History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 76

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Swan, Norma Lippincott. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia, R. T. Peck & co.
Number of Pages: 1148

USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > History of Monmouth county, New Jersey > Part 76

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In 1875, Rev. Ananias Lawrence became pas- report he represented the church in a " good, healthy condition, both financially and spirit- ually, having been much quickened by a re- vival then (January 26, 1876) in progress for the last two months, resulting in about thirty converts, twenty-one of whom had joined the church on probation."

A notable event in 1866 was the celebration | tor. He remained but one year. In his closing here, for Trenton District, of the centenary of American Methodism, on the 28th of June, The pastor has left on record a history of the celebration, embodied in a report to the Quar- terly Conference. The principal speaker on the occasion was ex-Governor Parker. The report on the Sunday-school (August, 1867) showed two hundred and fifty scholars on the roll, with Rev. William H. Pearne was appointed to the charge by the Conference of 1876. He also remained but one year. A remarkable event of this year was the excursion of the Sabbath- school to the Centennial Exhibition at Philadel- an average attendance of one hundred and fifty. At the last Quarterly Conference for this Con- ference year (held January 25, 1868) Albert .J. Garrison appears as a local preacher, and James

435

THE TOWN OF FREEHOLD.

phia. Over eleven hundred persons accompa- nied this excursion.

Rev. Amos M. North was appointed by the Conference of 1877. He remained two years. Rev. S. F. Wheeler succeeded Mr. North in 1879, and Rev. G. C. Maddock came in 1881. In the spring of 1884 he was succeeded by the Rev. W. M. White, the present pastor.

THE SECOND REFORMED CHURCH OF FREE- HOLD' furnishes, in its name, an instance of the confusion which often arises from perpetuating old titles after the conditions in which they arose are changed. The Second Church is the only one of that denomination in the place. It is so called to distinguish it from the mother-church at Bradevelt, popularly known as the " Brick Church." The Brick Church was established in 1699, when the name of Freehold was loosely applied to a large portion of the present county of Monmouth, and its corporate title is still the First Reformed (Dutch) Church of Freehold.

The Second or Village Church was organized October 4, 1842. For many years previous to this, occasional services had been conducted in Frechold village by the pastors of the mother- church for the benefit of that portion of the congregation. In 1835 their growing needs led to the purchase of two lots of ground in the village and the commencement of the erection of a house of worship. Its corner-stone was laid by Rev. James Otterson, then pastor of the Brick Church, in the spring of 1836, but for lack of funds it was not dedicated until Feb- ruary 1, 1838. Its cost, exclusive of the ground (which was only four hundred dollars), was five thousand dollars, and after the young congre- gation was organized into a church, the entire property was most generously transferred to them by the Brick Church, at the nominal

mother-church, being removed to the other end of the building, and the pews turned about to correspond. Henceforth, latc-comers could enter unrebuked by the reproving stare of those more punctual. At this time a large pipe-organ was added to the edifice.

A small chapel has been since erected by the side of the church for Sunday-school and prayer- meeting purposes. In 1882 this building was handsomely refurnished. The entire value of the church buildings and lots is now about twenty-five thousand dollars, and is free from all ineumbrance. The Freehold Cemetery, near the village, which was originated in 1851, is also under the control of this congregation. Five pastors have served the church since its organization. The first, an able and eloquent man, was Rev. Henry D. Ganse, now a secretary in the service of the Presbyterian Church, at Chicago. His pastorate extended from 1843 to 1856, and was one of great prosperity to the church. His successors have been Rev. Ezra W. Collier and Rey. Gulick Van Aken, both of them (now deceased) men of high character and unusual pulpit talent. Rev. Charles S. Hageman, D.D., served the church from 1871 to 1878, and is now living without charge at Nyack, N. J. Rev. Isaac P. Brokaw, the present pastor, was installed January, 1879. Three young men connected with the church have become ministers of the gospel.

The congregation at present comprises one hundred families. The church membership is two hundred and twenty-five. The contribn- tions for the year ending April 1, 1884, were : for missionary purposes, $515 ; for congrega- tional purposes, $3065.

THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF FREEHOLD2 is an offshoot from the famed and venerable Tennent Church, from which came its price of seven hundred and fifty dollars. In ' entire original membership. In the spring of 1847 a house on Main Street was purchased, 1835 a few members of the Tennent Church and and is still used for the residence of the pastor. The church edifice was enlarged and repaired in 1860, the pulpit, which had previously stood between the two entrances, like that of the congregation, encouraged by their pastor, the Rev. Daniel V. McLean, and assisted by other citizens in the place, determined to build a place of worship in the village of Freehold. The

I By the Rev. Isaac P. Brokaw.

