USA > New Jersey > Morris County > History of Morris County, New Jersey > Part 67
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EARLY IRON WORKS IN PEQUANNOCK-CHURCHES.
part of this slitting-mill lot and rolling and slitting-mill, and all the interest of said Hoffman in the buildings and stock of coal and iron." This deed also bears date May ist 1784. In 1805 Samuel Ogden sold to John Jacob and Richard B. Faesch the Boonton tract, including roll- ing and slitting. mill, forge and grist-mill, and 2,500 acres of land, for $10,000, and took a mortgage upon the property for $9,000 of the purchase money. John Jacob Faesch died in 1809 intestate and without issue, leaving as his sole heirs Richard B. Faesch his brother, and Catharine and Eliza his sisters, the latter being the wife of William H. Robinson of New York. The rolling and slitting-mill continued in operation till about the middle of March 1820, when a great freshet swept away the dam. Shortly after, in the same year, Richard B. Faesch died, insolvent, and all the real estate, including forge and grist-mill, was sold to Israel Crane and William Scott. They constructed a large dam across the river just above the old forge, for the purpose of conducting the water through a dugout race-way on the Pequannock side of the river to a point opposite the ruins of the old slitting-mill, which would give a water power of about forty feet fall. Shortly after the completion of this dam a freshet broke away a portion of it, which was repaired and a saw-mill built at the end of the race-way. A few years later another freshet broke away the dam so effect- ually that the rebuilding of it was never attempted. Scott and Crane, under the direction of Thomas Hood, an Englishman, introduced a new kind of furnace in- tended for refining iron. In view of the losses and ex- penses Crane became desirous of selling his interest, and for that purpose they divided the property, Crane taking the lower part, including Old Boonton and the forge and mill, which he sold to John Righter, Scott retaining the upper portion of the tract lying on both sides of the river. Two hundred acres of this tract lying on the Pe- quannock side of the river, and opposite Boonton Falls, Scott sold in the latter part of 1829 to David W. Wet- more, who in 1831 conveyed it with other tracts to the New Jersey Iron Company; on a part of that 200 acres a portion of the Boonton iron works and the northern part of the town of Boonton stand.
She says she also has a painting on glass, finely executed and in a good state of preservation (found in the same garret), representing a monk bending under the weight of a large bundle of straw he is carrying on his back, which on close inspection reveals at one end the head of a fe- male and her feet at the other, the monk also bearing in one hand a basket on the side of which are the words "Supplies for the convent." Mrs. King says this relic has been examined with a great deal of interest by sev- eral noted artists, who praised the execution of the work and said that kind of painting is among the lost arts. She further says she has in her possession an ancient black walnut bureau in a state of good preservation, once the property of Faesch, and which was probably made in Switzerland more than 125 years ago.
The flint and steel were long almost the only means of getting fire; it is within fifty years past that a knowledge of chemistry has enabled us to make a long step in ad- vance in the production of that small but useful article the friction match. In old times stoves were unknown, and fires were made with wood in open fireplaces; when bedtime came enough live coals were buried in the em- bers to serve for re-kindling fire in the morning, but in case the fire thus buried should die before morning resort must be had to the steel, flint and tinder box; in the ab- sence of them the musket was used by placing powder in the pan of the lock and flashing it against a bunch of tow (an article found in every house in those flax-spin- ning days). Where there were none of these means re- course must be had to fetching fire in an iron pot from a neighbor's.
CHURCHES.
The first churches organized in this section were of the Dutch Reformed denomination, and their services for many years were conducted in the Dutch language, by ministers who were mostly licentiates from the Hol- land schools. The first church at Pompton was organ- ized in 1736, and the church edifice stood on the east side of Pequannock River, in what was Bergen county (now Passaic). It was called "the Reformed Dutch Church at Pompton," and Paulus Vanderbeck and Peter Post were ordained elders, and Johannis Henyon and Martin Berry deacons; two years afterward it contained seventy-two members.
