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 42
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 42
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The reverend pastor, in the midst of his usefulness, when his church membership had been enlarged by an addition of one hundred and forty-five members- twenty of whom were students, and thirty-one colored persous, under his ministry,-after a short illness fromn typhus fever, departed this life in the thirty-first year of his age.
The trustees, session, and congregation all joined in tributes of respect to the memory of their beloved but deceased pastor. He left a widow (since dead), who was the daughter of Joseph Scudder, Esq., of Freehold, and Maria Johnston, his wife, ancestors of . the missionary Scudder family, and two children, one who is now the widow of the Rev. Asa S. Colton (deceased), and the other William C. Sehenek, who died many years ago in Princeton.
Rev. George Spafford Woodhull was called from Cranberry, N. J., and was installed as pastor of this church July 5, 1820. Salary, six hundred dollars a year and the use of the parsonage. The ministry of Mr. Woodhull, in Princeton, was twelve years in duration, and was attended by a larger increase of the church than that of any of his predecessors. There were two hundred and eighty-nine members added, including twenty-five students of the college. The spirit of missions, of Suuday-schools, of education for the masses, of general benevolence, Bible, tem- perance, and African colonization societies was quiek- ened and beautifully developed under his ministry. He had labored in the pastorate of Cranberry for twenty-two years before he came to the Princeton Church, and he was one of the little band of pious gentlemen who assembled in Princeton in 1811 and formed the New Jersey Bible Society. He was the first who suggested and introduced Bible-class instruc- tion in his own church, and then caused it to be rec- ommended by the General Assembly to all the churches under its care. He began the temperance reform eight years before the American Temperance Society was proposed, by an overture to the General Assem- bly. At his death a temperance pledge bearing date as far baek as 1815, signed by several of his congre- gation, was found among his papers.
He was a native of Pennsylvania, and was born on the 31st day of March, 1773. His father was the Rev. John Woodhull, D.D., who removed from Lan- caster County. Pa., to Freehold, N. J., to take the church of the late William Tennent. The son gradu- ated at Princeton in 1790.
When the year 1815 opened, with the new church furnished and its membership revived and enlarged He married Gertrude Neilson, daughter of Col. John Neilson, of New Brunswick. He resigned his call at Princeton in 1832, and accepted one at Mid- dletown Point, N. J., where he spent the last two years of his life, and died of searlet fever, Dec. 25, 1834. He was eminently a good man. He had four during the preceding year, a great revival of religion marked the winter months of that memorable year in Princeton. The fruits of that revival were very pre- eious. The church received an accession of forty new members, among which were not a few who became : distinguished as ministers in subsequent years. ; children who reached adult age,-the Rev. William Among the college students there were many, per- haps forty or fifty converts, some of whom became eminent preachers and theologians.
H. Woodhull, who died in 1834; Cornelia, who died unmarried; and Alfred A. Woodhull and Jolin N. Woodhull, both popular physicians, who died in Princeton.
The vacancy remained until May 28, 1833, when the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Holt Rice, of Virginia, was elected pastor. He accepted, and was installed Aug. 15, 1833. Dr. Riee was born in Bedford County, Va., Nov. 29, 1782. His fatlier, Benjamin Rice, was a lawyer by profession. He was a ruling elder in the
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Presbyterian Church of which his brother, Rev. David Ricc, was the pastor. Benjamin H. Rice re- ceived his education chiefly under the direction and by the aid of his brother, the Rev. John Holt Rice, : D. D., and Archibald A. Rice, who was both physician D.D. He married Martha Alexander, a sister of the Rev. Archibald Alexander, D.D. He was licensed in 1812 in North Carolina, having served as mission- ary in the seaboard countics of that State. He was pastor of a church in Petersburg for seventeen years. and his ministry was greatly blessed. His health led him to the North, and he accepted a call to the Pearl Strect Church, in New York. He then became sce- retary of the Home Missionary Society, and after a year's service in that office he came to Princeton. Salary, one thousand dollars and the parsonage.
