USA > New Jersey > Morris County > A history of Morris County, New Jersey : embracing upwards of two centuries, 1710-1913, Volume I > Part 60
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After the lapse of nearly eighty years it is not to be wondered at that none of the founders of the Sabbath school are left on earth. Their names are known to us in their descendants, and some of them may be given here: Benjamin Lamson, Stephen Conger, Charles Hicks, Titus Berry, (grandfather of the present elder), Harriet Canfield, Moses Hurd, Elizabeth Hoagland, John Vail (afterward mis- sionary to the Cherokees), John Seeley (afterward a minister), Jacob Lawrence, Thomas Coe, Hila S. Hurd (afterward Mrs. Breese). Mrs. Breese continued to take an active part in this good work for more than sixty years, and her interest in it was strong until her death.
Second Article from the Dover Church News for April :
The Sunday-school and the prayer-meeting went hand-in-hand, steadily doing their work. Young people who grew up under these influences knew their value, and were ready to give time and money to extend their powers. We find that in 1836, with a population of about three hundred, Dover had in the Sunday-school one hundred and fifty scholars and twenty-eight teachers. This was just thirty years after the Rev. Barnabas King complained that from Powerville to Berkshire Valley, and from Walnut Grove to Stony Brook, he could find only thirty-five church members, twelve of whom were widows; and among these but three who were willing to pray in public. The congregations that assembled in the Rockaway Pres- byterian Church during nearly half a century after the foundation of their building was laid, seldom numbered, on Sunday, thirty persons, and often consisted of less than half that number. A generation had passed, and a new order of things had come.
The early part of the present century was a time of great spiritual activity. Between the years of 1816 and 1830 the number of communicants in the whole Pres-
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byterian church in the United States advanced from less than 40,000 to 173,329. This remarkable increase was partly due to the fact that many Congregationalists became connected with the Presbyterian denomination; but it was also owing to re- peated, wide-spread, and powerful revivals of religion. The church of Rockaway enjoyed its full share of this prosperity.
In 1831, Dr. Hatfield, of New York, then just entering upon his ministry, spent several months in Rockaway, assisting Mr. King. He preached frequently in Dover, where his name was long remembered by those who passed through the season of religious awakening that accompanied his labors.
In the same year, 1831, the Morris Canal was completed, and thereby the growth of the village was assured. Situated in the heart of a rich iron region; surrounded by little mining settlements dependent on it for supplies; with an abundance of water, and a most salubrious climate, Dover had every prospect of becoming, in time, an important business town. It had held its own when the roads were chiefly bridle-paths; when ore was carried in leathern bags on horseback from the mines to the forges in the county, and iron was carried to market on horseback also, but without bags, the bars of iron being bent to fit the horse. It had improved a little with the improvement in the roads; and now, for the first time, it had a cheap and convenient mode of transportation for coal, ore, iron, and freight, from the coal fields of Pennsylvania to the seaboard cities.
A prominent business man of New York City, Anson G. Phelps, Sr., perceiving the advantages of the situation, established in 1832 a bank, long and favorably known as the Union Bank of Dover. For some years the banking business was carried on in the stone house at present known as the Park Hotel; and afterward in a house built for the purpose, which is now occupied by the Young Men's Christian Association. The Union Bank was closed in 1866, on account of the adoption of the national banking system. It is principally interesting in this con- nection because it was the means of bringing to Dover, from Utica, N. Y., its cashier, Thomas B. Segur, and his family. Mr. Segur, a man of great energy and public spirit, was best known in New Jersey as a leader in the temperance move- ment. His interest in that cause was so great that he carried it with him into every department of life. In season and out of season he waged war in favor of total abstinence, even considering that a temperance pledge should be made a condition of church membership. For years he gave to every member of the Sunday-school a temperance paper. Many among us can remember seeing Mr. Segur come in to address the school, and, perhaps, offer a temperance pledge to be signed. Every New Year's Day the pupils in the Sunday-school were invited to come to the bank and wish the cashier a happy new year. Those who did so received some bright new copper pennies and a little package of fruit or candy.
