USA > New Jersey > A history of Baptists in New Jersey > Part 22
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When, however, Abel Morgan reduced his visits to once in two months and John Coward, a licentiate of Middletown, but living at Upper Freehold, declined preaching in the intervals of Mr. Morgan's absence, Baptists felt the need of a church organization and of con- trolling the frequencey of ministerial supply. If once in two months was equivalent to destitution, Mr. Morgan, before this, must have been preaching often at Upper Freehold, and the station been an im- portant center. About this time, in May 1766, the church was con- stituted with forty-seven members dismissed from Middletown. For the first seven years, it was known as the Crosswicks Baptist church. But then it took the name of Upper Freehold Baptist church. Mr. Coward was not one of the constituents. His son, John Coward of Bordentown, was one of the trustees to whom Mr. Borden in 1751, gave the deed of the lot on which the Bordentown Baptist church stands; fifteen years before the Upper Freehold church was formed. Among the constituents of the Upper Freehold was the name of Holmes. Six were named Cox.
The identity of Upper Freehold and Middletown is indicated by Baptisttown (Holmdel) and Upper Freehold, being exclusively the localities in Middletown, in which the "yearly meetings" were held, when Middletown and Piscataway alone held them. They were really quarterly meetings, two being held in each church alternately
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every year, three months apart. In these localities the bulk of the members lived. In 1766 Middletown had one hundred and twenty- six members. Forty-seven besides Mr. Coward and wife, were more than one third of them residents at Upper Freehold. More of them were doubtless resident at Holmdel thus showing where the heart of Middletown church was. Had Baptisttown (Holmdel) and Upper Freehold insisted on a division and each retained the original date of 1668, it would have prevented the misconception, that the body in Middletown village was the original Middletown church.
In historical sketches of Jacobstown and Upper Freehold, the impression is given that the families of Cox, Mount and Cheeseman, went from Middletown to those parts. Most likely the impression grew out of the occurrence of these names among the constit- uents of the Middletown Church. It should be remembered, how- ever, that the members of that body in its earliest history, in- cluded the Baptists in all this part of East Jersey. These families settled in vicinities near where their descendants are now so numer- ous. The family of Cox, the old maps indicate as having originally located near to Upper Freehold.
James Ashton, the son of the first pastor of Middletown church, was not a member of the church, when he first moved to Upper Free- hold, but it is believed that later he was a member of it. He was a bachelor and his name is lost from among the residents. It is written of him "that he was in high esteem as a citizen, a Christian and a Judge," and added " that he was a model man and Christian." Mr. Ashton left a legacy to the church. Baptists in early days invited ministers to visit them and to preach. The Upper Freehold Baptists bought a dwelling house and fitted it up for a place of worship. These people evidently had means to spare for spiritual uses. The early Baptists of Monmouth county were neither poor nor little. Pastor Abel Morgan was not lacking in labor in his field from 1739 to 1761. The many calls on him from far and near were enormous.
The coming of Rev. Samuel Stillman to Upper Freehold, supplied Mr. Morgan's place there for two years from 1761. The Hightstown church and its pastor also relieved him of care of that vicinity, so that he could go abroad from his field oftener than had been previously allowed to him. Mr. Stillman retired from Upper Freehold and Rev. David Jones took his place in 1763 and later, when the church was organized, was its first pastor. Mr. Jones was a student at Hopewell, and had studied Theology with Abel Morgan, being a member and licentiate of Middletown church, he was a constituent of Upper Free- hold and its pastor in 1776. Including three years before the organization
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of the church, he ministered at Upper Freehold thirteen years, resigning because bitterly opposed to British tyranny and to his intense loyalty to the Congress of the colonies. A minute in the church book says: "These were troublesome times."
The people of New Jersey were divided into parties of "Whigs" and "Tories." the names designating the parties loyal to Congress and to England. An incident illustrates the type of man Mr. Jones was. Walking on the street he heard one calling "Brother Jones, Brother Jones!" Looking back he saw a drunken man lying by the side walk, who asked "Brother Jones, don't you know me?" "I am one of your converts." He replied, "You look like one of my converts; if God had converted you, you would not be lying there." The preach- ing of such men and the preaching they preached built up our great denomination. Quite unlike a modern sort that calls on sinners "to open their hearts and let God in." Under which our churches are dwindling in character and spirituality. In two years, the church called a successor to Mr. Jones, whose devotion to liberty was natural to a Welshman and whose consecration to Christ made him a New Testament Christian.
