Dutch Letters 10/01/2020
It’s about Bibles!
NOTE: Donations to the Conewago cemetery fund should be mailed to: Low Dutch Cemeteries Improvement Fund
c/o Alan Weaner
145 Weaner Road
Gettysburg, PA 17325
email: arwcbw@gmail.com—————————————————————————————————
SENT BY: Marilyn Westerfield:
Charles Wright Westerfield, 79, of Louisville, Kentucky, passed away on Thursday, September 17, 2020. Charles is survived by his loving wife of 55 years, Marilyn Westerfield, and two sons, Charles Michael “Mike” Westerfield and Troy Joiner.
Visitation will be from 11:00 am to noon, Eastern standard time, on Wednesday, September 30, 2020 at Springdale Community Church, (4601 Springdale Ave.). His Funeral Service will follow at noon, with burial in Kentucky Veterans Cemetery Central (2501 North Dixie Blvd, Radcliff, KY 40241) at 2:00 pm, EST. The memorial service will NOT be live-streamed from the church, but will be recorded. Marilyn will post the hotlink on her Facebook page at a later date. The family requests that contributions in Charlie’s memory be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital (https://www.stjude.org/give/memorials-and-dedications.html), Samaritan’s Purse (https://www.samaritanspurse.org/) or Apple Patch Communities (his son’s group home) https://www.pillarsupport.org/mission. His business webpage: https://charliewesterfield.com/ Service: (Seating limited to 100 persons)Wednesday, September 30, 2020 at 12:00pmSpringdale Community Church 4601 Springdale Rd. Louisville, KY 40241 Interment:Kentucky Veterans Cemetery Central2501 North Dixie Blvd Radcliff, KY 40160
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SENT BY: King and Sharon Cole
I see Charlie’s photo on his webpage and I can hear his voice and his laughter. It is so hard to believe he is in the hospital fighting for his life. It seems impossible that our world has been hit with such a disease. We are praying for him and his family and asking God for healing. Thank you Carolyn for sending the newsletters.
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SENT BY: Dr. Ed Westerfield
We should all, only hope to have lived a life as full as Charlie’s. The gifts he gives us, in his knowledge and art, will last as long as there are descendants to remember him and his work. Thank you Charlie, for a life well lived.
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SENT BY: Mike Vandewoude
So sorry to hear that news. I learned from your email, Charlie and I had the same birthday. He was exactly one year older than me. I was born on April 17, 1942. God Bless to Charlie and his family.——————————————————————
SENT BY: Russell Gasero
Hi Carolyn, I am saddened with the loss of Charile and felt the need to offer my reflection on his life and work with the Dutch Cousins. While I only knew him a short time and for the short space of a couple of meeting days, he had made a strong impression. If you wish, please add the following reflection to the newsletter which expresses my feelings on Charlies’ life and witness (I have attached a Word file as well incase that is easier):
There are regrets in life. We all have them, and I have added one more—I did not spend enough time getting to know Charlie during the annual Dutch Cousins events. We had communicated via e-mail and telephone, but that was largely on planning worship at Old Mud and those parts of the annual gathering. The annual meetings left some time for short conversations, but most of my time at the last three gatherings was spending time watching—observing all the interactions among the cousins. As an introvert, I am quite content to watch—to see how everyone interacts and communicates. One of the joys of the last three meetings at which I was privileged to preach at Old Mud on Sunday was watching Charlie. If he was not taking pictures, he was getting ready for the next portion of the gathering or making plans to use his drone for a new type of group photo, and always smiling. There are people who are busy, and they march through life with side-blinders on so that no one can interrupt the task at hand. In my observations, this was never Charlie. He was always available, could change directions on the spot, and was interested! Those are the admirable people in our life—the ones who can make you feel good about yourself because they are not threatened with insecurity. They are the builders who are ready to help you succeed because your success does not diminish their own. Maria and I have enjoyed our time spent with all the cousins and their