In 1814, the Reverand Elias van Benshooten (as he spelled his name), uninvited, walked into a meeting of the General Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church, and paraded up to the table of elders in his shabby, homespun cloths, whereupon, may eyebrows must have been raised. To what must been their amazement, this minister from Wantage, plunked on the table $13,000 in bonds and $800 in cash.

A year later when he died, he left $3,333 to the Dutch Reformed Seminary in New Brunswick (Rutgers University). His total donation was therefor more than $17,000. This was intended, he said, to be "applied to the education of pious youth who hope they have a call of God to preach the Gospel of Christ." This was one of the first scholarship funds in the United States, and is still being used for its initial purpose,education in the ministry.