NEW PALTZ 287 



a pastor, they took their children to the Dutch church • 



at KiugstoD, sixteen miles away, to be baptized ; aud 



duriug the suniiiu-r mouths they were in the habit of 



taking: the rouirh ioiu'ney through the forest to join with umtingwith 



» o J J c3 x> ^jjg Dutch 



their Dutch brethren in receiving the communion. A 

 sixteen mile journey through the woods aud unbridged 

 streams was no luxury ; there were no spring wagons for 

 the women and children to ride in, and the trip had to be 

 made either a-foot or on horseback, for the highway of 

 that day was nothing more than a rude trail. 



The lack of sectarianism that prevailed in the New 

 Paltz community was clearly shown in the choice of their 

 next pastor, the Eev. Johannes Van Driessen, a minister • 

 of the Dutch faith who had been educated in Belgium. 

 The salary which he received was the munificent sum of 

 £10 a year, but it is highly probable that he devoted but 

 a small proportion of his time to the New Paltz congre- 

 gation. The first entries which he made in the chm^ch 

 book were in French, and in one place he refers to the 

 church as "our French church." This was in 1731. 

 Twenty years later, however, the New Paltz church had 

 ceased to be distinctively French, and we find the next 

 pastor, the Eev, B. Vrooman, making an inquiry as to 

 whether the members accepted the doctrines of the Dutch 

 Eeformed church according to the Heidelberg catechism. 

 Dutch was being more and more generally spoken in New 

 Paltz, aud an interesting evidence of its rapid growth in 

 popular use is found in a clause of Jean Tebenin's will 

 wherein the old schoolmaster gives his property to the 

 church with the provision that if the French language 

 should be entirely superseded, the Bible should be sold 

 and the proceeds given to the poor. 



Coincident with the founding of a church at New Paltz 

 was the founding of a school. Out of their scanty fortunes Education 

 these worthy pioneers set aside a sum sufficient to employ Appreciated 

 a schoolmaster. Jean Tebenin was the first to fill the 

 position, which he retained until 1700. Jean Cottin fol- 