Soon after Dr. Ricc had entered upon his ministry in Princeton with hopeful success a calamity befell the church, such as had befallen it about twenty years previous to this time. Another conflagration, caused by the explosion of a sky-rocket on the 6th of July, 1835, which lighted on the root, laid the church edifice again in ashes. It was connected with the celebration of the Fourth of July. The congregation immediately took measures to rebuild, and resolved that all claims arising from rights in the old pews were extinguished by the fire, but they would pay the same amount to- wards the salary as they had donc when in possession of the pews. There was at the time an old debt of eleven hundred and forty-five dollars. By Nov. 27, 1836, the new church, built of brick, rough-cast, with- out basement, sixty by eighty feet, was ready to be used with temporary seats. It was soon afterwards finished and upholstered very neatly, and was a model structure. It was in Grecian style of architecture, with galleries, without spire or cupola, with two Cor- inthian pillars in the front vestibule. It was on the same lot of land, but it stood with the end of thic building towards the street. It was the same build- ing which is occupied by the church at the present time, but which has been enlarged by an extension in the rear, and which has been modified and orna- mented within a few years past. The Sunday-school occupied the gallery of the church, and weekly prayer-meetings were held from house to house.
Dr. Rice was a man of intellectual ability, of warm feelings and undoubted piety. He was direct and pungent in his preaching, did not often write out and read his sermons, was happy in conducting devotional meetings, loved to mingle in revivals, and his church experienced several awakenings during his ministry. His health unfitted him for his most laborious work. After a service of nearly fourteen ycais in a fruitful ministry, in which two hundred and seventy-one new members were received, he resigned his call on account of his feeble health. He was the last pastor who had occupied the old Wiggins parsonage. He removed to Virginia and took charge of the College Church at Hampden-Sydney, where he preached with renewed vigor, and died in the harness, falling from , He accepted, and was installed Nov. 1. 1853.
his pulpit while preaching to his people, urging them to go forward in the divine life. He dicd Feb. 24, 1856. He left two sons-the Rev. John H. Riec, and preacher ; the former is deceased-and three daughters,-Mary, wife of Rev. Dr. Drury Lacy, and Catharine are deceased, and Martha is still living at the South. Anna, who married the Rev. Mr. Forman, of Kentucky, died before her parents.
The successor of Dr. Rice in the pastorate of this church was the Rev. William E. Schenck, a nephew of the Rev. W. C. Schenck, a former pastor, and a son of John C. Schenck, of Princeton. He was in- stalled May 8, 1848. It was in this church where he had been baptized and reared. His ministry was an arduous one, but he applied himself to it with great zeal and energy. He introduced a system of benevo- lence, in accordance with the recommendation of the General Assembly, and did much to enlist the whole membership of the church in the appropriate Chris- tian activities which a well-organized church de- mands. It was during his pastorate that a new lec- ture- and Sunday-school-room was built in the rear of the main edifice, and that the finances of the con- gregation were placed upon a good foundation, and for the first time in eighty years the church was free from debt.
In 1850 a revival of religion took place in the con- gregation and the village, adding to the membership of the church nearly one hundred persons. It also extended to the college with great power, and gath- cred there most gracious fruits. In 1852, after a, ministry of four years, he resigned his call to enter upon the duties of superintendent of church exten- sion in the city of Philadelphia. The congregation interposed a strong remonstrance to Presbytery against the dissolution of the pastorate, but his resignation was allowed. His was the shortest pastorate in the preceding history of the church, except that of Dr. Kollock, yet the most successful one. He had re- ceived one hundred and ninety-nine new members during the four years, and the amount of money con- tributed by the congregation, exclusive of salaries, was seven thousand five hundred and nine dollars. His salary was one thousand dollars and parsonage.
Dr. Schenck is now filling the office of secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Publication in Philadel- phia.
The vacancy caused by the resignation of Dr. Schenck continued for a year and a half, during which a persistent effort was made to secure the pas- toral services of the Rev. William B. Wecd, of Strat- ford, Conn., a Congregational minister, but it failed. Finally a call was made to the Rev. James M. Mac- donald, of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church of New York, with the same salary as his predecessor received, but which was soon made twelve hundred dollars, with the proceeds of the parsonage fund.
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HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
His ministry extended through twenty-four years, during which a new parsonage was procured, and the temporary debt incurred in its purchase was liquidated chiefly through his exertions. An organ was procured and introduced into the church, the interior of the church was several times improved, and just before his death the church was enlarged by extension in the rear, and a new lecture-room built adjoining it on the west end of the lot. The whole church was repaired and decorated and made attrac- tive, at a cost of about twelve thousand dollars. The pastor published in 1873 a twenty years' retrospect of his ministry, in a discourse which showed the progress and prosperity of the church and a summary of his ministerial labors.
Dr. Macdonald was a native of Limerick, Maine. He was a son of Maj .- Gen. John Macdonald, of that place, a prominent public citizen of that State. He was educated at Bowdoin and Union Colleges and at Bangor and Yale Seminaries. He was a man of fine presence, of great industry, of literary culture, and of self-reliance. He was an author of reputation, a very ready writer, and a faithful pastor.
