficult problem from the beginning and remained so well into the twentieth century. The earliest difficulties were in the Delaware Valley, where the immigrant Swedish Lutherans had settled in 1638. The congregations there had trouble getting pastors sent to them from Sweden, and the trouble increased in the eighteenth century, when they requested Swedish pastors who were fluent in English. The last Swedish pastor was recalled home in 1768, and the congregations there began to accept Anglican (Episcopalian) pastors until at last the Swedish Lutheran congregations in the Delaware Valley ceased to exist.(3)

Here Anderson, pp. 13-14, is citing Wentz, Abdel Ross, A Basic History of Lutheranism in America [Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1955], p. 12ff. (Close)

Manhattan, the polyglot point of entry for so many into the New World, was a

subregion of stunning diversity.… By the mid-eighteenth century the original Lutheran parish in Manhattan had divided into Dutch- and German-language congregations; thereafter, the swinging pendulum of language change lent momentum to periodic divisions and reunions … for nearly two centuries.(4) Here Anderson, p. 14, is citing Scholz, p. 17. (Close)

The official language of the New York Ministerium at the time of its founding in 1784 was German and remained so for more than two decades. At an 1804 meeting, three languages were used: President Kunze preached in German, Philip Mayer (one of Kunze's students) preached in English, and Secretary Frederick Henry Quitman (soon to be our founding pastor) preached in Dutch. But the business of the synod was conducted in German, and the minutes were recorded in German. In Pennsylvania, Peter and Henry Ernest Muhlenberg, sons of Patriarch Henry Muhlenberg, actively promoted the use of English in Lutheran churches. Pastor Kunze, though unable himself to preach adequately in English, prepared literature to meet the needs of the English-speaking parts of the church (and, no doubt, to combat the rationalist notions among English speakers).(5)

Here Anderson. p. 14, is citing Wentz, p. 76. (Close)

In 1795, Dr. Kunze published the first English-language Lutheran hymnal to be printed in the United States: A Hymn and Prayer Book, For the use of such Lutheran Churches as use the English Language. Although the language was "awkward and inelegant," it nonetheless possessed a "strong Lutheran character."

Even allowing for the problems … the hymnal was a remarkable example of a Lutheran hymnbook that … was unequalled for almost three-quarters of a century.(6) Here Anderson, p. 14, is citing Schalk, Carl, God's Song in a New Land: Lutheran Hymnals in America [St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995], p. 59. (Close)
Kunze, along with his assistant, George Strebeck, also worked on the translation of Luther's Catechism. Strebeck, who had been a Methodist, was licensed and then ordained by the Ministerium on the recommendation of Kunze. Unfortunately, in 1797, he led a group of people out of the church where he was Kunze's assistant and set up an unauthorized English-language Lutheran church in Manhattan. It is certainly a mark of Kunze's graciousness that he merely responded by saying that Strebeck was "ungrateful toward his teacher."(7)

Here Anderson, p. 15, is citing Kreider, Harry J., History of the United Lutheran Synod of New York and New England, Volume I, 1786-1860 [Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1954], p. 34. (Close)

At the 1798 meeting of the New York Ministerium, a resolution was passed that was to prove harmful to the growth of the Lutheran Church in America. They resolved that they would never recognize a new Lutheran church that used the English language if it was located where the members could avail themselves of English in an already established Episcopalian church! In the meantime, Strebeck's English-language church grew so rapidly that the congregation had to build a new church. In 1805, however, Strebeck gave up and became rector of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. Succeeding him for the English Lutheran congregation was another Methodist minister, Ralph Willeston, and President Kunze was instructed by the membership of the Ministerium to install Mr. Willeston. This was not a friendly climate for this English-language church, however, and in 1810, both the congregation and the pastor became yet another Episcopalian church.(8)

Here Anderson, p. 15, is citing Kreider, p. 35ff. (Close)

Sources of trained clergy

American Lutheran congregations had little support from European universities and theological schools. The pressing need for clergy was addressed only by such pastors as Muhlenberg, Kunze, and Quitman, who not only served multiple congregations and presided as officials in the early synods but also tutored students who they felt were promising candidates for the ministry. Both Muhlenberg and Kunze had attempted to start seminaries, but their efforts had been thwarted by the start of the Revolutionary War.

