Freyenmoet (or Frymuth), John Caspar

Freyenmoet (or Frymuth), John Caspar a Reformed (Dutch) minister, was born in Switzerland in 1720, came to America in his youth, and lived at what is now Port Jervis, N.Y., then the centre of the Dutch churches situated on the Delaware river Minisink, Walpeck, Smithfield, and Mahackemack which sent him to Holland to be educated for the ministry and ordained as their pastor. He returned in 1741, and ministered to them until 1756. His great popularity as a preacher, and his deep piety and zeal, created an active strife for his services between the churches referred to and those in Ulster County. He removed to Columbia County in 1756, and continued until his death, in 1778, the acceptable and useful minister of the churches of Kinderhook, Claverack, Livingston Manor, Red Hook, and Schodack. He favored the ordination of ministers in this country, and was a conservative in the early Coetus party, but indignantly withdrew when they proposed to organize a classis. His social qualities were of a high order, and his prudence and skill in settling delicate ecclesiastical cases brought him into frequent request upon official commissions. See Slauson, Hist. Discourse at Port Jervis; Zabriskie, Centennial Discourse at Claverack; Corwin, Manual of the Reformed Church in America, s.v. (W.J.R.T.)