Pertaining to the family of Faesch, who lived at Old Boonton, Mrs. Mary King of Newark, now 77 years old, daughter of Elijah Dod and the youngest sister of the first wife of William Scott, relates some matters of interest. The first church in Pequannock township was organ- ized at Pompton Plains, in 1760, under the ministry of the Rev. David Marinus, and resulted from a division of the church organized at Pompton in 1736. This division grew out of a difference of opinion; one party, called the "Conferentie," held to the necessity of obtaining as min- isters only such as had been educated and licensed by the Holland schools; the other party, called the "Cœtus," held to the belief that there was no impropriety in set- tling as pastors those who had been educated and li- censed in the schools of this country. In 1752 Rev. David Marinus had been called to Acquackanonk in conjunc- tion with Pompton; he had been educated in Pennsylva- She says that shortly after the death of his wife, in 1823, William Scott removed from Powerville to the mansion at Old Bonton, and that she, then just from the Moravian school at Bethlehem, Pa., accompanied him and remained there for a time as his housekeeper; that she has in her possession a steel (found in the garret of the old man- sion) such as was used in old times to kindle a fire by striking a flint and catching the spark in a tinder box; that this steel has on it the figures 1752 and the letters H. I. F., which she was told stood for Henry I. Faesch, the father of John Jacob Faesch sen., who came to this country in the employ of the London Company, to super- intend their iron works at Charlotteburgh and Hibernia. nia, and licensed the same year by the " Cœtus," consc-
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HISTORY OF MORRIS COUNTY.
quently he belonged to that party. The controversy over this matter grew so fierce that for a time it is said to have affected the whole denomination, and divided this congregation. The "Conferentie " party, gaining possession of the church building, excluded Marinus, and hence his friends erected for him a church building on Pompton Plains in 1760, which stood for about twelve years. It is said Marinus continued to preach here for a few years only, that he fell into bad habits through the free use of intoxicating liquors, and that his life became so inconsistent that his services were dispensed with; he was suspended from the ministry in 1778 and deposed in 1780. He afterward sought employment at teaching school, and taught at Lower Montville, in which neigh- borhood he remained until about the year 1800; while there he occasionally officiated at religious meetings, but at times gave way to his old habits.
About the year 1756 churches of this denomination . were organized at Totowa and Fairfield in the county of Essex, and at Old Boonton in Hanover township near the borders of Pequannock. These three churches united with the "Conferentie," who held the original church edifice on the east side of the river at Pompton, in call- ing as their pastor Rev. Cornelius Blaw, who came from Holland and was said to be a good preacher; he was in- ducted into the pastorate October 24th 1762, and lived in the parsonage house at what is called the Two Bridges. He served these four churches about five years, when like Marinus he fell into irregular habits and was re- moved.
A church of this denomination existed at Acquacka- nonk (now Passaic) many years before that organized at Pompton in 1736; Jonas Ryerson, a resident on the east side of the Pequannock River and near to it, was a dea- con in the church at Acquackanonk in 1716, and Paulus Vanderbeck, one of the early settlers on Pompton Plains, was an officer in the same church; and the presumption is that the early settlers on Pompton Plains and in other parts of Pequannock as far up as Boonton occasionally attended this church at Acquackanonk. The early rec- ords of that church, kept in the Dutch language, contain entries of marriages of persons from Pequannock living in the vicinity of Montville and Boonton as far back as 1728. We find in the church records at Pompton and Pompton Plains entries of baptisms from 1736 to about 1800, of persons connected with families who resided in the southern part of Pequannock township and as far west as Boonton.
After the removal of Rev. Mr. Blaw efforts were made to reconcile and unite the two parties, and to build a new church for the accommodation of all. These efforts appeared to meet with success, and in 1769 it was ret solved to build a new church, 40 by. 50 feet. The nex- year an acre of ground was purchased for the purpose, the same on which the present church stands. The original church edifice on this ground was built in 1771, with a barrack-shaped roof and a steeple in the center; the name adopted was the "First Reformed Dutch Church of Pompton Plains," as appears by the public
records. In 1772 this church united with the churches at Fairfield and Totowa in calling as pastor the Rev. Hermanus Meyer, who was installed in 1773. He served the three churches about two years, when Fair- field was relinquished and he continued to serve at the Plains and at Totowa, and a part of the time at Boonton. Mr. Meyer was born in Germany, educated in one of the Dutch universities, and came to this country in 1762; he was a man of great learning, of a mild temper, and un- affected in his manner, and stood high in the opinion of the churches at large. He served this church about eighteen years, until his death, which occurred October 27th 1791; he was buried beneath the church at the Plains, and his epitaph is inscribed on a marble slab in the floor immediately in front of the pulpit.
