xt7dfn10s63v https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7dfn10s63v/data/mets.xml Historical Records Survey (New York, N.Y.) Division of Professional and Service Projects, Work Projects Administration New York Historical Records Survey (New York, N.Y.) Division of Professional and Service Projects, Work Projects Administration 1940 xii, 152 l. incl. tables. 28 cm. UK holds archival copy for ASERL Collaborative Federal Depository Program libraries. Call Number: FW 4.14:N 42yc/2 books  English New York City, Historical Records Survey, Division of Professional and Service Projects, Work Projects Administration  This digital resource may be freely searched and displayed in accordance with U. S. copyright laws. New York Works Progress Administration Publications Lutheran church in New York (City) Archives -- Churches -- New York City -- Catalogs New York (N.Y.) -- Churches -- Lutheran New York (N.Y.) -- History -- Sources Inventory of the Church Archives in New York City. Lutheran, 1940 text Inventory of the Church Archives in New York City. Lutheran, 1940 1940 1940 2020 true xt7dfn10s63v section xt7dfn10s63v  

 

ON

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:92. mm.

PROJECTS
NEW YORK CITY

THE HISTORICAL RECORDS SURVEY

WORK

I I

LIES LIECIBS?

U.S. GOV.

UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY

I

CHURCH ARCHIVES
IN NEW YORK CITY

PUBLICATIONS in
COLLECTION

 

 

 

 

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 INVENTORY OF THE CHYRCH ARCHIVES
IN NEW YORK CITY

L U T H E R A N S

Prepared by
THE HISTORICAL RECORDS SURVEY
Division of Professional and Service Projecxs
Work Projects Administration
NEW YORK CITY
December 1940

 

  

The Historical Records Survey

Sargent B. Child, National Director
Charles C. Fisher, State Supervisor for New York City

Division of Professional and Service Projects

Florence Kerr, Assistant Commissioner
Agnes S. Cronin, Chief Regional Supervisor
Joseph Lu Ginniff, Director for New York City

Work Projects Administration

Howard 0. Hunter, Acting Commissioner
R.F. Branion, Regional Director
Oliver A. Gottsohalk, Acting Administrator for New York City

Sponsor

Fiorello H. LaGuardia
Mayor of the City of New York

 

   

FOREWORD

The commission to make an inventory of the Church archives
of New fork City has not been an easy task, especially in connection
'with the Lutheran Church.

During much of the life of this Church in this area congre-

gations have been independent and often too

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produced a carelessness in Church records which has made thei
redeeming an almost insuperdble task.
This present purpose, however, has been successful beyond

any such attainment in the past, and the Lutheran Church, as we

H
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all these who fire interested in correct historicil data, must be

indebted to the isithful scholars whe have fathered this inventory.

Samuel Trexlcr,

President, United LuthEran Syzed of New York.

 
 
  
  
   
   
   
  
   
 
 
  
  
   

    
 
 
  
   
   
    
   
  
   
   
    
  
  
       
     
  
   
   
  
  
  
 
   
  

In January 1956, by authority of a Presidential 1:t
Historical Records Survey was established under the net “ a directi'r

of Dr. Luther H. Evans, to provide use eful employment ior n dy un3mpl:ye
profcssicnal, technical, and clerical workers. Among the natiLn-Wide
objectives of this project, was the compilation of inventcries Lf “11
ecclesiastical records in the United States, dencminntisn by denominfti n.
These records uie invaluable, though heretcfore largely unlecated or un-
known, seurces 31 social, religious, and vital—statisticfil studies of
national and local history. On March 1, 1940, Mr. Sargent B. Child suc—
ceeded Dr. Evans as National Director of the survey.

(5
C)

J.'-
U

Inventories of the records of each denomir : 1 eventui .11y
be published for every state. For the purpQSC Lf s rvey, Lew York
City was designfited Cs R ferty~ninth stfite, with 1.rs. Crete Hutchinson
es St'te Director. On April 26, 1957, she w'as replaced by Toward E.
Colg n who we succeeded on June 15 cf the ssme year by George J.
Miller as State Director and Jacob George Br“:in as Assists

Upon Mr. Miller's resignation in October 1959, Ch rles C. Fisher was
appointed Acting Director; and in September 1940,1sidcr PE skoff suc-
ceeded 1?. Brogin as Assistant Director. The Nev Y; rk C1 -ty prcject
ceesed te exist «s p’.rt of Federfl Project No. l cn September 1959,
IrCm1rhich tire it h s operated under the spinsershi p of Fierelle H.
L3G udrdid, Layer of the Cityo f low York.