To understand how the first seminary was established, we need to go back a few decades. In 1746, Pastor William Berkenmeyer needed a pastor in Rhinebeck and requested one from Hamburg. Pastor John Christopher Hartwick, the response to this call, was a strange man, a Halle graduate (therefore a pietist) who had an unusual career as a Lutheran clergyman. After arriving in America, he visited the pietist Muhlenberg. The fiercely orthodox Berkenmeyer was enraged by this and sent men who verbally and physically attacked Hartwick in his church!

In a 1754 letter to the senior minister of the Lutheran Ministerium of Hamburg, Hartwick wrote:

Your reverence perhaps knows from experience something of our conditions in America. For eight years now I have had to conduct services either in poorly constructed houses which they call churches, or in barns and farm huts. I have had no comfortable parsonage, but have had to live in poor huts and travel from one place to another. I believe there is hardly any hussar in the Hungarian army, or a Tartar or a Cossack, who has ridden a horse more than I have. My health is also gone and one of my lungs is so bad that it is very difficult for me to preach, and I have great pains almost continually in the left side of my chest.(9) Here Anderson, pp. 16-17, is citing Hart, Simon, and Kreider, Harry J., trans., Lutheran Church in New York and New Jersey 1722-1760: Lutheran Records in the Ministerial Archives of the Staatsarchiv, Hamburg, Germany [United Lutheran Synod of New York and New England, 1962], p. 371. (Close)
Hartwick then wandered from the Hudson Valley and eventually settled in Otsego County on 24,000 acres he obtained from the Mohawk Indians, acreage that became known as the Town of Hartwick. He died in 1796, and his will, naming Jesus Christ as beneficiary, stipulated that the land be placed in trust with the income to be used to establish and maintain an Evangelical Theological Seminary in the Town of Hartwick. Unfortunately, the Ministerium was reluctant to locate a seminary so far from the geographic center of the synod, so Hartwick's wishes were not realized for nearly two decades. Until then, and for several years thereafter, the Lutheran Church in America continued to be dependent on whatever immigrant pastors they could get, pastors trained in other denominations who then crossed over to Lutheranism, or the home-tutored ministers provided through the diligence of such men as Pastor John Kunze.

The Woodstock Lutherans on the eve of Christ's Lutheran Church

[ Judge Jonathan Hasbrouck ] According to Dr. Chester Traver, who wrote a history of the congregations founded by the Palatine immigrants in the Mid-Hudson Valley(10), Here Anderson, pp. 75-95, is citing "Traver, Chester [Hatrwick College Library, hand-written documents in the special collections, 1907]. (Close) the Woodstock Lutheran congregation was started by descendants of these immigrants. The congregation at Rhinebeck included Bonesteels, Simmons, and Reiseleys; from Red Hook and East Camp (Churchtown, or Germantown) came the Lashers, Cramers, Shultises, and Nashes. Other families came southward from West Camp (from the congregation of the Palatine Lutheran Church of St. Paul's). The original papers submitted to Judge Hasbrouck, pictured here, to establish the church in 1806 include the names of Philip and David Bonesteel, Henry Simmon, Wilhelmus and Andries Reisley, and Philip Shultis.

Philip Bonesteel kept a tavern at the eastern edge of the hamlet of Woodstock. Like most other residents of Woodstock at that time, he did not own his land; he leased it from Robert Livingston in Clermont.

