USA > New Jersey > Morris County > Annals of Morris County > Part 25
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At all times scriptural, both in the truth and words of his preaching, he was peculiarly so in these neighborhood talks and "the com- mon people heard him gladly." His labor became excessive at times and for weeks together amounting to ten publie services a week besides his regular visits in the parish aud visits to the sick.
In his 40th anniversary sermon, Mr. King said of this period, " my labors were then extended over a large tract of country, em- bracing ten or twelve mites square. I had six preaching places which were from four to six miles distant from the church. After two services in the church I preached at one of these and at one or more on a week day. My objeet was to be at each of these preaching places at least as often as once in two weeks."
On the 24th of October, 1809, Mr. King was married to Miss Catharine Beach, of Hanover, an event which greatly added to his influence as a pastor. She died July 13th, 1821, and rarely ever was such a tribute paid to one in her position as that to this estimable woman. And there are those still living who remember her and who speak of the tender love with which she was regarded by all who knew her. It was no rare thing for her to be found with him in the places of suffering and aiding him in his ministrations even in the distaut parts of the parish. It is said that when the hearse which bore her body reached the church the last of the carriages had not left her late residence, and that never had there been seen such wide-spread mourning as when devont men carried her to her grave. The Rev. Aaron Condit, who had solemnized her marriage, officiated on the occasion of her funeral.
Let us now endeavor to reproduce to some extent the condition of this community when Mr. King was settled here. On the east side of the stream was the house of Stephen Jack- -
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ron, afterward occupied by Col. Jos. Jackson. The latter was recently married to Electa Beach, the widow of Col. Silas Dickerson, of Stanhope, and her coming to Rockaway was an event of scarcely less importance than that of her future pastor and brother-in-law Mr. King. She was baptized by Parson Green, of Hanover, and when a small girl had the small pox. Supposed to be dying Dr. Darey, (the elder, ) comforted her grieving relatives in her hearing by saying they ought not to grieve for if she got well she would be very ugly! At Stanhope her influence had been powerfully in favor of the right and such was her reputation among the skeptical relatives of her first bus- band that they held her in the grestest rever- ence. At Rockaway she at once as the wife of a wealthy iron master, and a woman of great intelligence, became a power. Her brother-in- law, Gov. Mahlon Dickerson, often visited her and when once he came on the Sabbath she chided him for the fault so wisely that he neither repeated it nor ceased to respect her who reproved him. Blessed with great physi- cal energy and overflowing with benevolence there was not a house within five miles of the church in which there was suffering to which she had not been a minister of mercy. She usually performed these journeys on horse back, and attended by a servant was wont to carry loads of substantial comforts to the objects of her charity. In 1815 Mrs. J. started the first Sabbath school in Morris County in the old Red School House near the church. So consistent in her Christian walk that the worst never questioned her piety, and so like her Master in the never failing charity ot her heart and life, she was an unspeakable blessing to the church for a period of forty-six years. She entered into rest Feb. 7th, 1854.
Her husband waa Col. Joseph Jackson, who was already a leading man in the community ard who was taking great interest in the church. In 1796 he was appointed Postmaster holding the office until 1843. In 1793 his name is recorded as a Trustee. In 1802 he was the President of the Board. In 1804 he was ap- pointed Colonel of the 3d Regiment, Morris Militia. In 1808 he married Mrs. Electa Dick- orson. In 1812 he was ordered with his regi- ment into actual service at Powles Hook over three months. In 1813 he was elected Judge and was in that office and a Justice of Peace 32 years. In 1818 he was converted, received into the church and appointed both Elder and Deacon, and on the 28th of January, 1855. he departed this file. On the 5th of July, 1854, he wrote " I have been an older in this church abont 36 years. How well I have served with all my heart in this important office the scarcher of hearts knows." He had furnished -
the bread for the communion from 1803 to 1854. Full of public spirit and ready to do his full share and more, the only charge to be made against him is in the highest degree complimentary, that he spoiled the church he lo ved so well by assuming a great many bur- dens that it would have been better for its members to have carried. It was a common saying that " Col. Jackson carried about one- ha It of all the expenses of the church!" He was a man of limited education, but had read many books and associated with superior men so that he was a man of large intelligence. He was identified with the iron industries of the connty, and with his brother William, owned valuable mines and forges, and at different times filled contracts with the general gov- ernment l'or iron. Mr. William Jackson wrote ne that " the first bar of round and square iron ever rolled in this country was done by Col. Joseph Jackson and myself, in the ojd Rolling Mill at Paterson, then owned by Sam- uel and Roswell Colt in the year 1820, under our contraet to Jurnish the United States Government with a certain anantity rolled- round and hammered iron at the Navy Yard in Brooklyn, in which we succeeded to the entire satisfaction of the Government."*
The success of this experiment led the brothers in 1821-2 to build a Rolling Mill at Rockaway, which went into operation in November, 1822. Meanwhile, Blackwell and McFarlan were led by the successful experiment at Paterson to convert their works at Dover into a similar rolling mill. Mr. Jackson claimed that they mangnrated this great in- dustry in New Jersey, and indeed the whole country.