The succession of pastors to 1821 were: W. J. Pitman, 1779-82; John Rockwell, 1882-87; J. Stephens, 1789-93; D. Loughboro, 1794; A. Harpending, 1797-1800; John Morgan, supply, 1802; S. B. Harris, 1808-10; John Copper, 1813-21. In this period of the eight pastors, four were unworthy men holding office for sixteen years and there were nine years of pastoral destitution. Despite these unpromising con- ditions, the church preserved unity and the heresies and immoralities alleged of these years did not seriously impair its integrity.
In 1822, Rev. J. M. Challis became pastor. His settlement was an era in the history of the church. A new epoch began. His piety was diffusive and he had a receptive welcome among his people. He was ordained in December 1822 and during sixteen years of happy and of appreciated labors, harvessed continuously for the Kingdom of God, averaging annually the baptism of fifteen converts. Considering the low estate to, which the church had fallen in the long time that preceded the coming of Mr. Challis, the odium that attaches to Christians and to the minister by the defection of a preacher from the purity of truth and duty, the labors of Mr. Challis must be esteemed as an. especial endowment of the Holy Spirit. Mr. Challis did not limit himself to Upper Freehold church, but did good wherever he could. "The Freehold church speaks of him as the founder of it." Unobstru- sive, of marked simplicity of character, the impress of his piety was felt everywhere.
Front of the Yellow Meeting House, the Second House on this Ground, the First Burned and Rebuilt
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Another true and noble man followed Mr. Challis at Upper Free- hold, Rev. L. G. Beck in 1838-43; William A. Roy, 1843-46; A. Arm- strong, 1847-51; William J. Nice, 1852-55. Mr. Nice was a man of pre-eminent worth. S. Sproul, 1855-57; C. M. Deitz, 1858-66; W. D. Hires, 1867-78; E. Loux, 1879-82; D. Silver, 1882 to his death in December, 1884. S. L. Cox, 1885-87; J. A. Knowlton, 1888-91; I. N. Earle, 1891-92; J. Huffnagle, 1892-96; S. L. Harter, 1896-1904.
To 1900, the church has had twenty-four pastors. Of the pastors, J. M. Challis was pastor sixteen years, David Jones, fourteen years, W. D. Hires, eleven and Pastors Cooper and Deitz each eight years. Two churches have been colonized from Upper Frevhold, Jacobstown in 1785 and thirty-two members were dismissed to institute it and in 1834, ninety members to constitute the Freehold church. The pastors maintained regular appointments at both of these places long before a church was begun in either. At Jacobstown, some of the constituents of Middletown located at Jacobstown. At Frechold, Mr. Challis laid the foundations and really originated the church there. Quite likely the pastors ministered at Bordentown, as that mission was identified with Jacobstown. Two have been licensed to preach, one of them has spent life in ministerial work. Upper Freehold was incorporated six years before its mother in Middletown. Various of its properties were held in trust by its members. A dwelling house was transformed to a place of worship, "The Yellow meeting house," the date of its building is lost. Another put up in 1737 and one at Jacobstown in 1767, yet another at Cream Ridge and one at Imlaystown, where the parsonage and church grounds consist of several acres. The church edifice there is large, modern; but it was burned in 1903. A new house was built in 1904, and supplied with all the appliances for Christian work and worship, which money and culture command. Unhappily, the railroad is a mile distant.
The church is a rural body, isolated from commercial centers. Like Jacobstown, its prospective is limited. Other Baptist churches will limit its field yet more. Four hundred and twenty-eight have been baptized into the church, more than half of them, were baptized by Pastor Challis.
The constituency of Jacobstown Baptist church allies it to Middle- town church. Some of them had been dismissed to constitute Upper Freehold church and others were children and grandchildren of the constituents of Middletown church, forty years before the Hights- town church had been formed. Members of Middletown living in Upper Freehold, were among the constituents of Hightstown. They had not moved from Middle-
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town, but were living in Upper Freehold, the membership of the old church reaching from the Raritan to the ocean and from Atlantic Highlands far south of Upper Freehold. The unity of these Baptists was not relationship, but companionship in persecution and driven in exile to this new land and again driven from their new homes rather than deny the faith of the Lord Christ.
