USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > Piscataway > History of the First Baptist Church of Piscataway : with an account of its bi-centennial celebration, June 20th, 1889, and sketches of pioneer progenitors of Piscataway planters > Part 2
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The Town House was built in 1685-6. This appears from an item in the Official Record at Trenton, liber 4, which reads verbatim, thus: "Jan. 18, 1685-6. At the Town Meetinge then agreed yt there should be a meetinge house built forthwith, the dimensions as followeth : Twenty foot wide, thirty foot longue and ten foot between joynts." This house, though not of magnificent proportions nor of ornate architecture, was deemed ample for the purpose for which it was designed. Let not the phraseology employed to describe this house beget the idea that it was designed exclusively or chiefly as a house of worship. It was built rather for municipal business, for holding courts, and for the consideration and discussion of matters appertaining to the public good. It was emphati- cally a Town Hall in the modern sense of this term. Yet its use for holding religious meetings was likewise contemplated, as might natu- rally be inferred from the religious character of the settlers, apart from any positive evidence that it was so used. A Town House in a com- munity that "swarmed with Anabaptists" would scarcely be put up without reference to its being used for divine worship ; and we know it was so used. There your Baptist ancestors, the Drakes and Dunns and Martins and Suttons and Daytons and Runyons and Stelles met together and worshipped God in spirit and in truth. Nor is it difficult for us to imagine how profound must have been their gratitude that there were none to molest or make them afraid in their new asylum of liberty.
Between this unpretentious " Meetinge House " and the dwellings of the people there was, as we infer from the records of those times, a general correspondence. These also were of simple, and often rude structure, yet good enough to meet the reasonable demands of dwellers in a new country. Garvin Laurie, Deputy Governor of East Jersey, writing to a friend of his in London under date of East Jersey, March 26, 1684, after speaking of the variety of forest trees and of the abund-
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ance of fish and oysters, of fowl and pork and venison, and the cheap- ness of the products of the soil, says : "We have good brick earth and stone for building at Amboy and elsewhere, the Countrie farm houses are built very cheap; a Carpenter with a man's own servants builds the house ; they have all materials for nothing, except Nails ; their chimneys are of stones ; they make their own Ploughs and Carts for the most part, only the Iron work is very dear. The poorer sort set up a house of two or three rooms themselves after this manner : The walls are of cloven timber, about 8 or 10 inches broad, like planks set on end to the ground and the other nailed to the raising which they plaister within ; they build a barn after the same manner and these not above 5 lib. apiece ; and then to work they go ; 2 or 3 men in one year will clear 50 acres, in some places 60, in others more." And in another letter we are told that "the Coverings to their Houses are mostly Shingles made of Oak, Chestnut and Cedar wood, which makes a very neat covering, yet there are some houses covered after the Dutch manner with pantikles."1 These extracts are here given in order to convey to the present generation some idea of the manner in which their worthy ancestors lived and toiled, of their habitations, in a word, of their simple home-life. If their style of living was primitive, and devoid of modern comfort and luxuriousness, we can, nevertheless, easily conceive how happy and restful in mind they were, and how willing to endure the toils and hardships incident to pioneer life when they contrasted their peaceful condition with that of thousands in the mother country and on the Continent, many of them of like faith, against whom even now under the infamous reigns of Charles II. and James II., the waves of persecution were fiercely beating.2
These years of tribulation abroad wrought no abridgement of the civil and religious rights of the settlers in New Jersey. Amid all political changes and the shiftings of administrations, they found what here they sought, freedom to worship God, and were thankful. The twenty-four Proprietors into whose hands the ownership of New Jersey passed in 1682, among whom were William Penn and Robert Barclay, 3 were men who respected the rights of conscience. It was during the government by these Proprietors that the three oldest churches of our
1. Whitehead's East Jersey under the Proprietors, pp. 420, 424.
2. Nearly eight thousand Protestant Dissenters perished in prison in the days of King Charles II., merely for dissenting from the Church of England, (in matters of faith and Church government) and for no other cause were stifled, I had almost said, murdered, in jails for their religion .- Quoted from Defoe, by Ivimey.
3. Author of the "Apology for the Doctrines and Principles of the Quakers," and for a short time Governor of the Province.
