Historic Morristown, New Jersey : the story of its first century, Part 9

Author: Sherman, Andrew Magoun, 1844-
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Morristown, N.J. : Howard Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 576


USA > New Jersey > Morris County > Morristown > Historic Morristown, New Jersey : the story of its first century > Part 9


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At the first business meeting of the newly organized Baptist Church, held on the nineteenth day of August, in the year 1752, a deacon and church clerk were chosen, and arrangements were also made for the supply of the pulpit, and the administration of the ordinances. It could not have been long after the organization of the church that a meeting-house was erected on land said to have belonged to the David Goble already men- tioned, as having removed from Charleston, S. C. This meeting-house, a small frame structure, shingled on


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sides and roof, stood about 100 yards below the pres- ent brick schoolhouse, on the same side of the road, leading toward Basking Ridge, and near what is now known as the "Mills Bailey" house. Indeed, it is the opinion of some students of local history, that it stood on the site of the house mentioned. If this were true, the conjecture that a portion of the old Baptist meeting- house was used in the construction of the "Mills-Bailey" house, is not without a reasonable basis. With refer- ence to the Morristown Green, the location of this primitive Baptist meeting-house is about three miles dis- tant in a southerly direction.


For a period of about two years the pulpit of "the Baptist Church at Morristown" was supplied by several persons, including Revs. Isaac Eaton, James Manning, Benjamin Miller and John Gano. Mr. Gano, who was still pursuing his studies at Princeton College (located at Newark), also conducted religious services in pri- vate houses in the hamlets adjacent to Morristown. The Rev. Isaac Eaton mentioned was the founder of Hopewell Academy, the first Baptist theological school in America, which was subsequently removed to Rhode Island, where it was developed into what is now Brown University. The Rev. James Manning here mentioned, became the first president of Brown University. The first pastor of the Baptist Church at Morristown was Rev. John Gano, and his introduction to the church may be learned from the following extract from the ex- tant Morristown Baptist Church records : "1754, May. Mr. John Gano came to us and continued to preach 80


THE STORY OF ITS FIRST CENTURY


for us till October following, when he went on a jour- ney to Carolina." Mr. Gano was then but twenty-seven years of age. His subsequent return to the pulpit of the Morristown Baptist Church is evidenced by the following extract from the church records : "1755, June. Mr. J. Gano returned from Carolina and again went on to preach for us." From the extract following, the conclusion of Mr. Gano to become the permanent pastor of the Morristown Baptist Church may be learned : "October (1755) Mr. Gano, at the earnest request of the church, concluded to settle with us for the sum of forty pounds a year." After his marriage to Sarah, daughter of John Stites, Esq., Mayor of Elizabeth Town, which followed close on his settlement in Mor- ristown, Mr. Gano purchased a farm in the vicinity of the primitive house of worship.


During his brief pastorate, Mr. Gano frequently con- ducted religious services in the districts adjacent to his parish, including Basking Ridge, Mendham, Morris- town (at the central village), and Hanover. The first convert under Mr. Gano's labors in Morris County, was Hezekiah Smith, who is said to have resided in Hanover then a separate township. Young Smith was baptized by Mr. Gano on the twenty-sixth day of Feb- ruary, in the year 1756. He subsequently entered the Baptist ministry, and attained to eminence in his pro- fession in New England. Of the Haverhill (Mass.) Baptist Church, of which he was the founder, he was the beloved pastor for the period of forty years.


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Mr. Gano's characteristic reference to the conversion of young Smith is worth quoting. He says :


"At one of these places there was a happy instance of a promising youth (by name Hezekiah Smith), who professed to be converted, and joined the church, who appeared to have an inclination for education. * * * He went through a collegiate education at Prince Town College, and came out a zealous preacher, and, to appearances, a useful one. The church at Morristown gradually grew and the congre- gation increased."


In the sentence last quoted the success of Mr. Gano's pastorate is comprehensively summed up. Passing over intervening events in connection with his Morristown pastorate, the following extract from the church books is cited :


"1757, June 24. Elder John Gano returned from Carolina. But instead of being willing to remain with us, he now re- quested liberty from the church to remove to Carolina and settle there. And a meeting of the church being called to consider upon it, they concluded that if he thought it his duty to go there and leave them, he might go, but they would give no other consent, leaving it to his own conscience." "September 25. Elder Gano, thinking it his duty to go, moved from us to Carolina after disposing of his property in Morristown."


