Johannes Masten

Johannes entered the world in 1678 soon after his parents Cornelis and Elizabeth were married, and in true Dutch naming fashion, he received his grandfather's first name (the "dutch" version of John). Living in the historic Dutch enclave of Kingston, New York, Johannes Masten was the definition of an industrious family man.

His first marriage to Marytje Swart in 1701 brought five children into the world. Sadly, Marytje passed away in 1711 shortly after giving birth to their youngest son, Jacobus. Johannes did not remain a bachelor for long — most eighteenth century men with five youngsters needed a replacement wife ASAP.

In January 1712, he married his second wife, Marytje (Maria) Wels, and together they spent the next two decades dramatically expanding the family tree. Nine more children followed! Among this second batch of children was a son named Petrus (Peter). Petrus was a bit of an enigma — he completely missed his scheduled date with the baptismal font, leaving us to guess his birth as a "late 1726-ish" arrival and a few people thinking he actually came from Ireland (!!). Despite his lack of official paperwork, Petrus grew up, thrived, and passed down the family line to become a direct ancestor of Herman L. Wolf.

Johannes passed away in 1755 at the ripe old age of 76 without a will. It is because of this that we had to go through a pile of documents to prove via very strong circumstantial evidence that he had a son named Petrus, who was the progenitor of the Fayette County PA Masten line. That evidence is laid out in the Peter Masten page of this site.

The stone house, originally built by Herman Wolf's 3rd great-granduncle Cornelis (son of Johannes and his wife Marytje Swart), eventually came into use by the community and is historically known today as the Old Dutch Church Parsonage. A full filing of the Historic Places paperwork can be found at the National Archives (note: very slow to load).

NOTE: This is NOT built on the same plot where his grandparents Cornelis and Elizabeth lived. The original Cornelis lived in an early timber-and-stone dwelling inside the stockade gates. His home, and his barn, stood on a different plot entirely — at the corner of what is now John Street and Fair Street. Later on, they began expanding their property holdings south of the stockade.