After the death of Mr. Meyer there was a vacancy of about three years. This church united with the church at Old Boonton in 1794 in calling the Rev. Stephen Os- trander, who was twenty-five years old and had just been licensed to preach. He served fifteen years between the two churches, preaching one-quarter of the time at Old Boonton. Soon after his settlement the congregation provided a parsonage for him on the present site. During his pastorate 93 were added to his church. It is said of him that " he was a faithful pastor, unobtrusive and un- assuming in his deportment, conscientious and exact in the performance of all his duties, and unwearied in di- recting his efforts with a view to usefulness." About the year 1809 a dispute arose in the neighborhood of Pomp- ton Plains in regard to the public schools, which led to considerable disturbance. It is said that Ostrander, be- coming involved in this, refused to baptize the children of such as differed from him; this it appears impaired his usefulness as pastor and led to his removal.
That the dispute about the public schools was not the only disturbing element in this congregation at that time we are led to believe from what we find in a deed dated January 5th 1796, from Luke John Kiersted to Samuel Roomer and Philip Schuyler, churchi wardens or trustees of the Reformed Dutch church at Pompton Plains, con- veying half an acre of ground on the east side of the road for church purposes. It is therein recited that "whereas the said trustees, being desirous to settle a minister of the gospel who shall preach for the congrega- tion at Pompton Plains the true doctrine of the Christian religion, and uphold and follow the rules and church orders, according as they are established by the national synod at Dordrecht (or Dort) in the years 1618 and 1619, have for that purpose purchased of the said Luke John Kiersted all that lot," etc.
From 1809 to 1813 the pulpit in this church was again vacant. On the 19th of September 1813 the Rev. Jacob T. Field was installed as pastor. It is said of him that he was a " faithful, active and fearless minister, and that the fruits he was permitted to gather testify to the fidelity of his ministry." A short time after Mr. Field was settled here a meeting of the congregation was held to determine as to rebuilding and enlarging the church edi- fice. It was resolved " that the church be extended 16
RESIDENCE OF PETER HOPPER, POMPTON PLAINS, MORRIS,, CO, N. J .
RESIDENCE OF A.A. MACWITHEY. POMPTON, MORRIS, CO, N. J.
THE REFORMED CHURCH OF POMPTON PLAINS.
283
feet toward the road, with a steeple in the east end, the walls to be raised in due proportion and the windows raised so as to cover the galleries, and that the inside of the church be altered and finished in such manner as the trustees may deem proper."
Previous to the settlement of Mr. Field over the Plains church a part of the congregation residing at the upper end of the Plains, at Pompton, in Wynockie Valley and Boardville, feeling the need of better accommodations for holding religious services, at a meeting called for the purpose in February 1812 decided to build a church in the neighborhood of Pompton, to be styled the "Pomp- ton and Wynockie Church." As the result a church was built, and in a month after Mr. Field had been installed at the Plains this edifice was dedicated by him. He preached there every third Sabbath, the people of that section paying one third of his salary.
The people at Pompton, feeling the need of more ser- vices, applied to the consistory of the Plains church for a separation; this being conceded, application was made to the Classis of Bergen for a separate organization. This was granted, and the organization effected June 26th 1815; the two congregations being unable to effect a satisfactory arrangement as to the joint services of Mr. Field, the church at Pompton gave him a separate call, which he accepted, his pastorate at the Plains lasting a little over two years. The church at the Plains is the only one within the present bounds of Pequannock town- ship. A portion of the people on the upper end of the Plains and in the northern part of the township are at- tached to the congregation of the church at Pompton; others attend the Baptist and Methodist churches at Bloomingdale, and the Methodist church at Pompton.
There was then a vacancy at the Plains for about two years after Mr. Field's departure. February 9th 1817 Rev. Ava Neal was installed as pastor. He served this church and the one at Fairfield about six years, preach- ing one-third of the time at the latter. Then the Fair- field church released him, and he was retained by the Plains alone until July 1828. In 1829 he was suspended from the ministry, but was restored in 1833 and died in 1839.
