USA > New Jersey > Morris County > History of Morris County, New Jersey > Part 49
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What is now the township of Chatham was then part
MAPLE SHADES, RESIDENCE OF CHARLES L. CHOVEY, NEAR MADISON, MORRIS CO,N.J.
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MADISON PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
of Hanover, and the church in Bottle Hill was organized under the name of the " Presbyterian Church of South Hanover," which was its ecclesiastical designation for the succeeding seventy years. The exact date of its or- ganization cannot be stated, nor is there known to exist any account of any services connected with its new life. This is no doubt owing to the loss and probable destruc- tion of the church records for the first forty years of its existence. There is no doubt, however, that the move. ment began in the year 1746, and that the church was or- ganized some time in the year 1747. In 1817 the name wrs changed to " The First Presbyterian Church of the Township of Chatham," which name it bore until 1846, since when it has been called " The Presbyterian Church of Madison," the name Madison having been officially given to the place about fifteen years before.
Its first elders were Paul Day, Joseph Wood and John Pierson. Its members were few and nearly all of them in very limited circumstances, and able to do little toward the maintenance of the church. For nearly two years they worshiped in private houses, or in barns, and in pleasant weather in the open air. In 1749 they began to build, but were not able to finish, and became so utterly dis- heartened that the work for a time quite ceased. Then Luke Carter (son of Benjamin Carter) declared that if the congregation would not complete the work he would do it himself; whereupon a rally was made, the building enclosed, furnished with a plain pulpit, and very rudely seated with boards and slabs. It might perhaps have a happy effect upon modern worshipers here to be trans- ferred a century or so back to those primitive seats, where neither cushions nor sloping backs invited to re- pose, and when sermons were by no means briefer than they are now.
In this incomplete state the building remained fifteen years, when " a committee was appointed to superintend the finishing of the meeting-house," and certain persons had permission to construct pews for their own accom- modation in different parts of the church, and instead of the original slab seats, it was furnished with high-backed slips. This was about the year 1765. That old building was a very simple affair; covered on all sides with shin- gles, and without spire or cupola, and, except the sound- ing board over the pulpit, which was deep blue, wholly destitute of paint within and without. It looked not un- like a large, old-fashioned farm-house. Here and there, in remote parts of New Jersey and the contiguous States, there yet linger a few of these old-time structures, sug- gestive both of the poverty and the piety of the men and women who built their unpretending walls in troublous times.
That primitive building was situated on the crown of our burial ground hill, two or three rods east of the spot now occupied by the Gibbons monument. It was for the next seventy years the only house of public worship within the township, and its history is the main source of information that comes down to us of the years immedi- ately preceding the Revolution, whose events gather largely around the old church.
A cut of this old building, drawn by Rev. Samuel L. Tuttle, and engraved for him on wood, is pasted into his manuscript " notes," and is seen in his printed history of the church.
For several years the society had no preacher, depend- ing upon the presbytery or upon some occasional young man who received no pay, and not seldom upon the ser- vices of its own elders and leading members. Its first regular preacher was Nathaniel Greenman, a young licentiate, who was not installed, and of whose two years' work here no record has come down to us, although he had a long and honorable record in other parts of the church.
The first pastorate over the church and the longest of all was that of Azariah Horton, beginning about 1751 and ending in November 1776, covering all the stormy period which preceded the war of the Revolution, and closing just as the war itself began to throw churches and society into dire confusion. For the reason given before no particulars of Mr. Horton's pastorate have come down to us, but the present writer has been enabled to gather some interesting particulars of his personal history-and he was a man of influence and power in the early days of this place. He was born on Long Island, in 1715, came early with his parents to New Jersey, graduated from Yale College in 1735, and, declining a call to a promising parish on Long Island, devoted himself to labors among the Indians on the east end of the island. Mr. Horton was the first missionary sent to the heathen by the Pres- byterian church, being commissioned to this work by the New York presbytery, but supported (as were David and John Brainerd) by " the Scottish Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel." His labors were blessed at the outset, and he soon baptized thirty-five Indians. The fruit of his work remained for many years, in two Indian churches, one at Poosepatuck and a larger one at Shin- necock, which churches had until 1812 a succession of Indian pastors in the well known Rev. Samuel Occum, of the Mohegan tribe, and Revs. John and Paul Cuffee, of the Shinnecock tribe.