Both Mr. Gano and Mr. Smith were chaplains under Washington in the Continental army during the Rev- olution. From the diary of the Rev. Mr. Smith, the following extracts, having more or less reference to


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THE STORY OF ITS FIRST CENTURY


Morristown and Morris County, during the early years of their history, will be found of deep interest :


"1764. Feb. 27. Preached in Morristown and after hear- ing Mr. James Manning preach, I administered the Sacra- ment. Monday, March 5. Preached at Jeremiah Sutton's at Long Hill. In the evening gave an exhortation after Mr. Manning had preached.


"1764. Nov. 6. I went by water (from New York) to the Point and from thence in a chair to Jeremiah Smith's. Wed- nesday, 21. I preached in the Morristown meeting house. Thursday, 22. Preached in Mr. Green's meeting house. (Hanover). Friday, 23. Went to Morristown and in the evening I preached at Mr. Oliver's. Saturday, 24. Preached in the Baptist meeting house and in the evening at Deacon Gobel's.


"1765. Wednesday, Sept. IIth. Went to my father's. Fri- day, 13th. In the evening I preached at Happy Cook's Sat- urday, 14. Went to Capt. Brookfield's in Morristown and preached there that night. Sabbath, 15. Preached two ser- mons in the Baptist meeting house at Morristown. In the evening I preached at Mr. Brooks's. Wednesday, 25. Went to commencement at Princeton and took my Master's de- gree.


"1766. Monday, Oct. 6. I preached at my father's a ser- mon from Ps. 23:1. After sermon I baptized my mother in the Passaic River. In the evening I preached at Happy Cook's."


No less interesting are the following extracts from a timely article, entitled, "Rev. Hezekiah Smith, D. D. A Morris County Boy of the Early Day. One of Wash- ington's Chaplains," by Rev. Norman Fox, D. D., which appeared in The Jerseyman, in the year 1904:


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HISTORIC MORRISTOWN, NEW JERSEY


"He is widely known as one of the Chaplains of the Rev- olutionary Army. He was always interested in civil as well as religious matters. In his journal for 1766 we find the fol- lowing entry :- 'Thursday, July 24th. Preached two sermons, one in my meeting house and the other at New Rowley. It was a good Thanksgiving Day, which day was by authority set apart as a day of thanksgiving on account of the repeal of the Stamp Act.' But this slight clearing of the sky was followed by ever thickening tempests and in 1775 we find him with young men of his town among the troops around Boston. Among his papers is a somewhat extended outline of a sermon on 'The Soldier's Spiritual Armor,' which ac- cording to a note at the end was 'composed to preach the 18th of June, 1775, at Cambridge, amongst Col. Nixon's regiment, in consequence of an invitation by letter from the Colonel himself.' Had not this been carefully written out the world might have lost it, for on Saturday the 17th, came the bat- tle of Bunker Hill and it is doubtful if the next day the ex- citement had so far subsided as to allow the men to give due attention to this well-prepared discourse.


"Under date of July 12th, 1775, the church records say :- 'Voted,-That our pastor shall comply with the request of Col. Nixon and supply as Chaplain the quarter part of the time for the future in his regiment.' In this regiment were many from Haverhill. Col. John Nixon was present as a soldier at the siege of Louisburg in 1745; was a captain in the attack on Ticonderoga and in the battle of Lake George; was at the head of a company of minute men at Lexington, and at Bunker Hill received a wound from which he never recovered. He was made Brigadier General, Aug. 9th, 1776, and placed by Washington in command of Governor's Isl- and. He was again severely wounded at Stillwater, receiv- ing permanent injuries. He and the Chaplain were warm personal friends.


"Chaplain Smith's letters to his wife give many vivid de- tails of Washington's siege of Boston. When the army was


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THE STORY OF ITS FIRST CENTURY


transferred to New York, he went as Chaplain of Nixon's and Reed's regiments, arriving there April 15th. When the latter was sent to Canada, Webb's took its place. The next December, after an absence from home of a year and eight months, he took a furlough.


"Among the papers left by him is a commission signed by John Hancock, President of Congress, constituting and ap- pointing Hezekiah Smith, Gentleman, 'to be Chaplain of a battalion whereof John Nixon, Esq., is Colonel in the Army of the United States,' etc. Later he appears as Brigade Chap- lain.


