in calling the village of his residence "New Shurrmantown," and that of the location of St. Paul's church "Blook-a-meen." The story is told that once, when delivering a sermon on the temptation of Eve, the word, serpent, slipped his memory. Try hard as he would it continued to elude him. After an awkward hesitation and much endeavor he stammered out in broken English: "Dot old-dot-dot old Tuyfel, der shnake." The good rector may have been a little uncertain in his language, but there is no doubt that his virtues and attainments were of the most positive character. All testimony is concurrent as to his having been a devoted, diligent and loving pastor, and a truly learned and pious man. Possessed of an eminently happy disposition he was esteemed and beloved by his people, both for the many amiable qualities of his personality, and for the faithful performance of his pastoral duties. During the last four years of his life, age and infirmity seriously interfered with his public ministrations. Children, however, were brought to his house for baptism, marriage rites were not considered complete without his blessing, and he even performed the last offices for the dead while supported in his tottering steps by dutiful and affectionate parishioners. We shall see him standing by Aaron Moelich's coffin within a few weeks of his own death. At last, on the thirtyfirst of May, in the year 1809, after days and nights of wearisome pain, his soul was gently released from its decaying tenement, and good old Father Graff's pastorate was over. At the northeast corner of the village church, which he so faithfully served for nearly thirty-four years, a plain, brown-stone slab marks his final resting place, and chronicles in simple language the span of his life. With Mr. Graff we will conclude the enumeration of Zion's ministers, for with him ends the line of those who baptized, married and buried the descendants of Johannes Moelich. Among the archives of the church are two interesting documents bearing the signatures of our German ancestor. He spells the name" Mölich ;" the diæresis over the o, denoting the omission of the letter e. The first signature is attached to an obligation in which he was a co-signer with twelve other elders and deaIt reads as follows:

cons.

Know all men by these Presence that We, to wit, I, Lorentz Ruloffs; I, Jacob Shuppmann; I, Andreas Abel Sen.; I, Johannes Moelich; I, Adam Fükeroth; I,

ZION CHURCH MEMBERS FROM BENDORF.

91

George Schwartz; I, Phillipp Weiss; I, David Moelich; I, Casper Hindersheidt; I, Samuel Bernhard, signed [Barnhardt]; I, Joseph Hernbekker; I, Jacob Klein, and I, Jacob Fasbinder, at this time elders and deacons of the High Dutch Lutheran Congregation belonging to the Meeting house Called Zion in Lebanon, are held firmly bound in the name of the forsaid Congregation, and Meeting house unto Baltes Bickel of Reading-Taun in the County of Hunterdon and Province of New Jersey, his heirs etc, etc, unto the sum of Eighty Two Pounds, lawful Jersey money at Eight Shillings per ounce, to be paid etc. etc, Dated the Eighteenth day of December in the year of our Lord God, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Fifty.

Of the thirteen elders and deacons, six, viz: Johannes and David Moelich, Fükeroth, Weiss, Klein, and Fasbinder, signed in German character, two-Barnhardt and Hernbekker-signed in good plain English, while the remaining five were obliged to make their marks. It would seem the ancient congregation of the Evangelische Haupt-Kirche of Bendorf on the Rhine, contributed a number of officers and members to the "Honorable Corporation" of Zion church at New Germantown. We have already seen that Johannes, David, and Jonas Moelich, had been members of the German congregation, and now we find another of Zion's trustees, Jacob Fasbinder, to have been transferred from the parish on the Rhine. He was born in Bendorf in 1683, being the son of Jacob Fassbender, who migrated to that place from Homburg, and is named on the church register as a "reuter," or military horsemen. Jacob Fassbender, the younger, was probably attracted to New Jersey, because of the number of his fellow-townsmen who had preceded him across the water. He was over sixty years old before he emigrated, as he landed at Philadelphia from the ship Loyal Judith, James Cowil, master, on the second of September, 1743. Still another member of this New Jersey Lutheran congregation came from the Bendorf church-Gottfried Klein (Godfrey Kline). He was a son of Christian Klein, who, in 1733, stood godfather to Johannes' daughter, Marie Cathrine. I have not discovered any connection between this Christian Klein and Johan Jacob Klein, who married Johannes' daughter, Veronica Gerdrutta. Christian's son, Godfrey, was the emigrant ancestor of another Hunterdon line of that name. Should further researches in the Bendorf parish register be made, it is not improbable that additional names would be found identical with those of the Hunterdon congregation. There is good reason for believing that this inter

esting German church was the means of founding the New Jersey corporation.

The second document on which the signature of Johannes appears is a faded, yellow, slightly torn, and much worn paper of the date of December 1st, 1757. It is a bond, written in German, for money borrowed in behalf of the congregation to be used in the erection of a parsonage on the glebe land. A stone dwelling was erected one mile and a half from New Germantown, on the road to Lebanon. It has only recently disappeared; a gaping cellar choked with weeds and rubbish is all that is left to mark the spot where it stood. The musty, warped, leather-bound church-book, shows Johannes and David Moelich to have been appointed by the vestry a committee to superintend the building of this house. In the bond it is interesting to note their attempt to spell English words in a German fashion. It commences in this wise:

Know all men by these Presence, that we, to wit, I, Davürd Moelich in RiedensDaün in Hünder-daün, Caündi in the bro Vincs of West new Jersey, and I, Johannes Moelich in Lebanon-Daün, same Caïnti and brovurns.

Johannes continued his connection with Zion church until his death in 1763. At a meeting of the vestry in the year 1756, it was resolved to erect a new sanctuary for the benefit of the many members of the congregation living in the adjoining county, on the east. Consequently steps were taken for the erection of St. Paul's church in the village of Pluckamin, in Bedminster township, Somerset county. The original subscription list, circulated at that time in order to raise the necessary funds, is still in existence, and the appeal reads as follows:

BEDMINSTER, Ye 7th Day of December, 1756. A Subscription For Raising a Sum of money For Building a Church In Bedminster town.

Whereas the members of the Lutheran Congregation In and near Bedminster town Being necessitated For a Place of Public Worship Think a Proper Place to Erect a House for To Worship God, and it is further agreed By us the Subscribers That one half of the Preaching, or Every other Sermon Preached By any minister Chosen the Said Lutheran Congregation Shall be in the English Language and the other in High Dutch. We, therefore, the underscribers, Do Promise To Pay or cause to be Paid The Sum or Sums annexed to our names for the uses above mentioned To any Person or Persons Chosen Collector of Said money by the said Congregation. The Money is not To be paid until Said Church is a Building and the money wanted for that Use. We most Humbly would Desire