2 By the Rev. Frank Chandler, D.D.

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

corner-stone of a brick edifice, forty-four by sixty feet, was laid June 10, 1835, upon the site of the present residence of Mr. Jacob B. Rue, adjoining the property afterwards occupied by the Young Ladies' Seminary. On the 5th of April, 1836, the congregation was organized under the laws of the State, by the election of the following-named trustees: Cyrus Bruen (president), James Craig (secretary), John J. Thompson, William D. Davis, William T. Sut- phin, John W. Bartleson and Aaron Combs. They adopted for a corporate name "The Village Church at Freehold."

The house was completed at a cost of about four thousand dollars, and was dedicated to the wor- ship of God June 17, 1837, Rev. D. V. McLean preaching the sermon from Psahn Ixxxiv. 1. Mr. McLean, having resigned his pastorate of the Ten- nent Church in the fall of 1836, preached in the Village Church from the time of its completion.

On the 21st of February, 1838, a committee of the Presbytery of New Brunswick organized the Village Church with thirty-two members, all of whom brought their letters from the Tennent Church. November 1st, in the same year, Mr. McLean was installed pastor. The First Church of Howell, sitnated where the Fairfield Baptist Church now stands, originally constituted with seven members, after an existence of seven years, was dissolved by act of Presbytery, and those con- nected with it, then numbering twenty-three per- sons, were directed to enroll themselves with the Village Church. They were received April 13, 1839. The year following, a special work of grace resulted in the addition at one communion of forty-seven persons upon confession of their faith, so that one hundred and forty-four members were reported to the Presbytery in the year 1842.

The Rev. Mr. McLean resigned his charge in the fall of 1850, after an efficient ministry of twelve years. He was succeeded in the spring of 1851 by Rev. Samuel D. Alexander, of Princeton. This pastor was much beloved by his congregation, and resigned, greatly to their regret, in April, 1856, to take charge of the Fifteenth Street Church, in New York City. During his ministry (in 1852) the church edifice was enlarged by the addition of thirty feet to its length, at a cost of six thousand dollars.

The Rev. Frank Chandler was born in New- ark, N. J., May 26, 1831, and graduated at the College of New Jersey in 1854. In the fall of 1856 he was called to the pastorate of this church, he being then in the senior class of the Theological Seminary at Princeton, where he graduated in 1857. He was installed in charge of the Freehold church, May 19th of that year, and has been its pastor continuously from that time to the present. The church had a natural and steady growth, and became so much in- creased in numbers that, in the year 1871, April 24th, after frequent meetings and much deliberation, it was resolved to build a new and larger edifice at the corner of Main Street and Brinekerhoff Avenne. The impression had become widely prevalent that the old building was not secure by reason of a breaking of the foundation. The change of location was deemed necessary because the old lot was too small for the larger edifice which it was resolved to build. The corner-stone of the new structure was laid August 30, 1871, but the completion of the building was delayed one whole year by a dis- astrous storm, occurring November 19, 1871, which demolished the walls just as they were finished and prepared to receive the roof tim- bers.

The dedication occurred April 10, 1873, Rev. John Hall, D.D., of New York City, upon in- vitation, preaching the sermon. The adjoining building, containing lecture-room and parlor and Sunday-school rooms, was not completed until the spring of 1874. The ground floor of the church is one hundred feet long by sixty-four feet wide, with a transept at the rear thirty-five by seventy-four feet, and the whole cost, with furniture, was seventy-five thousand dollars.

In the year 1876 the church was again blessed with a wonderful work of divine grace, follow- ing which, at one communion, seventy-two per- sons made confession of their faith in Christ and joined themselves to His people. There have been connected with the church from the beginning eight hundred and forty-five persons, of whom one hundred and forty-two have died and letters of dismission have been granted to two hundred and seventy persons.

The congregation has always been distin-

Frank Chandler.

437

THE TOWN OF FREEHOLD.

guished for its liberality in maintaining the or- mouth County Agricultural Society and about one-half mile from the centre of the village, was laid out in the year 1851 on a tract of three acres (enlarged by a subsequent purchase) procured by the consistory of the Second Re- formed Church at a cost of one hundred dollars per acre. Although designed primarily for the use of the members of that congregation, and still held under the control of their officers, its privi- leges have since been extended to all who desire them without regard to creed ; and many eiti- zens, not only of the town and county, but even dinances of religion and the cause of charity at home and abroad, For the erection of its houses of worship and congregational expenses one hundred and thirty thousand dollars has been expended, and not less than twenty-five thousand dollars has been contributed in works of benevolence; and never in its history has the church been more vigorous, united and hearty in its support of every good cause than at the present time. The pastor, who has stood in his place for more than a quarter of a century, has great cause for encouragement and gratitude of other parts of the State, have secured for in his lengthened and useful ministry.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CONGREGATION at Freehold1 was first organized, in the year 1853, by the Rev. John Schollard, who resided in Princeton, N. J., where he had charge also of the Roman Catholic congregation. In 1854 a frame church, twenty-five by forty feet, capable of seating about one hundred and seventy per- sons, was put up at Freehold, and Mass was celebrated about one Sunday in a mouth.

