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HISTORY
First Presbyterian Church
WOODBRIDGE, NEW JERSEY
300th Anniversary
MAY 25, 1975
1675
1975
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY
MAIN DERATY GEORGE FREDERICK PLAZA WOODBRIDGE, N.J. 07095
Edited by Martha Morrow Edward E. Baker
The Tercentenary Seal is adapted from a design submitted by Miss Cathy Briegs
Printed by Hoffman Printing Corp. Carteret, N. J.
REFERENCE USE ONLY
Preface
"The history of a nation," Woodrow Wilson once said, is "the history of its villages." Since the church was the very heart of village life, the early history of a settlement is inseparable from that of its church.
During the period of colonization, church and state were not sepa- rate entities as we know them today. The church, often referred to as "The Meeting House," was indeed the place where town meetings were held and in which the townspeople assembled to both worship and govern. In this, Woodbridge was no exception.
In reviewing the "Old Town Book" in which is recorded the pro- ceedings of town meetings of the 1660's and 1670's, we find land grants, court business, calls to clergymen and plans for building a meeting house all commingled. The Charter of Woodbridge, 1669, provided that 200 acres of land be set aside for the Kirk, the Kirk green and the use of the minister and that a tax be levied to pay the salary of the minister. In 1676, the town was assessed to defray the cost of building a meeting house, which was to become the First Pres- byterian Church of Woodbridge.
So thus it is that one publishes little volumes such as this to show the genesis of a village and the heritage of a people. We do so not without pride and satisfaction, pointing to 300 years (1675-1975) of continuous service to this community; saying with Wordsworth, We "seem of cheerful yesterdays and confident tomorrows."
The Editors
DEC 2 6 '84
324270
CONTENTS
Page
Pastors
I
Chapter 1, History 1675-1775 - Olga B. Howell
1
Chapter 2, History 1775-1875 - Marjorie C. Briegs
16
Chapter 3, History 1875-1975 - Rev. Lewis E. Bender
33
Chapter 4, Cemetery - John M. Kreger
49
Section 1, Puritan Funerary Art
49
Section 2, First Families or Early Settlers Interred in Our Cemetery 59
Section 3, War Veterans Interred
75
Section 4, Interments Having Unusual Interest Appeal 80
Section 5, Town Doctors Interred in Our Cemetery 86
Section 6, Former Pastors Interred in Our Cemetery 89
Section 7, Epitaphs on Tombstones in Our Cemetery
92
Section 8, Miscellaneous Comments
96
Chapter 5, Church Organizations 101
White Church Guild - Marjorie F. Lockie 101
Ladies Aid - Evelyn K. Kreger 103
United Presbyterian Women - Emma Aaroe
105
Sunday Church School - Gloria Peterson
108
Pastors
1670 (six months)
1674 (three months)
Rev. Samuel Treat 2 Rev. Benjamen Salisbury Rev. John Allin 3
1680-1685
1686-1689
Rev. Archibald Riddell 4
1695-1707
Rev. Samuel Shepard 5 Rev. Nathaniel Wade Rev. John Pierson
1707-1711 1714-1752 1755-1760 1763-1815
Rev. Nathaniel Whitaker
Rev. Azel Roe
1816-1821
Rev. Henry Mills
1822-1852
Rev. William B. Barton
1852-1863
Rev. William M. Martin
1863-1873
Rev. George C. Lucas Rev. Joseph M. McNulty Rev. Robert W. Mark
1907-1918
1918-1925
Rev. Leonard V. Buschman
1925-1927
Rev. Leroy Y. Dillener, Sr. Rev. Ernest A. Abbott Rev. Earl H. Devanny
1927-1933 1933-1959 1959-1967
Rev. Alex N. Nemeth
Rev. Lewis E. Bender 6 1967-
1. Names and dates compiled from primary sources.
2. The list is comprised of those who contracted to be the "Minister" of the Church. There were many others such as Rev. George Gillespie (1712), Rev. Howard Augustine (1932), and Rev. Kenneth M. Kepler (1942-1945) who served as "Interim" or "Supply" Pastors.
3. Sometimes incorrectly spelled "Allen".
4. Sometimes incorrectly spelled "Riddle".
5. Sometimes incorrectly spelled "Sheppard".
6. The list was compiled by Rev. Bender.
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1874-1906
Chapter 1
1675 - 1775
"Established 1675" reads a sign on the front of the First Presby- terian Church of Woodbridge. This is a matter of some pride and satisfaction to many who invest antiquity with all things good and wise. A more practical value can be put on an existence of some 300 years. The useful, continuing service to this community which has grown to a population of near 100,000 cannot be measured.