Mr. Horton came to Bottle Hill in 1751, and at once took rank among the men of influence, as a member of the Synod of New York, which he helped to organize, and doing much for the College of New Jersey, which had recently been founded.
The old church witnessed many memorable scenes as the dark Revolutionary days drew on, and during all their progress. Its first pastor was an earnest patriot, and, like his intimate friend and compatriot Caldwell of Elizabethtown, maintained from his pulpit the civil and religious rights of the people. Among the honored min- isters of that day, whose influence was so potent in awakening and maintaining the sentiment of liberty, Azariah Horton was not the least. Under the old sound- ing board Caldwell himself often preached, and it was a common thing to see the soldier's uniform in the gallery, " That old meeting-house and its pioneer minister did not a little to prepare those who dwelt here for the hon- ors as well as the trials which divine providence had in store for them."
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HISTORY OF MORRIS COUNTY.
Mr. Horton was a man of uncommon force of char- acter, of marked ability, and a fearless opponent of tyranny whether it were civil or ecclesiastical, for there were both in his day. He is described to us as " a plain, short, stout and very benignant man." When about sixty years of age he withdrew from the pastorate, and about a year after, while still residing here, was seized with smallpox, then prevalent among the American troops quartered here, and died. Of the two sons of Mr. Horton one gave his life for the country, being killed in the Revolutionary war.
Of the way Mrs. Horton helped her husband, and purchased a farm besides, by keeping a corner store in the village, we have already spoken. The remains of this admirable couple lie in the old cemetery, the grave covered with a brown freestone slab raised on pillars, and upon the stone is inscribed: "In Memory of the Rev. Azariah Horton, for 25 years pastor of this church. Died March 27th 1777, aged 62 years. Also Eunice, his wife, who died August 14th 1778, aged 56 years." The monument stands on the crown of the hill, just at the rear of the old foundation walls, and but a few feet from where stood the pulpit from which the old pastor preached. The church was located between that spot and the ravine through which the railroad now passes.
In the year 1795 occurred the loss of all the records of the old church. covering its whole former history from 1747. As Mr. Tuttle says, " the loss will never cease to excite the regrets of this community." By it have for- ever gone, for the most part, the names and history of all the early members, throwing darkness upon the inter- nal and spiritual history of the church, and also obliter- ating much which concerned the whole neighborhood, the state of society, family histories, and affairs in gen. eral; for, as we have said, here and in New England the history of an ancient church is largely the early history of the community. How this loss occurred can never now be satisfactorily known. The lapse of over four score years leaves us in the dark, and leaves also in ob- livion much that would have been interesting for us to know and to hand down to those who are to come after us. It is greatly to be regretted that such a man as Rev. Asa Hillyer did not gather up all that was then known; for not only were the records of the old session extant in his day-lost or destroyed while he was pastor-but there were then living men and women whose memories extended to the very organization of the church.
The present writer has in his possession, as the pastor of the church, a quaint old folio book of parish records -or records of the annual business meetings of the so- ciety or congregation. It is bound in heavy parchment, and, although a century and a quarter old, is in excellent condition. The opening record is as follows;
"South hanover Wednesday ye 7th of September, An- "no D 1757. at a meating appointed and met at the "meating house and proceaded In the folowing manor By "way of Voats. Aaron Burnet modarator Stephen More- house Clark." At this " meating " it was " voated that Mr. Horton shall have seventy pounds Sallery;" also, col-
lectors were appointed "to endeavour that all old rear- ages in Mr horton's rats [rates] Be made good to him." Next year we read that " Benjamin Ladner was appointed to Leade psalm tune." In 1759 it was " voated to have pues Bult all round this house and Seats in ye midle." The report of the meeting in 1759 gives an interesting proof of the intimate connection of church and State then existing. The moderator, clerk, and "Thomas genung, assessor," with two other persons, were appointed "Collectors;" and it is added, "the Assessor is to Take the Rateable Estats from the towne's Booke." This would apparently secure the application of the Master's rule, "Every man according to his several ability."