Third Article from the Dover Church News for May :
Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Allen, who came to Dover in 1832, also proved a powerful addition to the little band of Christian workers already here. It was not long before the need of a church and a settled pastor began to be keenly felt, and warmly discussed. Those in favor of the plan were prepared to give generously for its support, from incomes not so large as they afterward became; those opposed to it, including the Newark Presbytery, thought that the village was too small to attempt so much with success; and that it was not right to weaken the Rockaway parish by establishing a new church which seemed to have little prospect of be- coming self-supporting. Some of those who might have been expected to join the new organization were members of the Rockaway church, and strongly attached to it; they wanted no change.
But the idea had taken hold of Christians who were not easily deterred from doing what they felt to be the Lord's work; and on the twenty-third day of April, 1835, the Rev. John Ford, of Parsippany, and the Rev. Peter Kanouse, acting under the authority of the Presbytery of Newark, formed the First Presbyterian Church of Dover, with a membership of seven men and thirteen women, namely; James Ford, Charity Ford, Martha Chrystal, James Searing, Rachel Searing, Thomas M. Sturtevant, Maria Sturtevant, William A. Dickerson, Louisa M. Hurd, Mary Wilson, Melinda Tuttle, John K. Bayles, Phebe Ann Bayles, Elizabeth Hoagland, Phebe King, Margaret King, Thomas B. Segur, Sarah P. Segur, Jabez L. Allen, Caroline C. Allen. Three ruling elders were elected: J. L. Allen, James Ford and Thomas B. Segur.
This was the first church organization of any denomination in the village. Four of these original members are now living; one at the time of her death, was within a few weeks of her hundredth birthday; one died in his ninety-ninth year,
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and still another in her ninetieth. A few went away from this part of the country, and we have no positive record of their ages; but it is certain that more than one-half of the whole number lived beyond the allotted threescore years and ten, and it is probable that, if all the ages were known, we should find the average to be more than seventy years. Mr. Allen's life was shortened by an accident.
The young church entered upon its career of usefulness, not by erecting a house, but by installing a pastor. Five or six years earlier Mr. McFarlan, father of the late Charles and Henry McFarlan, had built the Stone Academy, on the old Morristown road, now called Dickerson Street, near Morris, almost opposite the old public school, intending it to serve the double purpose of church and school- house. Blackwell street at that time ended at Morris street, much of the land near the river beyond that point being swampy.
The lower floor of the Academy was arranged for a school; and the whole of the upper floor, furnished with seats and a platform, made an excellent room for religious meetings. Here the Presbyterians held their services for seven years. The building was afterward used by the Episcopal church for about twenty years, and has since been altered into a double dwelling-house.
In August, 1835, the Rev. James Wyckoff, a man about thirty-two years of age, was called to be pastor of this church, and was installed November 24th. He preached also in the Berkshire Valley church every Sunday afternoon while he was able to do so. Unfortunately differences arose between the pastor and his con- gregation, which resulted in a bitter quarrel. Mr. Wyckoff laid the case before the Presbytery, asking to be allowed to resign his charge; but to this the Pres- bytery would not consent. Mr. Wyckoff suffered from a painful disease, incurable by the methods then in use. His health declined until he was sometimes unable to stand, and preached sitting. This gave great offence to some of his hearers; they said that the church needed a strong man, and must have one. The pastor's friends, on the other hand, said that a church that had nothing but unkindness to give to its suffering and dying minister had no right to be called a Christian society. The feeling ran high on both sides.
Mr. Wyckoff remained in Dover a little more than two years, and then, while still nominally pastor of this church, removed to Hackettstown, where his father- in-law, Dr. Joseph Campbell, was living. There his sorrows ended, in April, 1838. He was buried in Hackettstown, by the side of the old Presbyterian Church.
During his pastorate there were added to the church fourteen by letter, and twenty-three on profession of faith. Fifteen were dismissed to other churches, leaving the number of communicants in May, 1838, forty-two.
