History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II, Part 18

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 830

USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II > Part 18
USA > New Jersey > Essex County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II > Part 18

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The records of the Newark Church and those of this church also, it is said, perished in the flames or were lost in the time of the Revolution. But in a parcel of old deeds and other papers preserved by the trusters of this church is a deed for twenty acres of land from Thomas Gardner to "Saumel Freeman, Samuel Pierson, Matthew Williams and Samuel Wheeler, and the Society at the Mountain associated with them," which bears date Jan. 13, 1719. As the year began then on the 25th of March, January followed October in the calendar. The deed was therefore given about three months after Mr. Webb's ordination and settlement in Newark. This coincidence taken in connection with the previous history of the old society at Newark, and with the well established fart of the Congregational form of government of the Mountain Society, until after the death of its first minister, affords presumptive evidence of the opinion expressed above, that the change which took place in Newark, stimulated the new movement at the moun- tain.

The deed of Mr. Gardner was given in "the sixth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord, George, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ire- land, King, defender of the faith," etc., the deed informs us was sold " for divers good causes and ron- siderations, me thereunto moving, but more especially for and in consideration of the sum of £25 current money of New York." It was " to be and remain for the use and benefit of a dissenting ' ministry, such as shall be called to that work by the grantees before named, and their associates from time to time." The

1 Su called by English usage till the colonies became independent.

land is described as " scituate, lying and being in the bounds and limits of Newark, aforesaid, on the east side of a brook commonly called and known by the name of Parow's Brook .? Beginning at said brook, near a bridge by the road that leads to the moon- tain ; thence running easterly as the road runs, so far as that a southwesterly line crosses the said lot lit being twelve chains in breadth) shall inchide twenty acres of land, English measure; bounded southerly with Joseph Harrison, westerly with said Parow's Brook, northerly with said mountain road, and cast- erly with my own land." This locates the land cast of the present Willow Hall, south of and including the present park between the Mansion House und Park Honse.

FIRST CHURCH EDIFICE .- In 1720 ground was pur- chased of Sammel Wheeler on which to erect a house of worship. This again favors the supposition of a recent organization, and Dr. Stearns places the event "in or about the year 1718,"'s as a congregation wa- doubtless collected at the mountain by that time, and vet it seems scarcely probable that the church had existed two years before steps were taken to build a sanctuary. With such light as the above facts give. there is no doubt the society took organie form some time during the year 1719.

A meeting-house, which was the central object of interest in every e omunity of Puritans, was the next demand. The site selected for it was on the highway, in the middle of what is now Main Street, between Day and Centre Streets, There ure men still living in Orange who remember distinctly the location, and how the road-bed parted, and lay on either side of the old church, and united again on beyond. Who the architect was is not known, neither have the par- tieulars of the contract been preserved.

The mountain congregation, however, was not en- tirely dependent upon the old society, for Samuel Pierson was a carpenter by trade, and his sons. Joseph, Samuel, James, David and Caleb, all of whom lived to man's estate, and were subsequently identi- fied with the interests of the church, and prominent in township affairs, very likely knew something of the trade.

It is surmised that the pioncer sanctuary went up under the supervision of the eller Pierson, though the use of the broad-ax, saw and auger may have been left to younger hands. Doubtless there were others of the craft connected with the building, and many a right hand lent its cunning, while many a rough hand, accustomed more to the labor- of forest and fiehl than to those of the carpenter's bench, lent to the enterprise its manly strength. By whom the pioneer edifice was dedicated is not known, but it is probable that Mr. Webb, of the old society, was

Named from Porto, one of the Indicas who negotiated in the sale ! the lands. ʻ

3 On the authority of Dir Har Wurter

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

among the ministers present, for tender ties yet ex- isted between him and the separated portion of his flock.1

It is much more easy to guess who were some of those who occupied the pews. There was probably Anthony Olitf, or Olive, if not too infirm to attend, and probably the oldest man in the society, eighty- live or more years of age. There was also Nathaniel Wheeler, who had passed his fourscore years, and Matthew Williams, aged about seventy, and proh- ably Azariah Crane, a veteran of seventy-four, and many others.

lligh up in a little pulpit, with sounding-board above, sat the minister of the day. And in his place, a personage not to be overlooked, stood the precentor, to line out the psalm which the minister had read, and lead the congregation in the solemn service of song.

