USA > New Jersey > A history of Baptists in New Jersey > Part 33
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54
Rev. J. H. Dudley was pastor for six months from June 1st, 1894, In January 1895, the present pastor, Rev. Robert Holmes, (1900)
318
NEW JERSEY BAPTIST HISTORY
entered on his duties. Enlargement of the meeting house was needful and the work was accomplished in the fall of 1896 and paid for within a few dollars. This young interest has had but little financial help from abroad and maintains itself.
In July 1892, Rev. O. Von Barchwitz of the South church, Newark, began a mission at Fairmount Avenue. It had unwonted prosperity. "A tent sufficed temporarily for worship, when, on account of the season it was necessary, a building was secured, into which the mission service was removed on October 1st. On the 23rd of December 1892, the Tabernacle Baptist church was organized with supposedly forty-nine constituents to which twenty-five were added by baptism and eleven by letter and within six months had increased to eighty-five members. They had amission elsewhere in Newark, to which an industrial depart- ment was attached and in which fallen men and prisoners released from jails are employed. They employ eighteen people; two trained women missionaries are constantly engaged. All the money for the support of the enterprise comes from voluntary contributions. Lots are bought and paid for on which to build a church edifice."
This is a remarkable record, illustrating how much can be accom- plished when the heart is set on it. In 1894, the church property is reported to be valued at ten thousand dollars and an arrearage of four thousand dollars. During the winter of 1893, and 4, the church had provided, seven thousand, two hundred lodgings and three thousand, eight hundred meals for the needy. Later the church suffered with others in the financial crisis, which cut off their resources. The pastor resigned in 1895 or 6. Rev. O. Von Barchwitz' plans and ideas were not con- genial to some and involved a cost not wholly approved.
Rev. W. W. Ludwig followed in 1896, remaining about two years. and was succeeded by Rev. A. E. Harris, who is now (1900) pastor, There have been three pastors since the organization of the church. A house of worship, it is supposed, has been built. The church has been conducted on some European plan of special adaption of ministry to the needy and dependent ..
Data of Emanuel church, Newark, is very meagre. It was organ- ized in 1894. Associational digests give but little information of its origin, agency and outlook. Its first pastor is only known by allusion to his death, Rev. H. G. Mason, who, it is said, died while pastor. They occupied their own meeting house in 1895. Whether encumbered with debt or not is not stated. In 1896, the membership was eighty- five, almost double that of 1895. Their pastor then, was Rev. W. G. Thomas. Mr. Thomas resigned in 1898, having had a useful pastorate of two years. After Mr. Thomas, was Mr. E. O. Wilson, who preached
319
EMANUEL
for them while a student and was welcomed to be pastor after gradu- ating in 1899, and is now (1900) ministering to the church.
There are in Newark, two German Baptist churches and five Afro-American churches, in all, seventeen Baptist churches. The First German was organized in 1849; the second German in 1875; of the Afro-American Bethany was organized 1871; Mt. Zion, 1878; Galilee, 1896; Bethsaida, 1898 and Christian Tabernacle, 1895.
CHAPTER XXXII.
SAMPTOWN, PLAINFIELD AND NEW MARKET CHURCHES
As early as 1666, New Englanders emigrated to a tract of country lying between Rahway and the Raritan river, including the section in and around Samptown. The motive of this emigration was to get away from the intolerance and persecution of the "church order" of New England, especially that of Massachusetts and of Connecticut. A motive of coming to New Jersey was the guarantee in this province of unrestricted freedom in religion and of political opinions. Pro- vision for education was also in advance of all other American colonies. The first free school on the continent was in New Jersey and ordained by its Governor.
The West India Company of Holland, chartered in 1629, enjoined on their colonists here and in New York State "in the speediest manner to find out ways and means whereby they might support a minister and a school master." Quite unlike the "English East India Company" which forbade missionaries to enter their territory or to distribute Bibles in them, compelled Carey to be clerk and drove Judson to the protection of a heathen King. The "Friends" (Quakers) built first a meeting house and built a school house adjoining it. These early settlers were largely Baptists, as the rolls of Piscataway, Scotch Plains and Samptown plainly show.
