USA > New Jersey > A history of Baptists in New Jersey > Part 14
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however, were not personal followers of Mr. Young nor had imbibed his views.
The New Jersey Baptist Convention had for along time been trying to induce the first church to colonize a Baptist church in North Trenton and many Baptists in the city sympathized with this prop- osition and these united in this movement of a Baptist church in North Trenton. It is not known that pledges had been exchanged between Mr. Young and some of the dismissed members to form a second Baptist church that might eventually be a Campbellite church. It is known that having gone to Virginia and declined the professorship (!) he returned to Trenton and became pastor of second Trenton church. Whereupon, that body broke into three parts. Thirty-seven mem- bers returned to the first church. Another party constituted them- selves the Trinity church, worshipping in Temperance Hall. The third party built a meeting house on the corner of Hanover and Mont- gomery streets, (now the Central church edifice) and had Mr. Young as pastor. Mr. Young had been repudiated by the first church and was a bar to a recognition by the first church of that which Mr. Young was pastor. In the history of the "Central church" the facts per- taining to the extinction of Mr. Young's church (known as the second Baptist church) the disposition of its property and its possession by the "Central Church" and the absorption of the "Trinity" church in the "Central" is fitly given. An explanation of why Mr. Young was recognized as a Baptist minister and his church as a Baptist church has not been written, nor can be. In part it is a fact, that Baptists in the entire state were concerned to have a Baptist church in North Trenton. The first church located in South Trenton while a large and influential body, did not influence the entire city, with Baptist influences and its scattered membership in Upper Trenton, lacking the cohesion of a church failed to represent our ideas of church order and the conditions of membership in a church as was felt to be desirable. The writer recalls how seriously this subject was discussed in the Board meetings and the intense feeling that Baptists did not have the repre- sentation in the State capitol, they felt themselves entitled to. This. impelled the recognition of both the church and of Mr. Young.
The mother church after having suffered the calamities endured in connection with the Young affair, chose for pastor, a man known to all to be right and true to Baptist interests, Rev. L. G. Beck. Him they called and he entered the pastoral office in March 1844. Mr. Beck was a wise pilot for the stormy times into which he was summoned. His position was far from desirable. Nevertheless, he retained it for nearly six years and richly deserved the quiet and
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peaceful pastorate on which he entered. One of the most amiable and loveable men followed Mr. Beck in January 1850, Rev. H. K. Green. Mr. Green was a polished preacher and a man of the highest scholarship in his generation. He declined re-election at the end of 1852. For a year or more, that choice man, Duncan Dunbar min- istered until in 1854.
Within a short time, Rev. Lewis Smith settled in 1855. Three years later Mr. Smith accepted a call elsewhere. Many converts were added to the church under his ministry and the church adopted . a resolution: "That signing a tavern license should not be tolerated in a Christian church. The use and sale of intoxicating drinks were also included." A second offense subjected the offender to exclusion. Material advances were also made in the erection of a building in 1857 for Sunday school and social meetings.
In October 1858, Rey. O. T. Walker entered the pastorate. The growth of the membership, the increase of the population in South Trenton, the popularity of the pastor, his indefatigable labors brought a crisis to the church. The old meeting house, which had been en- larged and modernized several times, was utterly inadequate to ac- commodate the multitude that thronged it. A new edifice was built larger than any Protestant house of worship in the city, modest, plain and attractive on account of its fitness for its uses. Still the spacious room was too small. Hundreds were often unable to get standing room in it. Pastor Walker closed his ministry September 1st, 1863. Since then, large congregations have met. Succeeding pastors have baptized hundreds into the church and yet the same walls include the average congregation.
Rev. D. H. Miller entered the pastorate December 1st 1863. He retained the congregations Mr. Walker had gathered and bap- tized more than anv former pastor. Two reasons explain this. One, Mr. Walker had won many into the House of God, as yet unconverted and Mr. Miller harvested them. Another, the Central church had gotten Elder Jacob Knapp to hold a series of meetings in February 1867 and one hundred more were baptized into the first church within a year. Mr. Miller closed his work in Trenton in October 1867.
