USA > New Jersey > A history of Baptists in New Jersey > Part 12
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In October thay bought a large plot of ground and paid for it. Trustees were chosen to hold the property and to build a house of worship. The church edifice was built in 1868. The church was constituted in September 1868, with twelve members, about a year after Mr. Swain resigned at Flemington. The constituents represented three churches, Lambertville, Sandy Ridge and Flemington. Another A. B. Larison, M. D., was a constituent of Sandy Ridge. "Supplies" served the church until January 1870, when Dr. A. B. Larison was called to be pastor and was ordained in February 1870.
Dr. Larison while a surgeon in the Civil War, 1861-4 contracted a fatal disease, which terminated his life and his earth work in September 1872, not however, till the debt for the house of worship was paid. Scores of converts were added to the church, while he was pastor and he was greatly beloved. Rev. E. I. Pierce entered the pastor's office October 1873 and resigned early in 1875. T. C. Young was pastor a year. Mr. Helsley followed and was ordained in June 1876, closing his pastoral care in April 1882. The pastors following were: F. Wilson, a year, 1883; E. M. Gerald, about ten months in 1884. Alien- ation came and the house of worship was closed for nearly six months. The sympathies of the people went out to their old friend, Dr. G. H. Larison of Lambertville, who had entered the ministry.
He added to the calls of his medical practice the duties of supply at Ringoes, beginning there in July 1887. Rising very early on the Lord's Day he made his physician's calls and rode seven miles to
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Ringoes, thence six miles to Sandy Ridge, preached in the afternoon, returned to Ringoes, preached in the evening and then seven miles home to Lambertville; in all twenty-six miles; three sermons and early morning physician's visit and also a large "practice on the week days at home. He maintained these labors for about five years, enjoying a large blessing on his ministry. It will not be a surprise that he died at the end of five years in 1892. It is proper to add that this good man voluntarily served thus at his own cost.
Rev. G. W. Leonard was pastor at Ringoes for a year after Dr. Larison's death. Early in 1894, Rev. T. C. Young began a pastorate of about two years. A succession of pastors was: A. Wells, 1896-98; G. Poole, 1898-99. Ringoes Baptist church was planted in a Pedo Baptist community under the shadow of a large congregation dis- avowing our ideas of truth and of duty and who needed the better light of the Gospel of grace. Pedo Baptists are helpless in the light of New Testament teaching. Rev. William Grant entered the pastor's office in 1899 and was pastor in 1900.
Twelve pastors have served the church. Two of them died while pastors, brothers and physicians. Another brother and physician was a resident of Ringoes. One of these brothers held the pastoral office twice. A sister of these brothers was also an influential woman, holding a high educational professorship and was principal of an important academy.
CHAPTER XI.
HIGHTSTOWN.
Up to 1786 the Hightstown Baptist church had been known as the Cranbury Baptist church; named at Cranbury from its original location in that village, about two miles distant from Hightstown. The church removed to Hightstown in 1785. A tradition of seventy and more years since was an arrangement with the Presbyterians, that if the Baptists would remove to Hightstown, the Presbyterians would leave that place to them and not found a Presbyterian church there. It is too late to verify any such arrangement and if made, was only verbal. The removal however, avoided local rivalries, and afforded opportunity for a larger number of people to hear the Gospel and to enjoy the privilege of religious worship. New Jersey was a preferred resort for Baptist colonists in the 17th century. North, east, west and south, they were an important element of the first settlers. Of those locating in Monmouth county, Baptists were foremost and most numerous. Their influence in adjaent sections was very great.
The Middletown Baptist church formed in 1668 had a large con- stituency and widely scattered. The country included a very large section and Middletown township included a large part of the county. Many constituents of the church located at Upper Freehold, others at Jacobstown and at various points south of Hightstown. Their wide distribution, involved several centers where houses of worship were built, the people themselves evidently having ample means both to provide for themselves as well as to erect many places of worship, where the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper were admin- istered and pastors from the original church preached in the earliest periods of settlement of the country. It fact, the same mistake was made at both Holmdel and Upper Freehold, that of not organizing new churches. Holmdel would then have retained its original date and Upper Freehold but a little later, 1668. These bodies, had with First Hopewell and Jacobstown the lineal descendants and names of the constituents of the original Middletown church. Both Cran- bury and Hightstown were on the route of pastors from either, their homes or from the parsonage at Holmdel to Upper Freehold, where they could stop and preach as they were accustomed to do. A reason why Cranbury(Hightstown) antedates Upper Freehold is, that being nearer the mother church, it would have the sustaining care of the old
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church, as well as afford to Upper Freehold and Jacobstown, where many constituents of Middletown lived, nearer headquarters of Gospel ministries and of the ordinances.