 

n

The present 1 ventcry of Lutheran orch1ves, is the fift h Ci 1
series Wh1ch eventua 11y will cover every denemineti;n in - ew 1 rk City.
In the course of systemfiticollyc COll(Ct1HEfi and classifying the records
contained in this inventcry some believed to have been lost, in others
long misplcced, were loostel. It is hoped that subsequent eimpilnticns
will lend to similar discovery, centralizatiCn and preservfiti n Cf
other records new unknown or believed lost.

  

nc e 11 pa ste.rs and other church
Cf libraries and superintendents
ed as having been iniispensable

The courteSy and interial assi wt
officials as well ms that of secret:« ric
Cf institutions, is gratefully dck wle
to the ccmpletior of this inventory. Si ce1 u ledgment is made to
the Reverend Samuel Trexler, President if The United Lutherans " mrd of
New York, for his approval of the inventery and the forewordc

s
d

 

The work of collecting, verify'11g, 11d editing the inventory has
bee on dcnc under the direct supervisi n Cf Hflr rry E. Greene find his suc—
ce ser,1rs. Alice Louise Hayes. Rese.rch, in pirt, for the histCriofll
ukc tch is the w rk Cf Dr. Jemes_T. Simpsen, Editing, proofreeding, writ-
ing of entries, ind indexing were done by Bernfird liass {C -r, Horry P llfck,

0

  

 Other workcrs why did

serve LLCKWCCG, Wallace N. {rck;r, CC

Nuricl Tuitt, Ellis Kramer, Hrrry L. Go Cv ,
tyyinr was under the dircct1ib End suIC-rvis 7'” Cf

Finn “ ‘ = “ ibility was Claccd in
Editor—1n " -rk City H18tr, ' Prw- - 1~
’Olumt: 18 Lzyt for mUCh ihuicstrd rat gorv.

series

 

t cvch ”uluut of a given
: - th’t thrr; is but on» type
Hit a s;r?rat: series 0

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 ABFPEVIATTCVS

Euilding ?,
college fi “0

r ya,
MAJ-4’

compiler :1 ‘ pcckagt
editor, educabior Printcé
handwritten .‘ iegistfir
incorgorated 1 religious
institution; inctituta , , Reve;ۤd
1

ocatcd u sewirarv
miscellereou terrace‘
.-fius3ript tr nslatcr
New'Ycrk Hhfimrical Society univer€itv
hF date ‘

 

  

   
  
  
   
   
   
   
    
        
     
   
    
    
   
   
   
     
    
     
    
  
    
   
  
 
  
    
   
  
  
 

HIS

 

rT‘CRICAL SKETCH

‘e Evangelical Lutheran Church was initiated by Ilartin Luther, an
AW ustinian monlC who nailed his 95 theses to the door of his church at Witten—
berg in 1517 and launched the movement termed the Yeformaticn. Luther himself
favored the word Restoration for the new movement, since to his mind it was a
return to the pure and simple tenets of the early church a reduction of re-
ligion to its simplest terms: Faith and the Word of God.1
Luther in his monastic cell had asked himself: ”Has a man the

right to
read the wo:d of God for himself, and so seek and find salvation

for hissoul?"

”And has a roubl.ed conscience the ri ht to seek peace through personal com-
munion With his God?”2 his answer to these questions and his 1nspired tenacity
launched the Lutheran Church,5 though the title "Lutheran” was first applied
by Pop e Adrian VI a: a term of contem_pt. The Lutherans called themselves the
”Protegta ant EvanQelical Church, ” sometimes adding ”o: the Augsburg Confes-
Sicn.”“?

(D

. li ugious fore 8 he let loose were put to service by the Arinc 5

Germany and by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in the Thirty Years War, which fol—

lo ed upon Luther's Geformation.s Thousands of German Ltuh era n refugees were

driven by the war into neighboring countries, There their religion had already

been favorably received. Lutheranism tecame the State Church of Germany,

Denmark, and Sweden, and strong colonies of that faith were active in Italy,
ce, Holland, and Be leium 5

The fist div1ne ser1ice on this continent was held in 1619 by a Lutheran
minister. King Christian IV of Lenmark had sent two ships With a cre"r of
sixty—two, accompanied by Ra asmus Jensen, Lutn ran n stcr, to find the North—
west Passage. Under command of Capta' T ’ se exp‘or rs entered

Hudson Pay on July 1st, 1619, and from Se.
the next, Lutheran services were held in the a
Pastor Jensen preached the word of God to his dvinr
self died. The remnant of the exped1i1tion re tu.1ed t

a
e l e

hat year to Tanuary of
h. Visited by a plague,
onpanions until he him-
Denmark.6

The first Lutheran to set oot on lanhat tan Isl
t

n Ch ristian-
sen of Cleves, rho began a series of commercial n

1- George U. Wanner, Lutherans in New York, p. viii (hereafter cited as
Wanner). “I- '

2- IYVinQ Magee, D D., Bri ef Statements for the Evaneelical Lutheran Church,
n'p" n.d., 80 pp- (hereafter cited as KQEEE). -

. Encycknwedia Prit annica 04th ed) Te“ Yoriz—IWZQ, XXIII, 229 pp.