Jacobstown derived its name from a "Friend" (a Quaker) named Jacob Andrew, in accord with the custom of calling each other by their first name. William Penn addressed King Charles II, as "Charles, thee ought, etc.," "Friend Jacob" moved from Little Egg Harbor, a "public Friend" or preacher, on a tour in New Jersey and settled in the compass of Burlintgon monthly meeting. He made his home on the site of Jacobstown, where he opened a store, built blacksmith and wheelwright shops and began Jacobstown. He died there. Other "Friends" settled in the place. Affinities of belief in the right to "civil and religious liberty" influenced Baptists to settle there.
Morgan Edwards says, "There were Baptists in these parts from the first settling of the country members at Middletown. In process of time they increased and he adds this increase made them think of becoming a separate society; the mother church approved and released the following persons." These twenty-eight on October 19th, 1785, constituted a church. Nine of them were Sextons and four were Coxes. A house of worship had been put up by Jacobstown in 1767, and partly finished the fifth meeting house erected for the use of the Upper Freehold Church. The Bordentown mission went with Jacobs- town, Jacobstown being nearer than Upper Freehold and as fully identified with the mission, as the mother church. The building at Jacobstown, being incomplete and unplastered, remained unfinished for sixteen years. A substitute for a stove was a huge brazier in the center of the building, filled with glowing charcoal. Free access of winds from without, relieved any danger from the burning coal. No doubt, foot stoves were in free use. Morgan Edwards invariably said; if a church edifice had a stove, "and it had a stove." This building was completed and used until replaced in 1853 by that now in use. The present house of worship was located where it is, at the cemetery, by a thousand dollar subscription, affording to the church the best opportunity to dwindle into nothingness and be a memorial of what mischief a thousand dollars can do to bring naught and to perpetuate the shadows of death.
For several months, Rev. Peter Wilson, pastor of Hightstown Baptist church, supplied Jacobstown. His labors were prospered. About the end of 1785, Rev. Burgess Allison became pastor, remaining
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twenty-eight years, till 1813. In 1796 he gave his school at Borden- town into the charge of W. H. Staughton. Mr. Allison found it necessary to resume its care. But he could not restore it. This was the second harm which the cause of education suffered in New Jersey. Six other schools followed in the colony, illustrating the persistence of New Jersey Baptists to provide for themselves the means of culture.
In 1815, Jacobstown church settled Rev. Richard Proudfoot, who was pastor until 1817. In the following twenty years, supplies served Jacobstown church. In this long period, Rev. J. M. Challis pastor of Upper Freehold church preached at Jacobstown once in each month and attended to other pastoral duties. From the beginning, of his ministry signs of a spiritual harvest appeared at Jacobstown and the best welfare of the church was promoted combining the offices of evangelist and pastor. Mr. Challis was a man of rare worth and of influence; an inspiration to the attainment of good. His labors at Jacobstown continued ten years and when he retired, Rev. W. D. Hires was called and at the end of the year, when the time of his call was expired, the church pressed him earnestly to stay and consenting, was ordained April 18th, 1835. To those who knew Mr. Hires, it was not strange that he was wanted, a devoted pastor and a preacher eminent for saying the most in fewest words and with a simplicity? a little child could understand. He was wanted whenever he could be got.
Rev. C. J. Hopkins became pastor in 1837. A larger field induced him to leave in 1838. His characteristics are referred in the record of his pastorates at Camden, Bridgeton and Salem. Baptism was dis- cussed by his friends. Mr. Hopkins was a Presbyterian, and unable to sustain his views, he appealed to his pastor who said to him: "Charley, if your relations are Baptists, I advise you to let them alone for with the Bible as their sole guide, they have the best of the argument." Amazed at this, he inquired of the Bible and united with the first Baptist church of Philadelphia, under Pastor Holcombe and was licensed by them. (See History of first Camden church). In 1840, Rev. William Smith entered the pastorate and was pastor five years, a good and true man. Mr. Smith lived at Columbus and alternated preaching at both places. His missionary work was his distinction; aggression was the law of his piety.
Mr. J. E. Rue followed Mr. Smith and was ordained in January 1845. The meeting houses at Plattsburg and Recklesstown (now Chesterfield) were built in Mr. Rue's pastorate. People in these places objected to Mr. Rue's Baptist preaching and the trustees at Reckless- town locked him out of the house. A gentleman named Reed, an
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Episcopalian, sympathized with the persecuted Baptists and he gave a lot and a legacy from his estate to build a Baptist church edifice in Recklesstown. Mr. Rue was pastor two years and in the year of his resignation, Rev. C. Brinkerhoff became pastor at Jacobstown in 1847, continuing till 1851. These were years of blessing and of harvest.