Time has brought with it many changes not affect- ing the spirit and benefit of religious worship, and among other things, a change in church polity. The Mountain Society, however, had maintained its inde- pendent relations now for about thirty years. But the influences that caused the independent movement resulting in the organization of this church were now yielding to others. The generation of its founders was passing away, and new circumstances produced new views. Either before or in connection with the acquaintance made with Rev. Caleb Smith, who came to them in 1747-48 as their pastor, the church re- solved to conform to the prevailing type of ecclesias- tical order in the province, which had by this time become almost entirely Presbyterian in form and church government.

SECOND MEETING-HOUSE .- Through all theadverse influences under which the Mountain Society had passed it yet showed signs of prosperity, and Rev. Caleb Smith, their second pastor, had been with then but a very few years when the erection of a new and better place of worship was undertaken. The follow- ing contract refers to the finishing of the house the year after its erection :

" Articles of Agreement entered into this 13th day of March, 1754. between the Committee of the Society of Newark Moutain, regularly " bowen to manage in the affair of building a new meeting-house in said Merciety, hy came, -Samuel Harrimm, Samuel Freeman, Joseph Har- rima, Stephen Dod, David Williams, Sunel Condict, Wilham Crane and Joseph kigge on the war party, and Mous Baldwin on the other party , whereas the said committee have Fargunned and agreed with the avid Baldwin perfectly to finish the wild meeting-house, excepting the mason-work, which now remains to be done to the salle , which articles of agreement uro, as to the mont cultsiderable particulars, as follows :

" I. The said Baldwin shall faithfully and honestly huish the sand hou in the general, after the model of the meeting-have in Newark

1 A " beam out of the timber " yet retnalus of the ancient edifer, but It is silent when questioned relative to the scenes and persons of that distant day This relic of the first meeting-house is in the frame of Mr. - Harrison'n barn, on Valley road. It Ja a heavy erves-henin et white-ouk, worked dowo a Ittle from its original size, and having a line of mortiers for study. The post that supports it at the cost and was alone a post In the old meeting-house The barn, or that part of it, was built by Samuel Harrits. The beam has answered and Inquiry for the writer, siz. : that the old meeting-house was a frame, not a log, building.

. 2. The said Baldwin shall find all the material for hnishing the onid house, such as timbers, bounds, sleepers, glass, vil and paints, nails, hinges, locks, latches, bolts, with all other kinds of material necessary for finishing the said house after the model uforessid. excepting the materials for the mason-work.

"3. He shall ceil the arch ends alove the plate and under the gal- lerive, with whitewood boards, and just the same well with a light sky color.

" 4. That he shall take the desk of the old pulpit and so new nualel it that it shall be proportionalle to the rest of the work, and that the rest of the guin-work he as the house in Newark, and oiled.

"5. That he shall make six pews, otr on each side of the pulpit, and two on the right and two on the left, fronting the pulpit, with doors and hingrs.

"6. That he shall make shutters for the lower tier of windows, painted bine and white.

"". That he shall at all the glass, and paint the swhes, and put springs in the same to prevent their falling,

"8. That he shall make a row of pews in the front gallery, next the RAll.

"9. That the maid committee shull pay to the said Baldwin for finish- ing the said meeting-house, as above mentioned, providedl he completes it by the first day of Derember next, the sum of two hundred and forty ponads current money of this province, the payments to be as ful- low4, viz, -that he shall be paid forty pounds upum demand, one hun- dred pounds more upon the first day of December next, Rad the last hundred pounds upon this day twelve months.

" 10. That the said Baldwin shall etdoy any of the joiurns belong- ing in this society for so long a time as they shall chose to work, until they have paid what they shall freely give to the suid meeting-house, and that he shall allow them four and six pence per day.

" 11. That the said Baldwin shall have whatever be can get out of the old meeting-house that he shall work up into the new, together with all hooks, and hinges, and locks.

" All which articles we whose names are ahove written do promise and olilige ourselves faithfully to perform and fulfil. Iu withres whereuf we linve berrunto interchangeably set our hands the day and year uluwe written. " 2

" SAMUEL HARRISON. " SAMTEL FREEMAN, " JOSEPH HARRISON, " STEPHEN DUD, " DAVID WILLIAMS, " SAMUEL L'ONDIT, "' WILLIAM ('RA34, "+ JOSEPH RIGGS. " MOSES BALDWIN. "

By the autumn or, at farthest, the winter of 1754, the then new house of worship was ready for occu- paney. It was built of stone, and was more for en- durance than architectural beauty, and stood in the middle of Main Street about midway between the present church edifice and the store of N. & G. Lindsey.

