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Immigration The ") and '' The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow ''. A bitter theological split in the Dutch Reform church in the 1770s affected New Jersey and New York. A dissident minority of ministers calling itself the "conferentie" set up separate churches. They were traditionalists who looked to the old country as a model and strongly opposed the recently introduced revivals and prayer meetings. Domine John Henry Goetschius, a highly influential pastor and teacher, and his mentor, Theodorus J. Frelinghuysen of New Brunswick, were the organizers of the Great Awakening, which won the support of the majority of the ministers (and people). They supported revivals, wanted to break ties with Holland, and fought the conferentie. They came to be known as the "coetus" party. When war came in 1775, most of the conferentie party, in the Hackensack valley of New Jersey at least, became Tories; the coetus party mostly Whigs. (Leiby) The land tenure of the Hudson River region was based on vast estates controlled by Patroon s and worked by tenant farmers. Stephen Van Rensselaer III (1764-1839) was the largest landholder in America, with 3000 tenants on 7.7 million acres (31,000 km&2) of rich farmland. In 1824 he founded Rensselaer School (now known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute , or RPI.) Political power was in the hands of the landed aristocracy until well after the Revolution. Van Rensselaer, Abraham Van Vechten, Johan Jost Dietz, Dirck Ten Broeck, Hermanns Bleecker, James Van Schoonhoven, and others were all Federalist s who collaborated with New York merchants. Rents on the large estates were often paid in products, and in other respects as well, a quasi-feudal relationship prevailed. Anti-Rent War s and near rebellion led to the collapse of the estates, which were purchased by the tenants in the 1840s. After 1700 there were few immigrants until the 19th century, when - mostly - farmers, forced by high taxes and low wages, started immigrating to America. They went to the Midwest , especially Michigan, Chicago and Iowa. In the 1840s came Christian Reformed immigrants fleeing religious persecution of their minority version of Calvinism . Large numbers of Catholics also immigrated; some forming communities in Wisconsin . By 1900, the number of U.S. residents born in the Netherlands exceeded 105,000. Of these, over 50,000 were in Michigan, about 22,000 in Illinois, and 10,000 in Iowa. In the next decade, all these settlements grew, thanks to the arrival of another 30,000 immigrants, and of course, the growing numbers of American-born children and grandchildren. The Dutch villages of Michigan, Illinois and Iowa rested on a stern Calvinistic foundation, and the were also founded. After 1917, the forces of Americanization proved irresistible, as the youth all spoke English, but relished their Edam Cheese , Banket , Rusk s, rye bread, and Currant bread, washed down with cold water. Even as late as the 2000s, Dutch language could occasionally be heard and several Dutch-founded communities still held heritage events such as Tulip Festival s. NUMBERS Between 1820 and 1900, 340,000 Dutch immigrated from the Netherlands to the United States of America. In the aftermath of World War II , several tens of thousands of Dutch joined them, mainly moving to California and Washington state. In several counties in Michigan and Iowa, Dutch-Americans remain the largest ethnic group. Nowadays, most Dutch-Americans (27%) live in California, followed by New York, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The term Pennsylvania Dutch refers to German-Americans who settled in Pennsylvania in the colonial era, not to the Dutch.Probably between 4 and 8 million Americans come from Dutch origin today. FAMOUS DUTCH-AMERICANS See Also: List of Dutch Americans
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