An interim of six months occurred until Rev. G. W. Lasher settled as pastor in April 1868. Mr. Lasher soon won a large place for him- self in the confidence of the church and congregation and in that of the Baptists in the city and in the esteem of the entire Christian com- munity. The internal affairs of the church were reorganized and conformed to practical efficiency. In 1871, he wrote a sketch of the first church and said: "Lots were bought on Perry street." The
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first church never bought or owned lots on Perry street, nor opened a mission thereabout. Instead of Perry street, Mr. Miller bought cheap lots on a side and out of the way street in the midst of a mission which the Central church had opened a year before, when the central church had secured lots on Perry street. Mr. Lasher adds: "At the request of the Central church, they were sold to it at the price paid for them and the mission transferred to them." Mr. Miller happening in the study of the Central pastor told of the buying of the lots in a mission of the Central church. At this time all South Trenton with its tens of thousands of population was open, nothing being done for Baptist interests. To the Central people it was strange to locate a mission in their field where they had sustained a mission for more than a year and the nearby destitution neglected. The Central church did not request the sale of the lots to them. Instead, Mr. Miller asked of the Central pastor if his church would buy their lots, the price being fifty dollars more than the first church had originally paid for it. To explain the added cost of the lots, something was said about "interest." Mr. D. P. Forst was President of the Central Board of Trustees and when the purchase of the lot of the first church was stated to him, he said: "Say to Mr. Miller, send to me the deed of the lot and I will return to him my check for its price." The lot on Perry street costing nearly double that of the first church had a chapel for the Central Church, built on it within six months of this settlement. The mission was not transferred to the Central Church. The First Church never had a mission in that locality. Clinton Avenue Church is the development of the Pearl Street Mission.
Mr. Lasher saw the needs of his own field and was the first pastor of the first church to take measures to meet them. Lots were bought about 1868 or 9 and a chapel was built in a densely populated neigh- borhood and was dedicated on May 23rd, 1869. The mission has grown into a church, Calvary Baptist church. Another mission was originated by the gift of lots on which to build a chapel for what is now the fifth Baptist church in Trenton. The chapel was erected in the pastorate of Mr. Lasher and a church constituted in 1891. While thus pushing matters in South Trenton, the pastor succeeding in reducing the debt which encumbered the church, showing himself not only an efficient pastor, but awake to supply his field with Gospel agencies. More than his predecessors he has effectively furnished South Trenton with churches maintaining the Gospel of the Son of God. After its accom- plishments this pastorate came to an end quite too soon. In it also, was the earliest attainment of unanimity in city missions. The prejudices growing out of the "Young" episode gave way to concord
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in the common interests of our churches. Had Mr. Miller been dis- posed to united enterprises, there would have been, both a German and an Afro American church established long since. But the old entanglements were very unyielding. The Central . hurch was ready to pledge several thousand dollars annually for years, for these objects.
Rev. Elijah Lucas became pastor in 1873, remaining twenty and more years, closing his labors in 1894. In 1886, he resigned. But the church declined to accept it, by so nearly a unanimous vote that he consented to remain. Only pastors Wilson, Boswell, Rhees, Beck had stayed more than three or four years. A little coterie of mem- bers craving some new thing buzzed about the pastor and made him uneasy. These practiced on Mr. Lucas, found out that if either must go they could be spared. Withal he was an able preacher, original, pithy and clear. His activities kept him in touch with his hearers, the lowly as much as the officials. He was not perfect. Prov. 22:3 was his portrait. The politicians on sale, rum sellers and saloon keepers cursed him. As chaplain in the legislature, his prayers were a terror to some of them, showing that he knew what they knew could unmask them. No pastor in Trenton had more bitter enemies. They assailed him on a clergyman's most vulnerable side, his moral char- acter. They failed but so impaired the confidence in him as to drive him away. Had Mr. Lucas intrenched himself in the sympathies of his ministerial brethren of the Christian denominations in Trenton and been a co-worker with those of his own denomination in their common fields, he would have had a religious constituency to keep him in Trenton, "a terror to evil doers."
