William Elliot Griffis

“ These modern Pilgrim Fathers and their families constitute nearly one third of the Reformed Church in America, while the “Christian Reformed” people also thrive and do a noble work in developing the Republic. Perhaps the greatest concentration of modern Netherlanders and their descendants is in Grand Rapids, the “furniture capital” of the United States. They are, however, numerous in Chicago, all over Michigan, in Iowa, Dakota, at Paterson, New Jersey, and in a few other places. Possibly a million Netherlanders, in character above reproach, since the forties, have come to the United States. ”

“ Between 1768 and 1800, New Jersey Dutchmen, from Bergen and Somerset counties, moved westward in a caravan of one hundred and fifty families and seven hundred souls to Conewago and Hanover, near the battlefield of Gettysburg. There they built churches and made farms. Thence, with the restless pioneer spirit, two lines of settlers moved, the one to the Genesee Country, and the other to Kentucky. In the New York lake region, Dutch churches rose at Sempronius, Ovid, Varna, Benton, Owasco, Brookton, Farmer, Geneva, and other places, and were fed for a while by streams of emigration. ”

“ When the debt of the United States was paid to the Dutch bankers, who had made the loan of millions of dollars to help us, the recipients preferred to keep their money invested in America. The Holland Land Company was formed by Amsterdam capitalists, and nearly four million acres were bought in New York and Pennsylvania, and opened to settlers on easy terms. On the map of New York suggestive Dutch names, such as Tromp, Barneveld, Linklaen, Scriba, Busti, Cazenovia, de Ruyter, Holland Patent, and Batavia, tell the story of pioneer activity in the days of the Batavian Republic. ”

“ Simeon de Witt, Surveyor-General of New York StateIn the world’s broad harvest field, and for the uplift of humanity in other lands, the Americans of Dutch descent have wrought nobly. The Dutch were the first to study the religions, languages, and civilizations of the Far East, and the Netherlands Reformed Church was for a time the missionary agent of all Protestant Europe. ”

“ As is the rule with the faithful toilers for man, the best results for the race begin after the death of the toilers. In our day the schools, hospitals, and churches of American Dutchmen are maintained by a noble force of highly educated men and women in India, China, Japan, and Arabia. ”

“ It comprises about half a million people in seven hundred congregations, chiefly in eastern New York and northern New Jersey, in the Hudson, Mohawk, and Raritan valleys, and in Michigan, Iowa, and Nebraska, with its chief seats of education at New Brunswick, New Jersey, and Holland, Michigan.
Reviewing the history of the Church from 1628 to 1792, we note the successive steps: (1) emigration from Holland (1628-64) ; (2) resistance to English attempts to establish the church of a small minority upon a vast majority (1664-1708) ”