churches. They were unable to retain even the families they had
inherited from their Dutch and German ancestors. We search in vain for
descendants of the New York Lutherans of the eighteenth century in any
of our churches.

Not until a new contribution of immigrants from Lutheran lands had been
made to America did our church begin to rise to a position of influence.

When in the second quarter of the nineteenth century the first
self-sustaining English Lutheran church was established, the
Ockershausens and other children of immigrants were the strong pillars
of its support. From that day to the present time not a single English
Lutheran church has been established and maintained in this city where
the Schierens, the Mollers and scores of others, immigrants or the
children of immigrants, were not the chief supporters of the work.
Without their effective aid the English Lutherans of the nineteenth
century would have been swallowed up by "the denominations that are
around us" as were their predecessors of the eighteenth century.

Some of our Anglo-American neighbors are concerned about our political
welfare. They advise us to drop the German in order that we may become
"Americanized."

Many of us are the children of Germans who tilled the soil of America
before there was a United States of America.

The Germans of the Mohawk Valley won at Oriskany, according to
Washington, the first battle of importance in the American Revolution.*
[Tr. note: original has no footnote to go with this asterisk]