THE PARISH INCORPORATED AND NAMING THE CHURCH .- During the pastorate of Rev. Jedediah Chapman, and more than sixty years after the organiza- tion of the church, measures were taken to incorporate the parish, its property previously having been held in trust by private individuals for the benefit of the congregation. At a session of the State Legislature, I then held in Burlington, an act passed June 11, 1783, incorporating Joseph Riggs, Exq., John Range, Dr. Matthias Pierson, Stephen Harrison, Jr., Samuel Pierson, Jr., Samuel Dodd and John Dodd a board of trustees, the church now receiving the name of " The Second Presbyterian Church of Newark." Their tenure of office was perpetual, and in case

2 The original Is prewervel by 8. 11. Congar's heirs.

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CITY OF ORANGE.

of vacancies by death or removal, the power of He felt that a new and larger church edifice, one that appointing their successors was conferred upon the " minister or ministers, elders and deacons of the church." The power also extended to the dis placement of a trustee, whenever the said ministers, elders and deacons, or a majority of them, should judge his removal proper and for the benefit of the corporation. The trustees were required to be persons of the congregation, and the number was limited by law to seven.

TRUSTEES' OATH OF OFFICE. Each trustee, in as- sumuing office, took the following oath :

"] I do estumply swear I do not hold my self bound to bear alle giance lo the King of Great Britain

"2. 1 do solemnly profes and swear that I do and will bear true f ith and allegiance to the Government established in this state, under the authority of the people.

"3. An oath to execute well and truly the duty of a trustee, agreealdy to the true intent and nwaning of the Charter "

The charter required these paths to be taken and subscribed by "each and every of the trustees herein appointed and their successors," agreeably to " an Act for the security of the Government of New Jersey," passed Sept. 19, 1776.

The trustees being duly qualified before John Peck, Esq., at the parsonage house Sept. 22, 1743, organized by appointing Joseph Riges president, and John Range clerk. Mr. Riggs moved to New York the same autumn, when Jonathan Hodden was elected his successor.

The leading features of the charter were not in har- mony with the spirit of the times, and the Legisla- ture, agreeably to a petition of the congregation, so amended it, June 3, 1790, as to make "all regular supporters of the gospel in said congregation " eleetors in the appointment of trustees. The elections were to be held annually on the second Thursday of April by a plurality of voices, 1

CHANGING NAME OF CHURCH .-- By the division of the township of Newark in 1 s06, and the formation of the township of Orange, it became necessary for the church to change its corporate name, and in 1811 application was made to the State Legislature, when the name and title was changed from the Second Presbyterian Church of Newark to the First Presby- terian tChurch of Orange, which name it still bears.

would better accommodate the people, was sadly need- ed. Time and the progress of population had created what seemed to him a necessity for this. He made the proposition to his people, when some approved, some objected, some thought it feasible, while some thought it impossible. He asked certain persons of the latter class if they would favor the undertaking, provided he would secure the subscription of a cer- tain sum of money, which he named. Of course the answer to such a query was in the atlirmative. Hle started mt with his paper on Monday morning, and by the close of the week had procured double the amount specified, Mr. Jared Harrison opening the subscription list with five hundred dollars, when a laudable emulation was awakened, and those who refused donations stood ready to purchase pews. The thought once fairly before the people, kindled desire, and desire led to action.

At a parish-meeting held in May, 1811, the trusters were authorized to purchase a half-acre of land for a site, lying on the north side of the road, and it was purchased of Stephen D. Day for the sum of four hundred dollars, the site now occupied by the church. The next year the work began under the direction of the trustees, assisted by a building committee. It was voted by the parish that the front and sides of the new edifice should be built of dressed stone, the rear of undressed. The trustees employed an archi- teet, Moses Dodd, and proceeded with the work, many members of the parish preferring to turn in their labor on subscription account. As near as can be ascertained, the corner-stone was laid Sept. 15, 1812. At a meeting of the parish in April, 1513, it was voted to take down the old meeting-house and use the material in the construction of the new. The stone tablet over the door of the old building was trans- ferred to the inside of the tower of the new, where it remains to the present time. The size of the new builling is sixty-three by ninety feet, including the convexity of four or five feet in the rear wall, but not including the projection of the tower in front, of four feet. The walls are thirty-six feet from ground to root, and the tower, eighteen and a half feet wide was carried to the top of the building, and finished in 1814 by Mr. Dould, the architect, at an extra cost of two thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars. The church

