History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men, Part 26

Author: Woodward, E. M. (Evan Morrison) cn; Hageman, John Frelinghuysen
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1096

USA > New Jersey > Burlington County > Burlington > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 26
USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 26

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The Mercer County Mirror was a weekly newspaper, established by Howard V. Hullfish, a practical prin- ter aud son of David Hullfish, long a constable and police officer of Princeton. Howard Hullfish died in 1856, and the Mirror was discontinued.

The Princeton Standard was a weekly newspaper, established in 1859. The materials and presses of the late Howard Hullfish, of the Mercer County Mirror, were purchased by John F. Hageman, who sought to raise the standard of Princeton journalism, and started this new weekly paper, under the name of the Princeton Standard. It was not in opposition to the Press, but independent. It was political, religions, and literary; untrammeled by party obligations or seetarian ereeds, yet it was in sympathy with the Re- publican party and regarded as a Republican paper. It was a large sheet, printed on excellent paper, with an impersonal editorship. Its first publisher was John Briest, recently mayor of Trenton, and the next one was John R. Hedden.

In 1861 the proprietor of the Standard purchased of Mr. Robinson the Princeton Press and united the two papers, retaining the name of the Standard and dropping that of the Press, published by Mr. Robin- son and edited as before. The Standard was loyal to the government through the civil war, and was zeal- ous and fearless in support of the national cause. When Mr. Robinson died, in October, 1862, his son, John A. Robinson, took his place on the Standard.

In 1867 the proprietor sold his interest in the Standard to Charles S. Robinson, his older brother, John A. Robinson having died, and he withdrew from all future responsibility and connection with the paper. Charles S. Robinson continued the Stan- dard until 1870, when he sold it to Stelle & Smith, and though it has been maintained until the present time it has not retained the name of the Standard.

The Princetonian was a new name given to the Standard, published by Stelle & Smith, and printed known over the country, was appointed postmaster of : by Charles S. Robinson, and edited by Rev. Dr. Moffat, professor in the Theological Seminary in Princeton. It was printed on a double sheet, and the names of the contributors were attached to the arti- eles inserted. It was predominantly literary in its character, but it was not remunerative enough to sus- | tain its expense, and before a year expired it was reduced to the Standard size. Professor Moffat with-

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drew from it, and in 1873 the paper was sold and re- transferred to Charles S. Robinson, who became pro- prietor, publisher, editor, and printer. Mr. Robinson, faithful to the memory of his father, purchased the Press building, which his father had owned, restored to the paper the name which his father had given it in honor of his invented press, and thenceforth called it

The Princeton Press, which has been continued until the present time, and is the only weekly news- paper now published in Princeton, and is published by Mr. Robinson and his brother, Harvey Robinson, as C. S. Robinson & Co.

The Princeton Journal was a weekly paper, estab- lished by a Mr. Blanchard in 1865, but it lived for only a few months, and then died for want of support.

The Princeton Magazine, a monthly, pp. 48, was es- tablished in 1850, printed by John T. Robinson, and edited by William C. Alexander. He was assisted by his brothers, Rev. Drs. James W. and Addison Al- exander, and his father, Rev. Dr. Archibald Alexan- der, contributed the first article, " Princeton in 1801." Twelve numbers were issued, and it was discontinued.

The Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review was commenced in 1825, and was edited by Charles Hodge, professor in the Princeton Seminary. The title of Review was not added to its name at the be- ginning of it, Unt was after a few numbers had been issucd. Dr. Hodge was its sole editor from 1825 to 1870, when Rev. Lyman H. Atwater, D.D., was asso- ciated with him. It had generally been printed in Philadelphia, though for a short time it was printed in Princeton. "This venerable and excellent maga- zine has reflected imperishable honor upon Prince- ton. A Bulwark of defense to sonnd doctrine, a learned and modest expositor of the sound oracles, a judicious critic and reviewer of books and publica- tions, always replete with the evidence of scholarship, always respectful to the rights and opinions of others, free with very rare exceptions from bitterness and bigotry in the articles of its contributors, catholic and liberal in the great doctrines of Christianity, · while vigilant and courageous in holding up the banner of Old-School Presbyterianism, it has been the organ of Princeton theology and criticism, and has spread the name and fame of Princeton among all the nations."