ready acceptance of us as honorary cousins—Maria is Greek, and I am everything else in the world. You adopted us as cousins and Charlie often was the focal point of that for me. Maria and I offer our condolences on the family loss, but we also celebrate the grace and presence of God as it has shown through Charlies’ life and work. I wanted to share this for two reasons: 1) I truly admired Charlie’s passion and joy in what he did. Many can accomplish a task or do a job well and then move on. To do it with passion means it is part of one’s life—an ownership that goes beyond just completion. One invests oneself in the work with that passion and it makes life so much more satisfying. When that passion is coupled with joy, then the life is utterly worth living because it touches others and brings them into the mix. How many times have you heard someone laugh heartily and soon others join in, and then most of the group is laughing as well? Joy is infectious and it binds us together into a community. Charlie excelled at that! 2) Charlies’ footprint has been added to all those who have traveled from those early times in Kentucky to the present. Your footprints as Dutch Cousins are also on that path and it is important to remember that the Cousins begin with the settlement (and even before) in Kentucky, but they travel on well beyond that. It is important to keep these memories and stories of the entire journey along that path that began in the eighteenth century. We mourn our loss and the emptiness which we feel now, but we rejoice in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection when we will be reunited together in the presence of our loving God. For this time, remember Charlie in the context of the heroes of the faith as expressed in the letter to the Hebrews: And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies….(Heb. 11:32-34)Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, (Heb. 12:1)
With my deepest condolences,Russell L. Gasero——————————————————————
SENT BY:Lilly Martin in Syria
I am so sad to hear of Charlie’s passing. I never met him, but felt I knew him. You and his family and friends will be very sad. This is the FIRST person I know who has died of Covid.The obit you wrote for him is fantastic. What a man. What a loss for his family and Dutch Cousins.
In Sympathy,
Lilly Martin —————————————————————————–
SENT BY: Tamara Fulkerson
FOR THE LETTERS
Dear Cousins,I have just returned from a very inspiring celebration of life memorial service for our beloved past president, Charlie Westerfield.Janice Cozine and I attended and as we spoke with Marilyn she let us know how much Charlie loved the Dutch Cousins. He thoroughly enjoyed the friendships he had made in our group.Marilyn and their son, Mike, truly were in easy spirits for they know they will see him again one day. Family and friends gave accounts of their relationship with him and will miss him dearly. One mentioned how they could see him up there telling a story to a group of smiling angels. We will also miss his wit, wisdom and of course those stories! I just wish he could send us a few photos of the Pearly Gates. Until we meet again Charlie, rest in peace.
Tamara Fulkerson
Dutch Cousins President 2020-2021
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SENT BY: Tamara Fulkerson.
Please respond directly to Tamara with any comments. tlwfulkerson@aol.com, or share them here.
FOR NEWSLETTER Hello Cousins!
We are a year out for our 2021 Dutch Cousins Gathering. Currently we are waiting on venue confirmation. Once we receive that we will be able to start moving ahead with concrete logistics and planning. Please talk to everyone you know about Dutch Cousins. Our goal is to have higher attendance at our gatherings. We hope to be able to attract more cousin participation by more people being directed to our website and then signing up for our newsletter. We currently have about 800 subscribers. Attached is a flyer that you may use to post on bulletin boards and forward in emails. (Thank you Cynthia Byxbee!) Please send this flyer to any genealogy group or history organization that you know of, asking for them to pass it on. With the current pandemic we are not quite sure what issues will surround our gathering next year. Pray that we will be able to meet. Hopefully everyone will be ready for a trip to Kentucky to break the cabin fever and enjoy each other’s company once again. All my best,Tamara Fulkerson—————————————————————————
Dutch Cousins President 2020-2021-
SENT BY: Hello Cousins!
