USA > New Jersey > Camden County > Camden > Fifty years after : or, A half century of Presbyterianism in Camden, New Jersey with biographical sketches of the Presbyterian ministers who have labored there > Part 3
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The petition for full organization was favorably received by Presbytery, and a committee was appointed to inquire into the feasibility of the measure, with discretionary power to act in the case. Upon the 28th of November the committee, which consisted of Rev. Drs. Thomas Brainerd, E. W. Gilbert, Joel Parker, Messrs. Albert Barnes, Robert Adair, and Elders Thomas Fleming, B. B. Comegys, and John A. Stewart, organized a church of sixteen members, which, upon the April following, was regularly enrolled upon the minutes of Presbytery as the Central Church of Camden. Of the sixteen members, Catherine Casuer, Eliza Casner, Catherine Hunt, Ann Miller, Ann M. Smith, Priscilla H. Smith, Sarah Brukley, Joseph Casner, and Benjamin Hunt had been connected with the First Church, and Henry King, Elizabeth King, Caroline Frazier, Hannah Fairfowl, Eunice Harvard, George W. Mears, and A. Lumm, were received by letter from different churches in Phila- delphia. Benjamin Hunt and Henry King were elected and inducted into the eldership of the new church.
Upon the 1st of April, 1852, nearly a year and a half after the organization, a call having been put into the hands of Mr. Mears, he was ordained and installed pastor of the church. In this service the Moderator, Rev. D. C. Meeker, presided and proposed the con- stitutional questions ; Rev. George Duffield, Jr., preached the sermon and charged the people; Rev. Albert Barnes offered the
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ordaining prayer, and E. W. Gilbert, D. D., charged the pastor. The sermon preached by Mr. Mears on this occasion, as a trial piece, was from Luke 5 : 4, "Launch out into the deep," and was long remembered as an eloquent and impressive production.
In the meantime the effort to erect a church edifice had assumed a practical shape. Upon the 26th of May, 1851, a lot of ground one hundred feet square, at the corner of Fourth and Hartman Streets, Cooper Hill, now Fourth and Clinton Streets, had been purchased from Hartman and Ellen Kuhn for $1,500, subject to a mortgage of $1,250. A second mortgage of $750 was created upon the 7th of September, 1852. The corner-stone of the new building was laid in the month of June, 1851, Messrs. Barnes, Brainerd, and others assisting in the ceremony, and by the 5th of
THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN (N. S.) CHURCH, OF CAMDEN, N. J.
November, 1852, so much success had attended the effort that the session of the church felt justified in taking the following action : "Session took notice of the fact that in the Providence of God the church edifice had recently been completed, and deem it a matter of devout gratitude to the great Head of the Church, and also recommend that special thanksgiving for the happy results of our labors and abundant answer to our prayers, be rendered by the church on the approaching communion season." A cut of the church, and the following description taken from a pamphlet of that day furnish a fair idea of the appearance of the building : " This is a beautiful little edifice, constructed entirely of wood and of the Gothic style of architecture. Its height from the floor to
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the peak of the roof is 28 feet. The dimensions of the whole area, principal building 60x30 feet ; portico 7x11 feet ; semicircular recess for the pulpit 8 feet 6 inches. The lecture-room is 18x25 feet, communicating with the main building and capable, if necessary, of being thrown into one department with it. All the materials are of the best quality, the foundation heavy, and the walls and roofing substantial."
Upon the following April, Presbytery held its regular spring meeting in the new building, Rev. Geo. Duffield opening the ses- sion with a sermon from Acts 2: 43, 44.
The pastorate of Mr. Mears extended over a period of twenty- one months, although his connection with the enterprise had lasted more than twice as long. On the 19th of January, 1854, at a pro re nata meeting of Presbytery held at the Educational Rooms, 216 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, at his own request the pastoral rela- tion was dissolved, and Rev. Thomas Brainerd appointed to mod- erate the session and declare the pulpit vacant. The growth in the membership had been discouraging. Up to the 23d of October, 1853, when the sessional record abruptly ends, 31 persons had been received into the church, 28 by certificate and 3 upon examination. During the same period one had died and fourteen had been dis- missed. So that, at the dissolution of the pastoral relation, the number of active members was but 16, precisely the same number as at the date of the organization of the church. The removal of one of the elders and his family was likewise a serious loss. The financial outlook was bad. A heavy debt rested upon the building, necessitating the issuing of a printed appeal for help, from which we glean the following facts : "The projectors of this enterprise, who have labored hard in the accomplishment of their design, find themselves about one thousand dollars behind-hand, and take this method of presenting the cause to your notice, asking your assistance in raising the above amount." All these facts had doubtless their bearing upon the decision of Mr. Mears to seek another field, and explain, to a degree, the reason which led to the ultimate disband- ing of the church.
