The Snell's Bush Church was German Reformed in the early days. Services were in High German. The families all spoke German. The children could not speak English until they attended school. It was changed to Dutch Reformed in 1829. From Emma Timerman's "Homestead Notes" she writes:

"My Grandmother Permelia Timmerman told me again and again that her ancestors and Grandfather's were not related, not even in Europe. 'Your grandpa's family was pure German. Your name should be Zimmerman. We lived here with his people and spoke German as long as the old folks lived. When your Uncle Norman and Uncle Lyman went to school, Norman who was older, used to take Lyman out behind the school house during recesses to teach him English.'

After the Revolutionary War Lieutenant Henry and Peter Snell became close friends. They and their families rebuilt the frame church in 1790. They were often together and sang the old German Hymns and prayed together. Peter Snell was the greatest contributor for the church and Lt. Henry Zimmerman was next.

Peter Snell's family donated the land for the church & cemetery, the parsonage, and the schoolhouse. There were nine men in this family who went to Oriskany. Peter and one other returned, the rest were killed. He wanted the church on the hill to be there for his children, grandchildren, and all future generations. In Emma's notes "The Snells had given the land for the church 'as long as grass grows and water runs'."

"Sunday services were almost like a family gathering. Nearly all were Snells or Timmermans or related by marriage. These are some of my early memories: Listening for the church bell on Sunday morning; seeing the well-kept horses and wagons; the men in derbies or tall silk hats, tailor-made suits, high leather boots with the tops inside their trousers, large gold watches with chains and lockets; the women in beautifully decorated small bonnets of woven straw, with a velvet or satin tie under their chin, silk or satin dresses with tight waists and long skirts below their ankles, bustles and hoop skirts. Their high-buttoned shoes were usually black or the color of bronze. Those in mourning wore long heavy veils reaching to the waist, and so arranged as to cover the face or to be thrown aside. They waited in the narrow church hall for their husbands while they put the horses in the shed, then walked reverently down the aisles to their pews, where they bowed humbly in prayer after their little pew-door was closed.

"Such were the later days of the great prosperity period after the Civil War, when Little Falls was the greatest cheese market in the world, and Herkimer County cheese was on hotel menus in England and France. The old log cabins had long since disappeared; even saltbox houses were well nigh a thing of the past. Beautiful new homes of brick or wood had been constructed. There were large apple orchards of many varieties, all kinds of fruits for home canning and sale to local markets, and big fields of excellent potatoes. The days of the scythe, cradle, flail, and homemade cheese were gone. The cheese factories, the mower and the reaper had come. German and Irish immigrants and young people from the poorer sections to the north could be hired at small cost. With their fine well-furnished homes - the furniture brought by canal or rail- and the successful dairying, it seemed that they had no care in the world.

"But the Palatine desire for homes and land for their children had called many of our families west or north, especially west. They began to make cheese there, thus spoiling our only important farming industry which grew weaker year after year until the cheese factories closed. Most of the younger generation sought other kinds of labor. Reciprocity laws with Canada ruined the hay and sheep industries to which some had started to turn. The long depression was never overcome until the First World War, when prices rose sharply and quickly, only to lower again.

"Those who could do so, retired and lived in town; others labored on night and day, hiring little or no help. Women dressed in shirtwaists and long, usually black skirts and their hats were decorated with cheap posies. The men were wearing ready-made clothes and drove only workhorses and old or less expensive rigs. They tried their best to raise money for the church, but the days of a settled pastor in the parsonage, with land for a garden and one or two cows, were not to be seen again.

"Then came the automobile! A few of the wealthier families bought them and went to church elsewhere. Seminary students for preaching during summer vacations were no longer supported. Efforts by the Classical Missionary and other pastors were in vain, and the Snells Bush Church doors were kept locked for years."

"A meeting was called to decide to sell the parsonage and land. The money to be used for upkeep of the church and the cemetery. It was sold and the money put in the bank for cemetery use only.

"Finally the last Sunday in July 1938, a meeting was called to vote to raze the church and mark the spot with a monument. I was invited evidently because the ministers wanted to give me the pulpit Bible, one that Mrs. E. Lansing had given me to put in Snells Bush Church back in 1907. The rope had been taken from the bell, which was sold, never to ring again. Local church officers had invited the Montgomery Classic to conduct the meeting. After reporting that there was no money for the church, but that there was money for the cemetery, and that it was doubtful if more than a dozen would attend a service if the church were opened. There were some suggestions for its use. Someone promised that a seminary summer student would be paid and Rev. Gedds of St. Johnsville pronounced that he would preach there one year free of charge if the church would be saved. But No! Those who had come to kill it attempted the job. The Classic leader finally said, 'If you want to kill it kill it right'. The motion was made the vote taken. I felt myself in hell. I was blind as I groped through the hall. I felt that God wanted me to do something. I knew not what or how. Funny but I kept thinking of the poem: "Woodsman Spare that Tree"

Touch not a single bough
In youth it sheltered one
And I'll protect it now.'

"Then came the invitations to the Reunion of the Snells and Timmermans at Klock Park in St. Johnsville. I received several extra postal cards to send to relatives. I threw the cards on the table saying, 'Sunday picnic! I'm not going!' then grabbed it saying delightedly, 'There's a chance for the Snell's Bush Church. I'm going but not until after dinner.' Both Mother and I felt the responsibility and the opportunity. We spent the morning quietly, prayerfully, going to the home of Mrs. David Burrell for a brief visit for I knew of her great concern regarding the Church.

"My name had been used on the invitations, along with Ralph Ehle, and Guy Snell. When I was asked to speak. I thought, 'Who am I, a little country schoolteacher to speak before that crowd? What would I say to them?' Almost instantly, I realized that it was my God given opportunity to tell them about the Church that had been closed for many years and was now to be torn down. How did they feel about it? The story of the plight of the Church turned the crowd. I told them that the dear old Church on the hill where our ancestors had worshipped together was to be razed. Its steeple was off, the bell rope gone, the roof was leaking and the plaster was falling. The petition was written and signed by many!

"At the 1939 Reunion we decided to hire a contractor. He examined the building and said that the necessary immediate improvements for the building would cost $100. A letter was sent out to find if that amount could be raised. The response was gratifying. Roof and plaster were cared for, steeple and bell rope replaced, and cemetery cared for! In 1940, there was enough money to paint the exterior. This is God's Acre!"

A workman on his way to work noticed a rainbow over the church. The way he saw it, the rainbow ended at the front doors of the church. He took a photo of it (below - from Nancy Cioch).

The history of the church being founded is in the booklet "Fifty Years with the Faith of our Fathers"