Rev. M. P. Fikes began his pastoral work in 1894. The interior of the church edifice was remodeled and the building for the Sunday schools and social meetings was connected with the main building. Mr. Fikes resigned in April, 1900.
The first church, Trenton, is located "down town," amid the workmen of the factories of South Trenton. Under Mr. Walker, a proposition to remove to "Mill Hill" was seriously agitated, but the condition of the gift of the ground, where the house stood and the cemetery about it, its reversion to the heirs of Col. Hunt, if diverted from the uses for which it was given possibly influenced the choice of the old location.
Of their house of worship, it is the second they have had up to 1900. even though the old house had been enlarged and often repaired. The church has had fifteen pastors. Mr. Wilson antedated the consti- tution of the church. In all he preached in Trenton twenty- one years, Mr. Boswell fourteen years; Mr. Rhees, ten years; Mr. Lucas more than
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twenty years; seven have been licensed to preach. Twenty-one hundred have been baptized into it. Of these, nearly seven hundred and fifty were baptized by Mr. Lucas. The annual average of baptisms since 1805 has been twenty-two. In 1875, Rev. Daniel Freas removed to Trenton. He was born in Salem, New Jersey, and had a considerable competence from his father. Mention is made of him in the history of Woodbury church, where he invested so much as was needful to adapt the house for worship. The writer recalls a meeting of the Board of the State Convention, when Mr. Freas asked its indorsement of his visiting Baptist churches in New Jersey to collect funds to repay him. The Board cheerfully gave its endorsement. The daily papers of Trenton said of his death: "The day of the burial of Mr. Freas was in Trenton a day of universal grief." In a letter to the writer, this extract appears. "Mr. Freas was altogether independent. He received no salary. Certain persons of all religious and of irreligious faiths cared for him. All doors were open to him in Trenton. He spent twenty years in Trenton as a volunteer missionary."
These clippings are from the city newspapers:
"City Missionary Daniel J. Freas, who was killed yesterday by a trolley car, will be very much missed in Trenton. He was a kindly and benevolent man, a born missionary, always ready to assist the unfortunate and to excuse the wayward and the erring. He gathered from the prosperous to distribute to the poor and wretched, and if by chance an undeserving one was the sharer of hls bounty, he always had a mild and ready excuse. No rain was too heavy and no blizzard too severe to keep him from going his rounds to hunt up the sick and the suffering. He would say to people of wealth: "Do you wish to share with me in the cares and happiness of the coming year? If you do, give me as the Lord has blessed you. I will use your money the best I can, and you shall share in my prayers." There were people who would contribute to Mr. Freas and to no one else."
To one unfamiliar with Baptist history in Trenton the late date of the origin of the Central Trenton church will be strange. The Central is the third Baptist founded in Upper Trenton. In 1842, the first church called Rev. John Young, lately come from England, to be their pastor. Six months afterwards he resigned, having ac- cepted a professorship in the Campbellite College at Bethany, West Va. Mr. Young claimed to be a Baptist when called to the first Church. Mr. Young in 1843 preached a sermon in which he insisted on the union of all Christian churches. A public meeting was called in the City Hall; after his sermon, to remonstrate against the action of the First church, rejecting Mr. Young. William Boswell, an old pastor
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of the First church, but excluded from it was chairman and F. S. Mill secretary; one a Swedenborgian and the other a Methodist.
At his resignation one hundred and twenty-four members of that church received letters to organize a second Baptist church in Upper Trenton and that body was recognized as a Baptist church and it gave Mr. Young a call to be pastor, whereupon the second church broke into three parts, one of which returned to the first church. A second organized,the Trinity Baptist church and worshipped in "Tem- perance Hall." The third party built a meeting house on the site of the present Central church, of which part Mr. Young was pastor.