Fourth Article from the Dover Church News for June :
In July, 1838, the Rev. Robert R. Kellogg, a graduate of Union Theological Seminary, and a licentiate of the Third Presbytery of New York, became the minister of this church. He was never installed pastor; for the bitterness resulting from the quarrel with and about Mr. Wyckoff had not subsided, and the church was grow- ing cautious. One of the elders, Mr. Segur, was, at the time he came to Dover, a Congregationalist, and he had from the first wished this church to be Congrega- tional. When he found that the Presbytery not only could, but would prevent a church from dismissing its pastor whenever it chose, his dislike for Presbyterians was intensified. He declared that the Presbyterian form of church government is tyrannical, and that he would do nothing to uphold it. He never again met with the Session, and never attended another meeting of the Presbytery. He did not leave the church, but for several years he continued his efforts to bring it into the Con- gregational fold.
Mr. Kellogg was ordained as an evangelist December 5, by the Presbytery of Newark. He remained in Dover as stated supply until April, 1839; boarding, with his wife and child, in the family of one of his parishioners. He went from Dover to the church of Gowanus, now within the limits of the city of Brooklyn. After- ward he became the pastor of the Second Church of Detroit. Still later he preached in Milford, Pa., where he died suddenly one Sunday night, after having preached twice during the day.
The division of the Presbyterian church in the United States into Old School and New School took place in 1837. This division was caused by differences of opinion concerning certain theological points; concerning church polity and church extension ; and concerning the manner in which the question of slavery should be treated by Christian churches. There were ministers who called slavery a great christianizing institution; there were others who declared that no slaveholder could enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
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New England Congregationalists removing to other colonies usually united with Presbyterian churches already established or joined with Presbyterians in forming new churches. Many of the churches in Newark and vicinity were at first Con- gregational, but soon became Presbyterian.
A "Plan of Union" was, in 1801, unanimously proposed by the Presbyterian General Assembly to the Congregational General Association of Connecticut, and unanimously accepted, both sides wishing "to prevent alienation, and promote union and harmony in those new settlements which are composed of inhabitants from these bodies." The result was a modified Presbyterianism, with more or less opposition to the modifications.
One cause of the development of party spirit was the formation of "voluntary societies" for benevolent and missionary work, during a period when united effort was essential to the success of such work. As denominational strength increased these societies conflicted with the church agencies.
The differences about theology and church government nominally caused the separation of the two parties. It is probable, however, that without the direct or the indirect influence of slavery there would have been no serious rupture; for soon after the division the New School Presbyterians profited by experience and outgrew the use of voluntary societies; while before the reunion of the two parties the Old School admitted the doctrine held by the New School to be substantially orthodox.
The Presbytery of Newark, which included the Dover church, was enrolled in the New School branch.
Two elders, Sidney Breese and Titus Berry, were added to the session in 1838.
Fifth Article from the Dover Church News for July :
In July, 1839, Burtis C. Megie, or Magie, commenced his services in this church as stated supply. The present series of papers has been compiled from information collected by him; the greater part of it having been already published in a historical sermon, 1885, and in a History of Morris County.
After the separation of the Old School from the New School Presbyterians the Newark Presbytery was divided, and Dover became part of the Rockaway Pres- bytery; which, after the Reunion in 1870 was merged in the Presbytery of Morris and Orange.
Mr. Megie was a graduate of the University of the City of New York, and of Union Theological Seminary. He retained his interest in both institutions through life. From one he received the title of Doctor of Divinity; from the other an offer of a position in some respects very desirable. He preferred to remain with the Dover church, to which he was strongly attached.
After leaving the Seminary in 1838, and being licensed by the Third Pres- bytery of New York, Mr. Megie preached for a few months in New Paltz, N. Y., and was ordained by the North River Presbytery. In the course of this year he was married to Mary C. Belden, of New York City. When he came with his young wife to Dover, in 1839, he found it a village of less than four hundred inhabitants. The houses were on the level land on both sides of the river, and the hills were still covered with forests. The neighboring village of Rockaway had about the same number of inhabitants, but a much stronger church. Boonton had a population of three hundred and fifty; Hackettstown seven hundred; Morristown, a place of importance, and the terminus of the Morris and Essex Railroad, had two thousand people; Newark had seventeen thousand two hundred and ninety, while even New York city had scarcely more than three hundred thousand.
