New Paltz Conferentie Church (“Owl Church”) Records
(1766-1772, 1787)

Finding Aid completed by Beth Patkus, 2024


Inclusive Dates: 1766-1787
Bulk Dates: 1766-1772
Volume: 0.5 cu. ft. (plus one bound volume at the Reformed Church of New Paltz)
Collection ID: MSS.151
Language: Dutch, English
Acquisition: Unknown
Access and Use: Unrestricted. Request for permission to publish materials from these records should be directed to the Archivist/Librarian at Historic Huguenot Street
Digital Access: Digitized in 2024, hosted online at New York Heritage. See links in Folder/Item list below.


Administrative History 

The New Paltz Conferentie Church (known colloquially as the “Owl Church”) was the second Dutch Reformed Church established in New Paltz, NY. In August 1767, a group composed largely of members from the first Dutch Reformed Church formed a new church, having already constructed a church building in late 1766. This separation from the first church occurred in the context of the larger Coetus/Conferentie dispute within the Dutch Reformed churches in America, detailed below. The Conferentie Church reunited with the first Reformed Church of New Paltz in 1783.

The First Reformed Church of New Paltz and the Dutch Reformed Church in America

In 1677 twelve French-speaking Protestant men from what is now northern France and Belgium (then the Spanish Netherlands) signed a land agreement with the Indigenous Esopus people, agreeing to exchange European goods for permission to reside on approximately 40,000 acres of land that would become New Paltz and surrounding towns. Founded in 1683, the Reformed Church was the first place of worship in New Paltz.

The Dutch Reformed Church in America was founded in New Amsterdam (now New York City) in 1628, more than 50 years prior to the establishment of the New Paltz Reformed church. While some French-speaking Calvinists from the Spanish Netherlands (called Walloons) were part of the first group to settle New Netherland in the late 1620s, the group of Walloons who would settle New Paltz emigrated later, in the 1650s and 60s, first to Mannheim in the Palatinate in Germany and then to New Netherland.

In its early years, the New Paltz church considered itself an independent Walloon/French Reformed congregation rather than a congregation of the established Dutch Reformed Church. [1] It was served by French-speaking ministers Pierre Daille until 1692 and David de Bonrepos (who had previously served the French Reformed Church in New Rochelle) from about 1695 to 1702. They visited New Paltz only occasionally, so most of the time church elders and deacons read printed sermons in French during worship.

From 1702 until about 1731, the church had no minister, but Sunday services continued. A stone church was built in 1717, indicating the importance of local worship to the community. Church members traveled to the Dutch Reformed Church in Kingston as needed to receive the sacraments. In 1731 the church called Rev. Johannes van Driessen to preach and offer the sacraments a few times per year. In 1751 under Rev. Johannes Henricus Goetschius, the congregation decided to become part of the Dutch Reformed Church. In August 1753 they called Rev. Barent Vrooman as their pastor and formally recorded their declaration of acceptance of the teachings of the Dutch Reformed Church. Between 1751 and 1754, ninety-six new members joined the New Paltz church.

Given the French Protestant origins of the early inhabitants of New Paltz, worship and record-keeping were in the French language for the first fifty years of the congregation, gradually transitioning to Dutch, with English being adopted around 1800. At the time of the establishment of the Conferentie Church in 1766, written records and worship were mostly in Dutch.

See the finding aid for the New Paltz Reformed Church for a more detailed history of the first church.

The Coetus/Conferentie Dispute

The Reformed churches in the colony of New Netherland were subject to the Classis of Amsterdam of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Netherlands. This was a regional church governing body within which the West India Company, which administered the colony until 1664, was located. Once the colony was taken over by the British, an effort was made to impose the Church of England on the inhabitants, but with limited success; the Dutch Reformed Church remained dominant.

