Legends of the Shawangunk2 JR.pdf - Friends of the Sabbath ...

Needderduytse Taal Te Shawankonk. 157
twelve patentees exercised the governmental control of the colony, one of their number
presiding, constituting what was known as the “Dusine,” a primitive form of civil
administration, out of which sprang the Town Meeting of New England. Most of them
constructed substantial stone dwellings along one street, now known as Huguenot street.
Six of these stone edifices are yet standing, and are shown in the accompanying
illustrations. The Holland bricks, the quaint little Dutch windows with glass set in lead,
and the ancient portholes in the walls of the houses, are yet shown to curious visitors, and
yearly attract scores of antiquarians to the locality.
NEEDDERDUYTSE TAAL TE SCHAWANKONK.
LOW DUTCH CHURCH OF SHAWANGUNK.
THE Reformed Church of Shawangunk was organized in 1750, and the present church
edifice—the oldest in the consistory—was built the same year. The society first
worshipped in the “Owl house,” a temporary structure near the kill. Johannis Mauritius
Goetschius came over from Switzerland and organized the infant church in the
wilderness. Barent Frooman, a native of Schenectady, was called to the pastorate at
Shawangunk, New Paltz and Walkill [Montgomery], February 4th, 1751. He was sent
that same year to the University of Utrecht, where he remained two years. He started
home in company with Jacobus and Ferdinandus Frelinghuysen, and Johannis
Schuneman. The first two died on shipboard of small-pox. Frooman preached at New
Paltz August 26, 1753, at Shawangunk September 2, and at Walkill [Montgomery]
September 9. No record is given of any installation. His salary was fixed at £90,
one-third to be raised by either church. He lived at Shawangunk, now Bruynswick, a
house and one hundred acres of land having been set apart there for his use. He married
Alida, daughter of David Vanderhyken, of Albany. He was called to Schenectady in
1754, and died at that place in 1784, in the sixtieth year of his age.
Rev. Johannis Mauritius Goetschius was born in the Canton of Thorgan, Switzerland,
in 1724. He studied and practiced medicine before he entered the ministry, but was
drawn to the study of theology and began to preach without due authority in 1754. He
was a warm advocate of the Coetus principles, and three years later was called to the
pastorate at Scoharie at a salary of £60, parsonage house, one farm, and 40 schepels of
wheat.
Goetschius was called to Shawangunk and New Paltz in 1760. He lived in the
Shawangunk parsonage, then one story high, and was paid a salary of £80, one-half borne
by each church. He died at the parsonage March 17, 1771, of dropsy. He was long sick,
and was a great sufferer. He preached the last time at New Paltz September 9, 1770.
During the ten years of his ministry he