USA > New Jersey > Union County > Elizabeth > History of Elizabeth, New Jersey : including the early history of Union County > Part 56
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The church at Rahway remained vacant until the summer of 1802, being supplied mostly by the Presbytery. A call was then extended to the
REV. BUCKLEY CARLL,
of the Presbytery of Philadelphia. It was accepted, and Mr. Carll was received by the Presbytery of New York, Oct. 6, 1802. At a meeting of the Presbytery, at Connecticut Farms, Nov. 16, 1802,
Mr. David Hetfield, a commissioner from the congregation of Rahway, appeared in Presbytery, requesting the instalment of M' Buckley Carle, as their Pastor, as soon as convenient. Whereupon, the Presbytery agreed to instal M' Carle, Pastor of the congregation of Rahway, on the 4th Tuesday of December, at 11 o clock A. M. Mr. Griffin to preach the sermon ; Doct Roe to preside; & M' Hillyer to give an exhortation to the people.
He was accordingly installed, Dec. 2Sth, and Mr. Griffin preached from 1 Tim. iv: 16. Rev. Dr. Roe and Messrs. Hillyer, Woodruff, Griffin, Force, and Thompson, with the
* Ms. Records of the Presb. of N. Y., Vol IV. 123-4.
t Records of Presb., IV. 185-6; 237, 242, 3, 810. Sprague's Annals, IV. 95-9. Chapman Family, pp. 108, 9.
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THE HISTORY OF
Elders, David D. Crane, Abiathar Dodd, John Wood, Ben- jamin Corey and Jacob Davis were present .*
He was born in 1770, and in 1799 became the pastor of the Presbyterian church of Pittsgrove, N. J. Of the place of his birth and education, no information has been obtained. Soon after his settlement here he was subjected to a sore bereavement. A monument in the grave-yard has the fol- lowing inscription :
Sacred to the memory of Mrs. Naomi Carll, wife of the revd Buckley Carll, who deceased 28 August, 1804, in the 35 year of her age. Her heaven born examples as a loving wife, a faithful and endearing friend, and an eminent christian, all combined to render her an honour to her sex, a blessing to her partner, and in her death much lamented by him and the people of his charge.t
He was dismissed in 1825, " broken down by disease," and returned to the neighborhood of his former charge, where, 4 miles from Deerfield, N. J., he purchased a farm, on which he resided until a short period of his decease. He died at Deerfield, May 22, 1849, in his 80th year, and was buried at Pittsgrove. His second wife, Abigail, survived him, and now resides at Bridgeton, N. J.#
UNION.
A still further reduction of the town area was effected, by an Act of the Legislature, Nov. 23, 1808 :
Whereas a number of the inhabitants of the said borough of Elizabeth have by their petition set forth, that they find themselves much injured by being as they are at present a part of the borough of Elizabeth, and as such obliged to furnish their quotas of jurymen four times in a year to attend the mayor's court, where but little business is done and in which they are seldom interested ; and also being compelled from time to time by taxation to pay money for the building and repairing their court-house, without being in the least exonerated thereby from their services or ex- penses as it respects the county ; For remedy whereof,
Be it enacted by the council and general assembly of this state, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That all that part of the borough of Elizabeth lying within the following bounds, to wit-Begin-
* Records of Presb., IV. 296, 304, 5. t Alden's Epitaphs.