Upon the retirement of Mr. Mcars from the pastorate the pro- cess of dissolution was very rapid. June 8th,-1854, we find
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Presbytery, at a meeting held in Lombard Street Church, suspend- ing its regular business to attend to the interests of the church in Camden. "It appeared that the sum of $500 was immediately and imperatively required to insure the progress of the Camden Church. Whereupon it was resolved, first : That assistance should at once be rendered to the church at Camden, especially by the churches of the Presbytery that had not already contributed their dne proportion. Second, That the Rev. Messrs. Shepherd and Darling be associated with Mr. James Dickson, stated supply in said church, to see that efficient measures are taken to carry the former resolution into effect."
At the regular fall meeting of Presbytery, Mr. Shepherd, chair- man of the committee, presented a report, and the committee was continued. At the same meeting the church requested to have its pulpit supplied by Presbytery. At a meeting held two weeks later, at Carlisle, Pa., during the intervals of Synod, appointments were made extending to November 26th. Matters seem to have reached a crisis about the latter date, for, upon the 5th of Deceni- ber, 1854, Rev. Robert Adair represented to Presbytery the con- dition of the Camden Church, " whereupon a committee of three elders, consisting of Messrs. John C. Farr, Robert W. Davenport, and Israel Ashmead, were appointed to act in the case as they may deem expedient, and were requested to confer with the Rev. Robert Adair with regard to the affairs of said church." The appointment of the committee was doubtless due to the fact that S. D. Button and J. H. Fenton had been instructed by the Board of Trustees of the church to wait upon Presbytery and inform it of the urgency of the case. The builder, Samuel H. Morton, had issued a judg- ment against the church for $371.80, the property had been adver- tised by the sheriff, and was at last actually exposed and bought at public sale, for the comparatively small sum of $450, subject to the mortgages of $2,000. The Camden Board of Education were the purchasers. The church was transformed into a public school, and with the growth of population was superseded by the present building. It is said that a committee of Presbytery came over upon the day of sale for the purpose of buying the property in, but they reached the city a little too late to consummate their purpose.
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Of the old Central Church little now remains except the name, which still clings to the public school which was reared upon its ruins. The pulpit Bible, which had passed into the possession of Elder King, and had been reverently preserved by his daughters as a priceless memento of their father's faith, was presented to the pastor of the Second Church, and by him donated to the Third Church upon the day of the dedication of their building. It still speaks the same messages of comfort and warning which it was wont to utter at Fourth and Clinton Streets. The bell was sold to Mount Moriah Cemetery, in Philadelphia, and now calls together a larger congregation than ever assembled at its summons in Camden. It is a strong illustration of the persistency of Divine Grace, or of what the scientist would call the law of Heredity, that the descendants of the little company who constituted the Central Church, in all instances where it has been possible to trace them, reflect the pious spirit of their ancestors. Many of them, it is true, have drifted into other denominations, but most of them retain their allegiance to the Presbyterian faith. Some of them are the most active workers in the Methodist and Baptist churches of this city, and a few of them are among the most efficient members of the Second Presbyterian Church. George W. Mears became a prominent elder in a Philadelphia church, and J. H. Fenton lias served in the same capacity, with great usefulness, in several churches. One of the lady members married a well-known physician, an elder of the Tioga Church, and so the illustrations of heredity and of the permanent and potent influence of the Central Church might be multiplied. Of the Board of Trustees the names of Joseph Cas- ner, Benjamin Hunt, George S. Courtenay, Jacob Miller, George W. Mears, S. D. Button, J. H. Fenton, J. B. Davis have alone been preserved. Messrs. Courtenay and Mears were successively treasurer of the church, and Mr. Mears for a long time acted as superintendent of the Sunday-school .*
The Rev. J. W. Mears, D. D., the first and only pastor of the Central Church, was the son of Henry H. and Anna B. Birken-
* Minutes of the Presbytery of Philadelphia Fourth ; Minutes of the Church ; Fisler's History of Camden; Communication from Mrs. Denning; local memo- randa.