In the early decades of the 18th century, some Dutch Reformed ministers (dominie) in America advocated for an American governing body to support the churches in the colonies. This would address the shortage of clergy (ministers could be educated and ordained in America rather than sending them to Amsterdam), as well as the challenges of long-distance communication that made it difficult for the Classis to assist congregations and resolve ecclesiastical issues. Other more traditionalist dominie opposed this, fearing both that the intention was to be completely independent and that more evangelical, pietistic American ministers might bring theological change.

In 1739, the Classis created an American “Coetus,” which was an assembly of minsters and elders from various congregations that could deliberate but had very limited authority to act. By 1754 some American dominie were urging transformation of the Coetus into an American Classis that could examine and ordain ministers and establish a college to educate them. In 1755 this group gained control of the Coetus, considering themselves independent, while the opposition group came together as the “Conferentie” (little conference). A meeting of the Coetus and Conferentie groups in New York in June 1763 resulted in the Conferentie formally organizing as an assembly subject to the Classis.

Churches and ministers took sides, and the dispute caused much upheaval in American Reformed churches over the next decade, including in New Paltz. The dispute was settled on the national level in 1771, when a gathering of ministers and elders was held in New York City and a plan to unify the two groups was approved, finally creating an American governing body. The Reformed Church in America became an independent denomination in 1792.

The Coetus-Conferentie Dispute in New Paltz [2]

Kenneth Shefsiek argues that in New Paltz, the Coetus-Conferentie dispute was less about the Conferentie group’s stated desire to remain subordinate to the Classis of Amsterdam and more about the desire of conservative members of the community to preserve their Dutch culture against the increasingly predominant English culture. [3] Motivations were likely complex, but the timeline of the Coetus-Conferentie dispute in New Paltz is clear.

In 1760, the New Paltz church called Johannes Mauritius Goetschius (younger brother of their former pastor Johannes Henricus Goetschius) as its pastor; he would remain there until his death in 1771. Mauritius Goetschius had been ordained in 1757 by the Coetus without the approval of the Classis, so he and the majority of the New Paltz congregation took the side of the Coetus in the dispute.

However, a small group led by Hendricus DuBois did not agree. In the summer of 1765 Hendricus was called three times to appear before the New Paltz consistory, accused of “Sedition and schism” (see Related Collections below for links to the letters sent to Hendricus by the consistory). He refused to appear and in August 1765 church records show that he was censured.

In August 1766, Hendricus, along with members of the Elting, Low, Van Wagenen, Van Vliet, Ean and Auchmody families (many of them related to Hendricus directly or by marriage) met to pledge funds to build a new church on Libertyville Road in New Paltz. It was built on land owned by Noah Elting called the “Great Piece” on the west side of the Wallkill River, south of the village. Hendricus DuBois, Josiah Elting, and Noah Elting were elected churchmasters, and they appointed Philip DuBois to oversee the building of the church. They also purchased a book (now part of this collection) for recording detailed accounts of the subscriptions for the building and of its construction. The Conferentie Church was completed by December of 1766 and was colloquially known as the “Owl Church,” perhaps due to the owls that frequented the area. The church was a frame building 30 feet square with a shingle roof. The interior was plastered with clay, and large enough to allow a gallery to be built if needed.

The new church did not yet have a minister, but on August 29, 1767 it was officially organized and approved at a meeting held at the home of Hendricus DuBois. Domine Isaac Rysdyk, Conferentie pastor of the Poughkeepsie and Fishkill churches, his consistory, and five members of the Kingston Reformed Church who lived in New Paltz (Josiah Elting, Noah Elting, Petrus Van Wagenen, Jacob DuBois, and Dirk D. Wynkoop) were part of the group. An August 3, 1767 letter from the Kingston consistory dismissed the five members on the condition that a new church loyal to the Classis of Amsterdam was formed in New Paltz. The attendees stated they could not consider the existing New Paltz Reformed Church lawful, since it was loyal to the Coetus rather than the Classis. The Kingston members also noted that they lived too far away to properly attend worship and educate their children in Kingston.