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THE PISCATAWAY BAPTIST CHURCH.
denomination came into existence ; that at Middletown in 1688 ; this Church a few months afterwards, in 1689, and the Church at Cohansey in 1690. This Church was the twelfth if not the tenth one organized on this Continent. 1 We know not in what month of the year 1689 this Church was constituted, nor is it indispensable we should know, how- ever gratifying it would be to our curiosity to know not only the month, but the day, and the time of day, and all the circumstances attending so memorable an event. Reliable records inform us that of the settlers up to 1689, (the names of some of whom have already been given), and the larger part of whom were doubtless Baptists in sentiment, only six men formed the constituency of the Church. Their names were :
HUGH DUNN, EDMUND DUNHAM,
JOHN DRAKE,
NICHOLAS BONHAM,
JOHN SMALLEY,
JOHN RANDOLPH.
All these names, except one, are now on the Register of the Church, showing that all through the generations following, in the place of the fathers have come the children. Dr. Benedict, in his " History of the Baptists," fitly remarks that " were we to judge of the religious faith of these settlers by the lists of members in the two Baptist churches in Piscataway, we should infer they were of that Denomination, most of the names being found on those lists." This was written seventy-five years ago, and the same might be said now. The six brethren named above were constituted a Baptist Church some time in the Spring of 1689, according to Edwards, through the official ministrations of Rev. Thomas Killingsworth, the same brother who had performed a like service for the brethren at Middletown. 1
It is strange that the name of no female appears among the con- stituent members of our three oldest churches in the State. These constituent members numbered thirty-two men. It is known that some, perhaps the most of them, were heads of families. That their wives generally were one with them in faith and in the hope of the Gospel, is not to be doubted. Utterly unable to account for the omission of
1. Dr. Benedict states (History of the Baptists, vol. 1, p. 503) that the Church of Tiverton " was the seventh Baptist Church formed on the American Continent." If so, Piscataway was the tenth.
2. Too much can scarcely be said in praise of the eminent labors of this servant of the Lord. A native of Norwich, Eng,, and ordained in that country, he came to America and engaged earnestly in the work of the ministry. During one of his itinerating tours through the Province of New Jersey, he visited Middletown, where he seems to have been mainly instrumental in effecting the organization of that Church. It was probably during the same tour that he visited the Baptists in Piscataway and performed a like service for them. In the following year he officiated at the constitution of the Cohansey Church, in the neighborhood of which he had previously fixed his residence. He was called to the pastorate of the new Church and continued in that relation till his death in 1708. Mr. Killingsworth was also a Judge of the Salem Court. That he was an honored citizen and esteemed minister of Christ, the records of the times fully confirm.
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THE PISCATAWAY BAPTIST CHURCH.
the names of noble women among the constituent members, the fact only can be noted with unfeigned regret.
Of the foregoing six constituent members of this Church three were exhorters, or lay-preachers, namely: John Drake, Hugh Dunn and Edmund Dunham. Mr. Dunham afterwards became a Seventh-Day Baptist, and was one of the constituent members and the first pastor of the Sabbatarian Church near the settlement now known as New Market. The account of his conversion to Sabbatarian sentiments, whether truthful or apocryphal, has been so often related that it need not be repeated here. Hugh Dunn, as already stated, was one of the four patentees of the township. He appears to have been a prominent citizen. Of his ministerial work nothing is definitely known. It is probable that, gifted with exhortation and aptness to teach, he had been chosen by his brethren in connection with his associates, Drake and Dunning, to preside at such religious meetings as were held in the settlement, and, as opportunity offered, to preach the Gospel. We know but little of him subsequent to the formation of the Church, of the place or time of his death. The same name yet stands on the Church Register, one of the name being an honored deacon. Nor can it be doubted that a large part of the citizens of East Jersey and else- were of the same name are descendants either of Hugh Dunn or of his near relatives in Colonial times.
As we now take up the name of John Drake, the history of the Church from his time onward will be treated in sections corresponding with the terms of the pastorates.
JOHN DRAKE, FIRST PASTOR. 1689-1739.