3%3 CyClopedia of Fiblioa1,Theoloeioal and Ecclesiastical Knowledge, New
Y0”k; 1894,“pp- 575—582 (hereafter cited as Biblical Cyclopedia).

4- Wanner, p. ix. “““““ '——_‘—~**-

5- fthi:al Cyclopedia, pp. 577- 582.

6' J- NaQnus Dohde, Norwegian American Lutherism up t 1872, flew York, 1926,

p- 25 et seq.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

   

Historical Sketch

Hudson Valley to fur and timber trade with Europe. He c hartered t‘e river and
its harbor and is credited with havinv built the first habitations for white
men on Manhaitan Is land in 1613. The earliest Lutherans to settle permanenfly
in North America came from Holland to Manhattan Island in 1623, although it

is claimed that, in 1611, the first White child born north of Virginia, Je
Vigne, was of Lutheran parenta gC.

Jonas (Johannes) French, a pious Lutheran, arrived in 1:39. Ne Was the
son of a Danish minister, born in the Faroe Islands where hi. father had been
sent by the Danish Government as a missionary, and educated in Den
ing prospered commercially in Holland, Jonas settled in New Ne h
in 1641, he bought from the Indians a tract of 500 acres of land
the Harlem and Aquahaug (now Bronx) rivers. He built a stone h
roof, barns, a tobacco house and a varehouse in the locality 0
Lincoln Avenue and East 13 2d Street. 9 Tonas French «as the fir
the borough and county Which now bears his name. In the Board Poo c
Title Guarantee and Trust Company, at 176 Broadve15NeW York City, th
a painting by John Ward Dunsmore commemorating the signing of the +re
Pronck With the Indians in 1642, shoving Jonas Rronck and the repress
of the NeW Amsterdam Government "ith the Indians at Rronck's home, ”h
named Emmaus.10

ark. Hav—
and, Where
yi.g between

The first Lutherans in New Amsterdam Ware alol ed to share the "Church
within the Fort," after the Dutch had built that firs t church in 1628.11 This
liberty Cf *orship “as prescribed in 1647 by Pat er Stuy’esant, the Governor of
Ne1 N etherland, actinr upOn orders from the homeland "to encourage no other
doctrine in th a New Netherlands than the true (Dutch) Ref‘ormed Churc‘n” 12 In
1656, he and his council enacted lave which if enforced, v:ould have completely
suppressed their freedom of worship.13 Nevertheless, the Lutherans had banded
together in 1648 to form their first congregationfl4L

Ry 1653 there Were 0V er f1fty Lutheran familie on Manhattan
Since their appeal from Governor Stuyvesant’s denial of a pastor t
brought no relief from the authorities ir , olland, they resorted t

sland.
them
what'

0 O F4

 

 

7. I.N. Phelps St okes, Iconography of} anhattan Island, New York, 1919—28,
VI, 220 et seq (hereafter citedfi as Stoke

 

 

 

s, Iconography); U.S. Rureau of
the Census, Census of Delirious Bodies 1936, Lutherans, Bulletin No. 18,
Washington, D.C., Government Printing Cff ice, 1940, p.1(hereafter cited

as Census 1936).
8. Census 1936, p. I; Concordia Cyclopedia, St. Lo uis, 1927: P- 42-
9-) 113161., p. 48.
10. John T Scharf, History of Nestchester County, New York, 1986, I, 23-
11. Stokes, Iconography, VI, 62 8
126 Alexander C. Flick (ed), History of the State of New York, New York, 1933,
II, 12, I3 (hereafter cited as Flick)- —~'_—-
15- Edmund R O'Callaghan (ed), Laws and Ordinance of New Netherlands, 1638—
1674, Albany, 1868, pp. 211-213. "—
14. Census 1956, p. l.