In August, A.D. 1857, the Rev. J. Schollard was succeeded by the Rev. Alfred Young, who held the charge until December, A.D. 1860, when the Rev. J. J. J. O'Donnel was appointed in his stead, who had the care of the congregation until July, 1867, at which time he was succeeded by the Rev. Thomas R. Moran, who officiated till January, 1871.

At this time the congregation, which until then had been considered only as a mission, and as such had been attended by priests of Prince- ton, received a rector of its own in the person of Rev. Frederick Kivelitz, the present incum- bent. In 1873 the church was considerably enlarged, and in 1880 a new church was begun, and in 1882 completed. The new church has a capacity of seating seven hundred persons. Services are held twice every Sunday, three times daily on feast-days, and Mass is celebrated every morning on week-days.

The Freehold Cemetery, which is beautifully situated on elevated ground a short distance southwesterly from the property of the Mon-

themselves here the right of a last resting-place. Although its future enlargement was not fore- seen in the original purchase and the ground laid out accordingly, there is still land sufficient to be had whose natural features admirably adapt it for purposes of sepulture and admit of the adornment which is so desirable in these "cities of the dead." There are at present six hundred lot-owners, and the total valuation of the plats is about two thousand dollars. The cemetery embraces an area of nine acres, which is nearly all occupied.

Schools were taught as early as the period of the Revolutionary War in the vicinity of what is now the town of Freehold, though it is not certain that there were any taught in the limits of the little settlement then known as Mon- month Court-House. An advertisement in Collins' Gazette, dated March 14, 1778, an- nounced that Joseph Rue woukl "open a Latin School in Freehold [township, probably ], at the house of Henry Perrine, where scholars can be accommodated in the best manner and at the lowest expense." Other classical schools were taught in the vicinity at about the same time and a few years later ; but very little definite information can be gained of Freehold schools tanght as early as the year 1800, soon after which time an English and classical school was taught by the Rev. AAndrew Fowler, in a build- ring that stood on or near the site of the Free- hold Banking Company's building. Mr. Fow- ler was rector of St. Peter's Church at the time -from 1799 to 1809.

It has been related In Mrs. Barkalow

1 By the Rev. F. Kivelitz.

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

(mother of Alexander L. Barkalow) that in her childhood she went to school to Aunt Massey (Merey) Lerton in the old log school-house that stood on the by-road leading from the main road to the Baptist Cemetery, south of the man- sion on the " Murphy Farm." This school- house, it is said, was built by General David Forman, of Revolutionary fame, who then owned the farm ; and it was maintained by him as a select school for the education of his own children, and of those of such of his neighbors as chose to avail themselves of its privileges. Subsequently Maria Oldwell boarded with Joseph Phillips and taught a select school in the village. The school near the Murphy house was kept up for many years. Judge Charles A. Bennett attended it at about the time of his earliest recollection,-1825 to 1830, -when it was the only public school anywhere in the vicinity of Freehold, and scholars came to it from Blue Ball, Mount's Corners and other neighborhoods outside the village. Re- ferring to an earlier time, however (before 1820), Dr. Robert Laird says he first went to school to James McGregor, " a testy old Scotch- man," who taught in a small building next northwest of the Episcopal Church, on what is now Throckmorton Street. The teacher who succeeded McGregor was Thomas C. Throck- morton, afterwards Judge Throckmorton. This school, Dr. Laird says, was " the only publie school for many years near the village."

A "Select and Classical School " was taught in Freehold by _A-a S. Colton (afterwards the Rev. Mr. Colton) from January, 1828, to October in the same year. Among his pupils were the Rev. James English, Judge Combs, the Hon. John C. Ten Evek, Mr. Barbarie Throckmorton, James Hartshorne, Miss Theo- dosia Seudder (afterwards the wife of the Rev. William J. Pohlman, missionary to China), Miss Julia A. Davis and a number of the other Frechold young ladies of that time.