THE PRESENT CHURCH EDIFICE Bru.r .- During the pastorate of Rev. Mr. Hillyer the present beautiful and substantial church edifice was erected. Mr. was dedicated, as nearly as can be ascertained, in De- lillyer had been with this people about ten years, when he had become so popular in his ministrations and occupying the only pulpit then in the Oranges, his congregations were naturally large, filling the old stone meeting-house to overflowing. Mr. Hillyer, no doubt, saw the difficulty standing in the way of greater usefulness, and resolved in his own mind to remedy the evil, provided his parishioners coincided with him.

cember, 1813, Mr. Hillyer preaching the sermon from tien. xxviii. 17. The cost of the edifice, including the steeple built in 1814, was thirty thousand seven hun- dred and fifty dollars. The parish in April, 1514, voted that the surplus money raised by the sale of pews in the new church remain in the hands of the trustees, to defray the expenses of finishing the house, purchasing a bell and chandeliers, and fencing the church lot. The fund at this time amounted to about six thousand dollars, the most of it secured by bond and mortgage.

I The time was changed In 1-29 to the tel day of January, and in this to the second Mouday in April.

755

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

PROPRIETARY LAND GRANTS. Among the in- ducements held out to the settlers by the proprietors of East Jersey was the offer of two hundred acres of land for the support of public worship in each parish. A warrant for the survey of two hundred acres and meadow for a parsonage was granted to the Newark settlers Oct. 23, 1676. The actual survey, however, does not appear to have been made till April 10, 1696. the town were separated, and new religious services were formed, these lands became a source of much contention. The Mountain Society and the Episco- pal Church (St. Mark's) demanded a division, claim- ing for themselves an equal share with the First Society, as they were a part of it when the land grant was made. The latter had the legal title to sustain it in claiming the whole. From 1760 onward for many years the subject was agitated in almost every town- meeting.

Votes were passed and then reseinded, as the oppo- site parties happened to be in the majority. In March, 1761, "at a very full and public town-meeting." it was "voted and agreed that the said lands, granted by said letters patent to lie for a parsonage be equally divided in quantity and quality, exclusive of the im- provements made thereon, among said three societies or congregations." Bethuel Pierson and five others were "appointed agents to divide and allot said lands to said societies, and to apply to the tłovernor, Coun- cil and General Assembly to confirm the same by law." In this committee, those who represented the old society refused to act, and the trustees of the society entered their protest on the record, thus frus- trating the measure and prolonging the strife.

In 1784 (Dr. Stearns, by authority of Dr. Mae Whor- ter, gives it 1786 or 1787)1 the animosity was quieted by a compromise, the new societies (First Presbyterian and St. Mark's, of Orange) receiving a dividend of the lands, but holding them under lease, as tenants- at-will. In May of that year a lease was given to the trustees of this parish for eighty-six acres and sixty hundredths of an aere.

THE OLD PARSONAGE .- If, when Samuel Harrison was writing the accounts of his fulling mill and saw mill, he could have foreknown what was yet to

" We And the abuse date (17+4), ' mayo Res Mr. Host, "in au orig. inal jasper preserved to the trustees of this garish, froin which, and other guyura in their pression, we gather also the following fits The leave given 'ch ir almont May 10, 1944, to be continued at will, was re- woked by the Newark trustees, acting under instructions from the society May 20, 17.7. this revising the controversy. In 1202 another can- Verynice was made, by love of Anymis au rea, lying between Newark and Orange, the ferun of the lease being that it should be renewed at the end of wach twenty-one years, forever, the leaves paying an annual rent of mixpen . if demanded. The lease was renewed in 123, which was the only title the uld society could give under the original grant. But having applied in 1825 to the Legislature for a Harlal ust enabling them to con- vey the land in fee-simple, such an act was jungel, and a cloud of the said fly-ix arres was given to the Orange Society, Aug. 29, 1826, which settled all land controversy between the win joties. The land, however, has long since reused to be the property of the parish."

be the historie value of a single leaf of his account- book; that after a hundred and fifty years the church records of that day would all be lost, the names of its officers lost, and all knowledge of the age and origin of the old parsonage lost, till the said ac- count-book should open its bronzed and tattered lips to reveal the interesting secrets; possibly that know- ledge would have secured for the volume a more In process of time, as the civil and religious affairs of | careful handling and a choicer place in his writing- desk. Beyond a doubt it would have put in exercise all his clerkly skill.

