A BRIEF
HISTORY OF THE LOW DUTCH
SIX MILE
MEETINGHOUSE
Prepared
by Vince Akers
May 21, 2005
For dedication of the
rebuilt meetinghouse
On the farm of Sam and
JoAnn Adams
In the Low Dutch Tract
Near Pleasureville, Henry
County, Kentucky
(Discovered, moved, and
rebuilt under the auspices of
The Kentucky Trust for Historic Preservation)
As the Meetinghouse looked, preserved while disguised
and used as a barn.
As the
word “Dutch” would suggest, Low Dutch who built the Six Mile
Meetinghouse were descendants of Holland Dutch, but with a good many
French Huguenots mixed in. Their ancestors were some of the
earliest European settlers in America, having immigrated to New
Amsterdam during the decades before the English took over and
renamed it New York in 1664.
They spent the next two centuries running away from the
English, trying to avoid being sucked into the great American
melting pot. They had a dream of a Dutch colony somewhere on the
frontier with enough land to sustain generations of large families.
Here they could preserve their language, church, customs and ethnic
identity. With that dream, they rode the crest of the great wave of
pioneers moving the American frontier ever westward.
They spread out into New Jersey and then Pennsylvania
where they adopted the name “Low Dutch” to identify
themselves as coming from the low lands of Holland and to
distinguish themselves from the more numerous Germans or High
Dutch.
During the American Revolution, they realized a move
across the mountains would be necessary to find enough land to build
their colony.
They were probably the largest group of connected
families ever to make the dangerous trek to frontier Kentucky. Two
large groups of Low Dutch made the trip by two very different routes
in the spring of 1780. One group came by land, through the
Cumberland Gap and over the Wilderness Trail to the Boonesborough
area. The other group came by flatboats down the Ohio River from
Fort Pitt to the Falls of the Ohio at present-day Louisville.
They quickly imprinted their name on the map of frontier
Kentucky – literally! John Filson’s famous 1784 map of Kentucky
included not just one Low Dutch Station, but two! Both of these
stations, or small forts, were on lands rented from famous names of
early Kentucky. One was among the cluster of stations built along
Beargrass Creek on lands rented from Col. John Floyd. The other was
built on lands rented from James Harrod in the Mercer County area
around Kentucky’s first town, Harrodsburg.
In 1782 the Low Dutch took their dream to Congress – the
Continental Congress – in the form of a petition asking for a grant
of land on the northwest side of the Ohio River. They described how
they had come to Kentucky in the spring of 1780…
“…with a view and expectation to
procure a Tract of Land to enable them to settle together in a body
for the conveniency of civil society and propogating the Gospel in
their known language…”
Instead,
the Indians had confined them to stations or forts where they were
always in danger and frequently on military duty. Many of them had
been killed or captured while being barely able to support their
families. Worse of all, the best lands had been monopolized and
were only available at an advanced price. They asked Congress…
“…to enable them to settle in a body
together…to put their intended plan and purpose in execution, they
having principally in view the Glory of God, the promotion of Civil
and religious society, educating and instructing their rising
generation in the principals of religion and morality…”
Congress
tabled the petition and the Low Dutch turned to yet another famous
name of early Kentucky to fulfill their dream – Squire Boone.
Squire Boone had built his Painted Stone Station a few
miles north of present-day Shelbyville in the spring of 1780. The
Low Dutch found in Squire Boone the best hope for obtaining the
lands on which to build their colony. Boone had a claim for
thousands of acres “…No East of the painted stone about 6 miles…”
where the buffalo road from Drennons Lick crosses the first branch
of “the big creek running into Kentucky 6 miles above Drenon’s Lick
Creek…”
Six Mile Creek is actually about ten miles above
Drennons following the Kentucky River, but the mouths of the creeks
are about six miles apart as the crow flies. This description noted
in other early claims on Six Mile apparently gave the creek its
name. And the creek, in turn, later gave the Six Mile Meetinghouse
its name.