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bine Mears, and was born in Reading, Pa., August 10th, 1825. He received his collegiate education at Delaware College, graduat- ing at the head of his class in 1842. For four years he studied theology at Yale. He was ordained and installed over the Central Church in 1852. For several years he was engaged in pastoral work chiefly at Milford, Del., and Elkton, Md. He then assumed the editorship of the American Presbyterian, relinquishing that position in 1871 to take the Albert Barnes Professorship of Intel- lectual and Moral Philosophy in Hamilton College, N. Y. In this position he continued until the day of his death. He was always an active worker in the cause of reform. Early in 1858 he instituted a movement against the infamous Oneida community, whose headquarters were near the College town. He secured at first the appointment of a committee by the Presbytery of Utica to inquire into the social relations of the members of the community, and soon enlisted the co-operation of Bishops Huntington, of the Episcopal, and Peck, of the Methodist churches, and other clergy- men of different denominations. The movement was prosecuted with so much vigor that in August, 1879, the complex marriage system and other objectionable features were formally abolished by the Oneida communists.
Mr. Mears died at Clinton, N. Y., November 10th, 1881, in the 56th year of his age. He had fallen from his chair in the class-room in violent convulsions, and had lingered for a few days in a semi-unconscious condition, when the summons came. A few weeks before his death he had written to his mother, " I now start upon a new decade of my life work. Ten years I spent in pre- paring for the ministry, ten years I preached, ten years edited the American Presbyterian, and ten years have been teaching at Hamil- ton. I wonder what the Lord has in store for me in the next ten years." He little thought that the next ten years would be spent where God's servants " serve Him and see His face." He was the author of several publications mostly of an historical character. The "Story of Madagascar," " Martyrs of France," " Heroes of Bohemia,', "From Exile to Overthrow," and " Beggars of Holland " and "Gran- dees of Spain " have been published by the Presbyterian Board .*
* The Presbyterian.
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THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
The history of Presbyterianism in Camden is the history of a struggle. The two churches which for many years have exercised a commanding influence over the interests of the denomination in this city have each sprung, phoenix-like, from the ashes of an earlier organization. The present First Church, as has been shown, is the lineal successor of a previous one ; and the Second Church occupies the territory of old pre-empted by the Central Church. Indeed not more than five years had elapsed after the latter had disbanded, before the first edifice of the Second Church had been erected within two squares of the site upon which the Central had stood. It has been said that it is hard to kill a Presbyterian Church, and the statement finds an effective illustration in the two seemingly premature attempts to plant the blue banner of the Covenant upon Camden soil. One scarcely knows which were better, to applaud the courage of the little company of Presbyter- ians who so well exemplified their own doctrine of Perseverance, or to conjecture how much larger the possible results of their en- terprise might have been, if the two earlier efforts had not suffered from four or five years of suspended animation.
The Second Presbyterian Church was organized on the 1st of March, 1860, and, to use the language of its first pastor, "was launched into being under the fostering care of the First Church, being born, not as new churches sometimes are, out of disaffection or controversy, but out of love for the Master and for the exten- sion of His kingdom." In the year 1859 Rev. Dr. Daniel Stew- art, pastor of the First Church, urged upon his people the import- ance of forming another Presbyterian Church to meet the growing necessities of the city. A meeting for this purpose was called for March 23d, 1859, at which a committee composed of Isaac Van Horn, Thomas McKeen, James HI. Stevens, George W. Carpenter, Sr., and Gilbert Bulson, was appointed "to seek out and secure one or more sites of church edifices in suitable location, and in the event of finding such location, to erect a temporary edifice for the purpose of worship and Sabbath-school instruction." This commit- tee, through the influence of Mr. Van Horn, purchased from E.
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A. Stevens, of Hoboken, N. J., four lots of ground situated at the corner of Fourth and Washington Streets, Mr. Stevens donating $800 of the purchase-money. These lots were afterward exchanged for the lots upon the upper side of the same square, at Fourth and Benson Streets, the site of the present church, where a chapel was
SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, OF CAMDEN, N. J., SHOWING OLD CHAPEL.
built at a cost of $1,900, the money having been contributed mainly by members of the First Church. Dr. Stewart, with characteristic liberality, headed the subscription list with $300. At the next congregational meeting, upon recommendation of the committee, the whole property was deeded to the "Trustees of the Second Presbyterian Church."