This gentleman was chosen as pastor of the Church at the time of its organization and was then ordained, the Rev T. Killingsworth offi- ciating. Mr. Drake, as we have seen, was one of the early settlers, having come into the province in 1668. His native place was Devon- shire, Eng., the home of Sir Francis Drake, of whom he is supposed, not without good reason, to have been a nephew. Morgan Edwards1 speaks of him as "an excellent man," a fact that his long pastorate would of itself indicate. The same authority mentions a " report " in his time, but without making any comments upon it, that the Church remained without change either by diminution or addition, from the
1. Rev. Morgan Edwards, born in 1722, died in 1795. Author of "Materials towards a History of New Jersey Baptists," &c.
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THE PISCATAWAY BAPTIST CHURCH.
time of its constitution till 1709, just twenty years ! How does such a report consist with the fact that thirteen of its members went out from it to form the Sabbatarian Church, near New Market, in 1705 ? Here was a diminution of thirteen within sixteen years of its existence, and of course there must have been an addition to the original number of six. The report is absolutely baseless. What is probably true is that after the lapse of twenty years from its formation, the Church num- bered only twenty members. Let such a report, so unworthy the ministry of the " excellent" John Drake and so inconsistent with known facts, be forever laid to rest as a mere fiction of a hundred years ago.
In 1707 the Church united with four others in forming the Phila- delphia Association, the first formed Baptist Association in America. The other four were those at Pennepek, Pa .; Middletown, N. J. ; Cohansey, N. J., and Welch Tract, Del. It appears from the Century Minutes of the Association, that the churches had been accustomed to hold annually what were called " general meetings," with the design of con- centrating evangelical efforts in and near the locality of the churches. The pastors attending these general meetings would, in their talk about Zion, very naturally report the spiritual condition of their respective churches and consult one another in regard to Christian doctrine, especially, in regard to questions of discipline of a perplexing charac- ter. Hence arose the desirableness of a yearly association, involving a representation of the churches by delegates, that the light and wisdom of such a body might be reflected on all the churches. To the Church at Pennepek, however, belongs the honor of having proposed such a body, as appears from the following record taken from their minutes : "Before our general meeting, held in Philadelphia in the 7th month, 1707, it was concluded by the several congregations of our judgment to make choice of some particular brethren, such as they thought most capable in every congregation, and those to meet at the yearly meet- ing, to consult about such things as were wanting in the churches, and to set them in order ; and these brethren, meeting at the said . yearly meeting which began the 27th of the seventh month, on the seventh day of the week, agreed to continue the meeting till the third day following in the work of the public ministry." This record is deemed worthy of a place in this historical narrative, not only as an interesting item in itself, but as showing the origin of the first Association in this country, aptly called the " Mother of us all," and, still further, as defining the limited scope of such a body at that early period. It
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THE PISCATAWAY BAPTIST CHURCH.
was simply a consulting and advisory body, the gathering of statistics not being at that time contemplated. 1
The worthy pastor of this Church was deemed by his ministerial brethren and by the Church, capable of advising about such things as were wanting in the churches. At the session of 1712 we find his name among the members of a large committee " to hear and determine concerning a disturbance and rupture in the Church at Philadelphia and Pennepek." At the session of 1730 this Church sent up a request " for the help of ministering brethren at their general meeting." The Association "judged it necessary that our ministering brethren do supply such general meetings ; nevertheless, we, not knowing who, or or how to bind any of them, think it necessary that the church where such are held, send to them, that, if possible, they may be certain of some help." At the session of 1731 the Church was not represented. Twenty-one delegates were present from other churches. We find, however, this suggestive and sad item : "The Association had neither queries nor requests from any of the churches ; but the associated brethren, seeing no messengers from Piscataway as usual, and hearing by some of our brethren of the sad and distracted condition of that congregation, they thought proper to write to them, and to appoint Mr. Jenkins Jones2 and Mr. Joseph Eaton3 to give them a visit before the winter, which by the blessing of God proved a means to reduce that Church to peace and order." This last item accounts, doubtless, for the urgent request of the Church at the session of the preceding year for ministerial help at their general meeting. But how shall we account for " the sad and distracted condition of the Church?" We learn from Dr. Benedict4 that there came into the parish from Rhode Island a man calling himself Joseph Loveall-said to be an assumed name-bearing a letter of introduction signed by James Clark, Daniel Wightman and John Comer, all well known and worthy pastors of that Province, who certified that they then "knew nothing but that his conduct was agreeable to the Gospel of Christ." This man was gifted as a speaker, and as the Church, owing to the advanced age of Mr. Drake, wished to secure an assistant for him, they called Mr. Loveall, all too hastily, to ordination. Very soon after his ordination he was found to be grossly immoral, and was not allowed to administer the ordinances or to perform any pastoral duties. He must, however, have had
1. No statistics appear in the Century Minutes until 1761, a period of over fifty years.
2. Pastor of Pennepek Church.
3. Pastor of Montgomery Church.
4. History, vol. 1, p. 567, and vol. 2, p. 15.
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THE PISCATAWAY BAPTIST CHURCH.