Mr. William Jackson was younger than the Colonel and his name as also that of their brother Dr. John D. Jackson, appears early on our eburch records. William married Susan Halsey, of Dutchess County, New York, Sept. 11th, 1811, a lady in some respects very like Mrs. Electa Jackson. More retiring, and yet equally sincere in her piety, she too exerted a powerful influence in the church. In 1818 her husband united with the church, and in 1824 became an elder. Thisinteresting couple were married by the Rev. Barnabas King at the house of the bride's father, Dr. Abraham Hal- sey on 11th of September, 1810. They lived to celebrate their golden wedding and (seven years over, as Mrs. Jackson died in June, 1868, ) and Mr. King was with them on this occasion. Mr. Jackson died in 1872. And it may be added that on the 19th of January, 1809, Mr. King united in marriage Mr. John R. Hinchman and
"The first rolling mill in this country was built by Cel. Isaac Mason in Pennsylvania in 1816. This of Joseph and Wiliam Jackson was the second-the first in New Jersey.
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Miss Mary DeCamp, a grand daughter of Moses Tuttle, and it was a fact of singular interest that they and their attendants with Mr. King were presents at the golden wedding. To this it may be added as an almost unparalleled fact Guy M. Hinchman, a cousin of John R. on the 21st November, 1816 was married to Susan De- Camp, a younger sister of Mary. The Rev. Barnabas King performed the ceremony. This couple also lived to celebrate the fiftieth anni- versary of their marriage. Two cousins mar- rying two sisters, and both couple reaching the " golden wedding" mabe a notable fact. Rarely have persons in this relation lived more happily, a fact sufficiently accounted for by ge mal and manly character of the husbands and by the beautiful and womanly character of the wives. I may add that Cornelia DeCamp a sister of the two ladies just referred to was married to Chilion Beach and left several chil- dren, Dr. Columbus Beach is the oldest of these. Chilion F. DeCamp is a brother of the three ladies named. Indeed Jane Tuttle who married Joseph DeCamp has a following of most estimable descendants. The same is true of the other daughters of Moses Tuttle.
As an interesting fact it may be stated that several couples in the parish since 1859 attained the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage. A mong these are Col. S. S. Beach and Jane Hoff his wife, (the latter being a grand- daughter of Moses Tuttle and cousin of Mary and Susan Hinchman,) John B. Kelsey and Delia Conger his wife, and John Garrigus and Polly Hall .* One couple, Mr. David Gordon and his wife were separated by her death Feb. 19, 1851 after having lived together in the mar- ried relation nearly seventy years !
The houses in the parish were plain struc- tures, even those occupied by the more wealthy. The villages of hoekaway and
*On the 8th of April 1813, John Garrigus, Jr., long an eldor of the Rockaway Church, and Polly Ball were united in marriage by Mr. King and on the Th of April 1821, John B. Kelsey and Delia Conger by same minister. At this present writing-April 26, 1876-both these venerable and excellent pairs are unbroken by death, the first over 63 years and the second tilty-five years of married life !
