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BX 9211 .P7 B4 Copy 1
HISTORY of
THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH at PLAINFIELD, NEW JERSEY
By ALLEN E. BEALS
1800
Class
BX9211
Book
.PIB4
PRESENTED BY
Division strur.
16
Copy of the oldest Known MAP OF PLAINFIELD. From an original in the possession of Wª M. Stillman. This copy made Jan. 1901 by F. J HUBBARD, CIVIL ENGINEER PLAINFIELD, N.J.
MAP
Green Bord
Qualation 760.
1 Massa lond through Flownfood
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BX9211 P7 B4
Copy of the oldest" Known MAP OF PLAINFIELD. From an original in the possession of WY M Stillman. This copy made Jan 1901 by F. J HUBBARD. CIVIL C .. IN ... PLAINFIELD NJ
History of THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH at PLAINFIELD, NEW JERSEY
By ALLEN E. BEALS
Commemorating the One Hundredth Anniversary of the founding and organization of THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF PLAINFIELD, NEW JERSEY July 9th and 10th, 1825
BX 9211 P7 B4
In kindly memory 0. Living and Departed Friends he has known in "THE CHURCH OF BROTHERLY LOVE" this work is respectfully DEDICATED by its author
GIFT AUTHOR FEB 2: '26
CONTENTS
Subject Page
Chapter I
THE LORD'S SUPPER BENEATH THE GREEN BROOK TREES
I
Chapter II
WHAT CAME FROM CORDIALLY GREETING A STRANGER 7
Chapter III
"A GLOOMY BOX INSIDE AND OUT" 13
Chapter IV
HOW THE "ANXIOUS SEAT" ISSUE DIVIDED THE CHURCH I7
Chapter V
SARAH M. LATIMER AND "THE LITTLE BLACK CROSS" . 2I
Chapter VI
THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST CENTURY . 27
ILLUSTRATIONS
EARLIEST KNOWN MAP OF PLAINFIELD, NEW JERSEY Front Cover Insert
THE ORIGINAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BUILDING IN PLAINFIELD ERECTED IN 1826 Facing page v
THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF 1855-1887 Facing page xiii
THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF 1888-1925 Facing page xxiv
COMPILER'S NOTE-This manuscript is submitted with profound reali- zation on the part of its author that it must be, of necessity (considering the circumstances under which it has been prepared), in some, if not many, respects unworthy of the subject with which it deals, namely, One Hun- dred Years of Influence in this Community of the First Presbyterian Church of Plainfield. Great indulgence is craved from those who may scan it with the eye of the literary critic. It has been the author's purpose to transform ordinarily dry and uninteresting dates and chronological sequence along the very thin line of pastorates by bringing out the human- interest touches, much as a narrative that might be recounted to a family grouped beside a homely fireplace with the subtle consciousness that former pastors and people are spiritually listening in as to a tale that is being told.
Tuesday, September 8, 1925. A. E. B.
The History of the First Presbyterian Church of Plainfield, New Jersey
By ALLEN E. BEALS
CHAPTER I
The Lord's Supper Beneath the Green Brook Trees
UR Blessed Lord, who supped beneath the Green Brook Trees with eighteen founders of the first Presbyterian Church in Plainfield, one hundred years ago, alone can know and trace the world-'round good their successive hosts have wrought.
It long has passed the power and ken of human tongue or pen to fully cite the blessings that since have flowed beyond the clarion of its heralding or tolling bell; and as the years begin to drape the mantle of antiquity about the sacred pile that more than half a thou- sand now look upon as their church home one cannot help but feel impotent adequately to trace the halo that pervades it much less to portray the symbolic setting that marked its modest birth.
While Time has warped the pristine beauty of the spot where arching trees were rafters and greensward the carpet of the homeless flock, it has sublimely glorified the aspirations and the prayers of those who were the first Presbyterians to worship in their home church here, on that memorable Sabbath day, July 10, 1825.
Contemporary events alone convey to men and women of to- day a worthy conception of the times in which this event in the religious life of Plainfield occurred.
John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States, had just entered office four months before, and the political feud between the President and Andrew Jackson, defeated in the cam- paign the preceding year, was just beginning to sweep the country.