some sympathising friends who would neither believe him to be guilty nor allow the Church to exclude him ; otherwise the distracted con - dition of the congregation can scarcely be explained. There are always those who are loth to believe that a man of brilliant talents and pleasing address can, like Satan, transform himself into an angel of light. He went from here to Maryland and thence to Virginia, in both of which Provinces he formed pastoral connections; and in the latter was excluded for the same iniquities that had been discovered in him here. The con- dition of things in the parish must, for the time being, have been very grievious to the venerable pastor. But, happily for him and the cause, the visits of his brethren, Jones and Eaton, served to restore peace and harmony to the Church. Mr. Drake's name appears on the Associa- tional roll of messengers, for the last time in 1734. He was now advanced in years, and a journey to Philadelphia was no light under- taking in his time even for a man in the vigor of life, the road or roads leading thereto being scarcely worthy of the name. Mr. Drake con- tinued in charge of the Church until 1739 when he entered into rest. And it may be added that no man knoweth of his sepulchre at this day. No stone or mark exists to tell where his body was laid. But his and our Redeemer knows,
"And often from the skies Looks down and watches all his dust, Till He shall bid it rise."
Mr. Drake, according to Morgan Edwards, was thrice married. The names of his children were Isaac, Abraham, Francis, John, Benjamin, Samuel, Sarah and Rebecca. The daughters married into the families of the Hills and Randolphs. Unable to trace the family genealogy minutely, suffice it to state that Mr. William M. Drake and his brother, George Drake, so well known to us all, are the seventh genera- tion in descent from George Drake, the brother of the first pastor, and the farm now owned by Mr. William M. Drake has been owned by successive generations of Drakes from the time it was first purchased when the territory was yet a wilderness. The late Mrs. Henry Smalley was a lineal descendant of the Rev. John Drake.
BENJAMIN STELLE, SECOND PASTOR. 1739-1759.
The Rev. Benjamin Stelle was a son of Poincet or Pontius Stelle, a native of the South of France, who, as one of the oppressed Hugenots, sought refuge in America and settled in New York. There Benjamin was born in 1693. His mother's name was Eugenie Legereaux Stelle.
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THE PISCATAWAY BAPTIST CHURCH.
About the year 1707 he came to Piscataway. The time of his uniting with the Church is unknown. He married Miss Mercy Drake. His name first appears in the Associational list of delegates in 1729, ten years before Mr. Drake's death. We meet with it again in the lists of 1733, '35, '39, '40, '42, '44, and for the last time in that of 1746. He may have attended other sessions, the names of delegates not appearing in all the minutes. The time of his license is also unknown. But from his moral and Christian worth and his high standing as a citizen, it was quite probable that he was called by his brethren to preach the Word and render assistance to the venerable Drake in the last years of his ministry. But of this there is no certain record. He was not ordained till after Mr. Drake's death. He was then no novice, being at least 55 years of age. Held in high esteem by his fellow citizens, offices of honor and trust had been thrust upon him. He was a Justice of the Peace, a chosen Freeholder for ten consecutive years, a Collector of Taxes from 1727-1731, and Overseer of Roads after as well as before his ordination. His election to these various offices speaks loudly for the sagacity and moral worth of the citizens of that day in seeking to fill these offices with men of integrity and ability. It speaks volumes for the man who could discharge all these civic functions without compromising his character as a consistent Christian and a good minister of Jesus Christ. Honored as Mr. Stelle was by the people, he was still more honored by the Great Head of the Church, who, in his grace, made him a winner of souls and an upbuilder of the saints. During his pastorate the Church largely increased in numbers and in- fluence, numbering in 1746 over one hundred members. These members were not all in Piscataway, but scattered over a wide extent of country. Fifteen of the members1 living in the vicinity of Plainfield and Scotch Plains, were on September 8, 1747, constituted an independent Baptist Church at Scotch Plains, of which the Rev. Benjamin Miller, a native of Piscataway, and also a licentiate of this Church, took the spiritual oversight in February, 1748. This Church, the eighth one organized in New Jersey, united with the Philadelphia Association the same year. The wisdom of organizing this new interest soon became apparent. Small in the beginning, the divine blessing so largely rested on the labors of the devout and zealous Miller that after the lapse of
1. Their names were William Darby, Recompense Stanbery, John Lambert, John Dennis, John Stanbery, Henry Crosley, John Sutton, Jr., Isaac Manning, Mary Brodwell, Mary Green. Mary Dennis, Tibiah Sutton, Catherine Manning, Sarah DeCamp, Sarah Pearce. The letter dismissory is signed by Benjamin Stelle, Benjamin Miller, Isaac Stelle, James Pyatt, John Clarkson, Thomas Worthington, Thomas A. Martin and John Drake. This letter bears the date of August 5, 1747.