On September 25th I participated in my second zoom meeting with the Dutch America Group. Mike Vande Woude of DAG was the moderator. Some of the representatives attending were from the Society of Daughters of Holland Dames, New Amsterdam Historical Center, Reformed Church Archives, and the New Netherland Institute. The NNI presented their flyer for the New Netherlands Research Center Dutch Bible Project. That flyer is attached, please forward to anyone you believe will be interested in helping. They are attempting to attain digital images of the documented history in old Dutch Bibles. They do not want to take away any family’s Bible. I promoted our web site and discussed our 2021 gathering plans, stating we are still waiting on venue confirmation. I asked for prayers for Charlie Westerfield and for Malcolm Banta’s recovery. I introduced to the group, a non-profit that I came across, www.biblerescue.org. Their mission is to return old found Bibles to the family descendants. As I closed my report I did let them know one last bit of news. I will become a first time grandmother to a baby girl in March 2021!!
Tamara Fulkerson
Dutch Cousins President 2020-2021——————————————————————
SENT BY: New Netherland Research Center Dutch Bible Project
The New Netherland Research Center, in cooperation with the New Netherland Institute, and with the assistance of the New York State Library, is launching an all-out effort to locate 17th century Dutch Bibles that may be in your cellar, attic, or you may have given to your local public library, historical society, or a museum These Bibles may contain information previously unknown. This Project is based on the premise that many Dutch families had a Bible in their possession. Not only were Bibles an edifying source of information for members of the Reformed Church, but they were often the only paper available to write on for most people.
In many cases, the blank pages in the front and back of the Bible or the pages in between the Old and New Testaments contain records not only of births, deaths, etc. but also records of unusual events such as earthquakes and heavy snow falls. It is the Project’s intention to extract this information from copies of the images we receive from you, translate the Dutch, and develop a finding aid for the information. This will then be available on the New Netherland Institute website https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/
So far, we have images of text on Bible pages from the collection at the New York State Library, the Albany Institute of History and Art, the Schenectady County Historical Society, and the Clifton Park Historical Society. If you have 17th century Dutch Bibles or know of such Bibles in any other location, we would be pleased to hear from you to discuss collaborating with you to obtain the information. Please contact Marilyn Douglas, President NNI at marilyn.douglas@nysed.gov
or call 518-408-1212 (Tues, Wed) to discuss the best way to take an image of the relevant pages, etc..
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SENT BY: Mr. Lynn Rogers
John Robert Smock(1807 Mercer Co KY – Johnson Co IN – 1869 Benton Co IA)&Mary Voorhies(1807 – 1892)Bible Family Records
Compiled by
Mr Lynn C. Rogers
lynncr@woh.rr.com
Revised yyyymmdd.hhmm = 20200917.1010
Dutch Cousinshttps://dutchcousins.org/Descendants of Kentucky Low Dutch Company
Harrodsburg Historical Societyhttps://harrodsburghistorical.org/Repository of much Kentucky Low Dutch Company recordsJefferson County Historical Society, Madison IN
http://www.jchshc.org/
John Robert Smock(1807 Mercer Co KY – Johnson Co IN – 1869 Benton Co IA)&Mary Voorhies(1807 – 1892)Bible Family Records
p.1
FAMILY RECORD
Births
John R. Smock was born May the 5 th A.D. 1807
Mary Voorhies was born May the 15 th A.D. 1807
James Thomas Smock was born September 22 nd A.D. 1830
