History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1, Part 76

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 974

USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1 > Part 76

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In the fall following the organization of this class there was another revival in Freehold, and fifty or sixty persons-mostly young peo- ple-were converted. David Bartine was the senior preacher, and Thomas G. Stewart the junior preacher, on the circuit. Stewart prob- ably made his home in this neighborhood and conducted the revival meetings, for his name, and not Bartine's, is always associated with this revival. Some of these converts fell away, some removed from the neighborhood, some died, and a few remained faithful and were re- ceived into full membership.

Steven Lane, a resident of Freehold, and now in his seventy-ninth year, gives the follow- ing description of Stewart as he recollects him: "He was spirited, had a strong voice, and thundered when he preached. His sermon would melt the congregation to tears. He would pray as if heaven and earth were coming together. At the conclusion of his prayer,

William Strickland,

Thomson Clayton, Eleanor Voorhees, Elijah Patterson,

William Vanhorn, Samuel Throp, John Voorhees,

Jane Patterson, Enoch Sandford,

Amy Mathews, John C. Cunningham, Catharine Lob,

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

sometimes, he would not wait to go down the pulpit-stairs, but would jump from his knees right over the front of the pulpit into the altar, and go right to work with the penitents. The house was usually crowded; even the altar would be full, when he preached. It was at Blue Ball and Upper Squankum where I heard him preach. He was not a large man, about five feet eight or nine inches high, quick and nervous in action, a rapid speaker, but with a very clear utterance,-everybody could distin- guish what he said. He used plain and simple language. It was reported of him that he got bothered one day, while preaching at Long Branch, about the grammatical construction of a sentence, when he dashed it aside with the exclamation, 'I would not give the grace of God for all the grammar in the world,' and then went on with his discourse."

. At this time the whole of New Jersey was included within the bounds of the Philadelphia Conference, and Freehold Circuit covered the territory now included within the boundaries of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, together with one or two appointments in Middlesex County. The district was known as East Jersey District, and comprised all of the State north of Bur- lington County, except Sussex and Warren Counties, and including Staten Island. J. J. Matthias was presiding elder. The circuit preachers of Freehold Circuit during the year 1833 were James Long, Thomas G. Stewart and Mulford Day. James Moore, a supernu- merary, resided within the bounds of the cir- cuit, probably at Long Branch, for the next year, when that place became a separate charge, James Moore was there assigned.

Statistics of Freehold apart from the circuit, and no statistics in detail until after Middle- town Circuit was cut off from Freehold, in 1837. In the Conference Minutes for 1833, Freehold Circuit reported thirteen hundred and twelve white members and twenty-two colored mem- bers. The Conference collections for the circuit are reported at twenty-six dollars, and the whole Conference (including all of New Jersey and the richest part of Pennsylvania) contrib- uted only $2129.00 for missionary purposes.

At the Annual Conference of 1834, David

W. Bartine, Robert E. Morrison and William H. Gilder were received on trial, Francis A. Morrell was ordained a deacon, and J. Leonard Gilder, (1) Jefferson Lewis, John L. Lenhart

1 Mr. Gilder, in his semi-centennial sermon delivered be- fore the New York East Conference, April 2, 1879, thus de- scribes Freehold Circuit as he first knew it :

"In the spring of 1829, when but a beardless youth, seventeen years of age, I bade adieu to my father's house, in the city of Philadelphia, and, with my saddle-bags and my horse, took my solitary way to what was then known as Freehold Circuit, at that time one of the oldest and largest circuits in the State of New Jersey, the limits of which extended on the north from Little Washington to the Highlands, thence on the east to Squan, thence on the south to Freehold, thence on the west to Little Washington. It was a four weeks' circuit, with two preachers, a senior and a junior. It embraced twenty-eight preaching-places, the preachers alternating every two weeks. The appoint- ments were chiefly in private houses. There were but five meeting-houses on the circuit : at Cheesequakes, Rumson, Long Branch, Squan and Squankum. They were small, plain structures, in some instances unceiled, with unplaned boards for seats ; at evening service lighted with tallow candles. The largest and most pretentious was that at, Long Branch. A description of the meeting-house at Cheesequakes may not be devoid of interest. Erected in days of yore, to which the memory of no man living goeth back, it was constructed according to the most primitive style of Methodist Church architecture. It stood in the midst of a sand-field, one of the most God-forsaken spots of earth I ever saw, where neither bird, beast, reptile or insect could have extracted nutrition sufficient for the most ephemeral existence. The building was as unpolluted by paint with- in and without as when its timbers were growing in their native forest. A gallery extended around three sides. At the extreme end of the left gallery was a small room parti- tioned off for class-meetings. The pulpit was elevated about six feet above the floor, and in form resembled a large dry- goods box, the breast-work so high as almost to conceal the preacher, if small in stature, from view. From the pulpit extended a stair-case conducting to the class-room in the gallery, to which the preacher and the members repaired at the close of the public service. At the time I preached in it, being well ventilated, the swallows were tenants at will, and had literally found a nest for their young. It was in this meeting-house the renowned Benjamin Abbott was preaching, when a terrific thunder-storm arose, during which, with stentorian voice, he exclaimed, "Thunder, my Lord, outside, while I thunder within !" and men and wo- men all through the house suddenly fell, as though a frig- ate had poured a broadside of shot into the congregation. At the time of my labors on the circuit, Keyport was not in existence. Red Bank consisted simply of a few scattered houses. The same was true of South Amboy. Fre eholdt town, a small village, was inaccessible to the Methodists. The preaching-place was the house of Joseph Murphy, Esq., the tanner, then in the suburbs of the town. Where are now Asbury Park and Ocean Grove and Ocean Beach, with