The "MONMOUTH SCHOOL," as it was named by its proprietors, but otherwise more com- monly known as the Woodhull School, was first opened in the year 1844, by William W. and Charles F. Woodhull (who had previously

taught in the okl Freehold Academy). The circular of the principal stated that "at this institution thorough instruction is given in all branches necessary to prepare boys for college or for business. Terms : Two hundred dollars a year, payable quarterly, in advance." In 1857 the instructors were William W. Wood- hull, principal ; Charles F. Woodhull, vice- principal ; Charles G. Endicott, assistant ; Pro- fessor James Garland, instructor on the piano ; William P. Dale, vocal music. For a number of years the school was located where Mr. D. D. Denise now lives, on the north side of Main Street, adjoining the Reformed Church. In 1859-60 a new building was erected for its ac- commodation, where Mr. John Bawden now resides, at the corner of High Street and Manalapan Avenue. At that place the school was taught for about twelve years. Reference to the ending of the school, and the conversion of the building to other uses, is found in the following item, printed in the Monmouth Demo- crat : "The two parts of the late Woodhull School building will soon form three com- modions residences,"-the date being February 26, 1874.

The YOUNG LADIES' SEMINARY 1 at Free- hold was established forty years ago, as the result of the well-directed efforts of the Rev. D. V. MeLean, to whom the county of Monmouth and the world are greatly indebted for the whole- some influences which have gone forth through many families and to many lands from the Young Ladies' Seminary at Freehold. In the year 1844, being then pastor of the Village Presbyterian Church, he enlisted the sympathy aud co-operation of Honorable John Hull and Honorable Thomas P. Haight, and together with them erected the commodious and costly buildings npon Main Street, adjoining the site of the old Presbyterian Church, where they now stand, a lasting monument to his remarkable energy and prudent foresight.

During the same year Mr. Amos Richardson, A. M., who was born at Springfield, N. H., 1812, and in the year 1837 graduated at Dart- mouth College, was engaged to take charge of the

1 By Rev. Frank Chandler, D.D.

439

THE TOWN OF FREEHOLD.

school. He proved himself to be eminently fitted selected, liberal and generous provision was for the great work of building up and sustain- made for the comfort and advancement of the incoming pupils, and now, at the end of the second year of the new administration, the good name which the school has borne at home and its growing patronage promise a stress larger even than that of past years. ing for many years one of the most honored and useful institutions for the higher training of young ladies. He had pleasing and refined manners, a bright and cultured mind, great fondness for musie and the fine arts, a warm and generous heart, boundless enthusiasm in his chosen profession, and, above all, a love for truth and righteousness, and a zeal for their maintenance and extension, which made him a safe and trusted guardian of the highest inter- ests of his pupils. The school soon attained great success, and for many years attracted patronage not only near at hand, but from many remote States of the Union.

In the year 1854, encouraged by the financial prosperity of the institution, and desiring to enlarge and perfect his facilities for doing the best work for his pupils, he planned and built the beautiful and spaeious hall facing on High Street, a structure the very form and arrangement of which display a breadth of view and liber- ality in the cause of education which few men possess. Just at the completion of this great enterprise, when he had reason to hope his highest ambition and aim were to be realized, he lost his eyesight by a melancholy accident, and to the end of his life patiently but sadly performed his work in total darkness. He died October 16, 1881, at the age of sixty-nine years, beloved and mourned by the entire com- munity which he had unselfishly and labor- iously served thirty-seven years.

During the summer of 1883, when it became necessary to sell the seminary property to settle the estate of Mr. Richardson, the Rev. F. Chandler, D.D., pastor of the Presbyterian Church, labored assiduously to save the institu- tion from the impending danger of extinction. A number of prominent citizens of Freehold and vicinity formed an incorporation under the general laws of the State, purchased, repaired and refurnished the establishment at a very large outlay of money. The Hon. Joel Parker was elected president of the association. Rev. F. Chandler, D.D., was requested to take control of the institution. Under his efficient manage- ment, able and experienced instructors were

The institution is believed to be, in point of thorough teaching, refined Christian culture and home comforts. second to none in the State.