The Monroe Doctrine, promulgated in 1822, was still as- tounding the countries of Europe and the great dispute over the subject of slavery which was to eventuate in the Civil War forty years later, was fanned by the Missouri Compromise that sought to draw a geographical line of demarkation between the pro-
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THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
slavery south and the anti-slavery north. People were just be- ginning to realize that the Mason-Dixon line, the result of a survey by Mason, a surveyor of the North and Dixon, a sur- veyor of the South, was, in fact, destined to be a power for divid- ing the nation against itself, and, filled with Biblical admonitions, churchmen were prophesying that the nation, no more than a house, could thus stand.
The Village of Plainfield consisted of only sixty scattered buildings then. There was a stream of rather generous propor- tions that made its way from the Scotch Plains notch through the watercourse that is now not much more than a trickling rivulet, by comparison, and which we misname Green Brook.
But then it broadened out into a pond that served to store up water power for a grist mill now between Watching Avenue and Somerset Street. This site was surrounded almost entirely by a grove of stately chestnut, oak and elm trees, save for a mossy place where the farmers of the country-side brought their grain to be ground into flour.
On Sunday, July 10, 1825, this was the spot where the Presby- terian church in Plainfield first saw the light of day.
On the day before, Saturday, July 9, 1825, according to the minutes of the Session, carefully preserved by John M. Bettman :
"Agreeably to the appointment of the Presbytery of Eliz- abethtown, The Rev. John McDowell, D.D., and the Rev.
Alexander G. Frazer, attended for the purpose of organ- izing a Presbyterian Church in this place."
At that time the following persons presented certificates and were recorded as the original eighteen founders of the Plainfield Presbyterian Church :
William Sayre .
New Providence
Anna, wife of William Sayre
New Providence
Elizabeth Littell
New Providence
Mrs. Sarah Layton
Baskingridge
John King .
Baskingridge
Eliza, wife of John King
Baskingridge
Deborah, wife of Frederick Cadmus
Bound Brook
Dinah, wife of Cornelius Cadmus
Bound Brook
Elizabeth C. Vermeule
Bound Brook
Ruth P. Cook .
Newburgh
Robert Anderson
New Brunswick
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THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Agnes, wife of Robert Anderson
New Brunswick
Pierpont Potter
Westfield
Rebecca Manning
Westfield
Sarah, wife of Matthew A. Brown
Westfield
Conrad Neil
New York
Lydia Gardiner
Orange
John Layton, Jr.
Bedminster
At the same time Robert Anderson, proprietor of a dry goods store at the South East corner of Watchung Avenue and East Front Street and John Layton, Jr., "were set apart" to the offices of ruling Elders and Deacons whereupon "The Church of Plain- field" was declared to be duly organized, at 3 o'clock P. M., July 9, 1825.
On the following Sabbath, (July 10th), the Rev. Dr. Mc- Dowell conducted the first known local service of Worship of Almighty God under the rules of the Presbyterian faith and "under the shade of the trees" there participated in the rites of The Lord's Supper after hearing Dr. McDowell preach from I Corinthians 11 :18 :
"But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup."
On October 7th, 1825, the session minutes show that the con- gregation had increased to 23.
Prior to these dates Presbyterians living in and near Plainfield were obliged to attend public worship in either Bound Brook or Westfield. There were no regular means of transportation be- tween the two communities.
If a registered member of the church failed to attend regu- larly, to the services of public worship, he was reported to Ses- sion which waited upon the delinquent to ascertain why he or she did not attend or why he or she "turned the back upon the Lord's Table."
It can easily be understood why, therefore, the growing com- munity of Plainfield, taking in as it did territory between Basking- ridge, Bound Brook, New Bunswick and Westfield, desired to have a Presbyterian church of its own, because the perils of travel in winter were great and in the summer, often most un- comfortable, especially for the aged.
Scotch Plains was the metropolis of all this surrounding coun-
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THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
try in those days, and even up to 1840, until the railroad tracks were moved over to Fanwood, some years later, all mail was re- ceived and delivered to Plainfielders in Scotch Plains and public gatherings in the interest of Plainfielders were held in the Town Hall at that place. The City of Plainfield was not incorporated as a city until 1860.
Church services for the Presbyterian congregation were held in the Academy conducted by the Rev. Lewis Bond, which stood a few yards away from the present church property to the west, although in later years that name was given to another semi- public building that stood at what is now Arlington Avenue and Fourth Street.