In 1742, a house of worship was built at Scotch Plains, which mitigated the inconvenience of those who were far distant. A house of worship was built at Samptown in 1792. Twenty-one members of Scotch Plains were dismissed in August of 1792 to constitute the Samp- town church. Supplies ministered till the fall of 1793, when Rev. J. Fitz Randolph became pastor for half the time. Mr. Randolph was a native of Samptown. An older brother was a "ruling elder" (a custom of some early Baptist churches) and a younger brother was a physician and a deacon of the church. Mr. Randolph was called annually until 1798; when he was chosen "permanent pastor as long as was mutually agreeable." He was pastor till 1818, almost twenty-five years.
The meeting house was enlarged in 1812 and in that year R. F. Randolph, M. D., the pastor's brother, was ordained. The pastor was the means of the conversion of many. At nearly every church meeting for thirteen years, some were added by baptism. Fifty-three adults
-1
0
t S
321
SAMPTOWN
were baptized in 1808. On October 7th, 1818, Mr. Randolph notified the church that his pastorate would close on November 1st. At the same time he asked for letters of dismission for himself and thirty-one others to form the First Baptist church of Plainfield. Mr. Randolph had been baptized and licensed at Scotch Plains, where he was a deacon. He was one of the most useful of men. His career of blessing is written in connection with histories of Samptown and first Plainfield of both of which he was the first pastor.
The outgoing of the pastor with a colony resulted in Rev. Lebeous Lathrop settled as pastor on February 14th, 1819 at a salary of two hundred fifty dollars per annum and his firewood. In the meantime, the meeting house was repaired, enlarged and another stove put in it. On the 4th of March, 1840, Mr. Lathrop having been pastor twenty-one years and then seventy-nine years old, resigned. Even though so old, his people protested against his retirement.
Mr. Lathrop had come from an earlier era, in which hyper- Cal- vinism was dominant. He had the courage of his convictions, but did not know that his day was a period of change from the radicalism of high-toned Calvinism to that more tempered offer of the Gospel, which called sinners to "repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." He did not accept the doctrine of the great sermon of Pastor Holcombe on the "attainableness of faith" with which Mr. Holcombe had startled the Baptist world of his times.
The caste of Mr. Lathrop may be known by these incidents, which the writer has verified. The pastor, who followed him, visited him in his illness, before his death and asked: "If he was consciously ready for the change so near?" Turning his keen black eyes on the questioner, he sharply exclaimed: "Do you think I have been preaching the Gospel for fifty years and don't know where I am going when I am dying?" Assurance is a characteristic of such men. Being an extreme Calvinist, a young minister preached for him and expressed liberal ideas. Asking Mr. Lathrop to pray after the sermon, whereupon he said in a loud voice: "Pray for your own stuff." A young pastor was preaching at an Association. Mr. Lathrop was in the pulpit, rising he said to the preacher: "Stop! Sit down! and called to Pastor R. next to Mr. W .: "Come up here and finish this sermon." Each declined; then Mr. Lathrop said: "I will do it myself." Still there was in Mr. Lathrop a residuum of lowly piety, which despite his stern ideas of truth, con- formed him to the mind of the Son of God.
These facts illustrate the bitterness of opposition to men of the stamp of Zelotes Grenelle, G. S. Webb, the Teasdales, Barrass brothers, M. J. Rheese, J. M. Challis, C. Bartolette, John Rogers, Peter Wilson and 21
322
NEW JERSEY BAPTIST HISTORY
a host of men raised up in the missionary era, who endured the ex- travagance of good men, rather than drive them into Antinomianism, which then threatened to sweep the state; men who by a quiet Christian influence shut the Antinomian tendencies into narrowing bounds. Only those who have gone through the fire can have any conception of the worth of the men who saved our churches from the on coming flood.
There is a vast difference in the men and in their preaching, seventy years ago, and in the men and in their preaching of to-day. Not in brains, nor moral stamina nor spirituality. It is only evil to impeach the integrity and piety of the men of to-day or of those of former times, by comparisons injurious to either. We esteem alike, those whose memories come to us from amid the shadows of the past and our own associates, with them, as with us, there are wide differences in person- alities and in associations. It is perhaps, natural for us, familiar with the wider thinking, the larger speech and the free dealing with the standards of truth, an outgrowth of our free institutions, to be pessi- mistic in our opinions of our contemporaries .. In the former age, men had a positiveness of doctrinal conviction; an absoluteness in their assurance of Divine truth; boldness in the assertion of denominational belief, a sui Genesis of character that showed them self-poised and not ashamed if called bigots, if they insisted on the limitation of opinions to the Bible and yet none more sternly asserted the absolute right of every one to the unmolested enjoyment of his own opinions of truth and of duty. It is not claimed that the many sects in the centuries since Pentecost were Baptists because they had adopted our view of the mode and subjects of baptism; but it is insisted that they recog- nized the Scriptures as the only authority for a religious duty and for an article of faith and also that it was their distinction to claim the right of men and women to their opinions and to disseminate them.