The New Paltz Conferentie congregation was always small, but it continued even after 1771 when the unification conference in New York City ended the Coetus/Conferentie dispute within the American church. The first Reformed Church of New Paltz sent Johannes Hardenbergh as its delegate to the conference and its consistory approved the unification, but the Conferentie Church did not send a delegate.

Between 1767 and 1774, baptisms, marriages, and consistory meetings at the Conferentie Church were conducted either by Domine Rysdyk or by Domine Gerhard Daniel Cock, Conferentie pastor at Rhinebeck and Camp. In 1774 the Conferentie Church called Ryner Van Nest as its first and only pastor, shared with the Shawangunk Conferentie Church. In the later 1770s, members gradually began to move back to the original congregation. Hendricus DuBois died in 1780 and in 1783 the two churches reunited. The “Owl Church” register shows that during its almost 20 years of existence, 60 baptisms and 2 marriages were recorded, and a total of 35 members joined the church. On May 25, 1783, 19 of them rejoined the first Reformed Church, marking the end of the Conferentie Church.


Collection Description 

This finding aid covers the Conferentie Church of New Paltz (also called the Owl Church) records housed at Historic Huguenot Street (HHS) and the Reformed Church of New Paltz (RCNP), contained primarily in two bound record books. MSS.151 at HHS is a bound account book documenting the building of the Conferentie Church, and also includes one loose item documenting the acquisition of the land on which the church was built. The record book held at RCNP (also described in the RCNP finding aid) was maintained by the Conferentie Church to document the life of the church, and was most likely returned to RCNP when the two churches reunited in 1783.

Types of records fall into several categories: vital records (memberships/baptisms/marriages); consistory records; ministerial records; and records of church construction and pew sales. All items in this collection have been digitized as part of the NEH-funded 2021-2024 New Paltz Historic Documents digitization project (see www.newpaltzhistory.org). Direct links are provided in the Folder/Item list below.

Translations from both the account book and the church register can be found in Dingman Versteeg’s Records of the Reformed Dutch Church of New Paltz, NY. [4] Specific references to pages in Versteeg are provided in the Folder/Item listing below. Researchers should be aware that the translations in Versteeg are in chronological order rather than in their original order in the registers, and some Dutch material in the original registers may not have been included. Versteeg also refers to the Conferentie Church Register as ‘Volume 4” of the RCNP church records. His table of contents lists translations relating to the Conferentie Church.

Vital Records

Baptisms for the Conferentie Church are included in the Conferentie Church register at RCNP, dating from August 1767 to June 1779. Two marriages dating from 1768 and 1769 also appear in that register. Members of the Conferentie Church are listed from its founding in 1767 to 1783 when it rejoined the First Church. No death records are found in the register.

Consistory Records

In the Reformed Church tradition, the local church is governed by a consistory made up of elders, deacons and ministers. The Conferentie Church register at RCNP includes consistory records in Dutch dating from 1768 to 1776. Consistory minutes primarily document elections of elders and deacons, but may also record other events. The Conferentie register begins with a detailed account of the 1767 meeting that officially founded the church, including a copy of the letter from the Kingston church releasing its five members to the new church.

Ministerial Records

A copy of the 1774 call of Reyner Van Nest to serve the New Paltz and Shawangunk Conferentie Churches, both loyal to the Classis of Amsterdam, is included at the end of the Conferentie Church register at RCNP. The names of the other pastors who assisted the church prior to its calling a pastor are found in the vital and consistory records.

Church Building

The building of the Conferentie Church in 1766 is extensively documented in the account book held by HHS. The book includes the initial subscriptions raising money for the building; an introductory section listing policies and procedures to be followed during the building process; credit/debit records (1766-1770) for the individual subscribers, many of whom provided “in-kind” services; and a detailed listing of pew sales dated 1770. Two pages in English at the end of the book are dated 1787 and contain accounts related to dismantling the church, selling the materials, and compensating the original subscribers. Two loose pages in Dutch (untranslated) are also included at the end of the digital object.


