Benjamin Tryon was ordained as Deacon of the Reform Dutch Protestant church of Coxsackie in 1807. He replaced Abraham Lampman who refused to serve. (probably some relative, of his relative-by-marraige Stephen Lampman). He had been involved with church affairs from the beginning, "signing" the original church incorporation papers in 1788 and the Deed for a new meeting house in 1797/8. There are 2 shocking things I found out about Benjamin Tryon while going thru those early church records today - 1. Benjamin Tryon was quite possibly illiterate! On both the church incorporation papers and the deed I mentioned above, he "made his mark" with his initials. 2. Neither he, or any other Tryon, is not listed in the church records for people in the community who served in the Revolution from there. I assumed that he or one of his sons served from there. There were there as early as 1760, the date on Elizabeth, dau Benj and Eliz. Jochem had a dau baptized 1769, so he was certainly old enough to serve. Does anybody have any idea if they served or didn't, and where they would have signed the "Association" (or not signed as the case may be)?