The minutes of the Philadelphia Association(Minute 1745, page 49, A. B. P. Soc. Ed. 1851.) state: "Agreed and concluded pursuant to requests made by the brethren about Cranbury, that our brethren, Nathaniel Jenkins and Jenkins Jones be at Cranbury, Friday the first day of November, in order to settle the members there, in church order." Seventeen persons were present, members of the Middletown church, who covenanted with each other as a Baptist church, a Baptist church distinctively. Other denominations were allied to reject their views of New Testament teaching and Baptists were at a great discount as disciples of Christ. This opposition was to Baptists a bond of unity and of assertion of their faith, inciting them to exceeding watchfulness lest an erroneous minister or a church, come into their fellowship. Out of this grew the custom of asking the association to appoint men to at- tend the organization of a church and the ordination of a minister. Numbers, culture, repute, place and even the Baptist idea of individu- ality were wholly subordinate to guarding against infection by error.
Pastors Jenkin Jones, of Penepack, Pa., and Nathaniel Jenkins of Cohansie were present November 1st, 1745, in Cranbury "to settle the Baptists there in church order." One of the constituents was James Carman, a licentiate of Middletown church. The organization of the church was probably due to him, he having been "licensed to preach among that branch of the Middletown church which resided at Cran- bury." On the next Lord's Day, November 3rd, 1745, Mr. Carman was ordained for the pastorate of the new church. At this time he was sixty-seven years old, a time of life in which men are considering the question of retiring from public life. There is but one other Baptist pastor in New Jersey ordained so late in life, Rev. C. C. Lathrop, ordained at Deckertown in 1887, when sixty-nine years old. Pastor Carman was a remarkable man. Like the early time pastors, he was a missionary pastor. Three or four sermons a week, forty or more miles to an appointment did not content him; now in Hunter- don county and then in New York City were chosen opportunities to do "what he could." When seventy-four years old he was an appointed preacher at the Philadelphia Association.
Rev. Mr. Parkinson, pastor of the First Baptist church in New York City, preached a historical sermon at that church on January 1st, 1813, and says: "After which (the loss of former ministries) Rev. James Carman of Cranbury (Hightstown) visited them and baptized till their number increased to thirteen when, they were advised (prob- 8
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ably by Mr. Carman) to unite themselves to the church at Scotch Plains of New Jersey, so as to be considered a branch of that church and to have Mr. Miller, its pastor, preach and administer the Lord's Supper once a quarter." This was in 1753, the eighth year of Mr. Carman's settlement, when he was at least seventy-four or seventy- five years old. Note the wisdom of this Council. Pastor Miller was known to care for the cause of Christ wherever his charge. Scotch Plains was the nearest accessible church. Mr. Carman was an old man. New York City was at least fifty miles from his home and he must ride all that long way on horseback on trails, and having a large field at home, it needed his whole time and strength. Thus he made sure to provide for the New York Baptists, not only one of the ablest men of his day, but also one of the most devoted men. Mr. Carman's salary was so small that no mention is made of it. He probably made these journeys at his own cost, "for Christ's sake," was the law of his life. He died in 1756, at the age of seventy-eight years, having been pastor eleven years.
There must be no withholding of honor or credit from Scotch Plains church, nor from its great and devoted pastor, Benjamin Miller, for their part in laying the foundations of New York City Baptist interests, nor from the man who suffered hardships and self denials to plant well and make sure the seed of the tree under the shade of which, tens of thousands sit, and the fruit of which has been a blessing to the whole earth. Yet such a man as James Carman, whose prayers and hardships and long journeys and words of cheer and counsels of wisdom have borne fruit in the prosperity which has blessed the world, must not be forgotten, as one chosen of God for the increase in which we rejoice. Having finished his work, the good man died and was buried near the old meeting house in Cranbury. In 1899, his remains were disinterred and buried near the house of God in Hightstown.
