Three Rivers
Hudson~Mohawk~Schoharie
History From America's Most Famous Valleys

History of The OLD FORT HERKIMER CHURCH
German Flatts Reformed Church, 1723
By W. N. P. Dailey, D. D.
Published by the
St. Johnsville Enterprise and News
Lou D. MacWethy, editor
St. Johnsville, NY (Price 35 cents)

Thanks to Betty Hoagey for sending this for the web site!

Organized in 1723. Land given 1730 and 1773. Present edifice begun about 1730. A story of the Palatine people and their early struggles. Many names of first settlers. By Rev. W. N. P. Dailey, DD. Author of History of the Montgomery Classis, R.C.A.

The Staley Patent

Another large tract of land that was granted the Palatines was called the "Staley Patent," and consisted of 34,000 acres on the south side of the river, and lying just back of the Burnetsfield Patent. The Indian deed is dated Sept. 24, 1724, granted to "Rudolph Stekle, Jurch Bender and other distressed Palatines" and includes land on both sides of the river. When the Patent was finally granted the land was all on the south side, but the Patentees mentioned are Rudolph Staley and Johan Jost Herckheimer, junior, and the license was granted May 8, 1752. There were 16,000 acres of woodland in the tract. But the deal was not consummated so in another petition they asked for 34,000 acres and in the Indian deed of May, 18, 1754, they were granted 45,000 acres for 295 Spanish dollars which was then equivalent of 118 pounds of the current money of the Province ($295,000).

Remsen Deed

The Remsen deed, establishing the Glebe for the German Flatts church, from which the minister was to receive the rents, dated Sept. 18, 1765, is in the possession of the Herkimer County Historical Society. After the death of Peter Remsen, in an appeal to the Legislature of 1797, the legality of the Glebe rents by virtue of the transfer of the trust of the heirs of Peter Remsen, in an appeal to the Legislature of 1797, the legality of the Glebe rents by virtue of the transfer of the trust of the heirs of Peter Remsen, was reposed in the consistory of the German Flatts church. The heirs at the time were: Simon Remsen of Queens County, Abraham Brinckerhoff and Dorothy, his wife, and Sam Remsen, of New York City. It is not in the province of this history to go into detail in the matter of the trials and tribulations, the law suits and land sales, and a multitude of legal and land tangles that ensued from this glebe land trust. These are all followed out in the typed records of the churches, as revealed by the court records. The boundary line between the Vaughan Patent and the Staley Patent, the latter land lying to the north and west of the former, was so indefinite that when the dispute was settled finally, the German Flatts Church discovered that they had given a lease for eighty-six acres of land in the Vaughan Patent, which they believed belonged to Lot No. 47 of the Staley Patent. The church was forced to buy this land of the owners of the Vaughan Patent, in doing which liability were incurred that provoked certain law suits and in defense a goodly share of their own glebe was lost forever.