# Ms. Letters of Rev. R. H. Davis.
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ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.
ning at a fork in the road leading from the dwelling-house of Benjamin Mulford past the house of Robert Clark to Crane's Mills, and in the line of the township of Rahway; thence up the road leading past the said Benjamin Mulford, and the dwelling-house of William Crane, esquire, until it strikes a road running a northerly course from the dwelling-house of Oliver Crane ; thence up the said road until it strikes the mouth of the road leading from James Crane's to Stephen Crane's tavern ; thence in a direct line to a bridge commonly known by the name of Trotter's bridge ; thence on a direct line to the mouth of the road leading from the main road which leads from Elizabeth-town to Newark, and near the dwelling- house of John Pierson ; thence up the said road past the house of Lewis Mulford, to the fork of the road leading to Lyons Farms meeting house, and the road leading to Newark, past the house of Capt. Obadiah Meeker ; and from thence in a direct course until it strikes the line which separates the township of Newark from the borough of Elizabeth, near Dividend hill; thence up the Newark line until it strikes the line of the township of Orange ; thence along the Orange line until it strikes the line of the township of Springfield ; thence along the line of the township of Spring- field until it strikes the township of Rahway; thence along the line of the said township of Rahway to the place of beginning; shall be and hereby is set off from the borough of Elizabeth, and erected into a sepa- rate township to be known and called by the name of "The township of Union." *
At an early period of the settlement of the town, a number of families were attracted to the neighborhood, since known as " Connecticut Farms." They belonged mostly to the sec- ond or third generation in descent from the old planters ; particularly the Bonnell, Meeker, Crane, Wade, Headley and Townley families, and the Potter family of Newark. By whom the name was given to the locality cannot now be de- termined-possibly by the Wades, who came directly from Connecticut.
For a long period, the people of this neighborhood traveled their four or five miles every Sabbath-day and back again, to worship with their fathers in the old church where Harri- man and Dickinson proclaimed the doctrines of the cross. About the year 1730, possibly a few years earlier, they were organized into a separate religious society. No record has been preserved of the formation of their church. Every- thing of a documentary character pertaining to the carly his-
* Bloomfield's Laws of N. Jersey, pp. 193-201.
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THE HISTORY OF
tory of the congregation must have perished in the disastrous conflagration kindled by the torch of the ruthless invader, June 7, 1780, in which the church and parsonage were both consumed. Their first pastor was the
REV. SIMON HORTON.
He was born at Southold * (L. I.), N. Y., March 30, 1711. The Hortons were among the first settlers of the " East End " of Long Island. Barnabas, Jonathan, Joshua, Caleb and Benjamin Horton were all residents and landholders at Southold, in 1675, and in 1683; Jonathan, at the latter date, being the richest man in the town, and one of its overseers. One of them was the father of Simon and Azariah. Their mother was Elizabeth Grover, a daughter of Simon Grover, also a resident of Southold, for whom Simon was named. The latter was educated at New Haven, where he graduated in 1731, a classmate of Peter Van Brugh Livingston, the year before James Davenport graduated. With whom he studied for the ministry does not appear ; probably with his pastor, Rev. Benjamin Woolsey. He was bred a Congregationalist, but, his steps having been providentially directed hither, he was ordained, sometime between Sept. 1734, and Sept. 1735, by the newly-erected Presbytery of East Jersey, and installed the first pastor of the newly-organized Presbyterian church of Connecticut Farms. It is said, that the family had re- moved, in 1727, to East Jersey. This statement, however, needs confirmation.
The congregation to which Mr. Horton ministered was scattered over a considerable territory. The families that settled at the foot of the mountain, in what has since been called Springfield, found it most convenient to attach them- selves to his parish. Possibly his ministrations extended up the Passaic Valley among the "Turkey " people, until, in 1737-8, they were organized into a separate church. No records remain of his ministry here. His compensation must have been quite small, and, like most of his brethren, at this
* Webster is certainly wrong in saying that he was born "in Boston." It is certain, as Hedges and Prime affirm, that his brother Azariah was " a native of Southold."
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ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.
period, a part of his time must have been occupied in the cultivation of the soil. His attendance at the annual meet- ing of the Synod was quite infrequent, his name ordinarily appearing among the absentees. In 1742, the church was represented in the Synod for the first time, by the Elder, Timothy Whitehead, who united with his pastor and a few others, in protesting against the summary excision of certain members of the Presbytery of New Brunswick in 1741.
