CHAPTER XV.
LOVER'S LANES AND PARSONAGE WEDDINGS.
Pages 131-137
[Page 131]
Sunday afternoon was the great time at the parsonage. All day there was an atmosphere of eager expectancy. Sometimes the Dominie was forewarned as to the need of his services, but often the young couples coming to be married at this time were wholly unexpected, except through past experience. Groups of young people would appear on pleasant Sunday afternoons, following one another, or meeting on the parsonage porch. All the roads which led to the Dominie's home were lover's lanes, and the couples who met each other riding in a chaise along the Albany road, or on the turnpike form Hudson, or walking through some leafy bridle-path, looked upon one another with interested eyes, the sympathy of kindred aims creating mutual recognition.
Here also, the Dominie's wife proved a god-mother [page 132] to many a young bride, with her wise counsel and motherly interest. The knowledge that ere they met the critical ordeal of the marriage ceremony, they would see the benign face of the Dominie's wife in its closely crimped cap, and her kindly eyes would look into theirs, and her helpful hands would come to their aid, smoothing rumpled finery, heartening the timid, rejoicing with the dominant note of happiness in the blushing brides and waiting grooms, made the path to the marriage alter a less awesome experience, than it might otherwise have been.
As many as six couples were often joined in wedlock on one Sunday afternoon, and one is not surprised that the old Dutch hymn book and liturgy bound together, should show its marriage and baptism pages deeply yellowed through much use, with here and there a torn corner of a leaf neatly sewn in place. A small marriage fee was required by law, but was not always forthcoming. The story of a young sailor who brought his sweetheart to be married at the parsonage, immediately before sailing for a distant port, suggest that the Dominie and his wife as the connecting bond in the life happiness of many, were remembered in the [page 133] days of prosperity. The young sailor is said to have remarked, that at that time his only riches lay in his bride, but when he came back from his voyage he would remember the Dominie and his wife, which promise he faithfully kept, bringing them a barrel of oranges on his return.
These festal occasions also had their thrilling episodes. Parental authority was exercised strictly even over marriage contracts, resulting many times in run-away matches. There were rooms in some of he Claverack houses, which had seen a fair damsel imprisoned on bread and water, until she had consented to the choice of a husband, made by her father and mother. This form of selection of a life companion did not always remain unchanged after the imprisonment was over, as was probably the case with the young woman who fled precipitantly from the parsonage door, after coming to be married, exclaiming hotly as she sprang into her chaise and drove away, that "she would never marry that man." There has also come down the decided remark of an independent young woman of the period, commenting on a fair prisoner who had yielded her own wishes after such [page 134] a course of persuasion. "P------ was a goose. The could have locked me up till doomsday before I would have married John Smith, or John anything else, when I wanted Jeremiah."
It was a time of gift giving and receiving. The country and city exchanged their mutual luxuries, and tropical fruits from Jamaica, Canton-ware from China, and Staffordshire from England traveled over the seas, as did also beautiful mahogany furniture and tapestries from France, and many other articles of value from distant ports. The town of Hudson, four miles distant, being the head of navigation at this time, brought a wealth of foreign luxuries and conveniences into the lives of the people.
It was customary to order sets of fine porcelain from China, decorated with a center piece of ermine drapery, on the foreground of which was a shield bearing the owner's initials or family crest. Governor Morris, whose son had been one of Dominie Gebhard's pupils at the parsonage, ordered on one of these voyages a set of fine china of three hundred pieces, with a border in deep blue, starred with gold, and decorated with the ermine and the initials J. G. G. in a shield [page 135] upon each piece. These he presented to Dominie Gebhard, in grateful recognition of his kindness to his son. A large proportion of this set of china is still in existence, and one can fancy it adorning the parsonage table on festival occasions, and the pride of the Dominie's wife as dainty tea-pot and helmet pitcher, egg shell tea-cups, and blue and gold-edged plates, decorated her board, with a background of snow-white linen, for whose spinning and weaving and bleaching she was famous.
There were apple-paring bees and quiltings, sleigh-ride parties and weddings in the country, but even the minister's family sometimes looks with envious eyes upon the gayeties of the world's people. There is a story of Charlotte's going to spend a night with some friends in Hudson, where she found an opportunity to attend on of the Assemblies. These were scenes of much life and gayety, also the opportunity for the display of most fascinating costumes in the fashions of the day. The young Patroon found the Dominie's daughter additionally charming in this new light, not suspecting that part of the sparkle in her hazel eyes, came from the excitement of the stolen pleasure. [page 136] When he called the next day at the parsonage, prepared to rehearse the joys of the previous evening, the secret came out, and Charlotte attended no more Assemblies, in Hudson at least, though Philadelphia seems to have afforded an outlet in many ways for the parsonage young people.
The young Patroon appears on the scene again, with a request to the Dominie that his fleet-footed son Lewis might be allowed to compete with some young Yankees in a New England town in the vicinity, where races were to be run on General Training Day. Lewis had already made this request and been refused, as the Dominie did not consider it a sport befitting the minister's son, but the young Patroon pleaded well, pointing out that it would not do to let their Yankee neighbors feel that they could outstrip the students of Washington Seminary, when they knew that they had the swiftest man in a race the country round. The Dominie yielded through the pressure brought to bear on him, and Lewis and the young Patroon went to the race, accompanied no doubt by such students as stood for the athletics of the day. They returned footsore and weary, but jubilant, for the medium-sized, [page 137] slightly-built, swift-footed German youth, had far out-stripped the long-limbed, boastful Yankee, and they felt that Washington Seminary had won her laurels. It was thought at the time that the Dominie evinced all the pride in his son and the Seminary, compatible with his position.
The fleetness of foot of the youthful Lewis remained to his life's end. When he died in 1875, aged eighty-three, he was the oldest practicing physician in Philadelphia, and a man whose light tread and skillful fingers were renowned in the sick-rooms of the Quaker city. It was his deft fingers in 1808, which made a pen-picture of the church, parsonage, and Washington Seminary, as they then stood, which is the source of our knowledge of them to-day. The boyish training of eye, and foot, and finger served him well in after life.
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