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THE TOWN OF FREEHOLD.

(afterwards chaplain of the "Cumberland"), Wil- liam A. Wilmer, Joseph Ashbrook, Edmund S. Janes and Thomas G. Stewart received elders' orders.

At the same time Ezekiel Cooper (who en- tered the ministry in 1785), Daniel Fielder (1789), Thomas Morrell (1787), Thomas Ware (1784) and James Moore (1794), worn out in the service, took supernumerary relations. The veterans who were then retiring from active service were cotemporary with Wesley, Coke and Asbury, while we who are here to-day were many of us familiarly acquainted with Bartine, Morrison, the Gilders, Chaplain Len- hart and others, the new recruits then just join- ing the ranks. Indeed, there are some of us here who have touched hands with the veterans of 1834, and have thus bridged the century be- tween the children of this generation and the founder of Methodism,-John Wesley,-and the first bishops of the church in America,- Coke and Asbury.

Under Stewart's pastorate, and while he was holding meetings at the old academy, a revival broke out, which thirty years ago was still spo- ken of as a great revival. It probably extended to other parts of the circuit in this vicinity.

On the 2d of March, 1833, a meeting was held at the academy for the purpose of electing a board of trustees, preliminary to the erection of the first church building. At this meeting Rev. Thomas G. Stewart presided, and Alfred Hance was secretary. The following-named persons were elected : Joseph Murphy, Ralph Hulse, Enos R. Bartleson, Samuel Conover, Jacob Blakesley.

On the 30th of the same month they took and subscribed three several. oaths before Wil- liam Lloyd, a justice of the peace,-one to sup- port the Constitution of the United States, one

of true faith and allegiance to the State govern- ment, and the third to faithfully execute the trust of their office as "Trustees of the Meth- odist Episcopal Congregation of the Wesleyan Chapel in the Village of Freehold."1 The lot was purchased of Daniel Stillwell for the sum of one hundred and seven dollars. At that time this lot was out of town, and was located, probably, as a compromise between Freehold and Mount's Corner. The church building was erected and dedicated during the following year (1834); Rev. Edmund S. Janes, afterwards bishop, officiated at the dedicatory ceremonies.2 The building was an exceedingly plain one, thirty-five by forty feet square, standing with the gable-end to the street. There were two rows of small windows on each side, and on the front were three upper windows and one lower one (between the two doors). In the centre of the front, on a line with the eaves, was a small sign-board bearing the legend, in three lines of painted letters,-" Freehold M. E. Church." Inside, a gallery, supported by thick wooden columns, extended around three sides of the church. The aisles were narrow ; the floors, were bare ; it was warmed by two square wood-burning stoves, and was lighted with candles. The pulpit was a quaint struc- ture, after the style of the period, into which the preacher went by a short flight of stairs and shut himself in with a door. The cost of the building was twelve hundred dollars, and it was with much difficulty that the money was raised to pay for it.3

1 On the 19th of February, 1875, this title was formally changed to that of "The Freehold Methodist Episcopal Church."

2 Steven Lane was present at the laying of the corner- stone of the first building. A preacher from New York was to deliver the sermon on this occasion, but failed to come, and Stewart preached. Lane was also present at the dedication, and heard Mr. Janes preach.