Col. S. S. Beach was married to Jane Hoff on June 27th, 1805, and the relation was termi- nated by the Colonel's death January 19th, 1859. after nearly 54 years of married life. Mrs. Beach survived her husband some fitteen years. So far as I know Samuel Garrigus and his wife Mary Ann Cring married by Mr. King Oct. 13th 1825-still are hving. Undoubtedly Jeremiah Baker and Mary his wile, Francis McCarty and his wife, Asa Berry and Sally his wife. William Cooper and Hannah his wife, all of them belonging to the period of Mr. King's ministry lived in the marriage relation at least fifty years and some of them more. In all eleven " golden marriages" in one pastorate and in one parish 1
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Dover were very small. The manners of peo- ple were for the most part very plain. I have heard more than one speak of young ladies walking barefoot to church with their shoes in their band until they reached the little stream below the church where they washed their feet and put on their shoes! The singing school the apple-paring, and even the dance were among the amusements of the young people. For years the services of Simeon Van Winkle the tiddler were in great demand throughout the region, and at least one of my venerable in- formants told me he loved to dance to Sim's fiddling.
The people had their stone frolics and on all occasions made free use of applejack. There were few school privileges. The books of the Parish also show that the more recent devel- opments of slow payment for minister's salary were only the repetition of a similar slowness years ago.
The people began to repair their church soon after Mr. King came, and this continucd at intervals until the building was succeeded by the present editice in 1832. Perhaps it may not be beneath the dignity of history to recall the history of attempts to warm the church. As already nanied in 1768 the parish voted to have a stove "if not pornitious," and in Mr. Carle's time there was a vain effort to have a fire place made in the church. Mr. King had been preaching twelve years in the unwarmed church before the box stove bought at Mt. Hope of McQueen & Co. was placed on the experiment of reducing the savage tempera- ture of the old house. And even then so rude and imperiect were the pipes that Mr. Gordon said they often had more smoke than beat, and that sometimes the house began to be comfort- able when the benediction was pronounced.
David Beaman who for years had swept the church at eleven shillings a year " once a for- tnate," set the tunes, and attends Presbytery and done many other good things for the church died in 1802. and David Gordon was his successor in the sexton-ship, an office he held so long that the school children supposing that of course he was to bury everybody were wout to wonder who would bury the old sexton. An attempt was onee made to allow the aristo- cratic owners of the pews to build " cannipy's" over them, but it was voted down. In due time the sounding board was placed over the pulpit, the main use of which seems to have been to excite the fear in the minds of the children that it might drop down and extin. quish the preacher. The singing was usually by a choir but sometimes by a precentor. From time to time changes took place by death, and removal. Such men as Faesch, Bernard Smith Abraham Kitchel, William Ross, David Bea-
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man, Stephen Jackson, Moses Tuttle, Benja- min Beach and others were gone. In 1813 the Mount Hope Furnace alter being "blowed out" fourteen years was again set at work by Robert McQueen & Co. who rented the property of Henry W. and Lewis Phillips. This company operated the furnace until 1822 when the in- flux of British iron broke it down. With this company came one of our excellent families that. of the late Col. Thomas Muir, whose genial qualiti_s as the hospitable host and compan- ion are remembered. Mrs. Muir and her sis- ter Mis. Agnes Walker, were among the most devoted and public spirited members of the church .*
By untiring industry and frugality Moses Tuttle and Jeremiah Baker, of Mt. Pleasant, have become independent, and both lived to old age. Mr. Baker died August 11th, 1861, lacking a few days of Di years. The iron interests of the parish are affreted by the tariff regulations, and not a few reverses are numbered in its history. Mt. Hope, Hibernia and some smaller establishments gradually fade out. The mines at Mt. Hope, Hibernia, Mt. Pleasant, and Mine Hill, begin to show promise of future valnes, when the prediction of Gov. Diekerson's father should be fulfilled, that the time would come when water would carry boats over the mountains of Morris and Sussex.
The Morris Caual was dng just in timet to become the agent of the iron mines of New Jersey and the coal mines of Pennsylvania. The first half of Mr. King's ministry was full of these changes in the physical conditions of the region in all the business by which the people lived. In theintroduction of anthracite coal as a fuel for the house and for rolling mills was the prediction of the use of it for the blast furnace. Of course the railway must also come to effect its changes everywhere, but in no regions greater than in this.