His ministry here terminated in 1746, when he accepted a call to the pastorate of the Presbyterian church of Newtown, L. I. He continued in the active duties of his calling until 1772, when he resigned his charge and remained in retire- ment until his decease, which occurred at the residence of his son-in-law, Judge Benjamin Coe, in Newtown, May S, 1786, æt. 75. "He was a man of unquestioned piety, and always sustained a good character and standing." He " was of a middle size ; and of a solemn deportment." *
The Farms church remained vacant for about two years, from 1746 to 1748, during which time the mother church at E. Town was deprived of their pastor by death, as before re- lated. The Rev. Timothy Symmes became the pastor of the united churches of Springfield and New-Providence, about the time of Mr. Horton's removal, and, probably, was occa- sionally employed at the "Farms." Their second pastor was
REV. JAMES DAVENPORT.
In the absence of the Presbyterial Records of this period, it cannot now be determined at what precise time, Mr. Davenport began to labor here in the ministry. He was re- ceived as a member of the Presbytery of New Brunswick, Sep. 22, 1746, and may have been laboring, for some time previously, within their bounds. He was dismissed, in 1748, to unite with the Presbytery of New York, " with a view to settle at Connecticut Farms, near Elizabeth Town." Rev. Jonathan Edwards, of Northampton, Mass., writes May 23, 1749,-" I had a letter from Mr. Davenport, (who is settled
" Prime's L. Island, pp. 804-5. Riker's Newtown, p. 229. Webster's Presb. Chh., p. 433. Records of P. Chh., p. 161.
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THE HISTORY OF
now as a minister over a congregation belonging to Elizabeth- town, in New Jersey,) dated April 1, 1749." In Gillies' Ex- hortations, (I. 156), a letter from Mr. Davenport is published, dated, "Elizabeth Town May 1749." These are the only evidences, now extant, of Mr. Davenport's ministry at Con- necticut Farms, so far as has been discovered. They are enough to settle the question, that in the years 1748, and 1749, he was " settled " over this church as their minister.
He was, at the time, in feeble health, and appears to have removed in the latter part of 1749, or early in 1750. At the Synod, held at Maidenhead, N. J., May 18, 1749, the record was made, " Mr. Davenport is appointed, if he recovers a' good state of health, to go and supply in Virginia." The appointment, not having been fulfilled, was renewed the fol- lowing year, May 16, 1750. He set out on this mission, May 21st, and, at the expiration of four months, he returned, and took up his abode at Hopewell, N. J. He could not, therefore, have resided here more than two years. His stay was shortened, probably, by his feebleness of health.
It is not necessary to give, in this connection, the particu- lars of the life and labors of this eccentric minister, of whom so much has been written, for and against. The merest out- line must suffice. A great grandson of the Rev. John Daven- port, of New Haven, Ct., and a son of the Rev. John, of Stamford, Ct., he was born at Stamford in 1710, and gradu- ated at Yale College in 1732. He was ordained pastor of the church of Southold, L. I., Oct. 26, 1738. In 1740, he entered upon an itinerant course, which, with brief intervals of rest at home, he continued, during the period of the " Great Awakening," for nearly four years. While his preaching was blest to the awakening and conversion of very many souls, the irregularities and extravagances, bordering on fanaticism, in which he indulged, were the occasion of great disorders, divisions and delusions, over which he himself, when brought to see his error, in 1744, wept bitterly with humiliation, shame and grief. Leaving Southold, in 1745, he came to New Jersey. On his return from Virginia, as related above, he preached awhile to feeble congregations,
639
ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.
until he was installed, Oct. 22, 1754, pastor of the New Side church of Hopewell and Maidenhead, N. J. Here he con- tinued until his death, Nov. 10, 1757, at. 47. Appended to the notice of his death on his tomb-stone, are the following lines :
Oh Davenport, a seraph once in clay, A brighter seraph now in Heavenly day. How glowed thy heart with sacred love and zeal, How like to that thy kindred angels feel. Cloth'd in humility thy virtues shone, In every eye illustrious but thine own.