In 1829 this church united with the one at Montville in calling the Rev. Abraham Messler; he served about three and a half years, when he accepted a call from the church of Raritan, at Somerville, where he still continues.
A few months after the removal of Mr. Mesler this church called the Rev. James R. Talmage, who was in- stalled on the 20th of February 1833; his pastorate con- tinued about four years, when he accepted a call from the church at Blawenburg, N. J.
After about eight months vacancy this church secured as pastor Rev. Garret C. Schanck. He served the people here about fifteen years, in which time 120 were added to the membership. During his pastorate the parsonage was rebuilt and made into a neat and commodious house. In March 1853 he resigned.
The same year a call was extended to Rev. Charles I. Shepard, and he was ordained and installed in Septem-
ber. His pastorate continued five years, when, it is said, "for providential reasons Mr. Shepard felt constrained to ask for a dissolution of the pastoral relation," and on January 15th 1858 he was dismissed by the Classis of Passaic to the church of Linlithgow.
The next pastor was Rev. John F. Harris, who was in- stalled March 27th 1858. He served nine years. During his pastorate the church building was greatly improved by refurnishing it and frescoing the walls.
The Rev. John Van Neste Schenk, of Owasco Outlet, near Auburn, N. Y., was next called. He began his labors here on the first Sabbath in October 1867, and was installed on the 23d of the same month. He served this congregation about four years, when he died after a short illness, September 28th 1871, aged twenty-nine years. During his pastorate here 78 were added to the church membership. Mr. Schenk was born near South Branch, Somerset county, N. J., February 21st 1842; was ed- ucated at the classical institute at Ovid, Seneca county, N. Y., and at Rutgers College. His labors in the church at Pompton Plains were marked with great success; pos- sessing a generous nature and winning ways, he made many friends, especially among the young, and was held in high esteem generally by the people; his early death was greatly lamented. The renewed interest awakened under his ministry led the congregation to desire to fur- ther enlarge the church edifice and subject it to general and extensive repairs, which purpose was carried into effect early in 1871.
On the 19th of May 1871 the following resolution was passed by the consistory : " Resolved, That our pastor be requested to prepare a historical discourse in con- nection with the completion of the first century of our house of worship, to be delivered at its reopening."
In compliance with this request Mr. Schenk with con- siderable labor and research prepared such a discourse, containing much valuable information, which he in- tended to deliver at the reopening of the edifice on the 22nd of November 1871. To it we are indebted for much that is contained in the history which we have given of this church. As a matter of interest and appropriate in this connection, we copy the following from a report of the dedicatory services :
" The church building has been lengthened by the ad- dition of thirteen and one half feet, with the pulpit in a recess. Thirty new pews were thus formed ; the whole interior was tastefully frescoed, painted, and refurnished. On the 22nd of November 1871 the church, appropriately draped in mourning, was filled with deeply interested worshipers at the reopening exercises. The devotional services was conducted by Rev. John N. Jansen of Pompton, Rev. Charles I. Shepard of Newtown, L. I., Rev. J. F. Harris of Hurley, N. Y., Rev. Garret C. Schanck of Monmouth, N. J., and Rev. Paul D, Van Cleef of Jersey City, N. J. By request of the consistory of the church Rev. George J. Van Neste, of Little Falls, read the historical discourse prepared by the late pastor."
Rev. J. H. Whitehead succeeded next in the pastorate, where he is still laboring.
The records of this church present a total membership
38
.
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HISTORY OF MORRIS COUNTY.
of 808 enrolled during the one hundred and thirty-five years of its existence up to 1871.
It is said " the first child baptized in the church on the Plains on its present site was Lena, daughter of Anthony Mandeville." She married Cornelius T. Dore- mus, who owned the farm and lived in a house that stood on the site of the present parsonage of the Montville church. They had two children, a son Thomas C. and a daughter Elma. Thomas C. Doremus was for many years a prominent merchant in New York, of the firm of Doremus & Nixon; he married a sister of the late Daniel Haines, formerly governor of this State. Professor Og- den Doremus, well known for his lectures on science and his knowledge of analytical chemistry, is a son of Thomas C. Doremus. The daughter Elma married Rev. Abraham Mesler, who served about three and a half years as pastor at the Plains and at Montville, and who since 1832 has been pastor of the church at Somerville, N. J., where he is now pastor emeritus.