The succeeding year saw the appointment of five men " to stand as a committee to have the care of seating the meating house, and all other afares relating to this par- ish."
These yearly records are usually extremely brief, many of them occupying but four or five lines of writing; and for the first fifty years not one of them has granted to it the dignity of a full page of the book. Many of the entries are very suggestive of the poverty of the people, and illustrate somewhat the general habits and social life of those who came from wide surroundings to worship in the old church on the hill. There was not money to furnish the little building with pews. "Josiah Broad- well and Jacob Morrall are permitted to build a pue at the west end of the meeting house and Josiah hand and william Burnet a pue in the frontt gallery over the men's stairs." In 1770 it was voted "that the last piece of land purchased of James Burnet for a parsonage be sold to pay for what the parish is in arrears." In 1772 Josiah Broadwell and Paul Day are appointed a committee "to go to Mr. Horton and tell him we will do our utmost to raise your salary for this year, but see no prospect of raising a salary for another year." Next year this faith- ful man is asked if he would be willing to stay another year "for what salary we can raise for him," and he con- sented to stay that year and several more. In 1774 a lottery helped the financial situation; and there was a vote that certain " contribution money now on hand go to purchase fencing timber for the parsonage." That year also occurs this curious and suggestive record: "At a town meeting held this 7th day of September 1774 at ye South Meeting House, chose assessors to carry subscrip- tions to raise Mr. Horton's salary for another year." In 1776 a committee was appointed to go to the " prisbit- tery" with Mr. Horton upon parish affairs, and with this ended the pastoral troubles and labors of Azariah Hor- ton, after he had nursed the languid infancy of the church, and guided and guarded its precarious early life for nearly twenty-five years.
After the dismission of Mr. Horton, and for about fif- teen years, the church seems to have been in an en- feebled and distressed condition. It had two pastors and one stated supply in that time, while there were long in- tervals, making over five years in all, during which it was without any settled ministry of the word. The church and the community were either suffering amidst or slow-
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PASTORS OF MADISON PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
ly emerging from the disasters of the war. Of these pas- tors one was the Rev. Ebenezer Bradford, a man of fine literary attainments and uncommon ability. In addition to his pastoral charge he conducted a classical school, which gained quite a reputation in its day, the school building standing on the spot now occupied by the rail- road depot. Mr. Bradford was brother-in-law to Dr. Ashbel Green, president of the College of New Jersey, and several of his sons were men of distinguished ability and position.
In the year 1785 a committee was appointed to wait upon Rev. Alexander Miller (a native of Scotland and graduate of the College of New Jersey, who succeeded Mr. Bradford after an interval of about a year), "to see if he would not take one hundred pounds for his salary; if not, the people desire he may be dismissed, for they will not subscribe toward his farther support." Mr. Mil- ler's trials and the people's culminated in 1786, when a committee was appointed to inform him that "he must give up his present obligation and begin on a new footing, or the people will carry an application to the presbytery for his dismission."
During the three years succeeding the ministry of Mr. Miller the church seems to have sunk to its lowest con- dition. It had no pastor, and depended for its pulpit supplies on the presbytery of New York, with which it was at that time connected. It is evidence, however, of the Christian vigor which must have characterized its leading members that the regular ministrations of the Lord's house were duly maintained through all those dark days.
It was at this time, in the year 1789, that the church in the good providence of God came under the pastoral charge of Rev. Asa Hillyer. And by a providence not less kind his ministry of twelve years was succeeded by that of Matthew La Rue Perrine, lasting nearly ten years; which was followed by the sixteen years of the labors of John G. Bergen. These were all men of eminent piety, of wisdom and ability, and consecrated to their work. Their pastorates, covering nearly thirty-nine years, were blessed with powerful revivals, and careful, vigorous ad- ministration, and the church came to have an established character and position.