How like thy Master on whose friendly breast Thou oft has leaned and shalt forever rest .*
The third pastor of the church of Connecticut Farms was
REV. DANIEL THANE.
He was a native of Scotland, it is said, and studied awhile at Aberdeen. Emigrating to this country, he completed his studies in connection with the newly-chartered college of New Jersey, graduating in the first class of alumni, at New- ark, in 1748. A portion of the year previous he must have spent in this town, under the instruction of President Dick- inson and Tutor Caleb Smith. It is probable that he studied theology with Mr. Burr, of Newark, and was taken under the care of the Presbytery of New York, and in due time licensed to preach. Having made trial of his gifts among the people of Conn. Farms, and received a call to be their pastor, he was ordained and installed by the Presbytery of New York, August 29, 1750. The youthful and graceful Thomas Arthur, of New Brunswick, N. J. (who died Feb. 2d, following, æt. 27), preached the sermon, and Rev. Caleb Smith, of Newark Mountains, delivered the charge. The sermon and charge were issued from the press.
No memorial of his ministry here has been preserved, so far as known. He was a regular attendant on the meetings of the Synod, by whom, in 1754, he was sent on a three
* Edwards' Works, I. 279, 9. Records of P. Chh., pp. 238, 240. Tracy's Great Awaken- ing, pp. 230-255. Webster's Presb. Chh., pp. 531-545. Sprague's Annals, III. 80-92. Prime's Long Island, pp. 146-9.
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THE HISTORY OF
months' tour to the destitute settlements in Virginia and North Carolina. He continued in the pastorate of the Farms' church until 1757. He had been "disannexed from the Presbytery of New York," previous to May, 1758, soon after which date, he united with the Presbytery of Newcastle, and became the pastor of the united churches of Newcastle and Christina Bridge, remaining in this connection only until 1763. It is thought that he died in 1764. But Dr. Hosack says, that De Witt Clinton, who was born in 1769, was under the tuition of Mr. Thane, he being, at the time, the minister of New Windsor, Orange Co., N. Y., where Clinton was born. It is quite certain that Mr. Thane's name disappears from the Minutes of the Synod after 1763 .*
The fourth pastor of the Farms' church was the
REV. JOHN DARBY.
He was, probably, a son, or grandson, of William Darbie, of this town, mentioned on p. 255; was born about 1725; graduated at Yale College in 1748, was licensed, by the Presbytery of Suffolk, L. I., in April, 1749, and appointed to preach at Lower Aquebogue and Mattituck, remaining in this service for two years. For the next six years and more, he supplied other congregations on the Island, when he was ordained, by the same Presbytery, Nov. 10, 1757, as an evangelist, at Oyster-Ponds [Orient]. His ministry at C. Farms commenced in 1758, and continued about two years. In 1772, he withdrew from the Presbytery of New York, and connected himself with the Presbytery of Morris County.
After leaving the Farms, he settled at Parsippany, Morris Co., where he not only preached the gospel, but practised medicine, having acquired a medical education. As such he made himself quite useful during the revolutionary war. He received the degree of M. D., from Dartmouth College in 1782, and died, Dec. 1805, 90 years old. He was twice married. By his first wife, he had one son and two daughters. Of these two, the eldest, Hester, married a British officer named Fox. His second wife was Hester White Huntting,
* Webster's Presb. Chh., pp. 504, 582, 6. Records of Presb. Chh., pp. 260, 289.