 

 

 

 

  
    
    
   
     
 
   
  
  
    
   
    
 
 
  
   
 
 
   
     
  
   
   
  
 
     
    
     
    
   
  
      
 
  

   

Historical Sketch

known as ”dumb service"-—that is, prayer and Pible—read
sermon-—held in private houses.15 Stuyvesant’s "Ordina
imposing large fines for preaching at or attending Luthe

resulting in imprisonment for a number of Lutherans

ing without comment or
nee aaainst Conventiclesy

n services 6 and

SD

T :
, includine several

. . 1 leading
New Amsterdam merchants, effectively suppressed open worshi; intil a rebuc
from the homeland for his excessive severity toward Lutherans induced the
GOVernor to ameliorate his persecution.l7 In 1657, *t tion which

had been pressed for nine years, the Lutheran Con
Reverend John Ernest Gutwasser to take charge of the congregations in Sew

Amsterdam and Fort Orange (Albany). When the new pastor began to preach, how—
ever, the persecution was reneWed, and Gutwasser was forced by threat of armst
and imprisonment to spend the winter of 1658—59 in hiding at the home of Pau
Schriber on Cliff Street. In the autumn of 1659, the good pastor resigned
self to the futility of further struggle and returned to Holland.18

So it was that, when Col. Dichard Nichofis received the colony in surrender
from the Dutch in 1664, the Lut‘eran settlements in Yew Arsterdam, Fort Orange,
w

New Jersey, and Long Island we
needs.19 The new EngliSh

a

n
e still Without mini tration to their religious
imed ”that in all terri-

gzove L a
tories of His Doyal Highness (tne Duke of York, to when the FrOVince was con—
veyed by Soyal Charter), liberty of 4

conscienc is allored provided such
liberty is not converted to licentiousres f
e c

J
an , or the d'sturbance o‘
ise of the Protestant Religion.”

0
..
C
L.

0 Accordingly, the Luthe

of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession of Faith“, Which had been :orned
ttan in 1648, was granted the first Lutheran charter in the Province of
by Governor Uiduflls in 1664, and for the first time

s ireely geld publk
c

 

in a building near the present Hanover Square, showr_on ontemporary
r s as the "Iemplum Lutheranorium" or the ”Luthersche Kerck”. This
church is the lineal progenitor of Saint Matthew's Church in New York City, in
the archives of which the original charter

is still treasured.31

As there was still no Lutheran pastor, Paul Schriber, in Whose
vices had previously been held, lay the prayers of the cont“

.1 ._

home ser-

J cation for a
pastor before the Consistory in Amste“dam in person. Not until 1669, however,

 

15. U.S. Bureau of Census, Census of Religious Podies: 1926, Washington, D.C.,
1950, II, 6 (hereafter cited as Census 1996)-

16. Edmund B. O'Callaghan (ed.), Documents 5e1ative to the Colonial History
33 the State of New York, Albany, 1856-83:_II, 320.

17. Ibid., xv, 3517‘ ‘““‘

l8.

 

Ibid., III, 103; Hugh Hastings (ed~). Ecclesiastical Records 25 the State
23 New York, Albany, 1901-16, I, 343 at Seq- (hereafter Cited as 3001851”
Estical Records) _—

19. Ecclesiastical Records, I, 492.
20. R. Townsend Henshaw,‘wThe Ministry Act of 1693", Historical Magazine Of

the Protestant Episcopal Church in America, Jew Brunswick, N.J-, II (T§i9.
119. “- '

21. See entry 128.

 
  
    
   
    
    
    
    
 
   
      
  
    
  
  
  
  
   
 
   
     
  
   
   
  
 
   

   

Historical Sketch

did the Con_s istory send a pastor to the new province. Nhen lagi steer Jacobus
Fabritius, a minister renowned for his learningr, arrived in New mlg 1, he Was
granted permission byF overnor Lovelace to serve both the New York and Albany
churches, as well as the small Lutheran congregations sca tte ed along the
\alley of the Hudson.22

The "Dukes Laws", First promulgated in 1665 and xtendr ed to the entire
Province in 1671, provided for a church to be built and support r;d i "ever
pnw en‘ by taxes to be raised by elected overseers”, two of Who . e1
as ”church wardens”. This provision meant, in effect, that the ch .ur .
freeholdcr members were in th e majority in a paris h must be supper e equally
by the freeholders of every other denomination.23 Pastor Fabritius cor plained
particularly of the tax exacted from his flock in Albany to support the Dutch
Reformed Church, whose members had elected the ”oversr'rs”. This controversy
resulted in Fabritius' resigns tion of‘ his charts and his affiliation With the
SWedish Lutherans of Delaware until his death in 1691. Fa.
by the Peverend Bernardus Arens ius, a quiet, industrious p _
his summers to the church in Her York City and his winters to th
Albany He too died in 1691, to leave the Nev York Lutherans p
another dozen years.24