Rev. E. M. Barker followed Mr. Lathrop in about a year. Pastor Barker's settlement was most suitable. Kind, patient, "sound in the faith." Prosperity attended him and his ministry in the eight years he was pastor. In a special work of grace he baptized one hundred and the church was responsive to every good cause despite Mr. Beebe's influence. Mr. Barker had fanciful notions of home amusements. Once he came upon a mother amusing her flock of little ones with croquet balls and checkers, affording them pleasure and herself relief. Months later he alluded to that mother as training her children for evil. At the earliest moment after that sermon, he hasted to the rear of the church edifice and lighted his pipe! None of us are perfect and some of us are inconsistent though with the best intentions. When Mr. Barker had resigned, Rev. W. D. Hires followed.
323
SAMPTOWN AND FIRST PLAINFIELD
Again the church had a renewal of their experience with their first pastor. Pastor Hires and a number of members constituted the New Market church in March 1852, with fifty members and built a house of worship which they occupied in 1854.
Samptown church called Rev. William Maul in 1853, who remained until 1858. The succession of pastors was: J. J. Baker, 1858-68; C. G. Gurr removed after several months' stay; S. L. Cox, 1869-71; W. H. Burlew, 1873-78; was ordained. The location of the meeting house was such that first Plainfield and New Market churches reduced the congregations so seriously that disbanding or removal to a central place was a question of life. In 1876, it was decided to remove the church edifice to New Brooklyn.
In August 1878, Rev. A. Armstrong became pastor. A spark from a passing engine on a near by railroad, kindled a fire and the house of worship was burned. A beautiful house of worship was built in a village of New Brooklyn, entirely free from debt and was dedicated in January 1880. Congregations were renewed. The Samptown church took a new departure. A parsonage was built in 1881 and the name of the church changed to New Brooklyn. Mr. Armstrong resigned in December 1890.
The name of the church was again changed to South Plainfield in 1891-3, and Rev. E Thompson settled as pastor in 1891-95. Toward the end of 1895, Rev. J. A. Cubberley became pastor and is now (1904) ministering as pastor. A neighboring city has absorbed the church, but it is no less a vigorous body. Its loss of strength was not by ex- haustion but by giving. The going out of two strong colonies had the full assent of those who remained to bear added burdens. How many meeting houses Samptown has had part in is not known. Not less than four. As many as three members have been licensed to preach. Twelve pastors have served the church. The first for twenty- five years; the second, twenty-one years. Two colonies have become strong and influential bodies, first Plainfield and New Market.
Baptist families identified with Piscataway and Scotch Plains churches distributed themselves far and wide and impressed their faith upon people far from their home centers and Baptists were numer- ous in many rural districts and in the later centers of population. First Plainfield instances this. Pastors of these churches were men of large mould and made a lasting impression wherever they appeared. In a country so new, instead of villages and towns, settlements took their place. The first house built in Plainfield, was in 1735, amid Indian wigwams. At the organization of the First Baptist church, in 1818, there were about two hundred and fifty residents in the place,
324
NEW JERSEY BAPTIST HISTORY
Samptown, a Baptist settlement, was more or less two miles away and a convenient locality for a Baptist church.
In 1812, Baptist families in Plainfield met for worship in their homes. But an Academy was built that year and Baptists worshipped in a hall there for several years. Rev. Mr. Randolph, pastor of Samp- town church lived in Plainfield. A meeting was called at the hall, in January 1818, to discuss the organization of a Baptist church. They decided to constitute a Baptist church. A subscription was made and nearly twenty-five hundred dollars pledged for a meeting house. Dur- ing the next summer, 1818, a house of worship was built on the site where the first Baptist church is now, and later it was decided that certain members of the Samptown Baptist church be allowed to occupy it and the house was dedicated at the end of October, or beginning of November. Baptists dismissed from Samptown and Piscataway met at the home of Rev. J. F. Randolph on November 7th, and con- stituted the first Baptist church of Plainfield. Rev. Mr. Randolph, pastor of Samptown church was elected pastor. At a later meeting November 25th, 1818, the church was duly recognized. In December the salary of Mr. Randolph was fixed at two hundred and fifty dollars per annum.