These services were conducted by the Rev. Lewis Bond, of whom first mention in the official Session minutes occurs under date of January 9th, 1826, when he was recorded as being the "Stated supply" and who, as such, acted at that meeting as moder- ator. It is evident, however, that he served the congregation as its leader shortly after the church was organized in 1825. He con- tinued as pastor until April, 1857, a total of 32 years during which time he received into membership nearly 500 persons, of whom 200 were received on certificates from other churches. He died January 23rd, 1885.
During his long pastorate, 200 were dismissed to other churches, of whom 86 united in forming the Second Presbyterian church under the Presbytery of Newark. This church was, for a time, also located on Front Street. The Rev. William Whittaker was its first pastor serving until 1885. It later purchased the prop- erty at Crescent Avenue and "Broadway," that having been the name of Watchung Avenue above "Peace Street" which termi- nated at East Seventh Street. The First Presbyterian church also contributed largely in membership toward the founding of Trinity Reformed Church.
Meeting sometimes in the Academy, and sometimes in the homes of its members, there soon arose great need for a regular house of worship.
The congregation, as has been seen, was very small, none of them having means, probably, beyond their daily requirements, because we are told in some of the records available from the archives of the first pastor of this church, that while twenty-five years before there were only twenty houses in the village of Plain- field, there were, indeed, only sixty when the Presbyterian church
4
The Original Presbyterian Church Building in Plainfield, Erected 1826
THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
in Plainfield was organized. At the time the map, which accom- panies this sketch, was made (1832), there were only 168 houses in the community and, in his quarter century sermon the Rev. Mr. Bond records the fact that as late as 1851 this number had been increased to only 400 dwellings, 8 churches and 15 store- houses.
The same papers make record of the fact that the first frame house ever erected in Plainfield, noting the passing of the tent and log cabin habitations of the first settlers and Indians, was in 1700 and there are authentic records to show that a part of this original first permanent shelter in this city was part of the John Wilson home.
Prior to the organization of the Presbyterian church in Plain- field there had been no weekly prayer meetings nor had there ever been a Bible Class, much less a Sunday school. The popula- tion of Plainfield at the time our church was organized was 300, 740 in 1832, and in 1850 it had increased to 2,000.
The eight churches then supplying the spiritual needs of this community were able to join the first Pastor of this church in rejoicing in the fact that they could count one-half of the popula- tion as members of the Church of Christ. This was in great con- trast with the record of forty communicants in the Baptist church, twenty-three in the Presbyterian church and (not counting the membership of the Society of Friends) there totalled in all this church community, around 1825, from Westfield to Basking- ridge, Bound Brook, New Brunswick and Rahway, only a little over sixty professed disciples of Christ !
Reference to the accompanying map will make it possible for the reader to picture the sparsely settled place that was destined to be the great industrial and residential community of nearly 40,000 inhabitants living in Plainfield and North Plainfield to- ward the close of the first quarter of the twentieth century. In 1832 it was really a thin line of small frame dwellings stretching the length of Front Street from Plainfield Avenue to a little be- yond Division Street, some few structures on "Cherry Street," now Park Avenue, some on Division Street, now Westervelt Ave- nue, and North Plainfield was not more than an equally thin line of dwellings for a block or two beyond the brook which was spanned by a rustic bridge beside which was a ford where the folks stopped to chat and trade over their carts while their horses refreshed themselves in the stream.
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CHAPTER II
What Came from Cordially Greeting a Stranger
NE hundred years before the Presbyterian church in Plain- field was organized, or a span of years equalling those be- tween that event and the year to which we reverently pay homage, the first organized meeting of the orthodox Quakers was held at "Tow Town," later known as New Brooklyn, just outside of the present community of New Market. It is recorded that these meetings were held at the home of John Laing, forebear of the John Laing whose inn, famous in its day, stood upon the site of the Babcock building. He gave a plot on which to erect a meeting house on March 27, 1731 and the Woodbridge Monthly Meeting gave its permission to erect a building directing that it should not exceed "24 feet square and 14 feet between 'joynts.' " It was completed "and all accounts settled" by the latter part of 1736. The larger plot, standing near the present railroad sta- tion was given and the Meeting House still standing was built in 1788.