The Reisley family farmed their leased land in the Bearsville flats, where Andries Reisley may also have had the first cider mill in town. Andries was also named as the overseer of the poor at the first town meeting of Woodstock, held on June 5, 1787. Production and sale, as well as resale, of wooden barrel staves was also a profitable occupation for the Reisleys, as it was for many tenant farmers. Sometimes the staves were used in barter at stores, and sometimes they were taken down to the Hudson to be shipped out for cash.(11)

Here Anderson, p. 28, is citing Evers, Alf, Woodstock: History of an American Town [Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1987], p. 161. (Close)

The Shultis family name was prominent in Christ's Lutheran Church until well into the twentieth century, and it continues to be prominent in the town today. Philip Shultis is said to have reached Woodstock in 1788 with nothing but an axe, rifle, and a few belongings tied up in a handkerchief.(12)

Here Anderson, p. 28, is citing Evers, p. 219. (Close)

Beginning in 1809, the Rick family, later famous for the development of the Jonathan (or Rick) apple, began to appear with increasing frequency in the baptismal records of the church. It was in the 1790s that Philip Rick used seed stock from Esopus to produce his new apple. As the reputation of this apple increased, Judge Hasbrouck, the official who would be the registrar of the Christ's Church charter, was responsible for bringing it to the attention of horticulturalists. Eventually, the variety was to be grown all over the world. There is a monument to the apple alongside Route 212 in the Bearsville flats. It is not known whether the name of the apple was taken from one of Rick's sons or from that son's namesake, Jonathan Hasbrouck.(13)

Here Anderson, p. 28, is citing Evers, p. 236ff. (Close)

At the end of the Eighteenth Century, there was a growing movement to unite the Lutherans and the Reformed (Calvinist) congregations in Prussia (which finally culminated in 1817 with the official Evangelical Union of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches of Prussia). This movement was resisted by many Lutherans in America, who believed that there were important differences between the teachings of their Martin Luther and that other figure of the Reformation, Jean Calvin. The Lutherans of Woodstock, in particular, did not want to join with the congregation of the Calvinist Dutch Reformed Church. They wanted to keep to their own services.

In 1802, these individuals and others, with their families, the Lutherans of Woodstock, began holding services in their Woodstock-area homes, subject to the weather and farm work schedules. They were looking for a regular pastor, and they wanted an official church. The following is how church historian Mark Anderson has dramatized the dilemma the nascent congregation was still facing after three years of these pastorless meetings and after reluctantly considering combining with the newly organized Dutch Reformed Church:(14)

Anderson, Mark, "The Inn at the Edge of Town," Christ's Beacon, January 2006, p. 6, where he states: "The following story is fiction, but it is based on known facts surrounding the founding families of Christ's Lutheran Church and their first pastor, Frederick Quitman." This scene is reproduced in Anderson's For All the Saints, op. cit., pp. 1-3. (Close)
The year was 1805. The inn at the edge of town, not far from the grist mill, wasn't much to speak of in this place. However, it was built from sawn lumber, about 40 feet long and 30 feet deep. There was a half-story under the roof, which was made of wood shakes laid on the purlins, which were fastened to the pole rafters. The main room served as a meeting place, a mail drop-off point, and a tavern. It was low-ceilinged and dark, there being not a lot of windows on the south wall and none on the north. The best feature was probably the big fireplace at one end, consisting of a combination of the local bluestone and cobbles from the Sawkill River, which rushed by not far from the front yard. The yard and south wall of the inn faced the road that came up from the Esopus River and Kingston to the south. There was also a wagon track joining the road at this point; it came from the east, in the direction of Saugerties.

On this day in February, a few men were gathered around the table talking in animated voices. Some of them were tenant farmers on the Livingston patent, and the innkeeper, also a Livingston tenant, had joined them. Their conversation had to do with matters of local importance.

"I agree that we need something here in Woodstock instead of having to go all the way over to Kaatsban, but those Dutchmen are wrong about getting the Dommie over here and just continuing in the same ways."

"You're right," said Henry Simmon, "but what can we do? None of us has the authority to preach, no less administer sacraments. As it is, we are soon in need of baptisms, as John Conner here can plainly tell you!"

"I can't understand much more of your German than I can their Dutch," said John, "but I don't see where we can find a preacher to speak plain, unless you're willing to have one of them old Tories or to fall in with the new Methods!"

"You mean an Episcopal priest, what they're calling the Anglicans, and the Methodists, which is just Anglicans of a different breed."