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ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.
a widow of East Hampton, L. I. They had one son, Henry White Derby, M. D. (of Parsippany, who died, Dec. 6, 1806, æt. 46), and two daughters, Helen (the wife of Gen. O'Hara), and Lucinda (the wife of Christian De Wint) .*
How the pulpit was supplied the next five or six years not even tradition informs us. In the winter of 1765-6, the
REV. BENJAMIN HAIT,
lately dismissed from Amwell, N. J., received and accepted a call to this church. He was a native of Norwalk, Ct., and a descendant of Walter Haite [Hayte, Hoit, Hoyt], the father of all the Haights and Hoyts of that vicinity. His imme- diate parentage cannot now be given. His collegiate days were passed at Newark, under the instruction of President Burr, of the College of N. Jersey, where he graduated in 1754. He was regarded by Davies, whom he accompanied to New York, as "a promising young man." He was licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, October 25, 1754, four weeks after his graduation. In the Princeton Triennial, he is called "Hoit," as the name " was uniformly pronounced." He began his ministry at the Forks of Dela- ware [Easton], Pa. In November, 1755, he received a call from the Presbyterian church of Amwell, Hunterdon Co., N. J., where he was ordained and installed, by the same Presbytery, Dec. 4, 1755. In May, 1765, he closed his ministry at Amwell, and, the next winter, came to Connecti- cut Farms. His ministry here, from the beginning, was in troublous times, and terminated by his death, June 27, 1779. His widow, " A. Hoit," was living at the Farms, at the time of the British invasion, June 6, 1780, when the church and village were burned, and Mrs. Caldwell was murdered. (A short letter, that she wrote on the occasion, is preserved in Sedgwick's Livingston, p. 353.) Their son, James Jauncey (born, 1770, a merchant of Schenectady), married Mary, a daughter of Rev. Jonathan Edwards, D. D., of Schenectady, and died, Sep. 30, 1812, at Colebrook, Ct., three of his five children surviving him.
* Rec. of P. Chh., p. 437, Prime's Long Island, p. 151. Clark's Med. Men of N. J., pp. 7, 8
41
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Mr. Hait was the Moderator, in 1775, of the Synod of N. York and Phila., and, as such, his name was attached to the famous "Pastoral Letter " on the State of the Country, copies of which were circulated among the Lords and Com- mons at London, in Jan., 1776,*
The loss of their house of worship, and of many of their own houses, by the torch of the ruthless invader, left the congregation feeble and depressed. After the decease of Mr. Hait, Mr. Noble Everett, a Licentiate of Litchfield Association, was employed during the latter half of 1779, and the winter following. But, for the next eight years, the people were mainly dependent on the Presbytery for sup- plies. At their meeting, in Morris Town, May 7, 1783, the following record was made :-
A Petition from the congregation of Connecticut Farms for the assis- tance of presbytery in building a meeting-house, was brought in & read. The presbytery advise that congregation to send proper persons to the respective congregations under their care to solicit benefactions for the above purpose ; and recommend it to the ministers & elders of each of those congregations to take such methods as they shall think most proper to promote this benevolent design.
No other record remains of the rebuilding of their church. It was, probably, accomplished in the course of a year or two from this date. At different times, their pulpit was supplied for a season, by Messrs. Alexander Miller, Lemuel Fordham, and Aaron Condict. A call was given, in October, 1788, to Mr. Peter Fish, one of the Licentiates of the Presby- tery of New York and accepted. +
REV. PETER FISH
was born, Nov. 23, 1751, at Newtown, L. I. He was the son of Nathaniel Fish and Jane Berrien. His father was the great-grandson of Jonathan Fish, one of the early settlers of Newtown. Peter "was an Abijah from his youth." His conversion occurred in 1764, in connection with the preach- ing of Mr. Whitefield. He studied for the ministry at Princeton, and graduated in 1774. His feebleness of health,
* Records of Presb. Chh., pp. 462, 466-9. Hall's Norwalk, pp. 17, 19, 23. Hoyt Family Meeting, pp. 40, 42. Webster's Presb. Chh., p. 667.
t Ms. Records of the Presb. of N. York, II. 10, 40-1. III. S.
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ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.