Although the history of a church normally begins with the start of regularly held services under the leadership of an ordained minister, our church has several alternate options. We might have selected the year 1667, the date when the articles of agreement were confirmed which included provision for the building of a church and the allot- ment of land for the minister. Or we might have chosen June 8, 1669 when two citizens were commissioned at a town meeting to secure a minister. However, May 27, 1675, the frame of the meeting house was erected; and it is this date which has been chosen as the real be- ginning of our church. In 1676, the town was assessed to defray the expenses of the building.
The attainment of a minister met with many an obstacle and it was not until September, 1680, that the services of Mr. John Allin were procured. At this point it might be well to note the very close relationship between church and state; church matters and secular matters were truly one. A voluntary subscription plan, adopted in 1680, was discarded the following year when it was ordered that the minister's salary be raised in the same manner as other taxes. In Janu- ary, 1681, it was voted that Mr. Allin be their choice of permanent pastor and that he be made a freeholder if he would stay. The next November he was presented with a house and ten acres.
"This is a fair place set in green meadows beside clear sparkling water with a good stand of timber nearby, with excellent protected water for shipping." Thus wrote an early promoter to folks back home in England early in the development of the New Jersey colony in an effort to entice more settlers to cross the stormy seas.
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However, the desire to cast their lot in the New World may have sprung not so much from the "green meadows" as from the religious oppression and persecution widespread in Europe during the Seven- teenth century.
In 1665, James, Duke of York, heir to the throne of England, granted title to the province of New Jersey and the right to govern it to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Cartaret. They appointed Philip Cartaret as Governor who sent agents to New England to seek settlers for the New Jersey colony.
A number of willing emigrants were found in Newbury, Mass., presumably through the efforts of John Woodbridge, an original settler of Newbury and a man of long standing influence in that community, having served in many capacities including surveyor, teacher, town clerk, magistrate and at that time Assistant Pastor of the church. The admiration and affection held for him was made abundantly clear when the emigrants named their new settlement Woodbridge, New Jersey, in honor of this great man. Articles were drawn up on December 11, 1666. "The contract was between Capt. Philip Cartaret, Governor of the Province of New Jersey, John Ogden, and Duke Watson of Eliza- bethtown of the first part and Daniel Pierce of Newbury, Massachusetts and his associates of the second part." Daniel Pierce paid to the party of the first part the sum of four score pounds sterling, being in full for said tract of land known by the name of Arthur Cull or Amboyle, or any other name it may be called by. This land was purchased from the natives or Indians by John Bayly, Daniel Denton, and the said Luke Watson as by said bill of sale from the natives, bearing date of October 28, 1664; which same then made over to Philip Cartaret and John Ogden. Daniel Pierce made choice of as his associates Joshua Pierce, John Pike, John Bishop, Henry Jacques and Hugh March of Newbury; Stephen Kent of Haverhill; Robert Dennis of Yarmouth; John Smith of Barnstable in New England.
The articles of agreement were confirmed by a deed dated De- cember 3, 1667, on which day Daniel Pierce was commissioned to be Deputy Surveyor to run boundary lines and lay out lands to the dif- ferent associates. These articles gave permission to settle one or two plantations consisting of forty to one hundred families in the area be- tween the Rahway River and the Raritan River. Provision was made for making land grants to settlers, for choosing magistrates and mili- tary officers, for electing deputies to the colony's General Assembly. Land was specifically allotted for the ministry and for the building of a church. About one third of the tract was sold to emigrants from New Hampshire, which became the township of Piscataway.
2
Rev. John Woodbridge
3
The following persons received patents from the Proprietors prin- cipally in the year 1670 for lands within the township of Woodbridge, and were all, it is believed, actual settlers. The nine original associ- ates were allowed to retain two hundred forty acres of upland and forty acres of meadow land in addition to the regular allotment to each Freeholder, but the first division is not recorded.