He died at his home in Princeton, March 19, 1876, after a sickness of three weeks, just as his church was to receive a large accession from the fruits of that gracious revival which had during the preceding winter visited Princeton with more power than had ever before aroused and blessed the town and the institutions. His death was profoundly lamented, and his memory received manifold tributes of re- spect from his church and the community, as also from his clerical brethren,of his Presbytery. The membership of this church at his death was reported at four hundred and seventy-four members.
Rev. Horace G. Hinsdale, the present pastor, was installed Nov. 2, 1877. The salary pledged him in his call was two thousand five hundred dollars and the parsonage. He was called from the Presbyterian Church of Bridgeport, Conn. He graduated at the Theological Seminary in Princeton in the class of 1852.
The church is out of debt, and has a valuable par- sonage and lecture-room, and the audience-room of the main edifice is large and attractive, and perhaps is more widely known throughout the Presbyterian denomination than any other single church. The membership last reported (1882) is three hundred and seventy-eight.
Mr. Paul Tulane, of Princeton, has been foremost among the inaterial benefactors of this church. Among divers other gifts made, he has placed in the hands of the trustees of this church three several funds, in trust, of five thousand dollars each, viz., one for the maintenance of the Cedar Grove Chapel ; one for the benefit of the poor members of the church and pew-rents of such, and to aid current expenses; and the third, for keeping in repair the old burying- ground adjoining the cemetery. His other gifts to
the trustees, towards the cemetery, and in liquidation of church liabilities in various forms would doubt- less exceed ten thousand dollars.
There belongs to this church, beside a large and honorable membership through several generations past, a loug list of trustees and ruling elders, em- bracing some of the most honorable names in the town.
The reason that so much more space has been al- lowed to this church and to the Quaker meeting- house than to the churches in Princeton herein sub- sequently noticed is because these two are the only historic churches in Princeton, and there is a desire to know and perpetuate their history.1
The Protestant Episcopal Church (Trinity) .- This organization was effected at a meeting held in the town-house of the borough on the 11th of May, 1833. The corporate name of Trinity was adopted because of the favor with which at that time the views of Unitarians were received by educated people in the Eastern and Middle States. The corner-stone of the building was laid by Bishop Doane, July 4, 1833, and it was completed Sept. 23, 1834. The edifice was a Grecian structure, white rough-cast, standing on the site of the present church, but with its ends to the street.
The following is a complete list of the rectors up to the present time :
The Rev. George E. Hare, D.D., called in 1833; resigned June 19, 1843.
The Rev. Andrew Bell Paterson, D.D., instituted Dec. 2, 1845; resigned Oct. 6, 1851.
The Rev. Joshua Peterkin, D.D., called May 3, 1852 : resigned Jan. 3, 1855.
The Rev. William D. Hanson. D.D., called Feb. 27, 1855; resigned Sept. 7, 1859.
The Rev. William A. Dod, D.D., called Nov. 29, 1859; resigned in the spring of 1866.
The Rev. Albert B. Baker, the present rector, en- tered on the duties of the rectorship on Easter-day, April 1, 1866, and is still discharging the duties of the position. The church has had liberal friends and supporters.
In 1843 a rectory was built, presented to the church by John Potter.
A parish school lot was given to the church by Richard Stockton, and a school building was erected by the liberality of a few persons, the chief contrib- utor being Jaines Potter. The church-bell is in the tower of this building.
On the 4th of July, 1868, the corner-stone of a second church edifice was laid by Bishop Odenheimer, and a more beautiful and imposing structure was erected upon the site of the first one, which was taken down after thirty-five years from the laying of its corner-stone. It is built of Princeton stone, with
1 For a full history of these and all the other churches in Princeton, see Mr. Hageman's " History of Princeton and its Institutions."
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PRINCETON.
brownstone trimmings, with a tower built by Mrs. Lippincott, and the beautiful decorations of the inte- rior were exceuted according to the wish and at the expense of Mrs. Sarah J. Potter. The church, which consists of nave, transept, central tower, and apsidal chancel, is in the pointed Gothic style, and is one of the most beautiful in the State. It is entered from both Stockton and Mercer Streets, the ground ex- tending across the triangle.