"I've maybe got some news for every one of you," said the innkeeper. They all looked at him with interest. He tended to be more in touch with things because of travelers stopping at his inn. "There was a man came through the other day who was asking about the churches around here. He was a sight. Had to stoop through the door coming over the threshold. Once in, couldn't tell if the floor would bear him--must have gone a good sight more than twenty stone."

"No lie--tell us some more."

"Well, I gave him a mug of my beer. He thanked me in Dutch. When I came back in my German, he switched, and didn't he sound just off the boat! But he wasn't. Turns out he was Herr Lutheran Pastor from Westphalia, but he'd been to University and served down in South America with the Dutch for many years. Now he had come here to help up in the Schoharie and then down to Rhinebeck. Lately he was up to Athens at the old Lutheran Church up there and was also at West Camp, where my people and yours, Andries, lived for a time."

"What else?"

"John, he could tell easy that I wasn't so good in Deutsch, so he switched right over to English! And could that man talk! He must be quite the preacher. Then I told him about our troubles here, and he said that he might could help us out. We'd need to get our group together, and then he could meet with us. If things worked out, he could add this place to his rounds and get over this way probably every month."

"Henry, that is good news! We need to tell our friends about it. Then we can send for him."

"Should work well, but the others will not be happy--they could use all the help they can get for their new Dutch church."

"That's true, but at least this way they won't have to put up with our complaints and arguing any more."

"I propose we try to set up a meeting with… you didn't say his name!?"

"Pastor Quitman."

"--A meeting with Pastor Quitman by early spring."

"Aye!"

Within a few months, these men met with Pastor Frederick Quitman.

Our founding pastor

Scholar, linguist, and writer, Frederick Henry Quitman was also the most thoroughgoing rationalist who was ever ordained in the Lutheran church. He denied the authority of both the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions.(15)

Here Anderson. pp. 17-18, is citing Schalk, p. 69. Anderson, p. 23, cites one modern church historian, however, who does not agree with the assessment of Quitman being a "thoroughgoing rationalist." H. George Anderson, cited in Nelson, E. Clifford, ed., The Lutherans in North America [Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1975], p. 106, sees him as being a member of the school of "biblical supernaturalism": "Standing between the … rationalists on the one hand and evangelistic American Protestantism on the other, Quitman represents a hybrid theology. His statements sometimes seem contradictory, as when he asserts that man has not been deprived of his 'free moral agency,' and then goes on to declare that it is the Holy Spirit who provides 'every good quality of which the Christian is possessed.' In an earlier work he attacks local superstition about spirits and demons on grounds that would argue equally well against miracles; he condemns the 'miracles' of Pharaoh's sorcerers but does not question the miracles of Moses. His catechism does not deal explicitly with the divinity of Christ, yet refers to him as 'the only begotten Son of God' in several places. His definition of faith and his explanation of the Lord's Supper show an almost complete misunderstanding of Luther. In short, Quitman presents no finished Lutheran theological system; he simply tries unsuccessfully to restate traditional beliefs in a rationalistic language and manner." (Close) [ Reverend Quitman ]

Quitman was born in Westphalia in 1760 and studied in Halle under Professor Johann Semler, considered the "father of rationalism." He was ordained in 1781 at the age of 21. He spent 14 years as a pastor of a Dutch Lutheran church on the island of Curaçao, off the coast of South America; he left there when conditions became dangerous politically and came to the United States. Before coming to the Mid-Hudson Valley, he served congregations in the Schoharie region.

In addition to his scholarly and intellectual attainments, he was also a physically imposing man, being six feet tall and weighing approximately 300 pounds.(16)

Here Anderson, p. 18, is citing Evers, p. 225. (Close)

In 1798, at the age of 38, about the same time that he was appointed secretary of the New York Ministerium under the presidency of Dr. John Kunze, Quitman became the pastor of St. Peter's Church in Rhinebeck. He would reside in that village for the rest of his life, but he became a circuit rider to other congegations--establishing mission churches at St. Paul's in Wurtemburg, at Tarbush (Manorton), at East Camp (Germantown), at West Camp (at the Palatine Lutheran Church of St. Paul's). In 1806, at the age of 46, he answered the call of the Woodstock Lutherans.

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