After the reunion of the disrupted Presbyterian Church this quarterly was transferred to New York for publication. Its name was changed to The Pres- byterian Quarterly and Princeton Review. Dr. Hodge withdrew from the editorship. It has since taken the name of Princeton Review.

The Princeton Review of the present day is a very prominent and scholarly bi-monthly, the clicapest and one of the most elaborate and able Reviews in our country, and is edited by Mr. Jonas Libby, of New York.

The Missionary Review was established in Princeton

in April, 1878, by the Rev. R. G. Wilder, formerly a missionary for many years in India. It is published bi-monthly in Princeton, and edited by Mr. Wilder. It is independent of all church boards and ecclesias- tieal dictation. It is broad and catholic in its views, well edited and printed, and growing in favor and influence among all the churches. It has been printed by W. S. Sharp, at Trenton, until within the present year, when it has been printed by C. S. Robinson & Co., in Princeton.

There are other papers and magazines which are strictly college papers, such as the Nassau Literary Magazine, Nassau Herald, Princetonian, and a new one called The Tiger.

There is a good job-office connected with the Press office, in the Press building of C. S. Robinson & Co., in which considerable book-work and fancy printing has been well executed.

The Press in Hightstown .- The first newspaper issued in Hightstown was dated June 30, 1849, called the Village Record, by James S. Yard and Jacob Stolts. There were several other persons who be- came interested in the management of the paper, but Messrs. Stults and Yard more than others were interested in it till 1857, when it became involved in a bitter religious controversy between the Universal- ists and Methodists, and hence another paper.

The Hightstown Excelsior was published from 1857 to 1861, and then it became consolidated with the Record, and was after that known as the Hightstown Gazette, with Stults & Norton joint proprietors. In 1870, Thomas B. Appleget took it.

The Hightstown Independent was established in 1876, with twenty-cight columns, independent in politics, edited as it still is by R. M. J. Smith.

The Press in Hopewell .- The Hopewell Herall is a weekly newspaper established by a joint stock com- pany, at the village of Hopewell in 1874, with Robert Slack first editor and manager. He was succeeded by Henry G. McCarter.

In 1882 the paper passed into the hands of Isaiah N. Leigh as its publisher and editor, and it remains so at the present time.

The Press in Chambersburg .- The Mercer County News is a weekly newspaper that is published in Chambersburg by J. W. Moody.

CHAPTER LVII.

RELIGION-CHURCHES-RELIGIOUS AND BENEVO- LENT SOCIETIES.

THE soil of Mercer County was early consecrated to religious freedom. The first settlers, whether from New England or Okl England, from Holland or France, from Scotland or Sweden, were men who were seeking homes where they might be free to

546

HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

worship God according to the dietates of their own consciences. The long and cruel struggle for such liberty in their native land, or in that of their fathers, had always resulted in the triumph of religions tyranny. And the early settlers, -Huguenots, French and Protestant Calvinists, English Puritans and Qua- kers, Scotch and Irish Presbyterians,-holding various creeds but all protesting against ecclesiastical despot- ism, found little or no opposition here to the realiza- tion of their cherished purpose to be rid of persecution for their religious belief.

The Quaker element was predominant along the Delaware, its central head being in the city of Phila- delphia. The county of Burlington in New Jersey was a stronghold of that class of people, and they ex- tended their settlements on lands up through Old Nottingham to Trenton, and still farther into Hope- well. A little colony of Quaker families at the close of the seventeenth century bought choice land at Stony Brook and settled upon it under inducements : which William Penn had given them.

The government of West Jersey under the proprie- tors was moulded by Quakers, and it gave the broad- est guarantees of religious freedom to all who should buy and settle upon West Jersey soil.

The English act of 1693 restricting the Toleration Act in the colony of New Jersey, required from an incumbent of office a declaration of fidelity to the king, renunciation of popery, and the following pro- fession of the Christian faith :

"I, A. B., profess faith in God the Father and JESUS CHRIST, his eternal Son the true God, and in the Holy Spirit, one God blessed for evermore, and do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine Inspiration."