The constituents numbered thirty-four. The growth of the church was slow. Its increase was but to forty-one to 1819, and in 1822, reported fifty-two members. Mr. Randolph died January 18, 1828, having been laid aside the year before, with paralysis. When licensed to preach he was thirty-five years old and when he became pastor at Plainfield, was sixty-two years old and was pastor for nearly ten years, till he was seventy-two years old, and left the memory of a good name and the fruits of a devoted life.
Rev. D. T. Hill became pastor in August 1828, resigning after eleven years, in 1839. Mr. Hill was an aggressive preacher. Strangers knew that he was a Baptist. The people appreciated a man of con- victions. The house was packed and converts knew what they were converted from and what to. Under his charge, the church increased to two hundred and seventy-four members. A Sunday school was established in the second year of Mr. Hill's charge (1829), to which many members objected as an innovation on the established means of grace. The house was enlarged and yet too small. In 1837, one hun- dred and ten were baptized and the first Plainfield Baptist church be- came the foremost church in numbers and in influence in the town in which it was.
In May 1839, Rev. S. J. Drake was called. He began his pastoral care in August 1839. Special seasons of religious interest frequently
325
FIRST PLAINFIELD AND SECOND PLAINFIELD
occurred under his ministry of twenty-three years. The house of worship was enlarged and vastly improved. Pastor Drake was called from active business life into the ministry. True, while he lacked book knowledge and the training of a college, he had the Bible, and more, the teaching of the Divine Spirit. Converts were constantly added to the church. The wavering were stayed; the unlearned were taught; mission schools were established. Pastor Drake was a blessing to all, in his personal life, his ministry and by his business habits, until "God took him" in April, 1862. Mention of Mr. Drake's duties of Secretary of the New Jersey Baptist State Convention for fourteen years ought not to be overlooked. He brought to this office the busi- ness tact and judgement that characterized the man in all departments of his life and of his pastoral affairs.
A year passed till a new pastor was chosen, D. J. Yerkes, who entered on his duties in the fall of 1863 and retained his pastorate till and later than 1900. Shortly after Mr. Yerkes settled, a new sanctuary became a necessity. Accordingly, the lot or ground on which it must be located was arranged for its accommodation, and the new house of praise was begun and completed and was dedicated on Nov- ember 25th 1869. The edifice, sixty by one hundred feet of Roman- esque architectural design and costing seventy-five thousand dollars, constitutes one of the most beautiful and complete church edifices in the state.
The church beginning with thirty-four members, numbers now, nearly one thousand members. Pastor Yerkes to 1900 has with un- flinching fidelity, maintained for thirty-seven years, the position of his church as foremost in the city and is, himself, deservedly revered and honored in all the churches and by all of the Baptist pastors and ministers in the state. A most remarkable fact of first Plainfield, is that it has been eighty-two years since it was founded and yet, that it has had only four pastors. The shortest term was ten years and closed with the death of the pastor at the age of seventy-two years. The second pastor served the church eleven years. The third pastor closed his labors at death in 1862 and the fourth, lasting almost forty years. Two houses of worship have been in use. Repeated enlarge- ments and amendments were made to the first meeting house. Of the first pastor it is due to state that he had ministered in Plainfield for some time before the constitution of the church. How long is not known.
In 1842, on the first of September, the second Baptist church was formed with fifty-six constituents. Rev. D. T. Hill returned to Plain- field in 1842 and used his influence as an old and successful pastor, who
326
NEW JERSEY BAPTIST HISTORY
had baptized very many into the church, to constitute a second church. His adherents in that year, built a good and spacious house of worship and called Mr. Hill to be pastor. The Association in 1843, appointed a committee to reconcile the difficulty caused by Mr. Hill's return to Plainfield and the organization of the second church. A settlement of the trouble was claimed by the second church. Mr. Hill resigned in 1852, having been patsor ten years. He was the first pastor of the second church. The succession of pastors of the second church was: C. C. Williams, 1852-56; H. G. Mason, 1856-59; J. Duer, 1859-68; C. E. Young, 1869-70; T. R. Howlitt, 1871-75. This year the second church disbanded.