During the pastorate of Dr. Hillyer, and about the year 1790, the Tuesday evening prayer meeting was es- tablished; held at first in the house of Deacon Ephraim Sayre, then in the old school-house, and afterward in the upper room of the academy, where it continued for more than forty years, when, the present lecture room being built, it was removed thither. The Tuesday evening prayer meeting is thus well nigh a century old.
In the year 1817 the first Sunday-school was estab- lished here. Elder William Thompson had been perus- ing a tract on the subject of Sunday-schools; he read it aloud in the prayer meeting, greatly interested the people and immediately the school was begun. Mr. Thompson was the first superintendent. The first teachers were Amelia Bruen, Lucinda Bruen, Lillys Cook, Priscilla Sayre and Nancy Cook-no men.
In 1819, by " a formal and well considered vote of the parish, the first stove was introduced into the sanctuary," a committee of four discreet men being appointed to at- tend to this matter; for nearly seventy years our hardy ancestry depended on the heat of the pulpit for all the warmth they felt.
The most memorable events of these years of which we now speak were the great religious awakenings which oc- curred. One of the most remarkable of these took place during the ministry of Mr. Perrine, in 1806. "A great concourse of people assembled in and around the church from all parts of the surrounding country." Arrange- ments, therefore, were made for meetings in the open air, in the valley in the rear of the church. A large farm wagon formed a convenient pulpit, and the multitudes were grouped around on the hill slopes. About a dozen ministers were present as preachers, among whom were Drs. Richards of Morristown, Hillyer of Orange, and McWhorter and Griffin of Newark. Rev. Jacob Tuttle, father of Joseph F. and Samuel L. Tuttle, who was an eye witness, says: "It was in Madison that I witnessed the largest religious concourse that I ever witnessed any- where. The ground north of the old church was admir- ably fitted for the occasion. It was a hollow, surrounded by rising ground on all sides. It was the first week in July, and notice was given of the meetings for several weeks previously." He speaks then of the earnest preach- ing and the listening multitudes, and adds: "I look back to that time with admiration and wonder at the manifes- tations of divine power which were seen and felt at that time through all that region. Many thousands were turned to God, a large number of whom have gone home to glory."
The sixteen years of Mr. Bergen's ministry were also years of great results. At the close of the first year a revival commenced, during which sixty-nine persons made public confession of the Lord Jesus. The year 1819 witnessed another work of grace. During 1821-22 (that wonderful season of divine power in the land) nearly one hundred souls were added to this church. This last revival had been preceded by a season of declension and apathy, which induced the Presbytery of Jersey to appoint a day of inquiry, fasting and prayer, with meetings to be held in the church of Madison. After this presbyterial meeting services were held in different parts of the parish for about four months, from November to March, when the interest developed in a sudden way, and became so great and extensive that from five to seven hundred persons assembled night after night, and this continued through the summer, and the meetings were kept up during the haying and harvest time. About ninety united with this church as the fruits of that gracious visitation.
The revival of 1822 gave the impulse that led to the erection of a new house of worship, although the subject of enlarged accommodations had been before the people for more than a dozen years. The long conflict between the people of Chatham and Madison about the site of the proposed building and the compromise which placed
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HISTORY OF MORRIS COUNTY.
it where it stands have become traditional. The truth seems to be that each village needed a church; and if this fact had been recognized each would now have its church edifice at the true center of its population.
The corner stone of the new building, with Mr. Ber- gen's name upon it, was laid May 18th 1824, and the church was dedicated on the 18th of May 1825. Of the demolition of the old historic church on the hills Mr. Tuttle gives a vivid and touching account in his unpub- lished manuscript, and his church history contains an account of the completion and dedication of the present one.