Rev. J. M. Carpenter followed immediately with scarcely an inter- mission. Great gaps have stared at the historian in the past. With untiring pertinacity this good man gathered and classified data and fact of invaluable historic material. Errors occur in his work, but what human effort is perfect! It has been said of Mr. Car- penter "that he was a walking biography of the men of his times and a store house of things worth knowing about Baptists and of their con- cerns in New Jersey and in its vicinities." He was a careful wise and intelligent secretary of the New Jersey Baptist State Convention for sixteen years, a longer period than any other had held the office. Pastor at Jacobstown for thirteen years; revivals of special power were enjoyed and a new substantial brick meeting house of modern type was built and paid for. The only question of dissent about it, was the folly of its location, which means either the extinction of the church or another location and a new house in the village. Mr. Carpenter resigned in 1864. He lived to be eighty-five years old and up to his last illness of a few weeks continued the active duties of his busy life.
Rev. C. Kain, Jr., became pastor in October 1864, and for seven years enjoyed tokens of Divine blessing, baptizing one hundred and five in one year. While pastor, a parsonage was bought and paid for. In January 1871, fifty-nine members were dismissed to organize the Recklesstown church. Pastor Kain resigned to resume charge of the church at Mullica Hill which he had left to come to Jacobstown; without the intermission of a Lord's day.
Rev. A. G. Thomas accepted the call to be pastor, on October 1, 1871. Mr. Thomas held a special meeting at Hornerstown. One hundred and eighteen were baptized in the winter of 1873 and 4. This pastorate like that of Mr. Kain was fruitful in enlargement and in blessing. Mr. Thomas resigned in 1877. A succession of pastors was: Rev. Mr. Hay, who ministered 1878-85; Rev. William Warlow, 1885-88; Rev. W. E. Cornell, 1889-1904.
Hornerstown church was recognized in 1897, with thirty-two members. Jacobstown is a rural church and has an exchange of natives for unsympathetic foreigners. These old churches may become mission fields unless endowed and the tide of population is turned by means of the trolley roads and the conveniences of town houses are introduced into the country.
Grave Yard and Back View of the Yellow Meeting House, Built in 1737
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If the names of "supplies" are omitted, the church has had twelve pastors. Mr. Burgess Allison, twenty-six years; Mr. Carpenter, thirteen years and Mr. Cornwell, fifteen years. Two meeting houses have been built, one in 1767, another in 1853, to which has been added the applian- ces and conveniences adapting it to modern life.
April 14th, 1821, is a misleading date of early Baptist interests in Bordentown. The Baptist house of worship was built in 1752, on a lot, the deed of which is dated August 5th, 1751, the fourth meeting house used by the Upper Freehold Baptist church and erected fourteen years before the mother church, of which it was a mission, was constituted Bordentown was a mission of Upper Freehold church, and then, when Jacobstown church was constituted, was identified with that body. It might have been the mother, rather than the daughter of these churches and the fourth daughter of the original Middletown.
The deed of the lot was given to John Coward, Jr., Thomas Cox and Joseph Borden, Jr. John Coward Jr., was the son of a licentiate of Middletown, who was living in Imlaystown, who had been licensed in 1738, to relieve Abel Morgan, as had been Mr. Carman licensed to preach at Cranbury and Jonathan Holmes of Holmdel (who died at sea and left a legacy of four hundred pounds to Middletown church). Thus if Mr. Morgan should be hindered from reaching these distant meetings, the regular service would go on and those who had come a long distance would not be disappointed,and discouraged at another time from coming to the House of God. Thomas Cox was a descendant of a constituent of Middletown church. Joseph Broden, Jr., is believed to be a son of Joseph Borden, Sr., who gave the ground for the place of worship and who presumably was a Baptist. The deed says of Borden, Cox and Coward, "who act as agents for several religious person, residing in Bordentown, aforesaid, and ye parts adjacent, who are members of Christian congregations, baptized by immersion upon a profession of faith." It also speaks of "Certain well wishers who come to hear ye Baptist ministers, when they preach in Bordentown and holding those wholesome principles contained in a confession of faith, set forth by the ministers and elders of above, one hundred congregations in England and Wales, met in London, Anno Dom. 1689." This description allows no doubt of the kind of religious persons there were, nor of their doctri- nal ideas.