Ultimately, in March of 1786, the Low Dutch purchased
5,610 acres from Squire Boone. The price was 935 pounds sterling –
250 pounds down and the remainder due in seven annual installments
of 97 pounds 17 shillings payable “…in produce such as hemp
Tobacco flour pork & Baken to be delivered at the Falls of the
Ohio at Market price…”
To Boone’s 5,600 acres they added another 3,000 acres of
the adjoining claims, thus making their Low Dutch Tract 8,600 acres
-- about 3,500 acres in present-day Shelby County and 5,100 acres in
present-day Henry County. The tract included the present-day
communities of North Pleasureville, South Pleasureville, Defoe,
Elmburg and part of Cropper.
On March 14, 1786, the Low Dutch gathered at their
station in Mercer County to witness the Signing of the Article of
Agreement formally organizing the Low Dutch Company and setting some
basic rules to be followed in the settlement of the Low Dutch
Tract. According to the Agreement they had purchased their tract…
“…with an intent and Desine to
inCourage and premote a Settlement of the Low Dutch Reformed Church
Socisity [and] now it is Covinated and agreed… That we will
subscribe to and support the Low Dutch Reformed Church Sosicity by
giving a Call and invitation to a Regular Instituted Low Dutch
minister to assosiate in said Church…and that we will indeavouer to
have our children Taught and instructed in the Low Dutch Tongue so
that they may Read the word of God and understand the Gospel when
Preached unto them…”
The Low Dutch organized immediately in the spring of
1786 to take possession of their Low Dutch Tract and make their
dream of a Dutch colony a reality. Unfortunately, they were driven
back by Indians from that and repeated attempts over the next few
years to settle the Low Dutch Tract. Settlement did not come until
after General “Mad” Anthony Wayne’s victory over the Indians in 1794
at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. By that time, the dream of a Dutch
colony had come unraveled. The Low Dutch were split almost equally
between families who waited and eventually settled on or near the
Low Dutch Tract and the families who had bought farms and remained
behind in Mercer County.
The dream of a forming a Low Dutch Reformed Church
Society was also unrealized. Mercer County attracted a Dutch
Reformed missionary in the late 1790’s who organized the first Dutch
Reformed Church west of the Alleghenies. That congregation built
the famous hewn-timber-framed Mud Meetinghouse in 1800, but they
were never supplied by their mother church from the East.
In the Low Dutch Tract, the settlers turned to their
Scotch-Irish neighbors’ Presbyterian Church. Except for the
language, the Presbyterians followed the same Calvinistic beliefs
and same church governance as the Dutch Reformed Church. As for the
language, the Low Dutch had unwillingly become quite accustomed to
English during their Indian struggles and search for land.
About 1799 or 1800 an eccentric young Scotsman named
Archibald Cameron organized the Six Mile Presbyterian Church to
serve the Low Dutch. He was their pastor for 30 years while also
serving other area churches. Archibald Cameron was the minister
when this meetinghouse was built and originally dedicated.
Several Low Dutch families were the first converts to
the Shaker missionaries who came here in the wake of Kentucky’s
Great Revival that started around 1800. Low Dutch in fact formed
the nucleus of the Shaker Society in Kentucky. Some of the first
Shaker preaching took place in the Low Dutch Tract. Included among
the Shaker converts was one of Six Mile’s original elders, John
Voris, along with his very large extended family.
Defections to the Shakers and the New Lights depleted
the Six Mile Presbyterian congregation. They were also reduced by
removals to Indiana and Ohio. Indeed, the losses by the Low Dutch
from migrations to Johnson County, Indiana, in the 1820’s were so
great that it was referred to as “the Exodus.” But Six
Mile’s losses were Indiana’s gains. Six Mile was the mother church
for several Indiana Presbyterian congregations in Jefferson,
Switzerland, Johnson, Marion and Brown Counties. Franklin,
Greenwood and Hopewell in Johnson County are active large
congregations today. Those Indiana churches in turn fed the next
wave of migration West of the Mississippi.
