Isaiah and Susanah Golden were members of the Old Bushwick Reformed Church, a congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church.  They were received into the congregation on April 10, 1898 by method of confession.  According to the church record, they eventually left the church, but the date and circumstances of their departure was not noted.[1]

Old Bushwick Dutch Reformed Church

The Church was located on the corner of Conselyea and Humboldt Streets in Brooklyn, with Old Woodpoint Road and Skillman Avenue bounding the church on the other sides of the building.  This was just two blocks from the family home and business. Originally founded in 1654 in the Dutch settlement of Bushwick (“Boswyck”), the church was remodeled and added on to in both 1711 and 1829.  The church was disbanded in 1919, with the building demolished. [2]  The land was eventually sold the Roman Catholic Church, and S. Francis of Paola Roman Catholic Church now stands on the site.  The records from the church were lost in part, when a city janitor used the papers to start fires in the furnace at Brooklyn City Hall.[3]

As early as 1909, citizens of Brooklyn were trying to save the church, stating “…we should remember that this church building is the only connecting link in the Eastern District between the dim past and the present.  Other cities carefully guard old landmarks, and try to preserve them for the benefit of later generations.  Why not spare this venerable structure and extend Bushwick Avenue through Woodpoint Road in a trifling curve around the church?”[4]  The church has been struggling in the years before it disbanded because the neighborhood had changed significantly, as mainly Italian Catholics had moved into the area.[5]

The first church built on the property was octagonal in shape with a high roof, characterized as “resembling a haystack”.  When initially built, it was an open enclosure, without pews for the congregation, who would bring their own seats to church.  In 1795, pews and a gallery were added.  Eventually the original church was replaced with a more modern building in 1829, and then further remodeled in 1876.  In 1878, a school building was added to the property.  At first the church has a squatter’s claim to the property, until a bill passed in Albany in 1800 gave them ten acres in the village of Bushwick.  The school building was the first to be sold off to the Polish Catholic Church.[6]

Transcript

Old Bushwick Reformed Church: 1 July 1909, Page 56

GOLDEN, ISAIAH, Received 10 April 1898 by Confession, Remarks Left

GOLDEN, SUSANAH S., Wife, Received 10 April 1898 by Confession, Remarks Left

 

[1] The Archives of the Reformed Church in America; New Brunswick, New Jersey, Bushwick Church, Church Register, 1789-1914, US Selected States Dutch Reformed Church Membership Records, 1701-1995, Provo, UT, Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2016.

[2] “Bushwick Dutch Reformed Church Records, 1713-1817,” http://brooklynhistory.org/library/wp/bushwick-dutch-reformed-church-records-1713-1817/.

“Brooklyn Reformed Dutch Church Records,” http://bklyn-genealogy-info.stevemorse.org/Worship/BklynReformedDutchRecords.html.

“Old Bushwick Dutch Reformed Church Remembered,” http://www.whowalkinbrooklyn.com/?p=1139.

[3] “Dutch Records of Old Bushwick Used to Light Fires in Brooklyn City Hall,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 21 April 1918, Page 9, Newspapers.com.

Google Map view of Conselya & Humbolt, Brooklyn, https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7154099,-73.9426813,3a,90y,1.24h,88.25t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sdChenISveKNuGko8yOgXQA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[4] Letter from Eugene Armbruster to the Editor of the Brooklyn Times, September 11, 1909, reprinted in “Old Bushwick Dutch Reformed Church Remembered,” http://www.whowalkinbrooklyn.com/?p=1139

[5] “Old Bushwick Church: Dutch Reformed Society There Will Soon Be 250 Years Old,” New York Tribune, 31 January 1904, Page 10, Newspapers.com.

[6] “Dutch Records of Old Bushwick Used to Light Fires in Brooklyn City Hall,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 21 April 1918, Page 9, Newspapers.com.

“Old Bushwick Church: Dutch Reformed Society There Will Soon Be 250 Years Old,” New York Tribune, 31 January 1904, Page 10, Newspapers.com.