Evidently, there was considerable Baptist element in Bordentown, in and near Bordentown one hundred and fifty years ago. They were also people of means and of enterprise. The house they built is de- scribed by a later pastor as "a grand edifice in its day; its roof hipped
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in imposing grandeur; its walls stout enough for a fortress; in its external appearance beautiful in plainness; its internal arrangements a model of convenience for those days; its pulpit decently elevated to a dizzy height."
There is a lapse of local information about Baptist matters in Bordentown for several years. Some events happened however, of very considerable moment. One was, that Burgess Allison, born in Bordentown in August 1753, became, eventually, an important char- acter 1753. When sixteen years old, he united with the Upper Freehold church by baptism. At once, he began religious meetings in Borden- town. This seems to be the origin of the mission there.
Preparing for college he entered Brown University and was aided by the Hubb's legacy, (of Hopewell). "Graduating from college, he returned to Bordentown and opened a school about 1778 or 79. Stu- dents from every colony and state, from Spain, France, West Indies and South America flocked to his school. Young men preparing for the ministry and for professional life were drawn to Bordentown as a center of choice, culture and advantage, crowding the halls of the large building he had erected." Mr. Allison was a natural genius of studious habits. Teaching was his calling. His wide reputation and the eminence of his school gave him a commanding position in all educational circles. Having been ordained in 1781, he was called to be pastor at Jacobstown, about the end of 1785. This, virtually was the end of his career. Although retaining connection with his school and devoting his energies to it. Both the church and himself made a mistake in his becoming a pastor. Had he given himself to the work for which he was fitted, he might have remedied the crime of the removal of Hopewell school and accomplished for Baptists in New Jersey, Penn- sylvania and New York, what Princeton has wrought for Presbyterian in this country. The congregations Mr. Allison gathered in Bordentown and the converts he baptized are gone and nothing remains of his work there, other than the valuable site of the Baptist church and that was gotten before he was born.
Mr. Allison was an instance of the wasteage of choice gifts of mind, of heart, of comprehension of himself and of culture by a mistaken directon; and yet there must not be a misapprehension of his motive or of his purpose to do the most good and to accomplish the most for God humanity. He was truly a Godly man of the highest aims and thorough- ly Christian endeavors. Men of his own times ought to have influenced him to take the place for which he was qualified by both nature and culture. However, educated men often lack acquaintance with the world and men, that impairs their judgement of things, outside of
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their routine. Strange things occurred in the pastoral care by Mr. Allison of Jacobstown church. One, the membership of Staughton and his wife in Jacobstown church, distant twelve miles from Borden- town, without either a "letter of dismission" or an "experience"and despite a rule of that body "that all business was to be done at Jacobs- town." It was in Mr. Allison, the same lack of judgement as made Jacobstown the center of his work, instead of Bordentown. To us it is a wonder that a Baptist church had not been constituted at Bordentown rather than at Jacobstown. The pastor lived there; the finished house was there; there too, were the converts the congregations which Mr. Allison had gathered and the school also. Asit was, he was com- pelled to sacrifice his home work; divert his influence to Jacobstown. Jacobstown gained but little from his long pastorate of twenty-eight years and Bordentown lost so much, that it was written in 1813, the year of Mr. Allison's resignation at Jacobstown, "The Baptist interest in Bordentown had evidently died away." Despite Mr. Allison's splen- did natural gifts and his eminent qualities for usefulness, his life was a comparative loss, wholly by his own failure to recognize his native endowments.
Not only in 1813, but in 1818, there is added testimony of the low condition of Baptist affairs at Bordentown. Howard Malcom, being a student at Princeton, visited the place and preached. His diary in October has this entry: "Bordentown is proverbial for neglect of re- ligion. Found matters deplorable. Baptist is the only house of worship except Friends (Quakers), very small, in bad repair, seldom used, only five or six Baptists in the place. The only two male mem- bers take no active part. I suggested a Sunday school in town but found no encouragement." Up to 1789, Mr. Allison had baptized sixty-two persons. What a magnificent opportunity he had thrown away! Mr. Malcom took collections in the next November to repair the house of worship. He aranged for regular services, in October organized a Sunday school. A Sunday school in 1819 was a great rarity, some esteemed it the "Devil's net." Not only antinomians but good men and women; good pastors opposed them as dangerous. Mr. Malcom served in his outlay of time, of travel, of labor without a penny of compensation. Since then, he has had his reward in the companion- ship of the Master.
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