Samuel Lape, born December 29, 1751, and baptized at Christ's Evangelical Lutheran Church, in Germantown, NY, on January 01, 1752, was sponsored by Samuel Schurtz and Anna Hagedorn. Samuel Schurtz was born December 1, 1731 at East Camp, Columbia, NY, the son of Valentin David Schurtz and Anna Catherine Müller (sister of Anna Margaretha Müller) of Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany. Anna Hagedorn was the wife of Andreas Müller (brother of Anna Margaretha Müller).

Samuel Lape moved from Claverack, Columbia County, NY, to Greenbush (later named West Sand Lake), Rensselear County, NY, about 1770, marrying Anna Elizabeth Heidley, daughter of John and Anna Catherine Hideley, in Greenbush, NY, about 1772. John Heidley (Heidle, Hidley) immigrated to America in 1754, to Germantown, NY (East Camp), settling in Greenbush, Rensselaer, NY, just North of Aries' (Snyder's) Lake in 1769.

Samuel Lape and his twin brother, Thomas, served in the Albany County militia during the Revolution. Samuel served in the Revolutionary War from about 1777-1785 in at least two regiments, for which he was paid. Samuel Lape was a Sergeant in the Captain De Forest's Company, Captain Husted's Company, and Captain Fraist's Company, 6th Regiment (4th Rensselaerwyck Battalion), Henry K. Van Rensselaer's Regiment (Albany County), New York Militia and shows up on a list for the Land Bounty Rights as a member of the 6th Regiment, Albany County Militia (as Samuel Leap). He was paid as a soldier on January 14, 1785, £3.4.9 and on another date, £4.12.10. He was also on the payroll of Captain Cornelius Noble's Company, in Colonel Stephen Schuyler's Regiment of the Albany County Militia, August 11, 1777.

Henry Killian Van Rensselaer (1743 - 1816) was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Albany County, NY Militia, Sixth Regiment and later advanced as General. "He was in several engagements, during which he uniformly discovered the greatest coolness and courage. In July 1777 he was attacked by a large body of the enemy at Fort Ann, but with an unequal force he resisted them with great obstinacy and success until he learned that Ticonderoga had been abandoned by our troops, when he brought his men off. On that occasion he received a wound from a musket shot, the effect of which he severely felt throughout the remainder of his life."

Samuel Lape did not file for a Revolutionary War pension, but his name does show up on the Sixth Regiment, Albany County Militia, Land Bounty Rights as Samuel Leap. The Sixth Regiment engaged in skirmishes with the Tories along the Mohawk River and the Hudson River, but were not engaged in any conventional battle. The Sixth Regiment, and other militias in the area, formed a core of protection for the Albany area that helped keep the British Army and the Loyalist Militias from establishing a base of operations there. If a base were to be established in Albany and in the Hudson River Valley as a whole, it would serve to cut the colonies in half. This would cut the New England colonies off from the rest of the colonies, greatly strengthening the British and Loyalist cause. The Sixth regiment did participate in the Seige of Fort Ticonderoga in July 1777.

Samuel Lape, Sr. moved to the "Upper Manor" of Rensselaerwyck, later to be known as West Sand Lake, Rensselaer, NY, in 1770. Although Samuel is believed to have lived at Greenbush (West Sand Lake) since 1770, the date of the lease is listed as August 22, 1791. He would have officially settled on the land in 1784, seven years before the "durable lease". It appears that Samuel may have lived with the John Hideley family between 1770-1784. Samuel would have been busy as a Revolutionary soldier during most of these years, and when not soldiering he probably worked for his father-in-law, John Hideley, especially during spring & fall harvest times. Samuel and his wife, Elizabeth Hideley, were also busy starting their family during these years.

Samuel Lape held a lease from Stephen Van Rensselaer for 222 acres. Samuel Lape's neighbors were the Charles Neer family, the Andreas Weatherwax family, the Laurence Weatherwax family, the John Feller family, the Johannes Kilmer family, the David Calkins family, the Jonas Kenter family, the Henrick Mueller family, the Edenent Campbell family, the John Strope family, and a little farther to the North, the John Hideley family. Like his father Andries Lape and his neighbors, Samuel Lape was a farmer.

Samuel and Elizabeth Lape were active members of Trinity Lutheran Church, West Sand Lake, NY. Originally known as the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church of Rensselaerwyck & Greenbush, it became the First Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1825. The original church was located on the Glebe Farm, southwest of the present location in the village of West Sand Lake. Samuel Lape was a witness to the choosing by ballot of the following church officers on January 25, 1791: Barent Uhlein, Andreas Wederwax, and Andreas Miller. Samuel Lape gave an affidavit of the proceeding, dated March 15, 1790, and the certificate is recorded in Albany County, in Church Patents, Volume I, page 38.

The Samuel Lape homestead, built in 1797, was located in the Town of West Sand Lake, on Barnes Road, which is located south of the village of West Sand Lake, and which intersects County Route 150. In the late 19th Century, Barnes Road dead-ended at the Samuel Lape Farm and did not continue through to Parker Road and end at NYS Route 152 as it does today. Samuel Lape shows up on the first U.S. Census of 1790 in Rensselaerwyck.