An interim of six weary pastorless years passed. Then Peter Wilson, whom Mr. Carman had baptized was called and ordained for the pastorate on May 13th, 1782. The labors of this man were apostolic whether we speak of the long and frequent journies he made to des- titute places; to his incessant labors; to his cheerful response to the calls made upon him; to the great and many revivals which attended his ministry, or to the eminent men whom he instrumentally brought into the kingdom of righteousness. The story of his life and work has been effectively told by a succeeding pastor, nearly eighty years after Mr. Wilson had gone to his reward, Rev. O. P. Eaches. That record of a wonderful man and his no less"wonderful career, is more fittingly told than could be by a comparative stranger. The example
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and influence of his pastor, James Carman, was very positive with Mr. Wilson. He had grown up under it. The self sacrifice and zeal and devotion of pastor Carman had vast rewards in its silent training of the young man, who later would stand in his place. After Mr. Wilson resigned in November, 1816, he still supplied the church till June 1817, his pastorate really lasting thirty-five years.
How immensely his wife had to do in the make-up of the man, may be inferred from the statement of Morgan Edwards of her. He said: "It should not be forgotten that Mrs. Wilson encouraged him in his wishes, saying she would go to the washtub or take a hoe in her hand rather than he should go without learning." Who can limit a man's attainment with such a hallowed home inspiration? Only the grace of God has more to do with the making or unmaking of a man than that of a wife. Her name, Mary Fisher, ought to be enrolled among the nobility of our churches.
An interim of eighteen months occurred after Mr. Wilson resigned, during part of which, Rev. John Seger was supply and on May 1st, 1818, settled as pastor, remaining eighteen years. While yet in business he had been ordained in New York City in January 1873. Mr. Seger made no pretence to scholarship, but the "Book of books" was his constant study. He was an instructive preacher and a successful pastor, having frequent and large accessions of baptized converts. At his resignation the membership of the church was one third larger than when he became pastor and it was the largest in membership of any Baptist church in the State. Mr. Seger was President of the Convention that organized the New Jersey Baptist State Convention in 1830 at Hamilton Square.
In the same year in which Pastor Seger resigned, Rev. C. W. Mulford entered the pastorate in December, 1836, and continued pastor ten years. Mr. Mulford was a stanch, out spoken temperance man. Only one other Baptist minister, oftener and more imperatively com- manded public attention to the subject, Rev. Samuel Aaron. Mr. Mulford succeeded M. J. Rhees in the secretaryship of The New Jersey State Convention. Pastor Rhees removing from the state and from being secretary, Rev. C. W. Mulford was chosen President of that body. He was one of the Quartette, always present at its annual and quarterly meetings of the Board, Judge P. P. Runyan, G. S. Webb, S. J. Drake and C. W. Mulford, men always ready to undertake any service for the promotion of the interests of the Baptist churches and cause in the State or out of it. Mr. Mulford died at Flemington in 1864 with an incurable disease.
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Rev. George Young followed on April 1st, 1847, closing his pastoral care at Hightstown in April, 1851. Mr. Young's pastorates were always short, but a second or a third charge in the same church was a usual thing in his ministry. He was a highly cultured pastor, exceeded by few in his day. Had he contented himself with continuance in his pastorates he would have been a greater power for good. But his custom of scattering himself limited him in all respects.
After a few weeks, Rev. J. B. Saxton became pastor at Hights- town in May 1851, staying only till October 1852. On the following March 1853, E. M. Barker having settled remained four years. Mr. Barker was a conscientious man and amusements like croquet were only evil to him. Still he enjoyed a "smoke." The specialty of his charge in Hightstown was the crection of the spacious and creditable house of worship now in use, dedicated in February 1858, in the pastor- ate of Rev. L. Smith, who entered the pastorate December 1st, 1857. Mr. Smith was a very frail man when he came to Hightstown and did not improve. Disease shortened his stay. He died at St. Paul, Minn., August 25th, 1864.
