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name had been changed to its current name of South Blendon Reformed
Church.

Most of the Dutch Reformed Churches in Michigan and Iowa held their
services in Dutch. Many Dutch-Americans, even if they spoke fluent
English, believed that a church service was not Holy unless spoken in
Dutch. As the Dutch population increased, existing churches would
sponsor the organization of new congregations, and later, a few English
speaking churches were sponsored for members who preferred to have
services in English. After 1900 the number of immigrants coming from
Holland declined sharply. The period between 1910 and 1920 was one of
rapid transition to church services in English. By then, most of the
immigrants had lived in America for generations and the number of
members born in the Netherlands had declined as the older people passed
away. In addition, the occurrence of World War I brought a wave of
patriotism toward America that inspired most of the Dutch to use English
so they would not be mistaken for Germans who had become greatly
despised.

The records of the Reformed Church of America (RCA) show that J.W. Poot
received the Congregation of Farowe/South Blendon Reformed Church in
Hudsonville in January 1895. The church was a Dutch language church,
and the church minutes were also written in Dutch. (Perhaps best
described as 95% Dutch with a few German and English words mixed in.)
The church had no full time pastor in 1894, but Reverend William Baas
from the Beaverdam Reformed Church near Zeeland, Michigan served as a
consultant and visiting minister. After some discussion on November 12,
1894, the Church Council cast 27 votes for accepting Rev. J.W. Poot, and
two votes for Rev. Baas. The council declared unanimous support for the
choice of Rev. Poot and began preparing a letter calling him with a job
offer. The congregation records refer to Rev. Poot as "Leeraar", a Dutch
word meaning "Teacher". Two Elders, J. Syveks and H. Elzinga served as
Deacons, and Peter Stegeman served as Clerk and Secretary.

On December 31, 1894, the Church Council met with Rev. Poot to prepare
a contract for his employment. J. Syveks and Peter Stegeman were to do
the legal research and write a contract that would employ Rev. Poot for a
minimum of two months and to pay him 50 dollars within the two months.
They also decided to conduct a Holy Communion at the church in two
weeks.

In the coming months, Rev. Poot's lively and powerful sermons inspired
many new people to be "interrogated" and accepted into the congregation.
For example, the council meeting on June 24, 1895 accepted three new
members. This same meeting also scheduled Communion (Holy Supper)
for the last Sunday of the month, and "The Constitutional Question" was
remembered and a committee was formed to investigate travel
arrangements and expenses. Presumably this was about sending someone

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