Samuel Lape, Sr., and Elizabeth Lape last received communion together at Trinity Lutheran on July 8, 1799. Elizabeth Hideley Lape died on October 05, 1799, in West Sand Lake, NY; Samuel's father, Andries Lape, died on July 07, 1800, in Claverack, NY; and Samuel's mother, Anna Margaretha Muller Lape, died on October 05, 1804, in Claverack, NY. Samuel (Loeb) last received communion at Trinity Lutheran Church, West Sand Lake, on October 29, 1808, and we "engage and bind ourselves to pay the sums opposite to our names for the building of a new church on the old place where the church now stands", February 21, 1815: Samuel Loeb ($50.00) and Andrew Lape ($15). Samuel Lape was envisioning another adventurous journey.

Samuel Lape, Junior, the youngest of the eleven children of Samuel and Anna Hidley Lape, was born on April 12, 1796. Samuel Lape, Jr., served in the War of 1812. He served in Hardenburgh's Regiment, of the New York Militia, from September 10, 1813 to October 27, 1813. In the Spring of 1814 Samuel Lape, Junior, was unable to take an active role in manual labor due to a (possibly war-related) leg injury, but was able to ride a horse. As a mission, which he willfully accepted from his father, Samuel traveled northward in search of new land. When Samuel searched Saratoga County, he appraised the agricultural promise. He carried back to his father a discouraging report. His father then dispatched him westward to Schoharie County, New York, somewhat west and south of Cobleskill, near Summit Four Corners, in the hamlet of Lutheranville, NY. Samuel's destination was the home of one, Charles Neer, a Revolutionary War veteran and an uncle.

Charles Neer was the son of Barent Neer (and Anna Barbara Treber), and the grandson of Johann Karl Neher (and Anna Constantia Reickert), a founder and builder of the "Old Stone Church", in Rhinebeck, Dutchess, NY. Charles Neer married Catherine Hideley, a sister to Anna Elizabeth Hideley (wife of Samuel Lape, Sr.), and moved to Lutheranville, Schoharie County about 1795. Wallace C. Van Houten, the Schoharie County Historian and overseer of Vroman's Nose, of Middleburgh, NY, is a descendant of Mary Barbara Neer, daughter of Samuel Neer, and granddaughter of Charles Neer.

It happened that in Lutheranville, of the six Charles Neer children, there was one, Lany, who was comely, sixteen and single. Imagine the pleasure of Samuel Lape, Jr. returning on a long trip back to his father with news of available land, both "neer" and far. Also imagine how young love made him see charms in a country heavily wooded and far above the settled valleys.

Samuel Lape, Sr. moved to Lutheranville in 1814-1815, at age 63 years, with his son Samuel Lape, Junior, his son Andreas Lape, and a grandson Samuel Andreas Lape (also known as Samuel Lape, 2nd or III). Andreas Lape, born December 24, 1777, married Elizabeth Schauerman who died in 1815. Andreas Lape purchased 143 acres of land in Lutheranville, NY, at a cost of $750, on October 27, 1825, from Susan Ogden, Hannah Murray, and Mary Murray, of New York (K-235).

Samuel Lape, Sr., and family settled in Lutheranville, NY, upon a farm which he originally leased. The family lived in a log cabin near a spring and the present Lape homestead. Samuel was a self-supporting farmer and a God-fearing man. Samuel Lape, Sr., was a trustee of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lutheranville, NY, where he served for the first two years of the church's foundation in 1822.

The Lutheran Church of Summit, Lutheranville, NY: "The edifice in which this society worships is at Lutheranville in the west part of the town, in the midst of an industrious and prosperous community. The organization was effected in 1823 through the labors of its first pastor, the worthy George Lintner. In 1836 the church building was erected and remodeled in 1858, and will seat three hundred and fifty. The first officers were from the Neer, Lape, Fredindal and Morrison families, the first settlers of the neighborhood. The pastors were as follows: Rev. George Lintner, P. G. Cole, --- Slimser, Nicholas Van Alstine, Benjamin Diefendorf, (eighteen years), Samuel Bruce, J. S. Paul, and S. W. Young."

Lutheranville, NY: "This hamlet was for a long term of years called ‘Tar Hollow’, We are assured by Jacob Wilcox and others, although we have no official proof of the fact, that a Deputy Sheriff by the name of Mr. Whittaker, during the anti-rent troubles of 1844 and 1845, was taken by the anti-rent settlers, while in the performance of official duties, in the collection of a debt, and treated to a good coat of tar and feathers. Our informants assure us, the tar and feathers were placed upon a stone-boat and taken to a convenient place, where the deputy was stripped of his clothing and besmeared with the tar, from head to foot, and then covered with feathers. We believe it was the only instance in the County, where such measures were taken and carried out. Since those exciting times, no place can be found, where more law-abiding citizens reside, than throughout this neighborhood."

Samuel Lape, Jr., married Lany Neer on November 16, 1817 in Lutheranville, NY. He purchased 144 acres of land at a cost of $720, on October 27, 1825, from Susan Ogden, Hannah Murray, and Mary Murray, of New York (H-106). Samuel Lape, Jr., also purchased sixty acres of land at a cost of $250, on November 13, 1828, from Lucads Elmondorf of Livingston, Ulster County, New York (K-237).

Samuel Lape, Sr., died on March 13, 1831, aged 80 years, his interment in the Lutheranville Church cemetery in an unmarked grave. He had finally reached his resting place.

If you love me then you will obey my command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter to be with you for ever - the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him; for He lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.
-John 14:16-18