166 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN

CHAPTER VI.

ECCLESLASTICAL HISTORY OF BREUCKELEN.
1664-1803.

AFTER Domine Selyns’ return to Holland, in 1664, the church at Breuckelen came again under the pastoral charge of Domine Polhemus, the minister of the associated churches of the four Dutch towns of the county. The labors of this venerable and faithful servant of God ceased only with his life; and his death, on the 9th of June, 1676, is commemorated on the records of the church at Breuckelen in the following respectful and affectionate terms:

“It has pleased the Almighty God to remove from this world of care and trouble our worthy and beloved pastor, Johannes Polhemus, to the abode of peace and happiness in His heavenly kingdom; by which our church is deprived of his pious instructions, godly example, and evangelical ministrations, particularly in the administration of the holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper.”

During his ministry, in the year 1666, the first church edifice in Breuckelen was erected in the middle of the highway, now Fulton avenue, near Lawrence street. Tradition says that it was built on the walls of a stone fort, constructed in the early days of the settlement for protection against the savages. This first church remained in existence just a century, being pulled down in the year 1766.

By the death of Domine Polhemus, the churches of Kings County were deprived of the regular preaching of the Gospel, and the Breuckelen church invited the Rev. Mr. Nieumenhausen, of New Amsterdam, to supply their pulpit, which he did until the year 1677. In that year the collegiate churches of the county extended a call to the Rev. Casparus van Zuren, from Holland, who was installed on the 6th of September at Flatbush, and of whom little is known, except that he was an industrious and systematic man.1

1 As evidenced by the very copious minutes which he has left upon the Flatbush Church Records, of the services which he performed, lists of baptisms, marriages, elections of officers, etc. See Strong's Hist. of Flatbush, p. 80.