"In a list of twenty-one Brigade Chaplains in the army, Aug. 17th, 1778, there are two Episcopalians, three Presby- terians, five Congregationalists, five whose church relations are not given, and six Baptists, nearly a third of the whole, viz., Gano, formerly of Morristown; Smith, formerly of Mor- ris county; Jones, Rogers, Thompson and Vanhorn. There were other Baptist chaplains in the army and when it is re- membered that the Baptists of that day were but a handful of people it will be seen that their record is an exceedingly honorable one.


"Having rejoined the army at Peekskill, Chaplain Smith set out with Gen. Nixon on July 5th, 1777, for Albany and the Burgoyne campaign. His journal gives some vivid de- scriptions of the battles of Stillwater and Saratoga. For the next three years, with some long furloughs, he was on ser- vice with the army on the lower Hudson.


"It is evident that he commanded the respect of men of all ranks. From his papers we learn that on Sept. 14th, 1777, in preaching to his brigade, he had among his hearers Gen. Gates, Gen. Glover, Gen. Poor and other prominent officers. We read also,-'Sabbath, Aug. 2d .- I preached a sermon to our brigade from Malachi 2:5. His Excellency General Washington attended. I dined with him the same day.' 'Monday, Nov. Ist .- I went to West Point. Dined with Washington.' Washington corresponded with Chaplain


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Smith after the war. His grand-daughter speaks of re- membering among the family papers a package of twenty or thirty letters from Washington, which were given away to friends in days when such documents were not so highly re- garded as at present. When Washington visited Haverhill in 1789, he called on Chaplain Smith at his house."


The second pastor of the Baptist Church of Morris- town was Rev. Ichabod Tomkins, who was a member of the local church, and was ordained to the ministry and assumed the pastoral charge of the church on the sixth day of November, in the year 1754. His pastor- ate closed with his decease, in consequence of small- pox, on the eighth day of January, in the year 1761. Among the present membership of the Baptist Church, of Morristown, are descendants of Mr. Tomkins. On the seventeenth day of June, in the year 1767, John Walton was ordained to the ministry, and at the same time installed as pastor of the Baptist Church of Mor- ristown.


A score of years had scarcely elapsed since the or- ganization of the infant Baptist church at Morristown, when its membership was increased to nearly a hundred -eighty-five to be exact. On the fifteenth day of Feb- ruary, in the year 1769, therefore, during Mr. Wal- ton's pastorate, a meeting of the church was held, at which time it was concluded to draw up and circulate as soon as possible, subscripition papers for raising money for a new meeting-house to be erected "on Mor- ristown Green." Among the subscribers to the fund for a new Baptist meeting-house, was John Brookfield.


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THE STORY OF ITS FIRST CENTURY


Upon his decease, at Spring Valley, there was found among his papers a memorandum book, kept by him while living. This came into the possession of his son, Job Brookfield, who died in the year 1877. When last seen the writing in this memorandum book was as leg- ible as if it had been executed within a decade, the ink being of a dark color, and distinct. From this memor- andum book the followingg extract is presented :


"February 15, 1769.


"At a meeting of Business of the Baptist church at Morris Town, it was concluded that subscriptions be drawn up as soon as possible for the building of a new meeting house on Morris Town Green and to be sent out and if we can git £200 signed exclusive of what the church members will give, to go on with the building.


£.


s.


p.


Zopher Gildenshaw


0


13


II


Jeams Brookfield


O


IO


Jeams Miller


0


I


9


Benjamin Goble


O


9


8


Robard Goble


2


0


5


Elijah Person


0


9


2


Capt. Stark


3


3


9


Ephriem Goble


8


0


I


John Linsly


0


6


2


Fradreck King


2


I6


2


Joseph Wood


2


IO


6


Garshom Goble


3


6


IO


John Brookfield


5


2


9


Samuel Serin and Zopher Freeman, in part


I


18


9


Moses Monson


I


5


10


Anais Holsey


6


IO


4


Gilbard Allien


I


4


3


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HISTORIC MORRISTOWN, NEW JERSEY


William Goble


I 9


9


Hanah Lincton


5


6


Jonathan Wood


I3


5


Solomon Monson


4


2


Solomon Southard


3


18


6


Aaron Stark, Jr


6


I3


II


Peter Jollomons


6


3


3


John Stark


I


I


0


Jacob Alien and John Alien


3


I7


0


Daniel Congar


0


5


I


Abraham Person


O


2


0


John Lepard


0


9


9


Thomas Wood


O


2


0


Waitstill Monson


0


19


6


Gorge Goble


0


I


I


Joseph Fairchild


0


5


II


Anney Wilkinson


I


2


2


Benjamin Goble by Jeminey Day.