Whether an arrangement had been made by some dismissed from the first church to call him to be pastor of the second church is unknown At a council called in the case of Mr. Young, on his statement that he was a Baptist, he was recognized as such, pastor of the second Baptist church. It was a universal desire of the denominatino in New Jersey to have a Baptist church in Upper Trenton and this explains in part the readiness of good and wise men to accept Mr. Young as a Baptist. Dates of the various movements in these confusions are lost, the sequence of them, however, is clear. The denomination did not accept Mr. Young as a Baptist, in fact he was believed to be a Campbellite in disguise. He was pastor of the second Baptist church in 1844. When he came back to Trenton, how long he stayed and when he left, or what became of him and of his denominational relations is not known.
The Central Baptist church owes its existence to the New Jersey Baptist State convention. The property of the second church was to be sold for debt and the Board of the Convention appointed Judge P. P. Runyan of New Brunswick, D. M. Wilson and J. M. Davies of Newark to buy and hold it for Baptist uses. They paid off a floating debt of thousands of dollars and made needed repairs until the organ- ization of the Central church.
In October 1853, the Board appointed Rev. J. T. Wilcox to be a missionary in North Tretnon. He come as a spiritual chemist and mingled the Heavenly alkali of love, patience and faith with the dis- cordant elements unite them in a Baptist church. To his wisdom and prudence is largely due the success which crowned his work. Helpers were few and comforters like to Job's were many. On the 30th of April 1854, twenty-nine Baptists constituted the Central Baptist church of Trenton. In May, they were recognized as such. Fifteen of these were from the Trinity Baptist church which had disbanded in antici- pation of the forming of the Central church. Two were from the first church and twelve Baptist residents in Upper Trenton. Mr. Wilcox found chaos. He left a happy church of ninety-three members
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Wearied with anxious care and exhaustion of more than four years of toil, his health failed and he resigned in the midst of a revival, closing his pastorate March 21st, 1858.
Rev. Lyman Wright the choice of both pastor and people, had already accepted a call to be pastor and began his charge in the next May. Instead of coming with pruning knife and plow, he came sickle in hand to a ripening harvest. Inquirers and converts thronged the gates of Zion. Six converts he "buried in baptism" on the first Sunday of his pastoral charge. He was pastor eighteen months and the house of worship was made attractive. Previously two Baptists had moved to Trenton, living nearer the first church than to the Central, D. P. Forst and wife, and J. E. Darrah and wife. In reply to efforts to unite at the first church, they said: "Your church is already crowded and we are not needed. But the Central is small and weak and needs us financially, socially and otherwise and so they united where they could be of the most use." Prospered in business, they accumulated wealth and when later, thousands of dollars were needed for enlargement and mission work, it was freely given. On the next Lord's Day to that in which Mr. Wright retired, Rev. G. R. Darrow settled November 1st, 1859. In about two years, Mr. Darrow accepted a chaplaincy in the army of the Civil War. Mr. Darrow left the mark of a man of God in whom were combined the cultured gentleman and the Christian patriot minister.
Rev. T. R. Howlet began his pastorate August 1st, 1861. The distraction caused by the Civil War, the large drafts upon the men and on the wealth of the nation, engrossed the energies of the people and the churches endured exhaustion rather than increase and in December, 1863, there was another vacancy in the pastorate. The church was divided and serious alienations prevailed at this time. An interim between pastoral oversight was improved by enlarging the meeting house and an entire reconstruction, making it a new building. The cost was about eight thousand dollars. The entire outlay was can- celled when the new house of worship was dedicated in March 1864.
On December 1st, 1863, Rev. T. S. Griffiths became pastor and closed hls charge April 1st, 1870., till now, the longest pastorate the church has had. The long vacation in the pastoral office, the re- building of the meeting house and the suspension of social meetings and the Lord's Day service had its usual effect. Congregations were scattered and the membership reduced. The alienations of the former days had also grown, but the wisdom and piety of the membership averted disaster. Former distractions caused by the "Young" episode hindered concert between the churches. Both churches however,
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were on the outlook for expansion and by mission Sunday schools were entering the fields of usefulness.