It was said another church was to be formed of which the second was to be a nucleous. Subsequently, data reveals that the second Plainfield church was absorbed in the Park Avenue Baptist church, which was constituted in March 1876. Piscataway, Cohansie, and Scotch Plains alone can compare with first Plainfield the length of their early pastorates.
Central Plainfield or Park Avenue church organized in 1876, was naturally an outgrowth of first Plainfield. Pastor D. T. Hill had en- joyed wonderful prosperity in Plainfield and is believed to have had assurances of like successes upon his return. But he had been mis- informed of the temper of the people, of their unwillingness to forsake a pastor of their choice for an old friend, whose plans did not commend them to either their judgement or to their piety. Besides they knew that their old pastor was impulsive; while Mr. Drake could be depended upon as not subject to "fits and starts."
In the digest of the letters of the EastAssociation for 1875, page 23, Plainfield second says: "Initiatory steps are in progress looking to the organization of a new church, of which this shall be a nucleus." Under the leadership of Rev. Robert Lowrey, (resident at Plainfield) meetings were held in the Seventh Day Baptist house of worship at the beginning of 1896 in anticipation of such a movement. Second Plainfield dis- appears from the minutes of the Association after 1876 and the Central Plainfield Church organized on March 15th, 1876 is represented in the Association in 1877 and Rev. Robert Lowrey as pastor with having one hundred and twenty-four constituents. Elsewhere, it is learned that ninety-five of these were from the second Plainfield Baptist church, fifteen from the first church and the others of other Baptist churches. Thus the forecast of the letter of second Plainfield church had a real basis and the second church of Plainfield endorsed the new arrange- ment. The removal of Mr. Howlett made the way clear for the trans- formation of the Second Church into the Central.
327
CENTRAL PLAINFIELD AND NEW MARKET
On March 15th, 1876, when the Central church was constituted, steps were taken to secure Mr. Lowrey as pastor of the Central church. Worship continued for several years in the Seventh Day Baptist church edifice; but the growth of the Central church made it needful to build a house of worship for itself. At this time, a citizen, Mr. James E. Martin offered the gift of a lot to the church and the house of worship now in use was built at the cost of forty thousand dollars. Begun on October 4th, 1879, it was dedicated in December 1880. This house is a memorial of Pastor Lowrey, having worshipped four years in a rented place. In Mr. Lowrey's pastoral care, two members were licensed to preach. One, the pastor's son. Mr. Lowrey resigned in February 1885, having been pastor nine years. A constituent of the church, he continued a member of it till his death, November 25th, 1899. Then he exchanged his own sweet songs of earth for that of redemption in the upper sanctuary. Rev. A. R. Dilts became pastor in October 1885. An event of this pastorate was the reduction of the debt on the house of worship from fifteen thousand dollars, to three thousand dollars. In other things it was a useful pastorate. Mr. Dilts resigned in April 1892. A third pastor, Rev. J. W. Richardson entered on his official duties in November 1892, and is now (1900) in charge. One member has been licensed and ordained. The church is a substitute for second Plainfield and for union of Baptist interests in Plainfield. A change of location of the church edifice involved a change of name from Central to Park Avenue effected about 1880. The church has had three pastors, each of them very acceptable. Their resignation, which was wholly voluntary with themselves. Each pastorate was useful and happy,
New Market Baptist church originated under much the same conditions as did first Plainfield. The going out from Samptown church of a pastor and a colony to constitute it. A minute of the Samp- town church book reads: "With the cordial consent of the Samptown church forty-five of its members were granted a general letter of dis- mission for the purpose of forming a separate and independent church at New Market on the 25th of February 1852." The New Market church was subsequently recognized at Samptown in the meeting house of the Samptown church. Rev. William D. Hires, pastor at Samptown, led out the colony. A house of worship was built the first year of the constitution of the church and soon after paid for. Large additions were made by baptism in the two years in which Mr. Hires was pastor.
Rev. G. W. Clark was ordained for the pastoral charge of the church in October 1855. Mr. Clark was pastor four years and enjoyed a happy
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.