Cutaway view of
Meetinghouse
The upheaval of the Exodus to Indiana led the Low Dutch
to finally build this meetinghouse in 1824 to help stem the tide of
the Exodus. One church record says Archibald Cameron preached among
the Low Dutch “at a commodious school house” until 1824 when “they
have now a good meeting house called the Six Mile Meeting House…”
It sat on the three-acre meetinghouse lot set aside by
the Low Dutch Company right in the center of their Low Dutch Tract.
Highway 421 through here runs northwest to North Pleasureville
through the middle of the Tract along the dividing line between
several of the original 200-acre farms. The meetinghouse originally
sat on the other side of the road a half-mile northwest of here
where the Low Dutch Colony highway marker stands.
The building was much more than a church. It was truly
a meetinghouse for the community. Once it was built,
most of the Low Dutch Company’s periodic meetings were held in the
meetinghouse. The first company meeting held at the “Six Mile
Meeting house” was in September 1825. The 8,600-acre Low Dutch
Tract by then had been held in common by the Low Dutch Company for
several decades. Its 200-acre “lots” or “plantations” changed hands
without deeds, but rather by approval of the company, which kept
records of ownership in its leather-bound parchment record book. It
was in the meetinghouse on May 9, 1831 at the last recorded meeting
of the Low Dutch Company, that its Trustees who held legal title to
the company’s lands were instructed to make deeds to the several
members, essentially closing the Low Dutch Company business and
dissolving the Low Dutch Tract.
Of course the Six Mile Meetinghouse was obviously also
the religious center of the Low Dutch community. It was their
church for over 30 years. For most of that time we pretty much have
a record of what went on. It is recorded in the Six Mile Church
Session Records commencing with the year 1829 – just five years
after the meetinghouse was built.
So what, according to the church records, went on
within the four walls framed by these magnificent timbers?
The records include the expected baptisms, members
leaving and members joining. The records are “quaint” by modern
standards. Prospective members “were examined as to their
acquaintance with experimental religion” before being admitted to
the privileges of the church.
Occasionally members accused of unseemly conduct were
cited and tried before the Session almost as in a court of law with
counsel and testimony. To the credit of the community these cases
were very rare. The most frequent crime was the sin of
intoxication.
One unrepentant member was, to paraphrase, “seen twice
intoxicated so much so as to be unstable in his walk and
unpleasantly boisterous in his conversation, intent on fighting, and
had when going home to be lifted on his horse… there is but one
common opinion of him, that is, that he is frequently, if not
habitually drunk. At Mobley’s tavern, he was riotous and had to be
silenced by a civil officer. At Pleasureville on the first day of
the election, [he] was so drunk that he staggered and behaved
himself unseemly. It is commonly renowned he is addicted to the
intemperate use of intoxicating liquor.”
In this case “…in the
judgement of the Session the evidence being abundantly sufficient to
sustain the charge of intoxication alledged against him by Common
Fame, it was unanimously, resolved by Session that he be, and that
he is hereby, excommunicated from the communion of the Presbyterian
Church.”
The Church was forgiving of its repentant sinners.
Another member “…who voluntarily came before them and acknowledged
that he had been guilty of the sin of intoxication, and having made
a full and satisfactory expression of repentance, Session resolved
that his sin, with his expressed repentance be announced to the
church from the pulpit, and that he be permitted to retain his
connexion with the church in good standing.”
This announcement of the sin and repentance from the
pulpit was also the remedy for breaking the seventh commandment.
Sin, repentance and forgiveness were very public matters when the
Six Mile Meetinghouse was in use!
The Session Records also document the end of the
meetinghouse’s use as a church. On the third Sabbath in June 1857
the Six Mile congregation dedicated a new brick meetinghouse in
North Pleasureville and on September 10th the name of the
Six Mile Church was changed to the Pleasureville Presbyterian
Church. In 1925 Pleasureville merged with the Eminence
Presbyterian Church.
Meetinghouse timbers revealed. |