Schoonmaker, Jacob, 1777-1852

Jacob Schoonmaker was born in Acquackanonck (present-day Passaic), New Jersey on May 11, 1777, son of Henricus Schoonmaker, a Dutch Reformed minister in Acquackanonck from 1774-1799 (and both Acquackanonck and Totowa from 1799-1816). He was licensed as a clergy at Paramus, New Jersey in 1801 and was ordained in New York in 1802. He served as the pastor of First Reformed Dutch Church of Newtown, Long Island (later known as Elmhurst, and now part of the Borough of Queens in the city of New York) and the Queens First Reformed (Dutch) Church in Jamaica, New York from 1802-1849, and solely for Jamaica from 1849-1850. He was President of the General Synod in 1828. His son, Richard L. Schoonmaker, was also a Dutch Reformed minister, serving the Glen Reformed Church in upstate New York. Jacob Schoonmaker died on April 10, 1852.