3 Judge Murphy was fond of relating one of the efforts to clear off the debt. At a camp-meeting in the neighbor- borhood they opened a stand and sold refreshments, con- sisting of cakes and pies and home-made small beer. The barrel of beer soon gave out, but the demand for it was so great that they felt constrained to fill the barrel with molasses and water, flavored with ginger, and so continued to supply the demand, which, the weather being very warm, was unabated.

their teeming population, was a vast wilderness of sand and pine, the oppressive stillness unbroken save by the occa- sional report of the hunter's fowling-piece or the deep bass of the unquiet ocean.

" At Middletown Point, now Matawan, the preaching- place was the house of a Brother Walling, who, with his com- panion, extended the utmost hospitality to the preachers. The grateful remembrance of their personal attentions to my own needs and comfort the lapse of years has failed either to efface or diminish."

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

In 1834 the circuit preachers were James Long and J. N. Crane. Long died at Imlays- town, January 13, 1863, aged seventy-five years. Stewart died at Bordentown, January 24, 1848, aged fifty-eight years. Crane went to the New- ark Conference. At the Conference this year Long Branch was set off as a station, with John K. Shaw preacher in charge and James Moore as supernumerary. Moore died May 11, 1842. Shaw became presiding elder of the district in 1850 and died October 4, 1858.

In 1835, Edward Page was appointed circuit preacher, with "one to be supplied." He died at the Annual Conference, at Keyport, March 25, 1867.

In 1836, Mulford Day and William Robert- son were appointed to the circuit. Day died June 26, 1851. Robertson died November 2, 1864.

In 1837 the circuit was divided. A new circuit was cut out and named Middletown Circuit. From the records of Freehold Circuit (lately in possession of the pastor of Farming- dale Church) it is learned that it now included sixteen appointments, viz.,-Freehold, Squan- kum, Green Grove (Jerseyville), Longstreet's (West Farms), White's School-House (two miles south of Blue Ball), Moses Bennett's (Bennett's Mills, one mile south of New Prospect), Har- mony (near Hyers' tavern, on the road to Tom's River), Littleton Herbert's (near Bricksburg), Manasquan, Howell Works (Allaire), Abraham Herbert's (Burrsville), Newman's School-House, Shark River (Hamilton), Tinton Falls, Colt's Neck and Turkey.

At this time Joseph Murphy appears as a steward and leader, and William Rogers as leader and exhorter. John I. Cottrell is the only one of the official members of the circuit now known to be living. Joseph Murphy, Joseph Goodenough, Jonathan Youmans, John B. Williams, Richard Longstreet, Hance Her- bert, William Parker, Francis Fielder, Silas Newman, Littleton Herbert, William Rogers, Caleb Lokerson all died in the faith, and have gone to their reward.

In 1838, Joseph Atwood1 and Charles S.

Downs appeared as circuit preachers. After the Fourth Quarterly Meeting of this year Colt's Neck disappears from the list of appointments.

In 1839 .- Edward Page and Thomas Canfield were the circuit preachers.

In 1840 .- Edward Page and Vincent Mess- ler.

In 1841, Bromwell Andrews and William P. Corbit.2 Upper Squankum (Farmingdale), Englishtown and Green Grove appear in the list of appointments for this Conference year.

In 1842, Bromwell Andrews and Nicholas Vansant. 1843, Abraham J. Truett and Jo- seph B. Dobbins.3 Upper Turkey (Blue Ball) and Lower Turkey (Fairfield) appear in the appointments this year.

1844 .- Abraham J. Truett, Jacob P. Fort.4

The first Sunday-school was organized in 1844 or 1845 by Sarah Rogers, daughter of William Rogers. She was assisted by Mrs. Hulse and Mary Murphy. Miss Rogers was followed, in 1850, by John G. Cooper as super- intendent, assisted by John H. Mecabe (now of Jersey City), and subsequently by Francis de Lombrado and John Hanlon, Jonathan Vannote and William Voorhees. The school had been suspended before Mr. Cooper came in, and he resuscitated it. During this period the school was suspended during the winter months. Since 1854 it has been carried on regularly, without intermission, throughout the year.

1845 .- Samuel Jaquett and Robert Given.

1846-Samuel Jaquett, Jonathan W. Put- nam and Charles P. Whitecar.

1847 .- Joseph J. Sleeper (died February 27, 1873), W. W. Christine.