The nine associates are:
John Bishop
Joshua Pierce
Robert Dennis
John Smith "Wheelwright"
Henry Jacques
Hugh March
John Pike
Stephen Kent
Daniel Pierce
Additional settlers for that year are:
Daniel Robins
Jonathan Bishop
Isaac Tappan
James Clawson or Clarkson
Robert Rogers
Jonathan Dennis
Thomas Adams
Hopewell Hull
John Averill
Thomas Pike
As the settlers arrived, the land was divided, roads laid out, and the community established. The life of the town was quiet, principally agricultural. John Smith, wheelwright, was moderator of the town meetings which were held in his home. Township court named John Pike, Samuel Moore, and John Bishop as constables between 1671 and 1693. Samuel Hale was marshal; and the clerk was Jonathan Dunham. Many trades and vocations were present among the early Woodbridge inhabitants. There were carpenters, masons, wheelwrights, a dealer in bricks, a blacksmith, a shoemaker, two doctors.
Charters were asked for by both Woodbridge and Piscataway in which the residents were to have the privilege of choosing their own magistrate and military officers. They were empowered to hold courts for trial. This early Woodbridge charter, dated June 1, 1669, stated that liberty of conscience in religious worship was to be allowed and two hundred acres of land were to be set aside for the perpetual main- tenance of the ministry. Provision was made for a church and the churchyard to be exempt forever from tax of any kind. The Governor, Council, and General Assembly were the joint authority for levying tax, but were to do it only for the public good. The yearly rent of half-penny per acre to the Lords-proprietors was to begin March 25, 1670, thus giving the inhabitants nearly four years of exemption. All
4
land patents were to be recorded within a year of the time of survey- ing. In case of war, Woodbridge and Piscataway men agreed to com- bine with other towns in the Province against the common foe. All freeholders were to have a "free voice" in the election of Deputies to the General Assembly. They swore allegiance to the King and pledged their fidelity to the Proprietors. They claimed the privilege of moving when and where they pleased and of selling their land to the best ad- vantage. They were to have the necessary authority to impose fines upon criminals and to inflict punishment. Seven years possession of the land was to secure the same to the settler, his heirs, or assigns forever. The democratic doctrine of a ruling majority is set forth in the document.
In spite of a lovely setting and a potentially prosperous com- munity, it was very hard to persuade a minister to come to live among the early settlers.
At a town meeting, June 8, 1669, Geo. Little and Samuel Moore were directed to go to Newark to interview 'young Mr. Pierson' and "endeavor to get him to be our minister." The elder Mr. Pierson was pastor of the Newark congregation and the freeholders of that com- munity had decided to install the son as an assistant.
In July, a committee approached a Mr. Peck of Elizabethtown; but he, too, proved uninterested. Mr. Samuel Treat was offered twenty one pounds sterling for preaching the next six months.
The 7th of February, 1671, it was ordered a house lot and "other accommodations equal to those of other inhabitants be reserved for the use of a minister." Permission was given Jonathan Dunham to mow the grass on the parsonage meadow for four years or until a minister should come."
December, 1671, saw the selection of yet another committee of eight members to decide what must be done to obtain ministerial serv- ices. It was decided they must have a settled ministry. They approached Mr. Samuel Treat to secure his services permanently but were un- successful.
Mr. Benjamin Salisbury accepted the offer; but after one month, the town voted to dismiss him.
Hoping to improve their luck, they voted to build a meeting house, which was to be thirty feet square, and appointed a committee to con- tract for the suitable complement of carpenters.
It was also arranged that a room be fitted in the home of Mr. Samuel Hale or Samuel Moore to be offered to the minister whenever he should come.
5
Lots were drawn and Samuel Dennis was designated to "go North- ward to seek a minister." Since money was not abundant, 3000 pipe staves were made to defray the expenses. These staves, which were made in some quantity in Woodbridge, were used in making barrels and kegs. Unfortunately, the staves were sold, but no record exists that Samuel Dennis went anywhere.
A number of years later, the town asked Capt. Andrew Bound, a ship's master of a vessel sailing between England and the Colonies, to carry letters to clergy in England. He was authorized to seek out a minister in case the letters drew no response and to offer fifty pounds a year and the use of two hundred acres of parsonage land.
The raising of our first building occurred, as already stated, on May 27, 1675. There seems to have been a cessation of operations as to "internal improvements" for about five years. Not until 1680 or 1681 was the floor laid and the interior was ordered to be plastered on all but the south side over the clapboards. Why this singular omis- sion in plastering is not explained. About a year later a determined effort was made toward completion. It was ordered to be daubed, lathed and plastered. Two doors were made and fitted with locks. This early building was described by McNulty as "a building about thirty feet square, unpainted inside or out with no steeple or bell without, and no stove within. At one side a long pew for the accommodation of the public officers of the place, and on the other, similar pews run- ning parallel with the walls, which, it was said, were much sought after, as one eye could be directed toward the minister, and the other to anything that might require attention in the other part of the house.