The Methodist Episcopal Church .- This church was built in 1847 under the pastorate of Rev. Joseph Ashbrook. The congregation had recently been visited with a revival at Cedar Grove, and had built the chapel there which Mr. Tulane afterwards bought, and abandoning that building they erected this church The Rev. William A. Dod, D.D., was its first in- in Princeton. It is located on the north side of stalled pastor, and he remained there from 1852 till Nassau Street, on a part of what was formerly tlie 1859, when he took orders in the Episcopal Church. When he left the membership had reached the num- ber of one hundred and eighty-nine. Then for about two years it had supplies. land of Dr. Ebenezer Stockton. The church is built of brick, sixty-six by forty-eight feet, with a gallery, and will seat about six hundred persons. Lecture- room in the basement. The parsonage is a few doors The Rev. Joseph R. Mann, D. D., was installed pas- tor May 3, 1861. He was greatly blessed in his labors, which continued till December, 1864, when he was compelled to resign on account of ill health. During his ministry ninety-five new members were added, in- creasing the roll to two hundred and eighty-four. east of it. Its membership approximates two hun- dred. The list of the pastors includes the names of Ashbrook, Corbit, Monroe, Ballard, Heisler, Stephen- son, Batchelder, Staats, Wiley, Hanlon, King, Hance, Westbrook, Baker, Lawrence, Belting, Sooy, White, | Reed, Gaskill.
. The Baptist Church .- A Baptist Church was built in Canal Street in Princeton in 1851, when the Rev. William C. Ulyat was pastor. The congregation, which belonged almost entirely to the country ont- side of Princeton, having a church and burial-ground at Penn's Neck, favored the erection of this church in order to accommodate members who resided on the western side of Princeton, several miles from the church at Penn's Neck. It was supposed by making Princeton the territorial centre of the congregation the worshipers at Penn's Neck would join the others at Princeton. But the result proved otherwise. The strength of the church adhered to the old'shrines at Penn's Neck, and the ground at Princeton was aban- doned. This church was sold, and the old one at Penn's Neck was enlarged and improved. The pastors who labored in the church at Princeton were six, viz .: Rev. Samuel Sproule, William E. Cornwell, George Young, John B. Hutchinson, H. V. Jones, and William C. Ulyat. When the congregation re- turned to Penn's Neck, which is in West Windsor, beyond the canal, there was a Second or New Baptist Church of Princeton organized by a few members, who took a " new departure" from the original one. Their worship is held in the private house of the Rev. W. C. Ulyat, who preaches occasionally to a small company. The church edifice in Canal Street is un- oceu pied.
Woodhull's pastorate. The Rev. Dr. John Maclean and the Rev. Dr. John T. Duffield entered into and led the movement which gave it being. It was. of course, an offshoot of the old First Church. Its public services were held in Mercer Hall for about a year and a half, under the direction of Rev. William Henry Green as pastor called, but not installed. A small but neat frame edifice was built opposite to the public school building. The congregation entered into the new church in 1850, under the ministrations of the Rev. Mr. Duffield, then tutor in college, as a stated supply for one year, which was extended through a i second year, when its membership enrolled was eighty- three.
The Rev. Spencer L. Finney was installed pastor Aug. 31, 1866. The church grew under liis ministry, and a new and larger edifice was deemed necessary. ! The agitation of that question resulted in the pur- chase of a handsome central lot on the corner of Nassau and Chambers Streets, upon which the large and handsome brownstone Gothic church, with chapel in the rear, with entrance on Chambers Street, was erected which is at present occupied by the congre- gation. This church with its galleries will scat one thousand people, and the chapel about three hundred. It is an imposing and attractive church in both ex- terior and interior. Its spire has not yet been erceted, nor has it a bell. Its location is most eligible, and its cost in its present condition, including the lot, was about fifty-five thousand dollars. There is no debt on -+ the chureli. Mrs. Susan D. Brown, one of the men- bers of the church, gave toward the lot and the build- ing the munificent sum of thirty thousand dollars, besides several thousands more for the support of the ministers and the liquidating of old debts. The church was dedicated Dec. 4, 1868. The old building down-town was sold.
Mr. Finney continued pastor of the church about six years, during which one hundred and fifty-six members were added to the church. He resigned in 1871.
The Rev. Wm. A. McCorkle, D.D., was tendered a call with a salary of two thousand dollars, or to be- come a stated supply at a salary of three thousand dol- lars a year, at hisoption. He served as stated -apply
The Second Presbyterian Church .- This church was organized Dec. 23, 1847. It had been proposed and discussed often before the time of its organiza- . for about two and a half years, during which he ad- tion, even as far back as the closing period of Mr. 1 mitted to church membership over one hundred ap-
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HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
1
plicants. He left the church prosperous in its spir- itual and its temporal affairs, and was invited to remain as pastor, with a salary of two thousand five hundred dollars, which he declined. The reported membership of this church in 1876 was two hundred and thirteen.