1848 .- John S. Beegle (died March 20, 1882).5

1 Atwood is still living, and resides at Bridgeton.

2 Both still living-Andrews at Navesink, in this county, and Corbit in Brooklyn, N. Y. Corbit says that there were then thirty-seven appointments on the circuit. Each man preached at one of these places once a month, which would give preaching every two weeks-week-days and Sundays, Judge Murphy at this time, he says, was the leading man of the town-store-keeper, farmer and judge of the County Court.

3 Mr. Dobbins is now a member of the Philadelphia Con- ference, and is stationed at Reading.

+ Mr. Fort is now a member of the Newark Confer- ence.

5 Mr. Beegle was instrumental in building two churches

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THE TOWN OF FREEHOLD.

At the last Quarterly Conference of 1848 Point Pleasant and Hulse's School-House were added to the list of appointments.

1849 .- J. J. Hanley (died October 28, 1860). 1850 .- John K. Shaw appears as presiding elder, and John W. Barret and William Clark as circuit preachers. One hundred dollars each was allowed the preachers for table expenses and fuel. Thomas Hanlon appears as an ex- horter at the Fourth Quarterly Meeting for this year, and William H. Clark was recommended for the traveling connection.

1851 .- John W. Barret, preacher in charge ; William C. Stockton and Samuel T. Moore, local preachers under the elder.

In 1851 a building known as the "cocoon- ery," then standing on the site now occupied by the Presbyterian Church, was fitted up for a dwelling. The church leased this building, and Mr. Barret moved from Squankum and occupied it. The church here is represented as having been for a long while in a spiritually cold condition. During this year there was a powerful revival, known as "the Barret re- vival." It commenced during the winter of 1851, and continued into the spring of 1852. There were many conversions ; among them were Mrs. Jane Cottrell (recently deceased), Mrs. Kate White, Mary and Phebe Murphy, Caroline Stillwell (afterwards Mrs. Ephraim Robbins) and Derrick Longstreet. At the Fourth Quarterly Meeting, John H. Stockton appears as an exhorter, and William C. Stockton and Samuel T. Moore were recommended to be received into the traveling connection. At the same meeting John H. Stockton and Thomas Hanlon were licensed as local preachers. At this meeting complaint was made against a local preacher,-

"That he had been in the practice of treating to in- toxicating liquors ;

That he had been seen to drink intoxicating drinks himself;

That he had been seen in a bowling-alley, prepar- ing to roll balls ;

That it was presumed that he had thrown dice."

-one at Blue Ball (Bethesda) and one at Farmingdale. He also received (1849-50) into the church Thomas Han- lon, now the distinguished principal of Pennington Semi- nary. Mr. Beegle died at Millville, March 20, 1882.

The trial of this case was postponed from time to time, and at length the offending brother was, by vote, allowed to resign his position as local preacher.

In 1852, Benjamin D. Palmer and William C. Stockton were appointed to the circuit. At the Second Quarterly Meeting of this year, October 23d, Ruliff V. Lawrence appears as an exhorter and William Franklin as a local preacher. At the Third Quarterly Meeting, January 22, 1853, Franklin appears as a cir- cuit preacher,1 and at the Fourth Quarterly Meeting, April 2, 1853, he was recommended for admission into the traveling connection. At this last meeting it was " Resolved, That the bishop be requested to divide Freehold Circuit at the ensuing Conference." The receipts on account of preachers' salaries amounted to about $905, of which there was paid to the elder, $48; to Mr. Palmer, $377; to Mr. Stockton, $380; to Mr. Franklin, $75; and to Mr. McGowen, $25.

In 1850, William Clark was junior preacher on Freehold Circuit. The practice was for him to preach once in two weeks at Freehold in the morning, and at Englishtown in the afternoon. This was one day's work. Blue Ball, Hulse's School-House and Harmony, one day's work, once in two weeks. Shark River in the morn- ing, Farmingdale in the afternoon and a school- house in the evening. Saturday night at Her- bert's house once in four weeks. Point Pleasant, Sunday morning, Squan Village in the after- noon, and Newman's in the evening, once in four weeks. There were week-night appoint- ments on the circuit. Occasionally the preachers would, on the two weeks' tours, come back to Freehold and preach on Sunday night, staying generally at Judge Murphy's and occasionally at Ralph Hulse's.