I


7


7


Moses Person


I


I6


6


John Conkling


I


3


0


John Shadwick


0


I


I


Abraham Ludlow


0


IO


9


Jeams Hill


I


15


8


Robard Goble


0


13


5


William Cullen


3


0


0


-


-


-


76


19


0


1


Aaron Curnit also gave £8. o. o. Proc. and £12 Lite."


It will be noticed that several of the above named subscribers to the fund for a new Baptist meeting-house on the "Morris Town Green," were of the Presbyterian faith; from which it is evident that ecclesiastical com- ity is no novelty in the twentieth century.


The Rev. Mr. Walton, during whose pastorate the 88


THE STORY OF ITS FIRST CENTURY


movement toward the raising of money for a new meet- ing-house began, died in the year 1770, and on his head- stone, in the Presbyterian burial grounds, is the follow- ing inscription : "In memory of Rev. John Walton, who was minister of the Baptist Church in Morristown, and who died October the first, 1770, aged thirty-five years.


The burying ground of the primitive Baptist Church of Morristown (whose commencement may have ante- dated several years the organization of the church) was situated on the opposite side of the road from the meet- ing-house, and a few rods farther north in the direc- tion of the Morristown Green. This burying ground seems to have commenced at some point between the present residence of John S. Green, and that of Lewis P. Baird; and, as necessity required, was extended northward along the road leading "toward town." In recent years the remains of interments have been found as far north as the rear of Lewis P. Baird's residence. Headstones have also been found in the same locality. It was the writer's rare privilege (he speaks as a lover of local history and tradition) to see, not long since, on the premises of John S. Green, two headstones, which once marked the burial place of some family interred in this ground. We say "some family," for Mr. Green informed the writer that in close proximity to the two headstones mentioned, were two or three smaller stones, the whole number being in a row, and the natural infer- ence is that the two larger stones marked the resting places of the parents, and the smaller ones those of their children. These headstones were removed by Mr.


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Green, personally, about twenty-two years ago. Some of these stones had settled into the ground so as to be nearly out of sight, while one or two were a few inches above the surface of the ground. One of the two stones seen by the writer was about four feet in length by one foot in width and three inches in thickness; the dimensions of the others were somewhat smaller. All the stones mentioned were of common field stone, and, so far as could be seen, bore no inscription, and probably never did. A wooden stake-thanks to the thoughful- ness of our informant-now marks the spot where these rude headstones once stood. Inasmuch as the house now occupied by John S. Green, was, as early as about the year 1750, the residence of Robert Goble, one of the original members of the Baptist Church of Morristown, it is probable the headstones found in the rear of Mr. Green's house, marked the graves of mem- bers of Mr. Goble's family. It may be that the graves were those of Mr. and Mrs. Goble, and two of their children, in other words it may have been the family burial ground. In seeming confirmation of this con- jecture it may be said,-so the writer has been informed by one who was born, and for not a few years lived in the neighborhood in question (our fellow townsman, John D. Guerin),-that on the same side of the road leading toward Basking Ridge, but some little distance below the Robert Goble place, there is a family burial ground. Still farther down the same road, and on the same side, but lying at a considerable distance back from the road, is another family burial ground, shel- tered by a handsome copse of trees.


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THE STORY OF ITS FIRST CENTURY


It is by some thought that during the encampment of Washington's army in the vicinity of the old Bap- tist burying ground, in the winter of 1779-80, not a few of his deceased soldiers were interred therein. This conjecture is by no means without a reasonable basis. The proximity of the encampment to the burying ground, and the consequent convenience of interment therein, would of itself furnish excellent ground for such conjecture. But to this there may be added the fact of the numerous interments made in this old bury- ing ground, as evidenced by the large number of mounds visible, some of them at least, not many years since ; as well as by the unusual extent of the interments to the northward; all of which circumstances render it improbable that local casualities could have entirely furnished the inhabitants for this populous city of the dead.


During the construction of their new meeting-house on the "Morris Green," the Baptist people, who by this time had mostly removed "into town," held divine ser- vices in the new courthouse erected, as we have seen, on the Green, in the year 1770. The Baptist meeting- house, when completed, was about forty feet in length by thirty feet in depth, and stood on a slight elevation, a little farther back from what is now Speedwell Ave- nue, than the more pretentious structure of a later date. We say "what is now Speedwell Avenue" because at the period under consideration, there was no road where Speedwell Avenue now is.