Arrangements were made in January 1864, for a private school. The room over the lecture room was granted to Rev. L. Smith, the pastor, for a schoolroom free of charge for one year, and Miss Gurr was employed to teach the pupils "gathered from the congregation." Thus the privacy of the school was assured by Pastor Smith having control of the room and of the school and by the pupils of the Baptist congregation, subsequently the Haas brothers adopted the school, which they gave up upon the location and organization of "Peddie Institute." These plans were in anticipation of the action of the New Jersey Baptist State Convention to found a Baptist school in the State within a few years. Hightstown was a fitting location. A friend of the movement in Hightstown Rev. Joshua E. Rue, anticipating the opportunity of Hightstown to secure the location of the school travelled in the State in behalf of Hightstown. Eventually the loca- tion was made at Hightstown. In the fall of 1869, the main building of the Institute was dedicated. It had cost one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and the Board was seriously in debt. Later, through the efforts of Rev. William V. Wilson, funds were collected to pay the debt and cancel all claims against the Board.
Additional property has been bought and given to the school, enlarging its campus to twenty-six acres. A beautiful library building was built by Jonathan and Mary Longstreet, named the "Longstreet Library." A dining hall, including all needed kitchen, culinary and laundry appliances has been built. The dining hall is large and favor-
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ably compares in style and beauty and convenience with any, anywhere. An athletic field and its appointments, a telescope and observatory, laboratory thoroughly furnished, also the scientific department with a fine collection of shells, minerals and geological specimens, crowned with an endowment of one hundred and seventy thousand dollars completes an equipment of the school that is a foremost one in the nation. .
A record of Hightstown must include denominational education affairs. The convention which met in Hightstown in 1811 to form the New Jersey Association, appointed a committee to report plans for a school. There had been in New Jersey a knowledge of educational methods in the colonies and there was a higher educational tone here than elsewhere. On account of its central location and its staunch Baptist interests, there was a disposition among Baptists to locate there. Acquaintance with the minutia of education in the colonies, showed that New Jersey was a preferred place and an immense advance on any other colony. The first free school was begun here in 1668. The first legacies for Baptist schools were in this colony and the first Baptist schools were here also.
The sources of its population explain the fervor with which edu- cational movements were welcomed. The Holland colonists were required as a condition of their emigrating to America to take im- mediate steps to found a church and a school. The "Friends" (Quakers) invariably by mutual agreement built school houses alongside of their meeting houses. Christian denominations entered into a race for the earliest effort to found secondary schools and colleges. (See History of Education in New Jersey, issued by the government in 1899, Wash- ington, D. C.)
On June 19th, 1864, Rev. Isaac Butterfield entered the pastoral office. He was a man of rare worth and a preacher eminent for clear- ness, simplicity and powers, unpretentious in scholarship, but "mighty in the Scriptures." The spacious house of worship was packed with an immense congregation entranced by his expositions of sin's ruin, of righteousness and of "judgment to come." His stay as pastor was only two years. On May 1st, 1867, Rev. Lyman Chase became pastor and resigned in two years to take a professorship in Peddie Institute. While a man of intelligence and culture he was not an aggressive pastor, better adapted to teach than to develop a church into efficiency. After Mr. Chase resigned, "supplies" ministered to the church something more than a year.
In June, Rev. O. P. Eaches accepted a call to be pastor and is now (1900) holding the office. When Mr. Eaches settled as pastor, the
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membership was three hundred and seventy. In 1900, it was five hundred and thirty-nine. Each of these thirty years there have been additions by baptism. The whole number of Baptisms since June 1870, to June 1900 has been seven hundred and forty-three.