The church attained to a high prosperity under Mr. Bergen. He was quite a remarkable man. His earliest known ancestor was a Norwegian who came over in one of Hendrick Hudson's ships in 1621. This ancesfor mar- ried the first white woman born on Manhattan Island, and she was a child of Huguenot parents who fled from France on account of religious persecution there. Mr. Bergen's own mother was a Scottish Covenanter, who came to this country fleeing, with others, from such swords as that of Claverhouse. His early religious life was quite remarkable; so was his work here, and so also his long subsequent life. A few years after the opening of the new church some internal troubles arose, and, to the great grief of nearly all his people, Mr. Bergen re- signed his pastorate. The opening attractions of the " great west " also drew him toward new and illimitable fields, and " he took up his westward line of march on the 22nd of September 1828, in presence of a multitude of his people, many of whom accompanied him for ten miles on his way; his mother and her husband in their own dearborn, he and his wife and one child in a new gig, and his other children in a traveling carriage. They were forty days in actual travel on their westward way. Springfield, Sangamon county, Ill., was then a little place of two hundred people, with about forty houses, mainly log houses." He became the first pastor of the First Presbyterian church in Springfield, the church being a child of his own. In that region he lived and labored, much of the time in pioneer work, until he came to be known as the " Old Man of the Prairie "; and his serene and venerable aspect grew familiar in every hamlet of the surrounding country. He died suddenly, January 10th 1872, having completed his 8ist year. His last words were, "Great grace !" and "Blessed !" Although it was then forty-four years since Dr. Bergen resigned the pastorate of this church, he had yet survived all who suc- ceeded him, except the present pastor.
In the year 1804, Mr. Tuttle tells us, the entire village of Madison, still called Bottle Hill, consisted of not more than twenty dwelling houses, all of which were standing on the old road. Some of these have passed away; among them the old parsonage, which stood where now is the middle of Green avenue, in front of the spot where now stands the house of Mrs. John R. Mulford.
The history of this old parsonage is not without inter- est. As early as 1763 the people in their poverty voted to purchase a "piece of parssonnage land, for the use of |
the minister of this parrish." The land was purchased, probably with a dwelling of some kind upon it, which " was put into a state of repair for the minister." Mr. Horton seems to have occupied it; and here did he and his successors continue to reside until the year 1810; when, the pastor, Rev. Mr. Perrine, having built a house for himself on the beautiful knoll now occupied by Ed- gar Beaupland, the old parsonage was sold for $2,350. It was built upon a generous scale; a large double house, originally shingled on all sides, with the front eaves high, while the back ones were so low that they could easily be reached from the ground. A large kitchen stood on the south end of the house, and it had the immense old fireplace and chimney of that day, with the heavy beams in the ceiling left uncovered. Fifty acres of land, with a barn, were attached to it. It stood with its end to the street; the front yard was over a hundred feet in depth, and the back yard was also large, and both were full of trees. Some of these are still standing in the grounds of Mrs. Mulford. It came into the hands of Dr. Reuben Bishop, from whom in 1829 it was purchased by Dr. H. P. Green. In 1867, when Green avenue was about to be opened, the house was sold by the daughters of Dr. Green. It was divided into three parts, of which the main part is now the large white house in the lumber yard; another part was moved across the street and has since been torn down, and the third part was moved to Green Village. It was so well built that in moving the larger part to the lumber yard the plastering on the walls did not crack.
The parish was without a parsonage for the next forty- four years. Other houses yet remain-as the house of E. U. Samson, that of Mr. Brunz (late that of Ichabod Bruen), the house on Academy Hill (the residence of the late Miss Lillys Cook), the houses owned and occupied by the late John B. Miller and his son David L. Miller, and others still, carefully designated by Mr. Tuttle-as they were in the year 1855.
The old Presbyterian church of Madison has, on the whole, had a prosperous life since the period when it ceased to be alone. The Rev. Clifford S. Arms became pastor in 1832 and remained such for nearly nineteen years, closing a fruitful ministry in 1851. His pastorate was blessed with several powerful revivals of religion, the most remarkable of which occurred at the commence- ment of his labors here.
To Mr. Arms succeeded Rev. Samuel L. Tuttle, after an interregnum in the pastorate of nearly three years. To Mr. Tuttle the church and the town are indebted more than to any other man living or dead, for those la- bors which have rescued from oblivion and embalmed in memory so much of the history of this whole town- ship. He was greatly interested in the general affairs of the village; some of the most important public improve- ments being due to his suggestion or largely indebted to him for their success. Extensive alterations in the church were made during his pastorate, the ladies bear- ing the burden of the expense. The extensive improve- ments made in the old cemetery were first suggested by
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