Letters 10/24/2019 The Wonderful Weekend in KY

What a wonderful weekend with cousins!

The  names on the back of the T-shirts this year were popular:

Feel free to share these items, just credit DUTCH LETTERS (date), free genealogy round robin published by Carolyn Leonard. Anyone who wishes to be added to the mailing list, send an email to me at Editor234@gmail.com and say they would like to be on the list – and let us know their Dutch connection and contact info. Please send any pertinent info to be included in the next Letter. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, I’ll be lost, confused and probably lose sleep at night. I mean, really. I will feel like I have failed somehow. But if you really feel that way, please email  Editor234@gmail.com and say, “remove me” — and I will do so immediately! (You can click the return link to MailChimp, but if they remove you  I can’t put you back on – even if you beg, They won’t allow it unless you have a different email address.) I promise we do not share our mailing list with anyone, and do not publish email addresses on the list because of possible scammers.
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SENT BY: Carolyn Leonard

Our Dutch Cousins MISSION STATEMENT
 
We are descendants of the Low Dutch who settled New Amsterdam, moved to New Jersey, migrated to near Gettysburg, and made history when they later populated the frontier.  Our Dutch Kentucky Cousins’s goal is to research, share, and preserve the genealogy and history of our common Low Dutch heritage, including but not limited to, the restoration and preservation of the old Mud Meetinghouse built by our ancestors in the early 1800s near Harrodsburg, KY.  We meet every two years to renew our love for each other.  Our mission is to honor the memory of these ancestors and enjoy the friendship of cousins, both newly- discovered and long-loved.
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SENT BY:  Louisville Genealogical Society
I am on the board of the Louisville Genealogical Society. I would like to know if you have any members of your Low Dutch Cousins Society who live here in Louisville and who are knowledgeable regarding the Dutch immigration to this state. I think my folks would like to hear the history and genealogy of those Dutch New Englanders who moved to Kentucky; their names; notables among them; achievements; where they settled and descendants who might still reside here. 

Unfortunately, our program budget cannot bear the cost for someone to come from out of state. Do you have a recommendation of a member who lives here who would be capable of making an interesting 40 to 50-minute presentation about your group and its Kentucky connections?

Thanks for your consideration.
Mel Arnold, PhD
Louisville Genealogical Society

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SENT BY:  Greg Barnard (inre:  The Banta/Demott/Cove Spring Cemetery)
Don Alford has cleared about half of the Banta Demott Cemetery. Will have the rest cleared by year-end. He has bought into it. He has done a lot of it himself and is proud of his work. Do not know if I will need $ from any Cousins but still have to go to Kentucky Heritage Council for Pioneer Cemetery designation when it is totally cleaned up. Do not think it will be too expensive. Regardless, I will need your expert advice as usual in the future. Hope you are doing well. Do you have the email for the Demott cousin from Pa. that you introduced me to? A nice lady. Would like to let her know about the cem also.
Greg
NOTE FROM CAROLYN: I’ll be doing a special Dutch Letters with photos of this cemetery and a list of known burials soon)

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SENT BY: Beverly DeMotte Santella (in reply to Greg)
I have been busy doing many things but one of the most interesting is digging up some more DeMotte genealogy history. Going back via Lawrence DeMotte’s wife’s line, Dorothy Vanderbeek DeMotte, has revealed some really interesting stuff. Two of her/my/your ever so great grandparents J. Rapalje and J. Cortelyou from the 1600’s directly established Brooklyn and New Utrecht respectively, 2 of the original 5 Dutch towns on Long Island. I found an article from the 1800’s that states Cat. Rapalje, Joris Rapalje’s wife, is considered a founding mother of our nation. These are just some of the findings. Fascinating stuff.  

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SENT BY: Maria Neal (in re:  VAN NUYS)
Good afternoon – We are one of countless families descended from an early settler (1650’s) named Van Nuys. I believe he’s Aucke Janse Van Nuys, but I don’t have the records at work.

He sailed from Holland and settled in New Amsterdam, Flatbush area. He and his descendants are documented a number of different ways throughout American history, but I’m not sure if our branch of the Van Nuys family lived in Kentucky.

Another branch of our family helped survey and pioneered in early days of Kentucky, but that ancestry was Scots-Irish.

Since Indiana is a neighboring state, and we have info about various ancestors who lived in Kentucky, would we be welcome to join you and your group sometime?

I don’t see a new date for a cousin’s gathering posted on your web site. Hope you are well.

Thanks. It was fun reading about your group!

Sincerely,

Marina Neal

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SENT BY: Charlie Westerfield, Past president and photographer
Anyone who wants to send him $10 he will send them a disk with the photos. It is almost 400 photos and enormous file, too big to email.

(NOTE FROM CAROLYN: Pam Ellingson and I are hoping to find a way to park the photos on the Dutch Cousins webpage, we hope soon. I’m trying to catch up and get back in the groove after the wonderful gathering. Pam is still trying to catch up after the DC gathering and a 3 week trip to Wales, Southwest England and Germany. —I’m jealous of her trip!)

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SENT BY: Laurel Auchampaugh, Ambassadors to Kentucky from New York

My daughter Lynne and I drove to Frankfort Kentucky to meet up with our Cosine cousins, all 23 of them on September 12 – 16. We were descendants of Rev. Cornelius Cosine, the first minister of the Dutch Reformed Church of Conewago. The event was called “The Low Dutch Cousins Gathering.” We also planned to represent other Owasco pioneer families who had relatives travel to Daniel Boones Territory by wagon train in 1780. They were the brothers, sisters and cousins of our Owasco pioneers.  They left their relatives in Conewago Pennsylvania to become settlers in the wilderness and safety of forts and stations along the Ohio River. 