Since its constitution, the church has been financially independent. From September 1766, to October 1786, ten years, had there been a local mission society to aid struggling churches, the church might have asked aid. Pastors' salaries were small in the early times, oftener they cared for themselves, either living on their own farms or on a parsonage farm. Pastor Wilson had a salary of six hundred dollars and since then pastors of Hightstown have had a definite income. The church has built four meeting houses. The first was built at Cranbury in 1747. A "deed" of the lot on which it stood was dated April 15th, 1746. This building was used to November 1785, when the church removed to Hightstown. Whether the second house was ready for use in 1785, is not certainly known. That at Hightstown was in use to 1834, when under Mr. Seger, it was too small and the brick edifice now in use was built and was dedicated in 1834, about two years before Mr. Seger resigned. This building is now in use for the Sunday school and for social meetings. The fourth building was dedicated in February 1858, in the pastorate of Rev. L. Smith. To Mr. Barker and the church building committee the inception of this very creditable house is a fitting memorial of the taste and ideas of the people, of a church edifice. A parsonage farm had been bought in 1817 and held for the pastor till 1857. In 1871, a parsonage was built in the town. As many as twenty members have been licensed to preach, one of whom became pastor. Alexander McGowan was much like Mr. Wilson. A Presbyterian minister, he challenged Mr. Wilson to a public debate on baptism. While studying the New Testament in preparation for the discussion he became a Baptist and Mr. Wilson baptized him. Of these twelve were useful pastors in New Jersey. Others were active ministers abroad.
Hightstown is centrally located in the state. The Baptist church is influential both at home and abroad. It may be permitted to add some items of interest about Peddie Institute. Hon. D. M. Wilson was the first President of its Board and to him is due the choice of the architectural design of the magnificent building even though it cost forty-thousand dollars more than a "factory structure" that had been partly built. At his death, Hon. Thomas B. Peddie was elected President. It is said that he had given fifty thousand dollars while living, to Peddie. His will endowed it with an equal sum and Mrs. Peddie's will added one hundred thousand to the endowment. Other
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large givers were, the Longstreets, Jonathan and Mary Jr., who built the Longstreet library building and Miss Mary fully equipped the physical laboratory at a cost of one thousand dollars, and annually sends a royal donation for the purchase of books for the library. The mother was a Holmes, a near lineal descendant of Obadiah Holmes, the Massachusetts Baptist martyr. Each of her children followed her example. A daughter's legacy, Eleanor, was about being cast into the bottomless pit of debt. Her pastor prevailed, however, to have it used as the seed of the "Longstreet Library," assuring the Board that it would yield ample fruit; and it has. S. Van Wickle of New Brunswick, Rev. F. R. Morse of New York City, Deats, father and son, the Wilsons, D. M. and William V., Price of Burlington, New Jersey and Rev. Alfred Free of Toms River; these and many more have had a large part in the equipment of Peddie Institute. Through its friends the school is justly entitled to a first place among the Academies of the nation.
CHAPTER XII.
MANASQUAN.
A Seventh Day Baptist church was formed at Manasquan in 1745. Whether they had left seed of the Baptist faith in the com- munity which laid dormant for half a century after their emigration to the West is not known, but Baptist ideas of Bible teaching, like the wheat grains in the wrappings of Egyptian mummies, retain a life germ for centuries. They have but one meaning in all generations, even though far apart in both time and distance. An instance hap- pened at Long Branch, New Jersey. Abel Morgan of Middletown Baptist church had a station at Long Branch in 1738 and after, and had many converts. An hundred years later, the writer had a station there and was greeted with welcome by descendants of the early Baptists, still cherishing the ideas of their Baptist ancestry.
Manasquan Baptist church began with and from a woman. Mrs. Elizabeth Havens, a widow, was a member of First Hopewell Baptist church and a lone Baptist resident of the town in 1801. Two of the children were religiously impressed. At her request, one of them Samuel, journeyed a long distance through the sand and the Jersey "pines" to Hightstown to invite Mr. Wilson, pastor there, to come to Manasquan and preach. He did so on the 9th of December, 1801, and preached in the house of John Havens, another son. The son, Samuel, who had gone to Hightstown was the first one baptized in April, 1802. From this time Mr. Wilson visited there once a month until there were thirty-seven baptized believers there. Soon after Samuel's baptism, Mr. Wilson baptized John Havens and Anna, his wife and the wife of Samuel Havens. When thirty-seven had been baptized, they decided to organize a Baptist church and on October 20th, 1804, did so, as the First Baptist church of Howell. Upon the division of the township the name was changed to Manasquan. Of the constituents, thirteen were named Havens, and others were rel- atives, their names changed in marriage. The constituents numbered twelve men an twenty-five women. Mrs. Havens was an instance of the kind of Baptists, who made us denominationally what we are. Some of a modern type would have said, "We are all going to Heaven and denominations make no difference. Why send off fifty miles or more for a Baptist minister when there are good ministers and churches
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