THE FREEHOLD INSTITUTE FOR BOYS, is sit- uated on the corner of South and Institute Street?, on land which was purchased by Samuel C. Hicks and Professor Oliver R. Willis1 in 1847, at which time it was an oat-field. In the autumn of the same year the erection of the front building was commenced, and in the following spring Professor Willis, who was then principal of an academy at Hightstown, moved his school to its new quarters, in Freehold. In his first circular of the Freehold Institute he said,-

" With a view to furnish his pupils with more lib- eral accommodations, and to secure to his family the privileges of a church of his own denomination, the principal has made arrangements to remove his school from Hightstown to Freeholdl, Monmouth County, N. J., at the opening of the next session, which will commence on the second Wednesday in May, 1848. . The buildings are entirely new, are neat and commodious, and have been erected under the immediate direction of the princi- pal. Dimensions, eighty feet front by forty-six deep, the central building, three stories high. The apart- ments are arranged in the most modern and improved : style ; the rooms are spacious and airy, with high ceilings and ventilating fues in the walls and parti- tions. The plan of the building was matured after much deliberation, the principal having visited the best schools in New England and New York before he decided on it. And he congratulates himself now, in being able to say to his patrons and the publie, that he is prepared to furnish accommodations that are se- cond to none in the country. No expense will be spared that would tend to make the place attractive, or which ean minister to the comfort, convenience, health or advancement of the members of the school. Well-

1 In the Monmouth Democrat of February 17. IN4S. is this advertisement :

" Freehold Institute, a Preparatory School for Boys at Freehold, Monmouth County, N. J. Oliver R. Willis, Principal and Joint Proprietor. Proprietors : Sammel (". Hicks and Oliver R. Willis."

440

HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

arranged wash-rooms and bathing-rooms are provided for the exclusive use of the pupils. A large building has been erected for a gymnasium. The gymnastic exercises will always be under the direction of the principal or one of his teachers."

air, and lighted with gas made upon the prem- ises. The institute's collection of philosophical apparatus, its cabinets of shells, minerals, paleontological speeimens, and its herbarium exceeded anything of the kind to be found in the country, exeept in the colleges ; and up to the time of the opening of the War of the Re- bellion it was regarded as the most completely equipped and best furnished school in the vicinity of the cities of New York and Phila- delphia.

At the opening of the institute in Freehold the number of its pupils was twenty-four, eleven of whom were boarders and thirteen day-pupils. The number gradually increased, so that at the end of the school-year of 1849 there were fifty-two pupils in attendance, forty- two of whom were boarders. The instructors In April, 1862, Professor Willis left the insti- tute, the property having been sold at that time to Cyrus Baldwin, who reopened the school in in that year were O. R. Willis (principal), Paul A. Chadbourne, _1.B .; C. Ang. Walters; Theodore L'Huiller, B.L .; Amos Richardson, the following month as principal. Under the A.M. From that time the institute enjoyed a administration of Professor Baldwin the system of military drill and discipline was introduced, and has proved successful; but the institute under him was not pecuniarily prosperous, and on the 27th of May, 1868, it was purchased for fourteen thousand two hundred and eighty-two dollars by William HI. Conover, Joel Parker, D. C. Perrine, Andrew Perrine, Hendrick E. C'onover, William H. Wykoff, R. 1. Ellis, G. W. Shinn and James J. Conover. They bar- gained it to Rev. A. G. Chambers, of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, who immediately re- of boarders present at any one time was fifty- opened the institute, and has continued its prin- cipal and proprietor to the present time. In his catalogue of July, 1883, he says: "This in- stitute, established in 1844, was moved to Free- holl in 1848. The records of the sehool, being the property of the former proprietors, were withdrawn, so that there is now nothing to over five hundred boys and young men have been in attendance. Some of these entered West Point, Rutgers, Lafayette, Columbia or Prinee- ton College; others entered immediately upon the study of law or medicine without further intellectual training ; and the remainder, the various departments of business life." constantly increasing patronage, until the nun- ber of pupils reached one hundred. The last circular issued while the school was under the direction of Dr. Willis was a graded catalogue issued for the year ending January, 1860. In this catalogue are recorded the names of one hundred and five pupils,-viz. : In the Classical Department, thirty-four; in the Middle Depart- ment, sixty-one ; in the Preparatory Department, ten. Of these, forty-one were boarders and the remainder day-pupils. The greatest number eight. AAmong the highest ten in the institute in that year were D. MeLean Forman and Charles F. Richardson. The list of instructors for that year was as follows: Oliver R. Willis, A.M .; Charles 1. Walters, A.M .; Charles Jamison, A.M .; Clark B. Royce, A.M .: Edward H. Redfield. Lecturers : Rev. Robert Baird, his- show its history prior to 1868. Since that time tory; Rev. Samuel Loekwood, geology. One of the marked characteristics of the manage- ment of the school under Dr. Willis was the employment of able and competent men as in- struetors, and among the early elassical teachers in the institute was Dr. Paul A. Chadbourne, president of Williams College.

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History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 76

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Swan, Norma Lippincott. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia, R. T. Peck & co. Number of Pages: 1148

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Swan, Norma Lippincott. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia, R. T. Peck & co.
Number of Pages: 1148