In 1697 the "galaries were finished." In 1698 "the walls of the building were to be whitewashed by John Pike, member of the as- sembly and clerk of the corporation." Ezekiel Bloomfield was also "to build a new pulpit forthwith." This circular pulpit supported by a pedestal placed the minister above the congregation, beneath the time-honored sounding board. Ezekiel Bloomfield was ex-assemblyman and, a little later, keeper of the pound. So it must be noted that public functionaries, in those days, did not consider that any honorable em- ployment, however humble, would compromise their dignity.
Two pillars supported the roof from the center, which went up on four sides ending, at this time, in a small steeple. The sexton, in ringing the bell, stood in the middle aisle, winding the rope around one of the pillars during the service.
The church was never desecrated with stoves, but in the midst of winter the good people kept up what heat they could by an occa-
6
sional stamp on the floor, and tradition says the "dominee would keep warm by an extra amount of gesture."
This building stood until 1802, when it was taken down to give way to a new place of worship.
Some time in 1685, the good Mr. Allin severed connections with the Woodbridge congregation. Perhaps his health suffered; the records do not say. He lived in Woodbridge until he died in January, 1715. He was married three times; his last wife was Deliverance Potter.
In October, 1686, Mr. Archibald Riddell, of Scotland, was en- couraged to settle here and to be the minister. He was granted eight acres of land "adjoining the meeting house and fronting on the high- way that runs west from the kirk green." He was admitted as a Free- holder and granted one hundred twenty acres of upland for a farm and ten more for planting, all of which he enjoyed tax free. Upon his departure in 1689 he returned to the town the eight acres and a house he started to build. In 1700 he disposed of his Woodbridge land to Thomas Gordon. In the deed he is referred to as the minister of the gospel of Kirkaldie in county Fife.
After several years of searching, the Woodbridge congregation was able to secure the services of Mr. Samuel Shepard as their min- ister. Spiritual affairs seem to have greatly prospered under his lead- ership. His salary was fifty pounds per annum, or its equivalent, which could have been pork, peas, wheat, or the like. This was raised by direct tax on the townsmen, Mr. Samuel Dennis and Jonathan Bishop being appointed to receive it.
About this time we read in the town records a freeman of the town, William Webster, objected to the tax for the minister's salary on grounds of conscientious scruples. Whereupon Capt. John Bishop assumed the man's share of the annual rate during his (Bishop's) life- time. Although this is the first record of a decided stand against the tax, it, no doubt, had been a matter of private discussion for a time. There would eventually be a division of civil and religious matters with the church shouldering the cost of its ministry.
The situation in New Jersey was different from that in Scotland or England, or even New England. The original proprietors of the colony were Anglican, but as landlords they needed settlers to make the colony prosper. So all the early agreements and charters provided that no one would be persecuted for his religious belief as long as there was no civil disturbance. The colony of New Jersey was not to have an established church - there were Baptists at Middletown and
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Piscataway; Quakers at Shrewsbury; Reformed at Bergen; Puritans at Elizabethtown, Newark, and Woodbridge; and Presbyterians at Free- hold. Although each settlement had its own church supported by pub- lic taxation, the passage of time brought the founding of different churches within the same community, and the financial support for the ministry came to be based not on public taxation but on subscription of the members.
May, 1696, saw Mr. Shepard determined to go to New England to visit. The town offered him a house, which had been started by Mr. Riddell, and thirty acres of land on condition he should return. Return he did. We find him preaching in Woodbridge for some years.
In 1701, a committee was directed to confer with him on the matter of his being ordained as minister of the town. However, at this point, his wife flatly declared against settling permanently in Wood- bridge. He told them there was no possibility of her changing her mind and they best look out for a new pastor.
In 1707 Nathaniel Wade came to Woodbridge and began a rather stormy ministry. He was a Boston Congregationalist whose decided opinions and imperious bearing stirred up considerable conflict within the congregation.
The first entry in the church record, written by Mr. Wade himself following his ordination and installation in January, 1708, read thus:
"January 29th, 1707/8, Was gathered the Church of Christ in Woodbridge by Nathaniel Wade, pastor. Present there were as Mes- sengers, two from ye church of Newark, and one from the Church of Elizabethtown: Theophilus Pierson, Jonahs Wood, Benjamin Price. The foundation of ye church was laid first upon three persons who had been Communicants in other churches, viz: Sam'l Hail, John Pike, and Noah Bishop."