This was an epitome of the Quaker's creed, for the Assembly of West Jersey would not have assented to it if they had not believed it, as they had power to repudiate it. There is nothing in it which is at vari- ance with the confession of William Penn.

With such a creed and with the special moral pre- cepts which they annexed to it, regulating their per- ; sonal character and conduct in life, it will not do to say that they were not a religious people. They planted churches and schools at a very early day, and exerted a marked influence upon society and Chris- tian civilization for more than a century in the history of New Jersey. One of the mottocs on the common seal of the twenty-four proprietors was, " Righteous- ness Exalteth a Nation."

But strong and liberal as "The Friends" were, they did not monopolize the land to the exclusion of other classes or sects. The Puritans from New England, as well as fresh immigrants from Great Britain, came with the Quakers, and both before and after them, and spread over what are now Lawrence, Hopewell, and Ewing, taking up the body of the valuable land in those townships, and bringing it under cultivation. They too planted their Presbyterian Churches, and

established schools, through which their Christian faith asserted itself in fruits of holy living, and which has been handed down from generation to generation to the present day in full vigor.

It will be seen by reference to the several local his- tories of those townships that those three venerable Presbyterian Churches in Lawrenceville, in Ewing, and in Pennington, established about one hundred and seventy years ago, triangularly situated about four miles from each other, are still flourishing in full vigor and development, drawing into them almost the entire population of those townships, supplemented i only by one additional Presbyterian Church at Titus- ville, and one at Hopewell, offshoots of the old Pen- nington Church. The descendants of the original Presbyterian settlers, who are dwelling on the lands of their fathers in those three townships, are found worshiping their father's God in the houses which their fathers builded, and the influence of religion grows more demonstrative during every succeeding decade.

In addition to the Presbyterian Churches in Hope- well township, there are two Baptist Churches in the village of Hopewell, the one an ancient church hav- ing been constituted in 1715. That was a Baptist neighborhood, and this is a strong church. There is also a small Baptist Church at Harbortown. There is a Methodist Episcopal Church at Hopewell, and one at Titusville, and one at Pennington, also an African Methodist Episcopal Church at Pennington. There is a small "Christian" Church on the northern line of the township next to Hunterdon.

In Lawrenee township there is one Methodist Epis- copal Chureh at Baker's Basin. There is no other church in the township except the venerable old Pres- byterian Church at Lawrenceville.

Princeton has been since 1757 a stronghold of Pres- byterianism. It has had present since that time many of the leading ministers in that denomination, and since the theological seminary was established there in 1812, there has been an increased number.of clergy residing there; of late years the number has reached as many as forty at a time. There are four Presby- terian Churches (one colored), two Methodist (one colored), one Episcopal, one Roman Catholic, and one Quaker; a college and a seminary chapel for worship.

In West Windsor there is a Presbyterian Church at Dutch Neck, and a Baptist Church at Pennswick.

In East Windsor there is one Presbyterian Church at Hightstown, one Baptist Church established in 1745, one Methodist Episcopal Church, one Prot- estant Episcopal, one African Methodist Episcopal Church, and one Universalist Church, all in Hights- town.

In Washington township there is a Methodist Epis- copal Church at Sharon, and one of the same kind at Windsor, and a Union Chapel at Newtown.

In Chambersburg there are two Methodist Episco-

CHURCHES.

547

pal Churches, namely, the Broad Street Church and the Hamilton Avenue Church ; one Baptist, viz., the Calvary Baptist Church ; one Roman Catholic Chapel; and the St. John's Church of the Evangelical Asso- eiation.

In Millham there is only the Simpson Methodist Episcopal Church.

In Hamilton there is a Presbyterian Church at Hamilton Square, founded before the Revolution, and a Baptist Church, founded in 1785. There is a Methodist Episcopal Church at Groveville ; also one : an average each 813 persons, there is church-room at White-horse ; and a Presbyterian Chapel at Yard- enough to admit the whole population of the county, including children, without resorting to the chapels. ville; and at North Crosswicks there was before the Revolution a memorable preaching station of David Brainerd, the missionary among the Indians.

In Trenton there are six Presbyterian Churches, and every one of them may be regarded as the out- growth of the vencrable First Presbyterian Church, of which the Rev. John Hall, D.D., is still the pastor, and which has an interesting published history.