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The Presbytery of Burlington met in the chapel March 1st, 1860, and organized the church with a membership of 20 persons, viz. : Robert Barber, Thomas F. Lambson, Isaac Van Horn, James Good, Thomas McKeen, Emily Barber, Agnes Lambson, Annie E. Le Chevalier, Sarah J. McKeen, Mary Ann Tourtelot, Mary A. Van Horn, Henrietta Smith, Jane Marshall, Sarah L. Clark, Elizabeth Van Horn, Annie E. Clark, Nancy A. Hoxie, Marga- retta Lambson, Selina O. Tourtelot, Annie E. Van Horn. Upon the same day Rev. Lewis C. Baker was called, ordained, and in- stalled as pastor of the Church. Isaac Van Horn and Robert Barber were set apart to the office of the eldership, and Isaac Van Horn, Thomas McKeen, Cyrus Kellog, James Good, Thomas F. Lambson, James C. Wright, and J. L. Prentiss were constituted the first board of trustees. In the installation of Mr. Baker, Dr. Henry Perkins presided and put the constitutional questions ; Dr. Stewart preached the sermon from 1 Cor. 2 : 21 ; Rev. Samnel Miller delivered the charge to the pastor, and the moderator performed the same duty for the people.
The wisdom of the new enterprise, and the advantages of its location, soon manifested themselves in the rapid growth of the Sab- bath-school and congregation. The chapel was often uncomforta- bly crowded, and the need of better accommodations began to be more and more felt. To form the nucleus of a new building fund, Messrs. Van Horn and McKeen fenced in the square of ground lying between Washington and Berkley, and Third and Fourth Streets, and converted the inclosure into a skating park. It serves to show the marked change which has taken place in the topog- raphy of Camden, and also in the character of its winters, that only twenty-five years ago this large square of ground, now covered by rows of dwelling-houses, was flooded by the backing of tide-water up a small stream, which flowed through its midst, and that the severity of the season kept the water ice-bound, and in prime con- dition for skating, for a period of nearly seven weeks.
From this novel expedient eighteen hundred dollars were realized, with which, as a basis, Mr. Baker in 1864, agitated the erection of a new church. A plan was accordingly procured from S. D. Button, architect, and in April, 1865, it was resolved to begin the work.
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Isaac Van Horn and Thomas McKeen were appointed a building committee, with the pastor as an advisory member. The sudden and lamented death of Mr. Van Horn, before the completion of the building, necessitated the addition of his son, F. C. Van Horn, and S. L. Stimson to the committee. The building was roofed in during the summer of 1865, and upon the first Sabbath of September, 1866, was solemnly set apart to the worship of Almighty God. In the dedication services the First Church united, its former pastor, Dr. Stewart, and W. C. Cattell, D. D., president of Lafayette College, taking a prominent part. The cost of the building was about $19,000.
The pastorate of Mr. Baker extended over a period of more than twenty-two years. Upon the 1st of November, 1882, his long and faithful term of service ended, the relation existing between him and his charge having been dissolved at his own request. Laboring side by side with the pastor of the First Church for more than a score of years, he helped to lift the Presby- terian pulpit of this city to a niche in the esteem of the community which it is to be hoped it may long continue to fill. His kindly and beneficent spirit not only entrenched him deeply in the affections of his own people, but gave him a warm and lasting place in the hearts of many who were not numbered in his congregation, and who yet arise and call his ministry and his memory blessed.
Mr. Baker is the son of Elihu Baker, for many years cashier of the Matawan Bank, and Joanna Carter Baker. He was born in Matawan and resided in that village until he was fourteen years of age. In 1846 he went to Chicago to be trained for a business life. In 1848 he united with the Second Presbyterian Church of Chicago, of which the Rev. Dr. R. W. Patterson was then the pastor, and in which his father, after his removal to that city, became an elder. In 1851 he entered Princeton College and graduated from that in- stitution at the head of his class in 1854. After teaching Latin and Greek for one year at Beloit College, Wisconsin, he began the study of theology in Princeton Seminary, graduating in 1858. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Passaic in April, 1857, as was also his room-mate, Rev. W. C. Roberts, the last Moderator of the General Assembly. During the vacation following, they
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together supplied the Third Church at Trenton, until the opening of the seminary session. After graduation he preached during the summer months at Freehold, was called to the church of Martins- burg, Va., but preferred accepting the position of temporary supply at the First Church of Camden, with the understanding that a Second church would soon be formed. When the church was or- ganized March 1st, 1860, he was ordained and installed as its first pastor, and continned in that office until November 1st, 1882. In the following year he removed to Philadelphia to euter upon literary and editorial work.