There were constant Indian raids from several tribes including the capture of helpless girls and young men who were sold into bondage causing stress for all. The settlers feared taking the Indian trails where they were surrounded and killed by Indians. The Indians waited in the forest to ambush the helpless groups trying to reach the safety of the forts.  Squire Boone invited the Conewago group to come and settle on his land; hoping the presence of more settlers would provide much needed added security from the Indians.

It was not to be.  The Westerfield Massacre at their campsite at 3 a.m. on an early summer morning in 1780 was one of the most brutal attacks. Few people escaped to the safety of the fort five miles away.  Survivors ran through the woods in the dark; one mother Maria Westerfelt hid her 3 children in a sink hole and under her skirts.. Those back at the campsite watched in horror as their families were butchered and scalped, knowing it would soon be their fate.  The leader of the group was a big man by the name of Jacobus Westerfelt/Westerfield.  He weighed 333 pounds and it is recorded by a survivor, the Indians thought he was a giant and three of them after his murder, put on his great coat and danced around the fire. 

I realized from this history why the Owasco Pioneer families waited ten years to travel from Conewago to the “Lake Country” of Owasco , New York.  Surely they had received news by letter of the constant repeated horrific  Indian raids on their relatives in Kentucky. They waited until 1793 to come here.   The Sullivan campaign ordered by President George Washington was to purge this area of the Native Americans who were persecuting the settlers along the Cherry Valley.  Once this order was executed, the land opened up for settlement. This area was heavily forested, and Indian trails were the only roads. It is recorded the Conewago wagon train in the spring of 1793 encountered unfinished roads. On their journey north, the Owasco pioneers would stop and help clear the stumps in sections to open up the roads so the wagons could travel on.In Kentucky, our group took a Bus Tour on Monday the 15^th of September to participate in the dedication and unveiling of a historic marker on the Westerfield Massacre site sponsored by the Dutch Cousins Organization. There were many Westerfields on the bus including the President of the Dutch Cousins Organization, Charlie Westerfield. I could not help but think of their history and heritage as we traveled the route his family took so long ago.  

There were 19 states represented on the bus, 80 cousins for the “Gathering”.  We called out our location and during the “Sharing” time, I went forward and recited my poem about the building of the Owasco Reformed Church called “That Old Tree”.  Lynne and I represented so many families.  I thought of the Van Arsdale, Stryker, Covert, Conover, Loyster, Voorhees, Duryea and Cosine families of Conewago, Pennsylvania, Owasco, New York and Harrodstown, Kentucky.  I was reminded of the old Carter family ballad “Will the circle be unbroken? By and by Lord, By and by.”

Yes, the circle was complete.

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SENT BY: Laurel Auchampaugh

That Old Tree (This is the poem Laurel read on the bus tour)

Read at The ”Homecoming” of the Owasco Reformed Church’s 200 anniversary  by L. Auchampaugh

The stillness deep in the forest was interrupted long long ago,

by the swift sharp crack of a woodsman’s ax, swinging to and fro.

His powerful arms and muscular swing made the ax cut deep in the wood;

next to the notch mark and with a sigh, a mighty tree no longer stood.

The blacksmith gazed from the door of his shop; saw the oxen pulling the old tree past.

He fired up his forge, tied his apron in place, and readied his tools for the task. 

Now the blacksmith knew -what iron could do, when heated by fire and shaping.

With each sure strike, he fashioned a spike with pride in the nails he was making.

Hour after hour, the woodsmen cut the trees, and the oxen hauled them away.

And the blacksmith stayed with the beat and the heat, until all was ready one day.

Then carpenters came,  and took the old trees, with spikes held them firm and sound,

And soon a mighty fortress rose, on the ridge of Cuykendall’s ground.

The settlers donated their lumber  – wagons pulled one by one up the drive,

And from their sacrifice and labor, this church they built, has survived!

Some time ago, a carpenter by the name of Finney, looked at an old beam in dismay. 

For after years of support the beam showed signed of decay.

He determined he could make something good, and he planed the decay away.  

But first he removed three spikes this one, and two and then three

Made so long ago, at that blacksmiths forge. Mr. Finney gave them to me!  

Now surely this story has a meaning,that is meant now for you and me

It’s told to us over centuries and far across the sea….

 For long ago in a forest, a woodsman cut at an old tree.

And a blacksmith worked to forge three spikes, for a Cross at Calvary

And a carpenter with gentle healing hands suffered and died on that old tree.  

For love and life Jesus sacrificed, that we might live and be free!

Sometimes when the light, is just right the shadow of three crosses I see.  

One for our past, one for our future. but this Cross is for Calvary!

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SENT BY:  To stay in touch, we mainly use our official website, www.DutchCousins.org, and the weekly or so Dutch Letters email sent through MailChimp mailing service. The email goes out to almost 1,000 addresses – and I know it is passed on to others who do not use computers, and is posted at some libraries.  The letters are also archived on the website. 

SENT BY: Carolyn Leonard
Editor, Dutch cousins of Kentucky
E-mail me: Editor234 (at) gmail.com
On my web page www.CarolynBLeonard.com 
Dutch letters are archived on our official webpage, www.DutchCousins.org by Pam Ellingson
Barbara Whiteside has a facebook page that you may find interesting, Dutch Cousins in Kentucky