Facilities for travel were not lacking. A stage-coach, drawn by four good horses, passed between Newark and Dover three times each way every week. On the alternate days,-for Sunday travel by public conveyance was not even thought of,-a two-horse stage passed from and to Morristown through Dover. It was a common thing to go by stage or private carriage to Newark, and then proceed to New York by boat. The Newark stage carried the mail; with postage ten cents or more for a single letter, according to distance and weight, three times a week seemed sufficient. Arriving in Newark or Morristown the traveler could go to Jersey City by train, and, crossing the ferry, land at Cortlandt street. He could then continue his journey in a cab, or on foot; there were no omnibus lines, and no street cars. The northern limit of the actual city was Tenth street, though improvements were being planned beyond that line.
The yearly salary offered to Mr. Megie was five hundred dollars. The number of church members was thirty-seven; and the small congregation had been weakened by the bitterness of the dissensions previously mentioned, which had by no means
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subsided. The dissatisfied elder, a man of great influence, continued his appeals to the session and to the people, desiring them to change the ecclesiastical relations of the church from Presbyterian to Congregational. This was not done; but the frequent and heated discussions interfered with harmonious action. It was found necessary to ask for Home Missionary aid. When the application was taken to the Presbytery to be indorsed, it was, through the influence of the Rockaway church, almost refused, on the ground that the Home Missionary Society does not aid churches not likely to become self-supporting. The following paragraph is from Mr. Megie's sermon :
"Fifty dollars were appropriated. During the same year a collection was taken up in the congregation amounting to a little over fifty dollars for Home Missions. The church never asked for further aid from abroad, and never failed yearly to send at least fifty dollars to the Board of Home Missions. It soon rose to one hundred and fifty dollars per annum. The Foreign Mission enterprise occupied a large place in the affections of the church. Through the influence of Mr. Segur fifty copies of the Missionary Herald were circulated in the congregation, putting a copy in each family. These were read, and the people were posted as to the foreign field. The monthly concert of prayer, observed Sunday evenings, was looked for with interest, and was a lively meeting. A Missionary Convention was held in the. church, lasting two days, at which several returned missionaries and several members of the American Board were present. It was the largest public meeting that had ever been held in Dover, and made the best and most lasting impression on the people of this place. About that time the Board was in debt, and a special collection was taken, amounting to three hundred dollars. Manning Rutan, who had sent a letter to be read at this meeting, gave one hundred. The other objects of benevo- lence received their proper attention, and for years this church took the lead in the Presbytery in the amount of its contributions."
Sixth Article from the Dover Church News for August :
The salary of five hundred dollars, paid by the Dover church sixty years ago, was generous for the times, considering the size and wealth of the community. In accordance with a custom which was still in vogue in country parishes, though beginning to fall into disuse, this salary was partly paid by contributions of farm produce, etc. The minister's salary account needed to be carefully kept, embracing, as it did, many items like the following: Half a ton of hay, five dollars ; five pounds of butter, seventy-five cents; half a cord of oak wood, one dollar and twenty-five cents; a quarter of beef (100 lbs.), five dollars; a bushel of oats, thirty seven and one-half cents. This inconvenience was more than balanced by the excellent quality of the articles themselves. The apples and potatoes and other fruits of the earth were of the best; the butter was fresh and sweet; the hams and the sausages, the cheese and the honey, never weighed less than their nominal number of pounds.
The annual donation visit was, for some time, a method of paying part of the salary; and whatever may have been the case elsewhere, the donation visits of this church to its pastor were occasions of pleasant and orderly sociability. They were particularly valued by the minister himself because they gave him an oppor- tunity of meeting some members of the congregation whom he seldom saw except in their own houses or at church.
These visits usually occupied part of two days, one for adults, and the second for children. At first, three days were appointed, one being for old people. A very short trial of this plan convinced the committees that one of the three days was superfluous; no old people appeared. After a few years, money became more abundant throughout the country, and ministers' salaries were paid in cash. By degrees, as the population of Dover and the cost of living both increased, the amount of the pastor's salary increased also.
But many gifts not included in the salary found their way to the pastor's house. Game, fruit, poultry, fish, each was abundant in its season. Many little comforts and luxuries were supplied in this way; and occasionally money. At one time, through the influence of Mr. Guy M. Hinchman, an efficient friend and sup- porter of the church, Mr. Megie received twelve hundred and fifty dollars; another year four hundred and fifty; and gifts of like nature on various other occasions.