Of Episcopal Churches there are three, viz., St. Michael's, St. Paul's, and Trinity.

Of Baptist Churches there are four, viz., First Baptist, Central Baptist, Clinton Avenue Baptist, and the Berean Baptist (colored).

Of Methodist Episcopal Churches there are eight, viz., Greene Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, Union Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Warren Street Metho- dist Episcopal Church, State Street Methodist Epis- copal Church, Central Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Mount Zion and St. Paul Afriean Methodist Episcopal Churches.

In the early settlement of the townships in this eounty the Quakers and the Presbyterians were more Of Roman Catholic Churches there are three, viz., St. John's, St. Mary's, and the church of St. Fran- cis. numerous than all others combined. The former as an organized religious body seem to have melted away.' Their old society at Stony Brook in Princeton. prob- Of German Evangelieal Lutheran there are two, viz., Trinity Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church. ably the first church of any kind that was built within the limits of this county, 1709, for several generations surrounded and supported by a large, intelligent, and The Jews have one synagogue and cemetery. wealthy membership, has become virtually, extinct. There is also one " Messiah Church." The old meeting-house and school-house are closed, The Society of Friends had one ancient place of worship, perhaps the first church or meeting-house ever built in the city of Trenton, dating 1739. In 1828, when the division of the Society took place, the Hieksites retained the possession of this house, and the Orthodox for a few years thereafter held their meetings in a Methodist Church, which they bought, till 1858, when they built on Mercer Street. and the old burying-ground is very seldom touched by the grave-digger's spade. They have two churches at Trenton; one was the first church built within the limits of that city. For several generations it was well attended. The Hicksite schism split it in 1828, and since the division the two societies have gradu- ally declined, and may be regarded as in a hopeless decadence. It is very rare that the plain Quaker dress once so eommon in and about Trenton is seen | in our streets and assemblies. It is painful to those represent the whole number of churches in the county of | who remember how kind and benevolent and honest and brave and upright the Quaker men and women were to see them no more in their old homes and habitations.

These returns from the several townships of the county, which are assumed to be substantially correct, Mercer to be 72. These churches are distributed among the townships as follows: In Hopewell, 11; Ewing, 1; Lawrence, 2; West Windsor, 2; East Windsor, 5; Washington, 2; Hamilton, 4; Cham- bersburg, 4; Millham, 1; Prineeton, 9; Trenton, 28.

These churches are divided among the several de- nominations as follows :

Baptists

10 Methodist Episcopal 2.1

Christians

Presbyterians. 15

Episcopalians

Jews

1 Roman Catholics.

Lutherans

3 Universalists 1 Messiah

Besides three Presbyterian chapels and one Union chapel, where Sabbath worship is held.

In a previous chapter we stated the population of the county in 1880 to be 58,061, with the number belonging to the several townships. Assuming that these places of public worship will accommodate on

An examination into the comparative increase and decrease of church membership, as has lately been made in the New York City churches, will not show a result similar to that ease, proving that the middle classes are going to the extremes of the Episcopal Church on one side and the Roman Catholic on the other, and that the large percentage of increase be- longs to those two denominations. If it is true that in New York the Episcopal Church is the church which attracts the rich and fashionable classes, and the Roman Catholic Church is the church to which the poor are tending, and that the churches of the middle class are decaying, it is otherwise here, for the most noticeable chureh increase here is outside of those two extreme denominations. Out of the whole number of 72 churches given above, 52 are Metho- dist, Presbyterian, and Baptist, while the Episcopal claim but 5, and the Roman Catholic but 5.

They were a noble people. Their great mission seems to have been to defend and establish religious freedom. They were pre-eminently the advocates and martyrs of religious liberty, while in common with

Qnakers. 3

وارجيبفى ٤٠٠ --

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HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

many others they suffered and died for civil liberty also. In the history of New Jersey, and especially in the history of this and all the counties of West Jersey, the Quakers stand out foremost of all relig- ious classes of men as those to whom we owe our right to worship God, and to formulate our religious creeds according to our individual conseiences and private judgment. And it has been only since this unalienable right to worship God in this manuer has become recognized and guaranteed in our Constitu- tion and Bill of Rights that this religious society of Friends has fallen into decadence, as though their holy mission had been fulfilled.