EDUCATION.
and that they expressed regret that their church services were no longer conducted in the Dutch language, as they could understand it so much better than the English. Some of these old Dutch Bibles still remain in the hands of descendants unable to read them, kept as cherished relics of former times. One in the possession of the writer was printed at the Hague in Holland in 1647, measures 10 by 1612 inches, and contains 1,200 pages and several illustrations.
The oldest record of Pequannock township that we find, which is in the keeping of the township clerk of Boonton township, bears date 1741, which was in the fourteenth year of the reign of King George II. of Eng- land; and is no doubt the first record of township pro- ceedings after the setting off of Pequannock from Han- over township in 1740.
We find no record in the township books pertaining to educational matters until 1830, when the school system established by an act of the Legislature in 1829 went into effect. But that the early settlers were not unmind- ful of their duty to establish schools and maintain them we have reliable testimony, brought down to us by tra- dition. Very few if any of the public schools in those early days, or for seventy-five years following, were kept open for more than one or two quarters in the year. Funds to support a school were sometimes raised by sub- scription. Generally a contract was made with the teacher at from eight to ten shillings per scholar for a quarter, the teacher to have his board and lodging found by boarding around among the patrons of the school. This method of employing and paying a teacher pre- vailed about a hundred years, and did not entirely dis- appear in Pequannock township until about 1853.
There is evidence that the first immigrants coming from Holland, Germany, Switzerland, and England gen- erally possessed a rudimental education, and there is little doubt that the instruction of their children at first re- ceived some attention in the family, until the increase of population and the improved condition of the land and the people enabled them by concerted effort to establish and support neighborhood schools. Tradition informs us that the first school buildings, like the first dwellings, were built of logs; that their internal arrangements were of the cheapest and plainest order, and that the teachers employed were not generally of a high grade either as to ability or character. The eastern portion of Pequannock From 1790 to 1830 many persons employed as teachers [in the public schools were occasionally addicted to in- temperance. During that period many thus employed were of foreign birth, either Englishmen or Irishmen. The short and uncertain periods of keeping schools open tended to make the teacher's calling one of an itinerant character and led to frequent changes, and as a conse- quence there were many applicants for teachers' po- sitions not of the best character either for learning or morality. Owing to the demoralized state of public sen- timent persons of questionable qualifications, simply be- canse they offered to work for a low price, would often succeed in obtaining the position of teachers, to the ex- clusion of others of better character and higher ability. A few facts and circumstances yet fresh in the recollection of some of our older people will serve to illustrate. was first settled almost exclusively by Hollanders, who came from Bergen, New York, Kingston, Albany and Schenectady. Many brought with them books printed in the Dutch language. Those who at first settled in the southern and middle portions of this township were also principally of the same nationality, and the Holland Dutch was the language mostly used among these early settlers and their descendants for more than sixty years. The services in the first churches of the Dutch Reformed denomination were conducted in that language, and the records of such churches were kept principally in that language up to the close of the Revolutionary war, and in some cases later. For many years in churches of this denomination there was manifested a strong objection to employing any one as a pastor who had not been regu- larly educated and licensed in the schools of Holland. About the year 1820 an Englishman was engaged as a teacher for the Montville school. He appeared to be a gentleman and well educated, and was considered in the district as quite an acquisition because of his ability to write a very pretty hand, as shown by the copies he made for the children in their writing books. It was at first his custom to open his school in the morning with prayer. One morning, when the children as usual assembled at the school-house a little before 9 o'clock, the teacher was Tradition informs us that the public schools were taught in the English language for some years prior to the Revo- lutionary war, but the Holland Dutch continued to be the language mainly used in many families of the de- scendants of the first Holland settlers, and was so used quite generally up to 1790 and 1800, and in some families 18 to 30 years later. There are a few persons still living who recollect that their parents were, as late as 1815 to 1820, accustomed to read from their old Dutch Bibles, sitting in his chair behind his desk, with his arms crossed
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