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THE PISCATAWAY BAPTIST CHURCH.
fifteen years from its recognition it reported to the Association one hundred and forty-four members, or, more than three times the member- ship of the mother church for that year.
In the year 1752, another band of members living in and near Morristown, some twenty-five miles distant from Piscataway, were duly set apart as an independent Church.1 Their first pastor was Rev. John Gano, whose interesting life is well told by Dr. Benedict.2 From this time on we know but little of the life or labors of the much revered Benjamin Stelle, only that he continued in the pastoral relation up to the time of his death in January, 1759, in the 76th year of his age, and the twentieth of his pastorate. As a pastor he had fed the flock and welcomed lambs to the fold. Zealous for the triumph of truth and for the glory of the Master, he had seen two colonies go out from the Church, yet comparatively small in numbers, to plant the standard of his and their Lord in other fields, and therein he rejoiced. While in his prime, before "age stole fire from his mind, and vigor from his limbs," he was regarded by his contemporaries as "a popular preacher " and a man without reproach. And although years before his death his head became " frosted o'er with time " we do not learn, either through record or tradition, that the Church grew weary of his ministry and wished him to vacate the field. On the contrary, they clung to him to the last, as one justly entitled to their veneration and love. His remains were buried in the old graveyard at Piscatawaytown. An ordinary headstone, erected to his memory, bears this simple inscrip- tion :
In Memory of THE REV. BENJAMIN STELLE,
Minister OF THE BAPTIST SOCIETY in Piscataway, Who departed this life Jan. 22, 1759. Ætat 76.
Your Fathers, where are they ? And the Prophets, do they live forever ?- Zech. 1:5.
Mr. Stelle left a large family, the genealogy of which will appear at the close of our narrative.
1. The names of the constituents were : Daniel Sutton, Jonas Goble, John Sutton, Malatiah Goble, Jemima Wiggins, Daniel Walling, Ichabod Tompkins, Sarah Wiggins, Mary Goble, Naomi Allen and Robert Goble.
2. Vol. 11, pp, 306-323.
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THE PISCATAWAY BAPTIST CHURCH.
ISAAC STELLE, THIRD PASTOR.
1759-1781.
Rev. Isaac Stelle, son of Benjamin and Mercy Stelle, was born in Piscataway in 1719. He married Miss Christiana Clarkson. He was ordained as assistant to his father in 1751, and became sole pastor of the Church after his father's death in 1759. What his educational advantages had been, we know not, but he appears to have been a man of more than ordinary vigor and sprightliness of mind ; a peer among his fellows, and from the first able to hold a conspicuous position among his brethren in the ministry, and a large place in their hearts. Morgan Edwards speaks of " the goodness of the man and the excel- lency of his preaching. Dr. Samuel Jones, in his century sermon, after referring to the earlier and more eminent ministers of the Asso- ciation, adds that "a junior class came forward in the churches who were in a pretty high degree eminent in their day ; as John Davies, of Hartford ; Robert Kelsie, of Cohansey ; Peter Peterson VanHorn, of Lower Dublin; Isaac Eaton, of Hopewell ; Mr. Walton, of Morris- town ; Isaac Stelle, of Piscataway ; Benjamin Miller, of Scotch Plains, and John Gano, of New York. These were burning and shining lights, especially the last three. May the God of Elijah grant that a double portion of their spirit may rest on all that stand as watchmen on Zion's walls." A pardonable pride may be indulged that two of these "especi- ally burning and shining lights " were licentiates of this Church, namely : Benjamin Miller and Isaac Stelle.
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