In thus giving a setting of the conditions surrounding the founding of our church and of the state of the community into which it was launched, it may not be inappropriate to note the sequence of the establishment of other early churches in this community :
The Presbyterian church was the fourth, in this respect; the next organization following that of the Quakers being the Bap- tists, nearly one hundred years later, or in 1818; the Methodist church in 1820, the Presbyterian in 1825, Seventh Day Baptist in 1838, Second Baptist church, in 1842; Second Presbyterian church (Crescent Avenue) in 1844; St. Mary's Roman Catholic church in 1849; Grace Episcopal church in 1852; Central Re- formed church 1863, which, however, became defunct in 1883; Mount Olive Baptist church 1870 (colored) ; German Reformed church, 1873; Park Avenue Baptist church, 1876; Church of Heavenly Rest, 1879.
Trinity Reformed church and the Congregational church were formed between the years 1879 and 1880.
The erection of the original Presbyterian church in this city brings to mind the circumstances under which the land came to be given and its dramatic sequence.
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THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
There lived in Plainfield at the time a gentleman and a con- siderable land owner who, while not particularly interested in churches prior to his coming to Plainfield, had been cordially and graciously received in the ancestral Bond Manor, which stood on the present site of the City Hall. Feeling the welcoming influence of the quadruple row of trees, now marking East Seventh Street, having been the driveway leading up to the portico, he be- came interested in the school master and preacher and after the organization of the church under the Green Brook trees, came to the pastor of the flock with his wife, and offered their help, saying that they were willing to deed over to the Presby- terian church in Plainfield, "Meeting House Lot."
Ample confirmation is to be found of this couple's gracious gift in the archives in the custody of the Register of Deeds, New- ark, New Jersey, which at the time was the seat for Union as well as Essex counties.
There, under date of 1826 may be seen a transcript of the original deed, done in clear, bold handwriting, apparently with a quill pen, and, after the usual formalities of such documents, it proceeds to grant "forever, for the sole purpose of a Presby- terian Meeting House, Academy and Burying Ground, and no other, that lot of land known by the name of 'Meeting House Lot' situated in the Village of Plainfield in the township of Westfield," signed Matthias A. Brown and Sarah Ann Brown, his wife, dated February 5, 1826, and by Caleb Freeman, Jarvis B. Ayres, Frederick Cadmus, John King and the Trustees of the Presbyterian church in Plainfield. This instrument was duly attested May II, 1826 before John Woodruff, "Commissioner for taking Acknowledgments."
The years slowly doled out their meed of fortune, fair as well as ill, and in the course of time fate weaved a pathetic web of want around the benevolent gentleman of earlier years. Among the few stores of that day doing business in Plainfield, that of Drs. John and Lewis Craig, druggists, for whom the North Plainfield street was named, is memorable as the shelter of the man whose generosity made permanent the location of our church.
Upon this site was erected a frame church of which the only graphic likeness so far known to be in existence is on the Map of 1832, accompanying this sketch. The famed academy later
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THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
had its location in the basement of the church and among its pupils were James E. Martine, former U. S. Senator from New Jersey, William H. Shotwell, Abraham L. Cadmus and other prominent Plainfielders of their time.
It was a white frame church with a steeple that barely sur- mounted the stately trees about it, with green shingles, probably the result of being much in the shade.
The little church, compared with the present edifice, stood far back on the property, probably at about the line where the pres- ent church building stops and the chapel begins. Its construc- tion must have been largely the result of labor contributed by its members.
Just before the excavation work began upon the construction of the church of 1855, the frame church which had been dedi- cated in 1827 (not 1837 as most histories give it) after consider- able and unavoidable delays, as the pastor said in his dedicatory sermon, "because of much embarrassment occasioned by our in- fant state," there being then only twenty-seven in communion, "was moved across the tracks."
The labor that must have been expended upon this church, simple in architectural appearance though it was, can be con- ceived only by realizing that in those days planing mills and mass production of structural parts of building were unknown and little dreamed of. All house building of any kind was framed with hand-hewn timber, braced by hand-wrought girdles of iron to hold the supporting beams in place.
The building before removal was cut in two and thus removed to a site that is now a coal yard near the corner of East Fourth Street and Roosevelt Avenue. About seven years ago, they were again moved, this time to their present location at 326 and 328 East Fourth Street, across the street, where they face the rail- road track and can be plainly seen by any interested passenger on trains going to or coming from New York.