The contributions to the regular objects of benevolence in the church in 1839 amounted to one hundred and seventeen dollars. With the exception of two years, 1841 and 1844, the amounts afterward given were larger, and continued to increase until, in 1859, the church gave five hundred and forty-eight dollars. From that date until the close of Mr. Megie's pastorate the benevolent contributions varied from five hundred to twelve hundred and fifty dollars yearly.
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In 1839 the church had thirty seven members, and during the next two years thirty-six were added. One, Azel Ford, died in 1840, and one, Mrs. Mercy Kings- land, in 1841. The ability of Dover to support a Presbyterian church was no longer a matter of doubt, and the room in the old stone academy was inconveniently crowded. The Methodists had organized a church and put up a building in 1838; in 1841 the Presbyterians wanted a house of their own. When a subscription was opened for the purpose of building a church it was enthusiastically received; the sum of two thousand dollars was almost immediately promised. Elder J. L. Allen drew up the plans for the new church, and superintended the work of constructing it, besides making the largest single subscription. There were so many cheerful givers that within a few weeks from the day when the building was dedicated, Nov. 15, 1842, it was paid for. There was no debt. The church cost thirty-five hundred dollars, about half of which the minister obtained among his friends and acquaintances outside of the congregation.
The house was, after the fashion of the times, strong, plain, convenient, and light. It had on the main floor a vestibule, and one large audience room with a gallery for the choir across one end, near the entrance; the pulpit was opposite. The pews had no doors, but the pulpit was enclosed. There was a basement con- taining two rooms besides a furnace room. The larger of these rooms was used for prayer-meetings and for the Sunday school; the smaller one for the infant class of the Sunday school. The room was also used for a day school for several years; and during the cold winter weather the weekly prayer-meeting was frequently held in it, by the pleasant warmth of a cheerful wood fire. The church had a square belfry, containing a bell; and, like nearly all substantial frame houses of the day, it was white, with green blinds. Thirty years later, while Mr. Megie was still pastor of the church, this building, in its turn, was found too small, and was removed to make room for the present edifice. It now stands on the opposite corner of Prospect street, its belfry gone, its long windows cut in two in the middle, and its interior altered into dwelling rooms.
Seventh Article from the Dover Church News for September :
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The renting of the pews in the new church was done in the resolute and in- telligent spirit that had characterized the little congregation throughout. Those who gave the most money might have been expected to take the best places; but instead of doing so, many of them selected the front seats, and those at the side of the pulpit. This was done partly in order that the front of the church might be always well filled; and partly that the more desirable pews in the middle and back of the building might be assigned to those who found it inconvenient or unpleasant to occupy places in front.
On the day when the edifice was dedicated, November 15, 1842, Mr. Megie was installed pastor of the churches of Dover and Berkshire Valley. He had commenced his life in Dover as stated supply, neither he nor the congregation wishing to con- sider the relation permanent; but during three years of united and successful work, attachments had been formed which lasted through life.
The people of Berkshire Valley, in making this arrangement, agreed to pay one third of the salary on condition of having preaching in their church every Sunday afternoon; the morning and evening services were to be held in Dover. The call to this double pastorate was signed by J. L. Allen, Sidney Breese, and Titus Berry, committee of the congregation at Dover; by Jeremiah Gard, Samuel Doughty, and William B. Lefever, committee of the congregation at Berkshire Valley; and by the Rev. Barnabas King as moderator of the meeting. Mr. King, the Rockaway pastor, had reason to be interested in both churches, for both had once formed part of his parish. He had preached in Berkshire Valley either once a month or once a fort- night from 1805 until a few years after the organization of the church of New- foundland, in 1818, when the Rev. E. A. Osborn of that church took charge of the work. Seventy-two persons from Berkshire were taken into the Newfoundland church before 1828. In that year the church of Berkshire Valley was regularly organized by the Newark Presbytery. The church building, commenced in 1833, was well built and is in good condition to-day, after more than sixty years of usefulness. The pews face the two entrance doors, between which stands a high pulpit.
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