The Rev. Lewis W. Mudge was installed pastor May 11, 1877, at a salary of two thousand two hun- dred dollars, and has since been supplied with a large new parsonage on Stockton Street, the gift of Miss Sophia C. W. C. Stevens, whose benefactions to this church have been noteworthy.
Mr. Mudge is pastor at the present time. Both this church and the first one-the mother-church-are large, handsome structures, eligibly located, capable of seating about the same number of people, with large and handsomely furnished chapels and Sunday- school-rooms, and each church having a first-class parsonage connected with it.
church in 1816. She was long a school-teacher in Princeton, where she died in 1860 much respected.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church .- This church was organized in 1836. Its first place of public worship was in a little frame school-house, quite near the present church in Witherspoon Street, and which is the present site of the Odd-Fellows' Hall. The present church edifice was built in 1860 of brick, rough-cast, with basement for Sunday-school. It bears the name of " Mount Pisgah." It has quite a large membership and Sunday-school. There is nothing peculiar or especially interesting in its his- tory to make it differ from other churches of that class.
The Roman Catholic Church .- Prior to the year 1850 the Roman Catholic population of Princeton had received monthly visitations from a clergyman from New Brunswick or elsewhere in private houses, most generally in the house of James Boyle, near the Princeton Canal Basin. In that year the Rev. Mr.
The Witherspoon Street Church .- This is the Colored Presbyterian Church of Princeton, which was ! Scollard took up his residence here and became the set off from the First Church. The original build- first local pastor. He raised a small stone church in Nassau Street opposite the present public school building, where afterwards the first edifice of the Second Presbyterian Church was built. This church was badly built and had to be taken down. ing, which is their house of worship at present, was erected about 1837, principally through the efforts of Dr. John Macleau and Dr. John Breckinridge, with the benefaction of James Lenox, of New York. Rev. Dr. James W. Alexander preached to the congrega- The Rev. Alfred Young, a native and graduate of Princeton, succeeded Father Scollard in 1857 as rec- tor, and remained here three years. While here he purchased of Miss Ten Eyck the present Catholic property in Nassau Street, and erected a temporary building in the rear of the mansion for a church. tion there for several years every sabbath. In 1840 the congregation requested the First Presbyterian Church for permission to have a separate communion in their own church. In 1846, March 10th, the col- ored members of the First Presbyterian Church to the number of ninety-two were at their request dis- The Rev. Mr. O'Donnell succeeded Father Young in 1860, and remained till 1867. missed to form a new church under the name of the "First Presbyterian Church of Color of Princeton," The Rev. T. R. Moran, who is the present pastor, succeeded Mr. O'Donnell, and his long ministry has been productive of great results. He has caused to be erected a handsome brick church with stone trim- mings, at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars; also a fine brick pastoral residence valued at seven thou- sand dollars. He has established also a sisterhood called "The Sisters of Mercy," to superintend the parochial school, numbering two hundred children and upwards, and to look after the sick and indigent. He has also established among his people temperance and literary societies and other associations for the improvement of his people of both sexes. There is a large and well-kept cemetery adjoining the church. The whole property is estimated at seventy-five thou- sand dollars in value, including a handsome brick convent, which has been erected within the last two years. . The congregation musters about one thousand souls, and the church is free from debt. The clergy of the town respect him, and he respects them. and the church was thereupon organized by Rev. Dr. Rice, Dr. Maclean, and Elder Joseph H. Davis, a committee of Presbytery. In 1848 the name was changed to "The Witherspoon Street Church." It has been fully organized and has a membership of over one hundred, but it has not been self-sustaining. It has been under stated supplies, with the exception of two or three short pastorates covering five or six years. The stated supplies have been generally white ministers or licentiates, such as Dr. James W. Alexan- der, Professor Giger, Tutor Cobb, Rev. James Stebbins, and students in the seminary. The Rev. Mr. Robinson, colored, is pastor at the present time, and his prede- cessor in the pastorate was Rev. Hugh M. Brown, a colored licentiate. The church has a parsonage in Witherspoon Street, devised to it by Anthony Sim- mons, one of its members and trustees, and one of the most widely known and most respected colored citizens in the State. At the lead of the roll of mem- bers when the church was organized stood the name The Railroad Avenue Church, designated on the marble above the door " THE OLD CHURCH." This of Betsey Stockton, a colored woman, who had been a member of Dr. Ashbel Green's family, and who ; is a small neat frame church, midway between the went with the Rev. Charles Stewart as missionary to college and the seminary on Railroad Avenne, capa- ble of seating near three hundred persons. It was the Sandwich Islands in 1823. She joined the old
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