But their contemporary brethren, the Presbyterians, who soon became possessors of the larger portion of the land now embraced within Mercer County, show to-day a different success in the annals of the churches. The three original Presbyterian Churches at Maiden- head, Pennington, and Ewing, with a fourth soon after established in the city of Trenton, have been contin- uously maintained with increasing strength through all the intervening generations from their first organ- ization to the present day. In looking at the names of the first settlers and those who attached them- selves to these early Presbyterian Churches, we find them repeated in their descendants, who form largely the membership of these churches at the present time.

It seems, as we read the history of the Trenton Church, by the Rev. Dr. John Hall, and of the Penn- ing ton Church, by the Rev. Dr. George Hale, and of the Lawrenceville Church, by the Rev. Dr. Gosman, and of the Ewing Church, by the late Rev. Eli Cooley, that all the children aud descendants of the old Pres- byterian families aud founders of these churches who are living within the territorial bounds of these churches, as above stated, are in the place of their fathers around the same old altars.

These churches have not only lengthened their cords and strengthened their stakes, and greatly in- creased their membership, but they have generated within the last half-century seven new and additional Presbyterian Churches, all within the same three town- ships, and the most of them within the last quarter of a century. The seed sown by those faithful pas- tors in successive generations in this Presbyterian field has yielded its present harvest; and similar testimony may be found among the other old Pres- byterian Churches in the other townships of the county.1

So too it may be said of the old Baptist Church of Hopewell, dating back to 1715, and taking an even start with her Presbyterian sisters. She has held her way steadfastly, and the children and descendants of her founders may be said still to abide within her gates, true to her faith. The Baptist Church at

Hightstown, which was founded in Cranberry in 1745, and removed to Hightstown just after the Revolution, maintains a healthy life, though it has passed, in former years, through many adverse circumstances. The First Baptist Church at Trenton, founded at the beginning of this century, has been a power in the eity, and instead of one there are three.

The Methodists have come lately into the field, but they have come like a flood. Their churches do not date back to the first settlement of the townships. Their houses of worship in the country are generally small, and their congregations there are comparatively small, while in the eities and larger towns they are generally large. In number of congregations they stand the highest, having twenty-four, while the Presbyterians have eighteen, the next highest.

The Protestant Episcopal Church did not take deep root and grow rapidly among the Quaker population of West Jersey, notwithstanding Queen Anne's in- structions to Lord Cornbury, in 1702, enjoined him " not to prefer any minister to any ecclesiastical bene- fice in that our province without a certificate from the right reverend father in God, the lord Bishop of Lon- don, of his being conformable to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England," and that he should "take especial care that God Almighty be de- voutly and duly served throughout your government, the Book of Common Prayer as by law established read each Sunday and holiday, and the blessed sac- rament administered according to the rites of the Church of England."2

These instructions were in contravention of the letter as well as of the catholic spirit of the " Grants and Concessions" previously given by the proprietors, especially the West Jersey proprietors, as constitu- tional guarantees to all the inhabitants that would settle in the province. There were only few and fecble attempts made by the Cornbury government to estab- lish the Church of England in this province. The spirit of religious freedom was too vigilant, and the colonists had suffered too much from that church to allow themselves to be again subjugated by it, and consequently every attempt to carry into effect the queen's instructions in this behalf failed.

It is quite pertinent at this point in our history to refer to the first church attempted to be established in Hopewell, afterwards Trenton, and now Ewing township. The land was conveyed in 1703 by John Hutchinson to Andrew Heath and others, in trust, for a public meeting-house to be ereeted thereon and for a place of burial. The deed was addressed "To all Christian people to whom these presents shall come." and it was " for all the inhabitants of the town- ship of Hopewell and their successors forever." There were two acres of land, and it was about three miles from Trenton. A church was erected on this lot, but how soon and by whom it is not clearly known. The

1 Mercer County contains more than half the churches in the Pres- bytery of New Brunswick.

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History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men, Part 26

Author: Woodward, E. M. (Evan Morrison) cn; Hageman, John Frelinghuysen Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1096

Author: Woodward, E. M. (Evan Morrison) cn; Hageman, John Frelinghuysen
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1096