At the request of the Quarterly Conference, the Annual Conference of 1853 divided the circuit, creating a new circuit, which was named Squankum, and leaving of the old Freehold Circuit but a small portion. The only statistics found of Freehold Circuit, as it was now con- stituted, and the Conference minutes of 1854,

1 At the same meeting Ruliff V. Lawrence was licensed as a local preacher.

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

show that in 1853-54 it had three churches (prob- ably Freehold, Blue Ball and Harmony), four Sunday-schools, with sixty-five officers and teachers, four hundred and fifty scholars, eight hundred volumes in their libraries (an average of two hundred volumes to each school). The Conference collections for that year were : For missions, $43.24 ; Bible cause, $17.50 ; Sunday- School Union, $13.00; Tract Society, $40.12; Conference claimants, 817.60. The preachers this year were Benj. D. Palmer and John Atkinson. · About this time the church here was undergoing a change, by additions to the membership of young and enterprising men zealous for the cause. Among these were John G. Cooper, who had recently joined by certificate, Abraham S. Lokerson, James M. Hopper, Steven M. Cooper, Francis M. de Lombrado and John V. Snedeker. The railroad had been built to the town this year, and strangers began to come here to settle, bring- ing with them new ideas and new methods-at least new to this section. Some of them were members of the Methodist Church, and others, who were not members, sympathized with it and attended upon its ministrations. At this time preaching was had on Sabbath mornings only every other week, and preaching on Sabbath evenings was irregular. The intervals were filled by prayer and class-meetings conducted by local preachers occasionally, and by the exhort- ers. This irregularity in the services did not suit some of these younger brethren. They had been accustomed to Sabbath services regularly throughout the year, morning and evening, and they began to cast about in their minds the question of how to mend the matter.

The leaders at this time were " Father" Rogers and Judge Murphy, both advanced in years, but both zealous and strong men in the service of the church, and the mainstay of its spiritual interests. John Hanlon and Jona- than Vannote, apprentices to the printing busi- ness, had been recently converted at a woods meeting in the neighborhood, and were exer- cising their gifts in exhortation. Both soon afterwards entered the ministry, and both held important positions in the work of the church. 1

In 1854 the preachers were John S. Beegle and John Atkinson. With a view to regular preaching here every Sunday, an arrangement was entered into by which the Freehold Church assumed the responsibility of paying the board of the junior preacher, and had his services every Sunday evening. They also fitted up his lodgings with such conveniences as were needed. James S. Yard appears this year as Sunday-school superintendent. As a result of the work this year, a revival broke out during the winter, which is known as "the Atkinson revival." It commenced in this way : On a Sunday evening, after the prayer-meeting which followed the regular service, Mr. Atkinson invited all the members of the church who earn- estly desired a revival to meet him in the church the next evening. Accordingly, at the time appointed, there was a large attendance of the membership, and their prayers were especially offered in the direction indicated. The work went on from that evening until the meeting of the Annual Conference, and a large number of converts were gathered in. Among them was the aged mother of Thomas and John Hanlon. Preachers from other parts of the State attended and took part in these meet- ings, and members of other denominations in the town manifested their sympathy with it by their attendance. Rev. H. D. Ganse, of the Reformed Dutch Church, delivered an earnest sermon one evening from the text "Come, for all things are now ready."

The church was so much encouraged and strengthened at this time that it was resolved to ask the Conference to set it off as a station. It was with misgivings as to the result of such a measure, on the part of some of the elderly

was licensed to preach in 1856; in 1857 he joined the Newark Conference, and after a career seldom equaled for its usefulness and brillancy, died at Morristown, aged thirty-nine years, on the 4th of January, 1875, having served nineteen years in the ministry.

Vannote entered the New Jersey Conference, and after filling some prominent positions located at Trenton, and became editor and publisher of the State Gazette. He relinquished this position after some years, and became an editor of a daily newspaper in Pittsburg. He is now, or was last summer, employed on the editorial staff of the Philadelphia Evening Call.

1 Hanlon took a course of study at Pennington Seminary ;

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THE TOWN OF FREEHOLD.

brethren, whose zeal was tempered by an expe- rience that the younger men were yet to acquire ; they consented, however, after a canvass of the congregation had resulted in securing pledges of a sufficient amount to sustain the expenses of the station. In the spiritual condition in which the church then was, this was no difficult matter. The struggle to sustain the charge was yet to come.

Accordingly, at the Conference of 1855 Free- hold was set off as a station, and Daniel L. Ad- · ams was appointed to the charge. He was a man zealous for the work of the Lord, winning in his manners, a good preacher, and an indus- trious and methodical worker. During his two years of service he strengthened and built up the church and endeared himself to all.

The following is a list of the officers of the church appointed at the First Quarterly Confer- ence for the station, which was held in the church on the 17th of May, 1855:

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History of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Pt. 1, Part 76

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co. Number of Pages: 974

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 974