(continuing through life) greatly obstructed him in his further studies. He was licensed to preach, in May, 1779, by the Presbytery of New York. IIe continued to reside at New- town for several years, supplying vacancies, as occasion offered. In May, 1781, he was sent on a mission to the southern part of New Jersey. The following year, he was appointed to supply Hardiston and vicinity, N. J., and, later in the year, New Hempstead, L. I. He preached, after this at Newtown, his native place, until the autumn of 178S. He married, June 30, 1785, Hannah (born, 1759), daughter of Kenneth Hankinson, of Frechold, N. J.
Having accepted the call, he removed to Connecticut Farms, in November, 1788. The ordination and instal- lation took place, March 25, 1789. Dr. Alex. Mc Whorter, of Newark, preached the sermon from Acts xx: 28, first clause ; Mr. Jonathan Elmer, of New Providence, presided and gave the charge to the minister; and Mr. Benjamin Woodruff, of Westfield, " gave an exhortation to the people." The other ministers present were, Dr. Rodgers, of New York, Mr. Aaron Richards, of Rahway, Mr. Azel Roe, of Wood- bridge, and Mr. David Austin of Elizabeth Town.
No particulars of his ministry have been preserved, during the ten years that he continued here. The records of the Presbytery show, that he was punctual in his attendance on its sessions, and ready to bear his part of its burdens of service. He represented the Presbytery in the General Assembly that met at Carlisle, Pa., in 1792, and again, at Philadelphia, in 1796. In May and June 1798, he visited " some of the frontier settlements in the state of New York," whither, the following year, he determined to remove. He was dismissed by the Presbytery, April 17, 1799, and soon after located at Trenton, in Oneida Co., N. Y., where he was visited, in August, 1802, by the Rev. John Taylor, then of Deerfield, Mass., who speaks of him, as
A gent. who was once settled in Connecticut Farms in New Jersey, and is now employed part of the time by the people of this town; and the remainder of the time rides as a missionary-a sensible, judicious man -and appears to be doing great good-and has but a poor reward.
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In the spring of 1807, owing to the failure of his health, he returned to Newtown, L. I., where he resided until his death, Nov. 12, 1810, having for a few months previously supplied their pulpit. His wife died, June 12, 1824. Their children were Thomas Fletcher, of Newburgh, N. Y. ; Kenneth Han- kinson ; Rev. John Berrien, of Sidney Plains, N. Y .; Na- thaniel ; Elizabeth Ann ; Jane Eleanor (married to Sylvester Roe) ; and Susan Maria (married to John L. Van Doren) .*
Very shortly after the removal of Mr. Fish, a call was given to the
REV. SAMUEL SMITH.
He was born in 1769, probably in New York. At the close of the Revolutionary War, he entered Columbia Col- lege, and graduated, April 11, 1786, in the first class, after the reconstruction of the college. De Witt Clinton, and two of the Livingstons were his classmates. He studied Theology with Rev. John H. Livingston, D.D., of New York, and Rev. Eilardus Westerlo, of Albany, N. Y. He was licensed, Oct. 7, 1789, to preach the gospel. A call having been presented to him from the R. Dutch church of Saratoga [Schuylerville], his ordination took place shortly after. He continued in this connection, more than ten years.
He was dismissed June 6, 1800, admitted to the Presby- tery of New York, Aug. 13, 1800, and installed at Ct. Farms, on Tuesday, Oct. 7th, at 2 o'clock P. M. Dr. McKnight, of New York, preached the sermon from Matt. 5 : 13, first clause ; Dr. Macwhorter, of Newark, presided and gave the charge to the minister ; and Mr. Hillyer gave the exhortation to the people.
At the ordination (two months later) of Mr. Kollock, as pastor of the first church in this town, Mr. Smith gave the exhortation to the people. At the meeting of the Presbytery in Woodbridge, Oct. 6, 1801, they were informed "that Mr. Smith, in consequence of his extreme illness, would not be able to attend on the present sessions of the Presbytery."
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