COXSACKIE — The oldest church building in Coxsackie — founded by former enslaved people — is about to receive special recognition for its historic significance in the community.
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, 123 Mansion St., has received a historic marker from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation.
The church, located two doors down from Village Hall, is the oldest surviving church building in the village, the Rev. Shirley Whitlock said.
“This is the smallest building on the block, there are about six other churches in the neighborhood and this church has been there the longest, and it has sustained many things,” Whitlock said.
Volunteer researcher Linda Deubert, the retired library director at Heermance Memorial Library, traced the church’s history to a set of founders, all of them either former enslaved people or descendants of slaves.
“The founders of the church, in 1856, were John Clow, Abraham Clow, Benjamin Bronk and William Van Allen,” Deubert said. “I saw the name Bronk and I thought, the Bronk family started the AME church? All the trustees had common Coxsackie names, many of them Dutch names.”
Research indicated that enslaved individuals commonly took the names of the slave owners.
“It looks like Benjamin Bronk was born to Maria, who was ‘owned’ by Leonard Bronk,” Deubert said. “These people, who were all African-American, were founders and trustees, and they had Dutch names because people in Coxsackie had slaves. I had never really thought about that before.”
The AME church has its roots in slavery, Whitlock said.
“I believe the hard times of slavery brought people closer to God. Even today, I believe the virus brought people closer to God because you are in strange times. When things are happening, where else can you go?” Whitlock said. “And that’s what slaves went through — they were being beaten, they were being raped, they were stripped from their homes. Where else do you go? I believe that is what made the church have so much significance.”
That significance continues to this day, Whitlock said.
“We are still feeding the hungry, we are still clothing the naked, people are still homeless after all these years,” she said. “And Bethel has been there and steadfast, unmovable, all these years.”
The William G. Pomeroy Foundation provides grants for historic markers for sites of historical significance around the state.
“We want to help communities celebrate their local history and we want them to decide what they want to commemorate,” Executive Director Paula Miller said. “We feel that markers are a lasting legacy for a community for many generations.”
The applicant is required to submit primary source documentation to support claims the site is historically significant, Miller said.
In the case of Bethel AME Church, the roots of the church building were key.
“The applicant felt what was historically significant was to raise awareness for the contribution of Coxsackie’s Black citizens, who are felt to be largely left out of Coxsackie’s history,” Miller said. “This is believed to be the oldest church building in the village.”
While First Reformed Church, 284 Mansion St., is an older church, it moved locations many years ago and the Bethel AME Church is the oldest church building in the village, Deubert said.
Commemorating the historical significance of Bethel AME Church is apt for the times, said Eileen Goble, who wrote the grant application for the marker.
“We live in a world where we have the Black Lives Matter movement and if we don’t know our history, it is really hard to understand what is happening now — it is important for people to see that,” Goble said. “I don’t think a lot of people know about this church that is right in the middle of the village, other than that they give out free food on Thursdays. I think people don’t realize there were enslaved people in Coxsackie and that the church was founded by former slaves. It’s important for people to see that.”
Bethel AME is more than the oldest surviving church building in the village, Greene County Historian Jonathan Palmer said.
“Bethel AME is the oldest African Methodist church in the county and it’s the one that reaches back to a time that allows us to talk about the end of slavery in New York state and the years leading up to the Civil War and the way the African-American community in Greene County defined themselves as a unique community of free people,” Palmer said.
The church continues its work to this day, Whitlock said.
“The church has the most wonderful people serving there, a wonderful food pantry that gives out food twice a week and we are soon going to start giving away clothes,” the pastor said. “We just do what we can for the community.”
A ceremony is scheduled for June 5 when the marker will be installed.