Rachel Covert Smock was born April the 27 th A.D. 1832
Abram Brewer Smock was born August the 3 rd A.D. 1834
David Henry Smock was born October the 13 th A.D. 1836
Hannah Jane Smock was born November the 30 th A.D. 1838
Deaths
John Sydney died August 28 th 1844
David Henry Smock dec’d July 26 1851
George S. Covert died Nov 2 nd 1859
Emma Jane Covert died May 10 th 1862
p.2
FAMILY RECORD
Births
John Sydney Smock was born March 28 th A.D. 1841
Martha Ann Smock was born May 18 1845
Emma Jane Covert was born Dec 2 nd 1858
Kate Lagrange was born July 1, 1842
Deaths (NA)
p.3
FAMILY RECORD
Marriages
John R. Smock and Mary Voorhies was married September the 15 th A.D. 1829 by the Rev Jeremiah Hillis
James Thomas Smock and Margaret M. Greeg was married March 26 th 1856 by Rev P.S. Cleland
Rachel C. Smock was married to George S. Covert April 2 nd A.D. 1857 by Rev P.S. Cleland
Hannah Jane Smock was married to Wm T. Bogart November 18 th A.D. 1858 by Rev P.S. Cleland
Abram B. Smock was married to Kate Lagrange September 14 th 1859 by Rev P.S. Cleland
Martha Ann Smock was married to Wm H. Brewer January 25 th 1866 by the Rev P.S. Cleland
p.4
MARRIAGES
William C. Smock and Melissa A. Smock were married December 6 1860 by Rev A. C. Allen
Henry Schurmann and Eva Smock were married January 12 1881
Harry E. Smock and Harriet Walden Vananodal were married November 5 1911
Harry E. Smock died June 24 1914 – 3 am in Franklin Indiana (“died June 24 1914 – 3 am in Franklin Indiana” lined thru)
p.5
BIRTHS
William C. Smock was born December 3 rd 1838
Melissa A. Smock was born September 18 1844
Eva L. Smock was born December 21 1860
Laura Smock was born December 28 1863
Harry Smock was born January 12 1865
Infant son unnamed July 11 1867, died same day
Herbert A. Smock was born July 10 1868
William C. Smock Jr was born 26 February 1872
p.6
DEATHS
Laura Smock died January 12 1864
Unnamed son died July 11 1867
Herbert A. Smock died March 4 1889
William C. Smock Jr died August 12 1892
William C. Smock died April 23, 1910 at Indianapolis Ind.
Harry E. Smock died June 24 1904 in Franklin Ind.
Melissa A. Smock died Friday, July 12, 1918 at Franklin, Ind. (barely legible on the copy at ISL)
The above is a transcript of photocopies of six pages in the Smock Family folder in the Pamphlet Cabinets of the Genealogy Division, Indiana State Library, 315 W. Ohio St. Indianapolis IN, https://www.in.gov/library/genealogy.htm, 317-232-3689. The location of the original Bible is presently unknown.
Beginning with the info in the above transcript, and finding some additional info from the web, leads to the following: John Robert Smock (05 May 1807 Mercer Co KY – Johnson Co IN – 17 Feb 1869 Benton Co IA) m 12 Sep 1829 Johnson Co IN to Mary (Polly) Voorhies (15 May 1807 Mercer Co KY – 15 Sep 1892 Cherokee Co IA)
The parents of John Robert Smock are probably: James Smock (28 Sep 1783 Conewago, PA – 9 Feb 1830 Greenwood, IN) and Charity Brewer (3 SEP 1789 Mercer Co KY – 18 May 1860 Rochester, Fulton Co IN)
The parents of James Smock are probably: John Smock (03 Jun 1739 Somerset Co NJ – 01 Jul 1812 Mercer Co KY) and Sara Fonteyn (19 Apr 1741 Somerset Co NJ – 23 Jun 1818 Mercer Co KY————————————————————————
SENT BY: Lynn Rogers
Carolyn/Vince-
Sorry about Charlie, he was a great guy!
This is what I would combine into one PDF file and have it posted, if left to my own opinion. But, I would be delighted if you looked at the title page and gave me any suggestions you have. The rest is there for your viewing also, should you choose.
I am still trying to find original Abraham Bible, Monroe Co IN suggested Ellettsville History Museum, which I have messaged, but not received a reply. I do have images from photocopies, so I won’t wait forever.
Thanks, Lynn,
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