During Arensius' pastorate, ;
the city ha d been built in 1673 wher
Trinity nov mothers its tombstones
Benevolences were solicited for this
Martin Hoofman. During the Dutch int
from which 1211 Street is named, was re
just beyond it, and the Dutch Governor,

 

ated, leaving the Lutheran church
11eving that the church and adjoin-
ing building 3 m1g:h+ weaken the city's def ense in case of siege, had then razed.
The congregati n 11as compens sated by gift of a lot inside the new Wall, plu5150
guilder s toward a neW building. The new church, erected here (tetween hector
and Morris Streets west of Proadwa y) in 1674, and the adjoininr parsonage and
the parochial school (the first in America,
than half a century.25

gnum Of 1673- 74, Stuy 3958111"? W'Elll,

, served the cone recs tion for more

Follov inF the prolonged failure of the European Consistories to respond
to 8 plea for a new minister, the Deverend Andrefl pudnan, a Swedish minister
from DelaWare, was persuaded, in July 1702, to accept the New York pastorate.

 

 

 

 

22° ”illiSm Varren Sweet, History of Religion in America New York, 1930, p.

25 et seq. (hereafter cited as Sweet). _‘

25. New York Colony, Laws of the Colonvmof New York, Albany, 1894, I

_ ‘ . , xii,
24— 26. “” ‘“

 

Henry E. Jacobs, pHistory of the EvangcliCEl Lutheran Church in America:
New York, 1973, . 30 (hereafter cited as Jacobs);§ arl Kretzmcr, The_
Af-lantjc Distri.ct of the Synod of 115 sourL 01337 and Other States,_§:ie,
1932 p. 6 (hereafter cited as K:etzman)

25. 933323, p. 50 et seq

 
  
    
  
   
   
   
    
   
    
    
   
     
    
 
  
    
     
         
     
  
     
           
   
   
    
   
  
   

   

Historical Sketch

His health failing, he resigned his charge into the care of his assistart

1-, a
theological candidate named Justus Falckner, also from Delaware, who was acoo u-
ingly ordained in ”The Old Swedes' Church" in Philadelphia on November 24, lWfi.

The original copy of this first ordination certificate of a Lutheran minister
in the New World was recovered in Saint James' Lutheran Church, New York City,
in 1925, after it had been lost for more than a centuryfc

Shortly after Pastor Palckner's ordination, large groups of Lutheran
refugees from the German countries then being devastated by Louis XIV began a
stream of immigration to the New World. The largeStof these groups—-so e
souls under the leadership of Jacob Weiser and Pastor Joshua Kocherthal, ar-
rived in nine ships at Governor's Island in New York Harbor during 1709-10. A
tenth ship had been lost at sea, and those arriving had endured such hardships
of cold, hunger, thirst, and plague, that many found themselves orphaned and
widowed in the strange new land. Among the orphans was one named John Peter
Zenger, who, reared by the church and apprenticed to‘7illiam Bradford, the
colony’s first printer, became a successful warrior for the freedom of the
press as the editor of the Weekly Journal, first issued on November 5, 1735.27

This influx of Lutheran immigrants taxed the church facilities of the
colony and offered opportunity for the Dutch, Anglican, and Presbyterian
Churches to demonstrate a new spirit of interdenominational cooperation. At
the height of the German immigration, the Presbyterian Church lent its premises
in Little Queen (now Cedar) Street for overflow services.28 In 1709 a congre-
gation of immigrant Lutherans was organized at Newburgh on the Hudson under
Rev. Joshua Kocherthal. Others settled in other neighboring places; but by
l?29 the wooden Lutheran Church in New York City had been so overcrowded by
Lutherans remaining in the city that its replacement was necessary. A hand-
some stone edifice was erected on the same plot and dedicated as Trinity Church.
Three years later, Dr. Christopher Berkenmeyer, who had succeeded Reverend
Falckner as pastor of the colony in 1723, found it necessary to divide his
large parish and relinquish the southern half, including New York City to his
sonuinwlaw, the Peverend Nichael Knoll.so In 1742 the northern parish 1"as agahi
divided, and another of Forkonmeyer's sons-in—lew, the Peverend Peter N} Somnau
became the new pastor. This family of ministers . . . Perkenmeyer, Knoll, and

ySommer . . . served the Lutheran congregations of New York Province during the
greater portion of the l8th century.51

German immigration, along with church-expansion and prosperity, brought a
'conflict to the Church in New York which long divided its energies . . . the
language controversy." The Germans among the Trinity Co