It became clear that Mr. Wade had organized the church accord- ing to the pattern of the Congregational Church. Included among the church members at this time was an increasing number of Scotch-Irish immigrants who were confirmed Presbyterians as well as others who leaned toward the Church of England.
The congregational convictions of Mr. Wade so angered some of the parishioners that an appeal was made to the Presbytery of Phila- delphia for aid in the matter.
The earliest extant records of Presbytery, which had been founded in 1706, include Woodbridge as a church under its jurisdiction and
8
show that in May 1708, efforts were being made to resolve the dif- ferences between Mr. Wade and the people of Woodbridge.
The church rolls at the beginning of Mr. Wade's pastorate showed forty-seven members, increasing to sixty-seven in 1709, and to seventy- five in 1710. This increase in membership, undoubtedly of Presby- terian faith, served to augment the battle which raged on, with the Presbytery keeping their hands in the furor. Even though Mr. Wade became a Presbyterian in September 1710, his effort did not settle the dispute.
In 1711 the differences between Mr. Wade and one segment of the congregation reached a climax, causing a secession from the church. These people sent to Elizabethtown for a Rev. Edward Vaughan to help them establish an Episcopalian church.
The Presbytery at this time, in order to resolve the various dis- putes, suggested Mr. Wade sever ministerial relations with Woodbridge; however, his name appears on town records until January, 1714.
When the Presbytery of Philadelphia was founded in 1706 under the leadership of Francis Makemie, a Scotch Presbyterian missionary, who came to America in the 1680's, the New Jersey and Long Island churches rapidly sought admission. By 1716 the Presbytery had forty churches claiming 3,000 members. Increasing migration of Scotch- Irish confirmed the trend toward Presbyterianism.
In 1729 the Synod (organized in 1717) adopted as its standard of doctrinal belief, the Westminister Confession of Faith of 1647, with the statement that ministers were to subscribe to its "necessary and essential articles."
Since neither Presbytery nor Synod had any connection with the church in Scotland, this action established an exclusively American church authority, completely separate from Europe and long before this occurred on most other denominations.
The Reverend John Pierson succeeded to the pastorate of the Woodbridge church in 1714. He was the son of Reverend Abraham Pierson of Killingworth, Connecticut, the first President of Yale Col- lege, and the grandson of John Pierson, the first minister of the Newark Church. It is supposed that Reverend Jonathan Dickinson, his close friend, who was the celebrated Independent preacher of Elizabethtown, introduced young Pierson's name to the Woodbridge congregation. Mr. Pierson was married to Ruth Woodbridge, daughter of Reverend Timothy Woodbridge of Hartford, Connecticut, and granddaughter of John Woodbridge of Newbury, Mass. She died in 1732.
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Mr. Pierson's arrival rapidly smoothed over the quarrel that had occurred over Nathaniel Wade. John Pierson in his years at Wood- bridge, .until 1752, became one of the colony's outstanding ministers, taking a leading role in Synod affairs, sympathetic to the ideas of the Great Awakening, and active in helping the church to solve the prob- lems that the revival raised. He was instrumental in founding the Col- lege of New Jersey for the training of Presbyterian ministers, and ef- fective in furthering the process of Americanization through his ability to relate his theological training to the conditions of colonial society. Within his congregation, he acquired a reputation of being a strict disciplinarian.
It was some time in the early years of Pierson's ministry that the first meeting house was built in Metuchen. The first entry in their Session Book reads:
"A.D. 1717. There was a small church built in the north west part of the township of Woodbridge called Metuchen for the purposes of preaching lectures in every fourth week on week day by the Rev. Mr. John Pierson then minister of the First Pres- byterian congregation in the township aforesaid to which con- gregation we were then united."
In the first half of the eighteenth century, because of expanding population, the absence of an established church, and the influence of the religious upheaval known as the Great Awakening, many new churches began to be founded as new centers of rural population began to form. So the Rahway Church was founded in the 1740's by Wood- bridge communicants, and Westfield split off from Elizabeth in 1727. With this growth the church as a whole underwent periodic reorgani- zation. In 1733 the Presbytery of East Jersey was created; and in 1738, six churches in East Jersey, including Woodbridge, and eight on Long Island united to form the Presbytery of New York, which was soon to become one of the Synod's leading Presbyteries.
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