I am interested in the growth of values in inines. The Mt. Hope property which cost a mere trifle in passing from one embarassed owner to another, at last was sold for $80,000,
*Col. Thomas Muir died Sept. 28th, 1855, in the G4th year of bis age, Mrs. Susan Muir his wife, died Oct 13to, 1860, and Mrs. Agues Walker. Feb. 22d, 1849.
+The Morris Canal was surveyed in 1828, although the question had been agitated sev- eral years earlier. In 1830 the first Inclined Plane was finished at Montville, and in the Spring of 1832 the canal was ready for boats. As a reminiscence it may be stated that the digging of the canal through Rockaway was attended with a great many cases of chills and fever, an inconvenience only exceeded by the hard class of men who were brought together by the work. (Stuart's Civil Engineer, p. p. 202 8.)
and now is worth hundred of thousands. The Hibernia mines were valued at a few thousand dollars at the beginning of this period, but now a million could not bny them. The same is truc of Mine Hill and a score of other local- ities.
But whilst the mines have steadily appre- ciated the forge properties have been aban- doned. All the forges trom Shongum to Franklin, those in the neighborhood of Dover, Rockaway and in other parts of the county have succumbed to the cheaper methods o mi- ployed by the great establishments at Boon- ton, Dover and on the Lehigh.
In the parish great changes havo taken place. In 1832 the old church was abandoned tor the new one. In 1834 the Dover Church was set off. A Methodist and au Episcopal Church had also been organized in Dover. In Rockaway a Methodist Church had sprung up in 1833 ; also one at Denville, another at Rock- away Valley and still another at Boonton, as also a Presbyterian Church at the latter place, and one at Mount Freedom. In 1848 Mr. King said " five Presbyterian and five Metbodist Churches have been formed in our bounds."
Indeed the face of the entire field over which Mr. King extended his labors almost without competition for the first twenty-five years of bis munictry, has undergone surprising changes. Rockaway in 1808 had scarce a dozen houses, and now it has become a town with several adjacent villages. The same is trne of Dover. At the principal mines are thriving villages. The locomotive now visits Hibernia, Mount Hope, Mount Pleasant and Mine Hill. The ores of these mountains go to Pennsylvania and the coal of Pennsylvania comes in vast quantities to this region. The old school house in which Harris and Stickle taught, and its successor the "old Red school house" by the church have been succeeded by the commodions school houses which afford education to all the children about theni.
Mr. Edmund D. Halsey in his account of the schools of Rockaway, says the first school house in the village is named in a decd October 29th, 1774, and "it stood about where the kitelien of Dr. Jackson's house now stands. It was removed about 1800." The second school house " was on the Glen road on the hill where William Gustennow lives." In these houses George Harris and George Stickle both taught. The third school room was in the upper part of the storo room that once stood directly opposite Col. Jackson's honse now occupied by E. D. Halsey. In 1807-8-or possibly a year later- the late Rev. John Ford taught school whilst he recited to BIr. King in preparing for college. Mr. F. was indefatigable, sometimes actually spending the whole night at his books.
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He was graduated with the second honor at Princeton in 1812, and was for many years the pastor at Parsippany. He was a scholar of large attainments, keeping up his aequaint ance with the ancient elassies, a proficient in French, and when three-score mastering the German. He died at Parsippany Dec. 31st, 1872, aged 85. He was in his mental power, history and religions life au extraordinary man, What became of George Harris, the first teacher, "Old Harris" as his pupils often called him at a later day, I never heard. Geo. Stickle became a merchant, married a daugh- ter of David Beaman, and died within the bounds of tho congregation. He was a store keeper and as some accounts show the firm was " Stickle and Garrigus." The latter was David Garrigus, who was appointed an Elder in the church 1798.
This is not the place nor is this the time to write a minute history of this parish. It has had remarkable men, and the history of the community is one of great interest, but it must be reserved for another pen at a later day. The history of the mother church is the thread of silver which runs through the whole and for that period as already intimated that history is to a very wonderful degree identified with the life of its remarkable pastor, Mr. King. The chronic infirmity of the parish in regard to its finances never seemed to disturb him or to move his purpose to live and die for its interests. The people not merely rever- enced but they loved him, and with a fidelity rarely excelled he ministered to their genera- tions in the holy rites of baptism and the Lord's supper, and in the contrasted seenes of marriage and of death. In several cases as in the families of Moses Tuttle and Stephen Jackson he had ministered to five generations of the same family, and in one case he held in Ins arn_s (had laid Ins bands on ) a child of the sixth generation. He had comforted and buried one generation, led their children into the church, married them baptised their chil- dren, and then officiated for their children and their children's children in the same way generation after generation, and surely it was no wonder that he was held in much honor.
