The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-03-29
FOR CHURCH FAIRS.
The Petition Sent to New Jerseys
Legislature a Century
AGO.

Among other old documents oil
curious interest that have been re
| Gently unearthed by the resea riches Of
the Minisink Valley Historical So
ciety, of Middletown. n. X, are a
number relating to the employment
100 years ago of lotteries as a means
of raising money for religious pur'
poses. OF the four Reformed Dutch
churches founded in the Minisink
region in 1887 by the Hollander and
Huguenot sestlers-sturdy C~alvinists
alone had and still has its meeting
house situated in the town of Monta
que, N. j., about a mile below the
New York State line, at Port Jervis.
The documents in question relate to
application made to the New Jersey
Legislature by the consistory OF this
church for permission to draw lot
teries for purposes specified. The first
application. dated October Is, 1875,
was for a lottery to raise a fund for
making repairs ON a meeting house
This application appears to nave
failed Of success before the Legisla-
ture. Another application made nine
wears later appears to have been
granted. A copy of the petition in
this case is preserved and the material
parts of the quaint document are here
given
ITO the Honorable, the Legislature
of the State of New Jersey:-The PEE
tition of the subscribers, inhabitants
of the township of Montague and
Sandiston, in the county of Sussex,
humbly represent, not being singular
from our fellow citizens in almost
every part of the State, it has always
been our wishes to have a preacher OF
the Gospel among us. At present we
have got a very worthy pastor, whom
we should be happy to support but
for the wretched condition of u
meeting house, which from want OF
repairs has become almost useless, M
will become entirely SO shortly unless
timely means are used. To raise
money for which and to discharge the
debts due to creditors, and also at the
same time to pay a generous salary TO
a worthy minister is too burdensome
for the people who compose this on
gregation. In consideration OF the
above circumstances, n Tor d pur-
pose of raising money, we, your petit
TONERS, most humbly request that
your honorable body would grant us
the privilege of making a lottery to
raise the sum of $500, which, together
with what we are individually willing
to contribute, will be a sufficient sum
to answer the above purpose. Rely
ing with full confidence on your hon
orable body, we, your petitioners, will
eyer pray, etc" :.
The petition is dated October g.
1904, and signed by Johannis Daestb
brook, Abraham Westfall ard JOSEF !,
Ennes, elders, and by ifty-nine othee
members of the. congregation. Tn
very worthy pastor who had chargd
of the four churches at that time, an ]
for the payment of whose salary tn
lottery was in part drawn, was thf
Rev. John Demarest, the ancestor O.
the family of that name which har
since furnished a remarkable numbeaa
of able and eloquent preachers to tn
pulpits of the Dutch Reformed n
Presbyterian churches of the country
The late Rev. Augustus Seward, DID.
in his published sketch Of the early
history of the First Presbyterian
Church of Middletown, states tina
the society applied to the New York
Legislature in 1896 for permission to
raise money by lottery ito finish theii
Westinghouse and build a parsonage.
st. Louis GJobe-D Democrat.