CHAPTER XXV.

CALLING AN ENGLISH COLLEAGUE.

Pages  229-235

[Page 229]     

     Many changes had gone over the wide reach of Dominie Gebhard's pastorate since the beginning of his ministerial service in Claverack, not the least of which had been the slow but sure alteration in the prevailing language.  At the start it had been necessary for him to become proficient in a tongue not his own, and at least partially unfamiliar, that he might preach acceptably to his people, the majority of whom were of Low-Dutch or Holland origin.

     At the end of forty years, the Dutch language was falling into disuse, except among the older portion of the congregation, who were still strongly attached to their mother tongue.  The influence of Washington Seminary in their midst, which had trained a generation of English-speaking men and women, the close contact with the Nantucket settlers of Hudson, as well as the going and coming of the citizens of the [page 230] large cities, where English had in a great measure superseded other languages, had all borne their part in effecting a change more perceptible each year.  It was apparent that the younger part of the congregation had become Americanized, and was beginning to feel impatient of a language almost obsolete, and which they only partially understood.

     That Dominie Gebhard, long the shepherd of this flock, understood and co-operated in the desire of the younger members for a colleague who could preach and perform his pastoral duties in English, is apparent from a letter written by him as the President of Consistory, to the Rev. Richard Sluyter, inviting him to preach in the church of Claverack in September, 1815, to which he added this sentence, "It may be an advantage to you finally."

     It was also at this time that the church of Claverack came under the care of the Classis of Rensselaer and the Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church, having existed previous to this date as an independent body.  Quoting again from a letter from Dominie Gebhard to Mr. Slyter, "All efforts which have hitherto been made to bring this congregation under the [page 231] Classis have proved abortive; but this is the first and most favorable opportunity to effect that purpose.  The present Consistory are not averse to it.  I am confident that the high opinion which the whole congregation entertains of your person and talents, will readily overcome the caprice of a few individuals.  This circumstance is another argument in our behalf, to give our call a favorable consideration, and finally to accept it.  You alone will then be entitled to the merit of having brought this congregation under the Classis.  May the Lord incline your heart to see the necessity of bestowing your labors in this vineyard among us."

     The call was finally accepted by Mr. Sluyter, with the stipulation that he should preach "three-fourths of the Sabbaths of each and every year in the Reformed Dutch Church of Claverack," and that the other "fourth of the Sabbaths" be given to Hillsdale, which united in the call, and later another "fourth" was given to the church of Ghent.  About this time it was estimated that Claverack alone numbered five hundred families.

     As an addition to a "resolution to call an English speaking colleague to assist Dominie Gebhard," there [page 232] went on record one sentence, which stands boldly forth for the unalterable attachment of the older element in the congregation to the customs of their youth, and the tongue of the home-land.  "The Dutch call shall remain unaltered, integer, as it now stands."

     With this change the more active labors of the church devolved on Mr. Sluyter, but preaching every fourth Sunday, and often the second also, visiting the Dutch-speaking members, baptizing the children, marrying the young people, visiting the sick, and occasionally administering the Sacrament, went on with the senior pastor as before, while the more strenuous labors of the pastorate, its new endeavors the work of the outlying districts especially of a revival nature, fell to the charge of the younger minister.

     Life had begun to pour some of its fruits into Dominie Gebhard's hands.  His eldest son, General Jacob Gebhard, one of the first attorneys of Schoharie County, had served several terms as Senator of his State.  Also following his father's example, he with nine other men interested in educational advancement, formed themselves into a body corporate for the establishment of Schoharie Academy.

     Honorable John Gebhard, a younger son, was the first Surrogate of Schoharie County, and late was elected a member of the Seventeenth Congress from the same section.  This Congress has been perpetuated in a unique and wholly personal fashion, the portraits of the entire Congress having been painted by Professor Samuel F. B. Morse, later of telegraph fame.  Both General Gebhard and his brother John, were men of large political influence, an unusual feature of their public life being their leadership of two opposite political parties.  To the Schoharie branch of the Gebhard family our State owes its first geological survey, as well as the earliest classification of its native flora.

      Two younger sons, Dr. Lewis Gebhard and Dr. John Gabriel Gebhard were at this time practicing medicine in Philadelphia and troy.

     Sorrow had visited the absent members of the family, and the parsonage was once more full of children.  In the year following the death of the Dominie's young son Charles, his elder son Philip, a prominent lawyer of Catskill, had died, leaving a wife and three young children.  Charlotte, for many years the Dominie's only daughter, was also a widow with three [page 234] children, and their grandfather and grandmother opened the doors of the old parsonage to the widow and the orphan.  For a time the parsonage once more rang with childish voices, and the grandmother made olekoeks, and rocked the grandchildren in the twilight, singing the old Dutch songs again to the little ones as she had sung them to her own children, while in the long hours of sunlight she taught the girls to spin, and weave, and bleach linen, to sew in finest stitches, and to make the rich preserves, and candied and dried fruits, for which the Dutch were famous.

     One of these grandchildren, William H. Davis, in his old age, remembered weeding the beans in the parsonage garden in his childhood, and passing up bricks to the masons who were building the vestibules and new steeple to the old church.  Another of these boyish recollections paints a picture peculiar to its day and generation.

     Monday was the minister's rest day, then as now.  Whether it was the Dutch Dominie's blue day in the usual significance, it was surely so in a peculiar sense.  By this time there were ministers settled in many of the outlying districts, which had been only preaching [page 235] stations in the early days.  Many of these men were of Dutch or German extraction, with the music-loving, pipe-smoking tastes and customs of their race.  On Monday morning the roads to the Claverack parsonage saw different ministers' gigs, or at times only a Dominie on horseback, drawing toward one center.  When they had all gathered in Dominie Gebhard's living room, and the air was blue with smoke, they turned the occasion into a musical symposium as well, as they took their turns at the little German piano, playing favorite tunes or long remembered melodies of the home-land.  It is not quite our modern idea of a minister's club, but if theology were given a second place in these Monday morning ministerial assemblies, at least they were a homeopathic remedy for a minister's blue Monday.