It will be of interest to the friends of Mr. Baker to indicate the steps which led to the sundering of his connection with the Presby- terian Church. At a meeting of the Presbytery of West Jersey held at Daretown, 1885, he introduced an overture, requesting the General Assembly to appoint a Committee to examine the eschato- logical sections in the Confession of Faith with a view to their re- vision. This was the first movement within the Church in the di- rection of the agitation which has since come upon it. The over- ture was put upon the docket for the fall meeting. When the matter came up for discussion at Haddonfield, it failed of adoption, only five persons voting in its favor. Many adverse criticisms having been awakened by the overture, and likewise by the eschato- logical views which Mr. Baker was promulgating in his magazine, he felt at last constrained to ask the advice of Presbytery at its spring session in 1886 : First, as to the right of a minister of the Presbyterian Church who was convinced that certain of its Con- fessional statements were without warrant of Scripture, to agitate the Church upon the question and to labor for their correction and removal. Second, whether in the teaching of his magazine he had transcended his rights and duties as a minister of the Church.
A committee was appointed to confer with him, who reported, that if he were content to hold the views which he had been teaching, privately, his relation to the Presbytery need not be disturbed, but if he deemed it his duty to continue to raise these questions in the Church, they did not think it would be consistent for him to retain his standing in it. Believing that his ordination vows to study the peace and purity of the Church required him to continue the agita-
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tion, he could not promise to be silent. The result was that, after repeated discussions over the report in Presbytery, and its final adoption at the meeting in April, 1888, he felt constrained to resign his ministry in the Church. He has since become a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
He is the author of a volume of discourses on the " Mystery of Creation and of Man." He has also published a series of Scriptural studies, designed to prove the Redemptive character of Resurrec- tion, under the title, " The Fire of God's Anger, or Light from the Old Testament teaching concerning Future Punishment." Since 1885 he has edited the magazine, Words of Reconciliation.
The present pastor is the Rev. William Boyd, who was installed May 2d, 1883. During his ministry the church property has been renovated and greatly improved ; a beautiful and well-appointed chapel, valued at $10,000, has been built upon the site of the old chapel; two missions have been founded, one of which has grown into the Third Church, and four hundred members have been added to the roll.
The officers of the church from the beginning have been : Elders- Isaac Van Horn, Robert Barber, Solomon L. Stimson, Judge George S. Woodhull, William Campbell, Alexander Marcy, M. D., James Berry, Reuben F. Bancroft, John Callahan, Benjamin O. Titus, David B. Riggs, John Warnock, Daniel Donehoo.
Deacons-George W. Carpenter, Jr., George E. Howes, Alfred M. Heston, David B. Riggs, Daniel Donehoo, Francis T. Lloyd, J. H. Troutman, Valentine S. Campbell, Clarence B. Yardley, Edwin S. Titus, and S. H. Sargent.
The Sabbath-school Superintendents have been Judge Woodhull, William Getty, James Berry, S. Bryan Smith, William H. Ban- croft, John Callahan, and Daniel R. Rosston.
Trustees-Isaac Van Horn, Thomas McKeen, Cyrus Kellog, James Good, Thomas F. Lambson, James C. Wright, J. L. Pren- tiss, Samuel Harris, Thomas H. Lambson, Samuel B. Smith, George S. Woodhull, Alexander Marcy, M. D., S. L. Stimson, George E. Howes, F. C. Van Horn, Andrew Heath, George W. Carpenter, Jr., John G. Miller, James Maguire, James Getty, Rodol- phus Bingham, William Campbell, Alex. M. Mecray, M. D., Wallace
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SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, OF CAMDEN, N. J., SHOWING NEW CHAPEL.
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M. Smith, James Berry, Henry J. Vanuxem, R. F. S. Heath, B. O. Titus, John Callahan, Frank A. Fenton, Alfred M. Heston, D. R. Griffiths, Daniel Donehoo, David B. Riggs, Charles A. Cham- berlain, S. Bryan Smith, M. D., Christopher A. Bergen, John Warnock, S. A. Sargent, William T. Waters, J. H. Troutman, Theodore B. Culver, Lewis H. Archer, George P. J. Poole, W. W. Davidson, Clarence B. Yardley .*
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