Protestantism

A Utica Church’s 50 Years of Adirondack Pilgrimages

July 27, 2026 by Noel Sherry 2 Comments

On November 14, 1902, the Trustees of the Church of the Holy Cross in Utica, New York, purchased four lots on the northwest shore of Twitchell Lake in Big Moose in the Adirondacks. The grantor on the deed was William Thistlethwaite, an Old Forge real estate mogul.

This gave the church 24 acres of woodland which ran a full half mile back to the State’s Forest Preserve and 400 feet of pristine lakeshore lined with ancient red spruce and towering white pine. [Read more…] about A Utica Church’s 50 Years of Adirondack Pilgrimages

Apocalyptic Abolitionism & The End of Slavery

May 7, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

In March 1844, Melissa Botsford of Meriden, Connecticut, defiantly left her local Methodist church because it supported slavery and other “sins” that permeated America.

Botsford was among one hundred thousand other abolitionists who abandoned their evangelical churches throughout the decade. These protesters came out with a stern apocalyptic warning: God would soon judge America ― and its churches ― for the sins of slavery and race prejudice. [Read more…] about Apocalyptic Abolitionism & The End of Slavery

Beer, Hops, Reformation & Prohibition

April 10, 2026 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

Christianity banned beer from the sacred domain as the Roman clergy continued the Latin habit of drinking wine. The opposition: Christian wine versus pagan beer, was upheld even in the north of Europe. Believers accepted wine’s sacramental role, whatever their climates, social habits, or drinking customs.

The Catholic Church was, at the same time, actively involved in the lucrative business of beer making. The Reformation was not just a schism that breached the unity of the Church, it was also a revolt against clergy-imposed customs that brought about a drastic change – from herbs to hops – in beer production and consumption. [Read more…] about Beer, Hops, Reformation & Prohibition

The Great Christmas Boycott of 1906

November 3, 2025 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Today’s battle over Christianity in American public schools has deep roots. In the nineteenth century it was an intramural struggle between Protestants and later-arriving Catholics.

But at Christmastime in 1905, when the Presbyterian principal of a Brooklyn elementary school urged his Jewish students to be more like Jesus Christ, Jews entered the fray in a big way. [Read more…] about The Great Christmas Boycott of 1906

The Expulsion of Deborah Moody

June 16, 2025 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

New England was a male-dominated Puritan society in which women could not vote, own property or hold a post in religious or governmental bodies. Men were inferior to God and women lesser than men. But the lived experience varied according to background and education.

Despite restrictions, some women did make themselves heard and challenged communal norms. Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) and Deborah Moody (1586-1659) battled for the right to speak out. Demanding inclusive debate, they were accused of undermining the authority of the Colony’s patriarchal structure. [Read more…] about The Expulsion of Deborah Moody

Early Saratoga County Religious Communities: Some History

June 6, 2025 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Throughout Saratoga County’s long history, many religious and spiritual communities have called our home their home, with the land even being sacred to some. This article will highlight the founding of several of Saratoga County’s religious communities through the 19th century, with a focus on Saratoga Springs.

Today, diverse people of faith have joined those long-established denominations to call Saratoga home, including Jewish communities, several Indigenous Cultural Revival Movements, and a Mosque, Masjid Al-Arqam in Halfmoon. All of them play important roles in the Saratoga Community. [Read more…] about Early Saratoga County Religious Communities: Some History

Elizabeth Glover & The Founding of Harvard University Press

April 28, 2025 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

At the start of Elizabeth I’s reign in 1558, a desire was expressed that the role and position of the Church of England should be explained. As a consequence, a stream of devotional and exegetical publications designed for Protestant edification flooded the market. Printers gained a prominent place in the process.

From the outset women were active participants in the trade. They looked after the well-being of young apprentices in the shop and worked alongside men as printer’s devils and compositors. They managed the distribution of printed matter, the sale of stationery and kept the books. [Read more…] about Elizabeth Glover & The Founding of Harvard University Press

Burned-Over District Documentary Being Produced

March 5, 2025 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

A new trailer for an in-production feature-length documentary film about the Burned-Over District of 19th-century New York State has just been released. Burned Over focuses on Spiritualism, the belief that the living can communicate with the dead, and the Oneida Community, a free love commune.

Both began in 1848 in the Burned-Over District, an area famous as an incubator of radical religious practice and progressive politics, inspired in part by the Second Great Awakening. [Read more…] about Burned-Over District Documentary Being Produced

1848 European Upheavals & The Seneca Falls Convention

February 24, 2025 by Jaap Harskamp 2 Comments

The Revolutions of 1848 set Europe ablaze. The flames erupted in Paris on February 22nd and spread to the German states, the Austrian Empire, the Italian states, Scandinavia and beyond. In their geographical extent alone, these revolts were unique. From a historical perspective, this was the only truly European wide uprising that would – in the longer run – alter the Continent’s political and philosophical landscape.

In spite of the scale and ferocity of the upheaval, its immediate impact on the political status quo was relatively small as most of the short-lived struggles failed in their aims and intentions. In fact, one could argue that the real impression of 1848 was felt more strongly in the United States. [Read more…] about 1848 European Upheavals & The Seneca Falls Convention

Hercules Schureman: A Black Patriot Denied His Due

November 19, 2024 by Guest Contributor 6 Comments

A longitudinal study of early census data tracking Black families in the towns and villages that would eventually make up Putnam County, New York, has led me to many questions and curiosities. But none bigger than Hercules.