And here let me quote the words of one who knew him throughout his entire ministry and who for several years previous to his own ordination was an Erder at Rockaway. In a discourse prepared for the Presbytery of Rock- away in 1858, the Rev. Peter Kanouse said, "may I mention the Rev. Barnabas King, of Rockaway, the oldest and longest settled pas- tor in the same church within our Synodical bounds. He entered upon his ministry in that church in 1807 when it consisted of thirty-five members where he has labored with great
acceptance and success for fifty years. Dur- ing this period the Lord has poured out his spirit upon his congregation several times in a powerful manner. Hundreds have been hopefully converted to God under his minis- try. Under God he has turned many to right" eonsness. What a crown awaits him 10 heaven ! He still lives amid a halo of glory he has drawn around him which will hang over his grave when his body returns to dust and his spirit to God who gave it. It is good to find such an object in this changing world on which the eye can fix with delight. It also speaks volumes of praise concerning his con- gregation whose stability, love, and liberality have sustained, comfitted and adhered to him even down to old age, and who I doubt not will continue to minister to his necessities 'till he shall want no more.' I may not say more of him as a preacher, pastor, counseller and friend, but an anecdote will be acceptable. I often heard men preael for Mr. King who were popular in the desk and celebrated in the church, and yet after such an one had preached in Rockaway and the people questioned among themselves how they liked him, nothing was more common than to hear one and another speak approvingly of the stranger, but adding 'after all I would rather hear my own dear minister !"
He was noted for nis wisdom in times of ex- citement and Mr. Kanonse says that he once set several politicians right who fancied they bad some cause of complaint by saying to them one day, "I notice, gentlemen, from Sabbath to Sabbath your seats are empty. I think you must have taken offeose at our Meeting House l" It was a true "Pain Killer." The same kindly pen relates a fact often told in the parish that a passionate neighbor of Mr. King bad killed one of his sheep, expecting to excite his anger by the, aet, but a year afterward when not a word or act had given sign that the pastor had any knowledge of the injury his neighbor aked his pardon and repaid the wrong.
The Rev. Richard Webster once wrote me that "Joshua, son of Morgan Edwards who wrote the History of the Baptists in New Jer- sey, lived many years at Morristown and held Mr. King in great reverence. He said that in publie prayer he seemed to be under the espe- cial guidance of the Spirit, more particularly on days of fasting. He said fast day sermons unsettled both Dr. Richards and Dr. Fisher. Polities were so vehement that sermons and prayers were watched for unwise words."
That most cautious observer of men, the late Judge Samuel B. Halsey, passed a high enlogy when he declared that "he had never heard Mr. King say a foolish thing." The Rev.
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Albert Barnes once remarked "that he knew of no minister whose walk, labor and success had been so admirable as those of Mr. King of Rockaway."
For the record of Mr. King's labors the reader is referred to his own modest account of them in his "Fortieth Anniversary Sermon " delivered at Rockaway ou the 31st of Decem- ber, 1848. [ trust that this discourse will be republished in the " Annals of Morris County," but from it we may take this summary of his method of labor and the results. He says, "I have preached about 12,000 times. My object has been to write one sermon a week, and for a number of years wrote another in part ; but for many years past have written one only and gave what time I had to spare to study the the other without writing. I have, however, been obliged to preach sometimes with very little time to premeditato what I should say. I have missed bnt few Sabbaths except when by sickness I was confined to my bed. I have never staid from the house of God on account of the traveling or weather, but once to my remembrance.
"In my parochial visits 1 have endeavored to call on every family however retired or ob- scure within our bounds. From long exper- ience I am satisfied that no labor which a minister can perform is more likely to be blessed.
" During my ministrations here there have been added to the church 680. Of this number four became ministers of the gospel. 1 have baptized 547, children solemnized 417 marriages and attended 681 funerals."
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