This Samuel Harrison was the second of that name in Newark, and a grandson of Sergt. Richard Harri- son. He exercised the quadruple functions of magis- trate, farmer, fuller and sawyer.

From the entries in his book we learn that in July, 1745, he was sawing "oke plank, give, sleepers" and other material, and also receiving sundry sums of money "on account of the parsonage." The money was received in sums ranging from a few shillings to near twenty pounds from David Ward, Jonathan Shores, David Williams, Thomas Williams, David Baldwin, Nathaniel Crane, Noah Crane, Azariah franc, Stephen Dod, John Dud, Elvazer Lamson, Gershom Williams, Ebenezer Farand, Peter Bosteda, William Crane, Jonathan Ward, Jonathan Sergeant, Samuel Cundit, Joseph Peck, Deacon Samuel Free- man, Bethuel Pierson, Thomas Lamson, Samuel Wheeler, Robert Baldwin and Joseph Jones,-a list of twenty-five names, representing, probably, the heads of families.

The old parsonage was not built upon the parson- age lands on the south side of the road (now Main Street), but upon a four-acre lot purchased of Mat- thew Williams, lying " on the north side of the high- way that leads to the mountain, near the house onee the Rev. Daniel Taylor's, late of Newark, deceased." It lay opposite the twenty acres previously owned by the parish, antt included the lot now owned and ot- cupied by Grace Episcopal Church. The deed was given Sept. 14, 1745, the price being "four pounds per aere, current money of New Jersey, at eight shillings per ounce."

The house was to be of stone, and while Harri- sull's saw mill was turning out "oke plank, gice." etc., the quarry was yielding solid material for the walls. Is spring came on Mr. Harrison's day-book received sundry charges (at the uniform rate of three shillings sixpence per day) for work done on the parsonage. May 3, 1719, was employed in "slaking lime." Another day was devoted to "topping up the chim- ney." The summer saw the work completed, and in September, 1749, the young minister, C'aleb Smith, and his young and beautiful wife were happily in- stalled in the new stone mansion, then one of the best houses this side of Newark.

That mansion was destined to have a long and eventful history. It was occupied about thirteen years by Rev. Mr. Smith, then several years by ten-

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CITY OF ORANGE.

ants, then thirty years by another pastor, and four- teen years by another pastor, and finally occupied as a tenement-house for about forty years before its de- molition.

What memories gathered around the oldl parsonage ! There were life's sweetest pleasures and its ten lerest joys. It beheld in turn the hymeneal joy and the mourner's anguish, the serene happiness of the fire- side, the enlm intellectual life, the steady flame of devotion ; all that is generous and grateful in the charities of the heart and the benefactions of the hand, had there a home. Many a kind token found a silent way to its kitchen, its wardrobes, and its library. Warm greetings were exchanged within its doors, and vigorous thoughts were born there. Well-beaten oil went from it to the candlestick of the sanctuary ; and there freedom found ever an advocate, if not al- ways a shelter, and in the days of the Revolution it wasa mark for British vengeance. But lle who guards and blesses the habitation of the just, preserved the old parsonage from the torch of war and the accidents of time till more than a century of years had rolled over it.

Sacred as were the associations which once had clustered round this ancient domicile, they had all been separated from it, or nearly so, by its Jatter uses, and nobody thought of expending upon it a sigh or a sor- row when its destruction took place. The destrue- tion of the edifice was not the destruction of the ma- terial, and it may be of interest to the people of Orange, as they step into Gosline's feed-store, in Willow Hall, or walk over the unnoticed bridge in front of it, that separates their feet from the waters of Parrow's Brook, to know their personal proximity to some of the endur- ing relies of the old parsonage. Asa "beam out of the timber" of the first meeting-house still remains to tell something of its substance, so more than one "stone out of the wall" of the good minister's home still en- dures, a not unfitting symbol of joys and affections which, like itself, have passed into other relations without ceasing to exist. The old parsonage having been purchased in 1854 by Albert Pierson, one hun- dred and five years after it was built, its " precious stones" (which, like the piety they once enshrined, were none " the worse for wear,") were set anew, some in improvements about Mr. Pierson's dwelling, some in the foundations of Willow Hall, and some in the bridge aver Parrow's Brook, while others have found a still more sacred use in Rosedale Cemetery, where there are " sermons in stones," if anywhere. It is likely they will long remain there, associated hence- forth with the solemn eloquence of the dend.

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History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II, Part 18

Author: Shaw, William H Publication date: 1884 Publisher: [United States :] Number of Pages: 830

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 830