No. 328 is still dedicated to church uses, and is occupied as a Manse by the pastor of the congregation known as The Church of God and the Saints of Christ, the place of worship having been erected in the rear of this building.
No. 326 is the best preserved of the two structures, however, and is used as a dwelling, being now owned by the occupant. When the two buildings were removed to this site, a single build-
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THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
ing then standing there was cut in two and the two halves were attached to the two halves of the old church, for purposes of providing kitchens.
In the attic of No. 326 there are eloquent testimonials to this day of the reasons for the delay in the completion of the original building as referred to by the Rev. Mr. Bond.
There, in the subdued light, one might almost say, hallowed by sacred memories and loving, albeit, sweaty toil of the sturdy parishioners of 1826, the spectator stands amazed at the patience and the evident determination of those early Presbyterians to found their church in Plainfield for all time. Black walnut beams and girders, bear mute, but impressive, evidence of the labor that must have been expended with crude, half-tempered adzes and home-made mauls to cut and trim and fit these sustaining timbers so that down the long decades they might bid successful defiance to the destroying agencies of Time.
It would be irreverent for us to turn this page of history upon the little white Presbyterian church at Plainfield without quoting at least in part, the sermon delivered on January 5th, 1851, by the venerable pastor of this people, a sermon which has been preserved in the historical archives of the State of New Jersey as one of the masterpieces of eloquence and of historical fact. (See Pamphlets N. J. Vol. VIII, File No. N-040; N-42, New- ark, N. J.)
From First Samuel, 12: 24: "Only fear the Lord, and serve Him with all your heart; for consider how great things He hath done for you," he took his text.
Reviewing the historical events that had transpired up to that time he said: "But while we mingle in the universal mourning at the death of Washington, we may still rejoice in the possession of that Liberty, which, under his guidance, with the Blessing of God, our fathers had achieved."
But the following extract from the minister's far famed elo- quence, the lofty flights of his oratory, pathos, prophecy and importunity for a continuance of the great effort enjoined upon all mankind to forget "those things which are behind, and reach- ing forth unto those things which are before," to "press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ," stands forth without question as the clearest glimpse we of this day and generation can have of the qualities that
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THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
bound his people so affectionately to him for nearly a third of a century :
"The memory of our kindred, the low whisper of our departed people, invite us to cast one more lingering look at the silent mansions of the dead.
"There lie entombed nearly 200 of our flock. Age, Activ- ity, Youth and Infancy lie slumbering together. Over these the storms may rage and the thunder roll, but they heed them not. Over these may gather the tumult of the busy throng, and the shrill whistle or the rolling car may pierce the skies, but they shall not awake. Over these, the church- going bell may announce the sacred morn, and the songs of Zion sound loud the joyous day, but they may not come hither. Others shall be added to their number, and the sigh of the mourner mingle with the clods of the valley, but these shall still sleep sweetly.
"They count not the revolving years nor note the pass- ing centuries; nor will they regard 'till time shall be no longer.' Then shall they listen to the Tramp of God. Then shall they startle into Life 'and burst the caverns of the grave. Then shall they take on immortality.' Then shall the living be changed in a moment; in the twinkling of an eye. Then shall all nations be gathered before the throne of God. Then and there must He appear and then and there shall be melded in eternity.
"Let us then arise and 'serve the Lord in truth and with a perfect heart.' Let us labor and pray that this house may be evermore 'The House of God, the Gate of Heaven' that here the closest blessings of His Grace may be shed down on us and on our children ; that our land may be Immanuel's Land and the whole world be full of His Glory."
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The First Presbyterian Church 1855-1877
CHAPTER III
"A Gloomy Box Inside and Out"
ICTURES of "the church of 1855" are extremely rare. The only one known to be in existence was quite accidentally discovered to be in the possession of Elder and Mrs. A. V. Sear- ing, Jr., who kindly loaned it for its reproduction in that history.
It has been referred to as "A gloomy box inside and out" and the reasons for this characterization of the house of worship of that day is amply confirmed by the architectural features of the edifice, which, let it be remembered, was in strict compliance with the tendency of the time to enshroud religion and things re- ligious with the gloom of darkness and the dead, rather than the radiancy of the light of joy and the completeness of Christ in life.
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