Related Collections at HHS and other Repositories

  • Reformed Church of New Paltz Records (1683-1895). MSS.065 at HHS and additional records housed at RCNP. In addition to the Conferentie Church Register described in this finding aid, a few records definitely or likely relating to the Coetus/Conferentie dispute appear in other registers and loose documents in the RCNP Records. These include:

  • Hendricus DuBois Family Papers. MSS.010. Contains three letters from Rev. Joh. Mauritius Goetschius to Hendricus DuBois, requiring him to appear before the Consistory of New Paltz, accused of “Sedition and schism.” Hendricus DuBois was one of the founders of the Conferentie Church in New Paltz.

Folder/Item List

Digital page numbers below refer to the page(s) within the digital object in New Paltz Historic Documents.

“Versteeg” page numbers refer to Versteeg, Dingman (trans.), Records of the Reformed Dutch Church of New Paltz, NY (Baltimore:
Genealogical Publishing Co., 1977; originally published as Vol. III of Collections of the Holland Society of New York, 1896).

ITEMS AT HISTORIC HUGUENOT STREET
Digitized as part of the New Paltz Historic Documents Project, 2021-24

MSS.051.000.001 (item) Conferentie Church (Owl Church) Account Book (1766-1772, 1787). Dutch and English.

Digital page #

1-4 Written policies and procedures (for subscriptions, electing church masters, overseeing construction, keeping accounts, and selling pews)
Assigns Philip DuBois as overseer of construction. V: 20-22.

5-7 List of original subscribers and progress of construction. V: 22-23.

8-10 Sale of church pews and listings of subsequent church masters. V: 23-25.
11-28 Credits and debits to church masters and subscribers, plus some miscellaneous entries. V: 25-34.

29-38 Blank pages.

39-40 Accounts in English relating to the dismantling of the church building.

41 Blank page.

42-43 Loose pages in Dutch (untranslated).

MSS.051.000.002 (item) Bond, Noah Elting to Hendricus Dubois, Josia Eltinge, Petrus Vanwagone, Salomon Louw, and Roelof Josias Eltinge, August 29, 1766.
For land for the New Paltz Conferentie Church.

ITEMS AT REFORMED CHURCH OF NEW PALTZ
Digitized as part of the New Paltz Historic Documents Project, 2021-24

RCNP 003.006 (item) Conferentie Church (Owl Church) Register (1767-1783) [known as “Church Register, Volume 4”]

Digital page #

4-8 Copy, account of the founding of the Conferentie Church (Second Church) in New Paltz, August 1767, in Dutch. V: 7-9.

8-9 Letter from Kingston Consistory, August 3, 1767, in Dutch. Relating to five members in the group that founded the Conferentie Church. V: 6

10-16 Consistory minutes of the Conferentie Church, 1768-1776. V: 71-73

17 Blank page

18-22 Conferentie Church baptisms August 30, 1767 – June 27, 1779. V: 113-117

24 Conferentie Church marriages (2 entries) November 1768 and August 1769. V: 82

26-27 Conferentie Church members 1767-1783. V: 79-80

29-32 Call of Ryner van Nest to the Conferentie churches of Shawangunk and New Paltz, 1774, in Dutch (copy). V: 13-16

Notes

[1] Kenneth Shefsiek. Set in Stone: Creating and Commemorating a Hudson Valley Culture (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2017), 143.

[2] Information about the history of the Conferentie Church was gathered from translations/transcriptions of the original records found in Dingman Versteeg (trans.), Records of the Reformed Dutch Church of New Paltz, NY (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1977; originally published as Vol. III of Collections of the Holland Society of New York, 1896). Additional information was gathered from Shefsiek, Set in Stone (2017) and from Ralph LeFevre, History of New Paltz and Its Old Families, second ed. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1973; originally published Albany, 1909), 148-151.

[3] Shefsiek, Set in Stone, 159-165.

[4] Versteeg, Records of the Reformed Church of New Paltz, NY, iii.