The picture of the Baptist meeting-house, appearing in


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connection with our story, is an accurate representation, having been made from a description of the structure furnished, indirectly, it is true, by those who saw it while standing. For this accurate representation of the Baptist house of worship of 1771, our readers are in- debted to George W. Howell, surveyor and civil engin- eer, now deceased, and one of his talented daughters, Miss Rachel Howell.


On the second Sunday in May, of the year 1771, the new meeting-house was formally dedicated by exercises appropriate to the occasion, which was one of rare inter- est to those present. It is a circumstance, for a knowl- edge of which present and future generations of Mor- ristonians, particularly, should congratulate themselves, that the dedicatory sermon was delivered by the Rev. John Gano, the first pastor of the church; John Gano, of whom Henry Clay is reported to have said : "Of all the preachers I have ever listened to, he made me feel the most that religion was a divine reality."


The first pastor of the Baptist Church on "Morris Green" was the Rev. Reune Runyon, who in the month of December, 1771, began his labors, as a licentiate. He was ordained to the Baptist ministry in the month of June, in the year 1772. Mr. Runyon was the pastor of the Morristown Baptist Church during the Revolu- tion; and he is said to have been an ardent patriot, brave and true. Of this church more will be said at the proper time.


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CHAPTER VI.


"And often a retrospect delights the mind."


"There are not unfrequently substantial reasons under- neath for customs that appear to us absurd."


HE period of Morristown's local his- tory lying between its settlement, T and the opening of the Revolution, presents a picture, the examination of which, in contrast with present conditions, will doubtless prove of great interest, especially to the young, and to others who may be unacquainted with the customs and habits of those early days.


True to their Old England and New England train- ing, the early inhabitants of Morristown regarded Sun- day, or the Sabbath as they then almost invariably called it, as the chief day of the week; and attendance upon the services of the sanctuary was to them a sacred duty, which was not, except under extraordinary circumstances, to be neglected. Neither extreme dis-


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HISTORIC MORRISTOWN, NEW JERSEY


tance from the house of worship, nor the inconvenience of primitive modes of conveyance; not even the long and tedious services of the period, were sufficient to deter these God-fearing pioneers from regular attend- ance upon the public means of grace.


Wagons and carriages as modes of conveyance were rarely seen in Morristown until after the Revolutionary period. During the Colonial period, however, a family might now and then be seen on the Sabbath, riding in a cart to the house of worship. Usually they were seated on a sheaf of straw, placed crosswise in the springless vehicle, drawn, perchance, by a well-broken yoke of oxen. Most of those who lived at too great a distance from the house of worship to walk, rode on horseback, especially the women and small children. The sight of a father occupying the saddle, and driving the horse, with a mother seated on a pillion (the pad or cushion attached to the hinder part of a saddle, as a second seat), and the children hanging on as best they could, and in this manner pensively wending their way to the house of God, was by no means infrequent in the early days of Morristown's local history.


In marked contrast to the custom of the present cen- tury, the women of the early days were seated during divine service on one side of the broad aisle, running north and south in the Morristown Presbyterian meet- ing-house, and the men on the opposite side. The aged of both sexes occupied the seats directly in front of the pulpit, in part, no doubt, to facilitate hearing. In one of the two side galleries, each reached by a separate flight


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THE STORY OF ITS FIRST CENTURY


of stairs, sat the unmarried women and girls ; while in the other sat the unmarried men and boys.


As a means, not invariably effectual, however, of controlling the buoyancy of youth, certain men-"tith- ing men" they were called in early New England, and in Old England, "beadles"-were employed ; their com- pensation perhaps consisting of the assiduously culti- vated consciousness of being "drest in a little brief au- thority," or what is more charitable to suppose, of the keen gratification of enforcing what was then deemed the proper observance of the Sabbath-the day of which the poet says, and truly, too: "The week were dark, but for Thy light; Thy torch doth show the way." The tithing men of New England found it necessary to equip themselves with an emblem of authority-an ecclesias- tical wand, we will call it-with which, by a slight tap on the shoulder or head, they not infrequently awakened the drowsy worshiper to a realization of his sanctuary privileges ; and if they now and then used it with force subdued upon the cranium of some seemingly incor- rigible youth of the masculine sex, it was, of course, for "the glory of God." Whether the "overseers of grave character" employed in Parson Johnes's "meetin'- house" in early Morristown, were similarly equipped, or whether, if they were, they ever found it necessary to similarly apply the aforesaid emblem of authority, the chroniclers of local history, for reasons best known to themselves, have omitted to mention-because, per- chance, of their belief that :




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