The Central church had three mission Sunday schools. That on Perry street had special promise of early return. Already, converts were gathered and added by baptism into the church. At a call by Mr. Miller of the first church on the pastor of the Central church, he revealed that his church had bought lots on a by street, far away from the residences of any of their members. This was a surprise since the Central church had been sustaining a mission in that part of the city since 1865. Years elapsed but the first church made no move. Deacon Forst of the Central church often said to his pastor, "I will build a chapel." We had engaged lots on a prominent street at a larger cost than the first church, but on account of the old alienation between the churches the whole movement was suspended. In time, Mr. Miller came to see the pastor of the Central church and asked if he woud buy their lots. The pastor said "No, not on a by street." Eventually we bought their lots at a price of fifty dollars more than they had paid for them and then selling them. The Central church built a chapel on their own choice lots. These things delayed the building of the chapel, till 1867. The property was given to the Clinton Avenue church and they ocupied the place till they changed their location to Clinton Avenue. That eminent evangelist, "Elder Jacob Knapp" came by invitation of the Central church and begun special meetings in Feb- ruary, 1867, continuing them six weeks. As a result, all the city churches enjoyed a spiritual refreshing. One hundred and thirty six were baptized in the Central church; more than one hundred into the first Baptist church and it is believed that as many as five hun- dred were added to the several churches that year.
Another mission was begun in East Trenton by the Central church in 1868. The meetings were held in a small room over the oven in a pottery and the pastor's feet were unduly heated by the hot bricks while preaching. Under the next pastor of the Central church a chapel building was erected for the use of this mission which is now "The Olivet Church." The disasters which befell the Central church from 1870 to 78 seriously affected this mission, but Mr. William Ellis kept it alive and Deacon D. P. Forst advanced the funds to build the chapel which his untimely death made it necessary to repay. When Mr. Howlett, pastor of the Central church advised the church to give up this mission, the Clinton Avenue church cared for it and later the Trenton City Mission Society. A parsonage was bought adjoining the church, by Deacon D. P. Forst in 1865. It was lost when given to Mr. Howlett in settlement for arrearages of salary due him about 1875-6.
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Upon the removal of Pastor Griffiths in April 1870, Rev. C. Keyser settled as pastor the next October. After the meetings of Mr. Knapp in a sketch of the Central church, it was stated "that only thirty-eight remained of the one hundred and thirty-six baptized and of them fifty- two had been excluded, or over one-third, and at least twenty have ceased to show any interest in the church." Even though the state- ment be true, it is not just, except all the facts are given. The pastor who succeeded to the care of a church of more than four hundred members, two hundred and fifty of whom were actively engaged, each week as teachers in five Sunday schools and which sustained twenty-one prayer meetings each week, and two additional preaching services alternately, both now efficient churches; this pastor a good man and an able preacher, announced to these disciples from the pulpit: "that the main business of a church was to take care of itself," alienated from himself the spiritual element and chilled the activities of the church. Very soon the thirteen mission districts were suspended and the twenty-one prayer meetings dwindled to one at which the attendance was reduced to about twenty per cent of the two or three hundred that had formerly met. More, a colony of most efficient members went out to form the Clinton Avenue church, because they were shut up at home, and with the purpose to renew the old time activity. Not only this, but diversion and dissention brought disatisfaction and a large majority of the young members of the church were disgusted with the type of religion they saw in the church busi- ness meetings and wandered off, explaining why so many of the bap- tized were lost from the membership. It was wholly due to the change from life to decay.
The mission work of the church promised abundant fruit. In his introductory sermon in December, 1863, Pastor Griffiths had said: "I do not come here to build up this church out of other congregations, but to gather from the 'highways and hedges,' the non-church-going people." To this the membership responded and when the plans were changed for "sitting still," it is not surprising that there was a balk in all mission work. If any credit is given for the rapid growth of the church it is to be recognized as having passed from a "side track" to the "main line" to an active place in Christian activities because of the piety and devotion of its membership, each aiming to be "in his own place round about the camp and answering to the call of the Divine Master, "Here Lord, am I, send me." The necessity of building a larger house of worship and the prospective increase of labors im-
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pelled the pastor to believe that another unwearied with care could better develope new lines of enlargement.
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