In the 1800 Federal Census, Hercules Schureman was listed as the head of a household of three in Philipstown, which was then made up of today’s Philipstown and Putnam Valley in Putnam County. [Read more…] about Hercules Schureman: A Black Patriot Denied His Due

Election Anxiety: Bat Shea & The Murder of Robert Ross

October 20, 2024 by Noel Sherry 1 Comment

Immediately following Troy’s March 6, 1894 election riot in the 13th Ward, the question on everyone’s lips was “Who killed Robert Ross?” After interviewing 50 of the 100 witnesses at the scene of the violence, Superintendent of Police William W. Willard offered his gut reaction to the press.

“To a greater or lesser degree everyone [was responsible] who was engaged in the fight during which the crime was committed” according to the The Albany Argus of March 12, 1894. That opinion was not repeated at the March 15th inquest or the May 28th murder trial, although it did resurface before Bat Shea was strapped into the electric chair. [Read more…] about Election Anxiety: Bat Shea & The Murder of Robert Ross

Leonard Andrew Grimes Inducted to Abolition Hall of Fame

September 12, 2024 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Born between 1812 and 1815 Leonard Andrew Grimes undertook a life of direct action as an operative on the Underground Railroad. He assisted at least four hundred freedom seekers in escaping bondage. In 1840, Grimes was imprisoned in Virginia for two years for helping an enslaved mother and her six children escape to freedom in the North. In prison he began preaching to guards and prisoners, and after his release became a licensed Baptist minister. [Read more…] about Leonard Andrew Grimes Inducted to Abolition Hall of Fame

The Black Church in New York: Excerpts from Carter G. Woodson

August 2, 2024 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

What follows are excerpts from Carter G. Woodson’s The History of The Negro Church (1921) which illuminate the early development of the organized Black churches in what is now New York State before about 1800. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) was a prominent black leader and intellectual of the first half of the twentieth century. Born in Virginia in 1875 to formerly enslaved parents, he was educated at Berea College in Kentucky, the University of Chicago, and finally, Harvard, where he earned his Ph.D. in History. Woodson championed awareness of black historical experience by teaching and initiating the first Black History Week, which became the basis for the later Black History Month. He was a tireless writer also who published many volumes during his life, including his classic The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933). [Read more…] about The Black Church in New York: Excerpts from Carter G. Woodson

An Unwanted Gift Brings Spiritual Awakening and Joy

July 15, 2024 by Wendy Hobday Haugh Leave a Comment

As Patricia Nugent prepared to retire in 2009 from a long and rewarding career as a school district administrator, she had two exciting goals in mind: first, to adopt another Golden Retriever, having been without one for four years; and, second, to write the Great American Novel. [Read more…] about An Unwanted Gift Brings Spiritual Awakening and Joy

Black Librarians & America’s Battles Over Books

July 11, 2024 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

In 1727, Benjamin Franklin and friends formed the Junto Club (from the Spanish junta or assembly) in Philadelphia, a debating society that probed questions of morality, politics and philosophy. The group was composed of twelve members drawn from diverse backgrounds, but they all shared a spirit of inquiry and a desire to improve society.

Access to books was limited at the time. Most of them were imported and expensive. There were no public libraries. [Read more…] about Black Librarians & America’s Battles Over Books

Waterown’s Thomas Memorial AME Zion Church Being Preserved

July 7, 2024 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Although Waterown‘s Thomas Memorial AME Zion Church was organized in 1821, the congregation wasn’t officially formed until 1878 and incorporated in 1880. The construction of their church building was completed in 1909 in the Late Gothic Revival style. It represented the only African American congregation in Jefferson County, NY for several years. [Read more…] about Waterown’s Thomas Memorial AME Zion Church Being Preserved

Politics, Printers, Bibles & Founding Fathers

May 1, 2024 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

In 1631 Charles I summoned his Royal printers Robert Barker and Martin Lucas to court after it was discovered that their reprint of the King James Bible contained a typographical mistake by leaving out the word “not” from the seventh commandment. In between exhortations that “thou shalt not kill” and “thou shalt not steal,” readers are instructed that “thou shalt commit adultery.” [Read more…] about Politics, Printers, Bibles & Founding Fathers

Who Were the Walloons and Huguenots?

March 23, 2024 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Walloons are an ethnic group native to Wallonia and the immediate adjacent regions of Flanders, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. They are primarily Roman Catholic, but they also have a historical minority of Protestantism which dates back to the Reformation. Huguenots were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. Both groups settled in the United States, including New York State, at various times and places. [Read more…] about Who Were the Walloons and Huguenots?

Troy’s 1894 Election Day Riot Killing of Robert Ross

March 20, 2024 by Noel Sherry 2 Comments

Access to voting rights in New York State was generally limited to male property owners until 1821, when that requirement was removed for white men in an effort led by Tammany Hall Democrats.

New Yorkers rejected referendums extending voting rights to African-American men without property in 1846 and 1860, so it wasn’t until the U.S. Constitution was amended in 1870, that black men were guaranteed the right to vote regardless of their status as property owners. (Women did not win the right to vote until New York voters passed an amendment to the New York State Constitution in 1917.) [Read more…] about Troy’s 1894 Election Day Riot Killing of Robert Ross

Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition

December 5, 2023 by John Warren 1 Comment

During Prohibition – which ended on December 5, 1933 – my grandfather’s brother Denis Warren, a veteran of some of the bloodiest American battles of the First World War, was left for dead on the side of Route 9N south of Port Henry on Lake Champlain. He was in the second of two cars of friends returning from Montreal, both “heavily loaded with Canadian ale” according to a newspaper account.

Going through Port Henry, Essex County, local customs agents gave chase and the car he was in hit a rock cut and he was badly injured in the accident. Figuring his was dead, or nearly so, and worried he would go to prison, one of Denis’s best friends rolled him under the guardrail, climbed into the other car, and sped off. [Read more…] about Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition

Protestantism

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