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 3
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In the Association Mr. Stelle was highly esteemed for his wisdom, sound judgment, and pulpit gifts. He was often placed on important committees, and appointed to represent the Association in sister bodies, in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and Virginia. He preached the introductory sermon before the Association in 1752, again in 1759 ; also in 1766, from John, 1:14: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we behold his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth"; and for the last time in 1774, from Jeremiah, 23: 28 : " The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream ; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully ; what is the chaff to the wheat ? saith the Lord." He was chosen Moderator of the Association in 1776, and again in 1780. In the year 1763 he wrote by appointment the Circular Letter; or, Pastoral Address to the churches, and again in 1768. A part of the former we here transcribe, believing it will be read with interest by the members of the Church, the more, as in all probability he left no manuscript sermons or other
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document whereby may be indicated the character of his mind and the fervor of his zeal :
" The elders and messengers of the several Baptist congregations in Pennsylvania and provinces adjacent, now met in general Associa- tion at Philadelphia, the 11th, 12th and 13th of October, 1763.
To THE SEVERAL CHURCHES WE REPRESENT, SEND CHRISTIAN SALUTA- TION :
DEARLY BELOVED BRETHREN :- We have the satisfaction to acquaint you of our meeting together, according to appointment. A good measure of brotherly love has subsisted among us during the time of our con- sultation. Thanks be to the Lord who is wisdom and counsel to his people.
And now, brethren, receive a word of exhortation in love. Strive to abound in vital piety ; see that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. Be careful to maintain a steady course of cheerful obedience to God all the days of your life. Neglect not prayer, neither family nor closet. Strengthen the hands of your ministers and encourage their visits to vacant places. Delight yourselves in the Word, worship and ordinances of God. Make the sacred oracles the rule of all your actions. Learn by Christ's sermon on the Mount, to forgive your enemies ; strive to live peaceably with all men.
May you ever be able to walk together in the unity of the Spirit, provoking one another to love and good works, and that being by promise united to an inheritance among them that are sanctified, you may at last hear the voice of the heavenly bridegroom say unto you, 'Come up hither'; which may God, of his infinite mercy, grant for Jesus sake. Amen."
All these exhortations might be as pertinently addressed to the churches now as to those of a hundred and twenty-five years ago. Notice, particularly his interest in evangelical work, in the counsel, "Strengthen the hands of your ministers, and encourage their visits to vacant places."
In the Association that met at New York in 1772, during which Mr. Isaac Skillman was set apart to the ministry, Mr. Stelle, with Rev. Abel Morgan and Rev. John Gano, performed the ordination service after a sermon by President Manning. At the ordination of Dr. Manning himself ten years before at Scotch Plains, we are told by Prof. Guild that " his beloved friend, the Rev. Isaac Stelle, of Piscataway, made the ordaining prayer." Between Dr. Manning and Mr. Stelle there subsisted a close and loving intimacy until the death of the latter. In President Manning's diary of a journey from Providence to Philadelphia and return in 1779,1
1. Sec Prof. Guild's "Manning and Brown University," pp. 266-286, a very valuable and interesting memoir. The diary or journal alone abounds in historical incidents, and also in allusion to persons and families so well known then in this section, as are their descendants now, that it would well repay every Baptist living between Elizabeth and Hopewell to read.
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he refers repeatedly to Mr. Stelle, whom he met first during this journey at Scotch Plains, and where both of them preached on the 6th day of June ; whom he visited July 18, and for whom he preached twice. " Called on him on the 23d. He was not at home, met him at Mr. Hall's in Brunswick. August 22, preached at the Plains with Mr. Stelle who preached at 6 o'clock at Morristown." This was their final meet- ing on earth. Another of Mr. Stelle's contemporaries and his bosom friend was the Rev. Benjamin Miller, the first pastor of the daughter Church at Scotch Plains. Morgan Edwards, in referring to the inti- macy of Mr. Miller and Mr. Stelle, speaks of Mr. Miller as Mr. Stelle's " other self." Both, inspired with zeal for mission work, made long journeys together to remote parts of the country, once as far South as Virginia, preaching as they went, visiting feeble Churches, and every- where testifying the Gospel of the grace of God. Such itinerant labors were rare even in that age, and bear witness to the self-denial of these good men and their consecration to the Master's work. 1
It would interesting to know much more of the life and labors of the third pastor, even to form some idea by pen or pencil of his personal appearance ; but, as no portrait remains of him or of his predecessors, we are prepared to accept what Prof. Guild says of him: "He possessed a temperament exceedingly active and a disposition uncommonly amiable." . That he was a preacher far above mediocrity, is apparent from the promi- nence given him, by his contemporary brethren, in public bodies- brethren who, like him, adorned their holy profession and made their mark on the age ; Miller, Edwards, Gano, Isaac Eaton, Abel Morgan, and others of whom the world was not worthy. He and Miller, who illustrated the friendship of David and Jonathan, both died the same year, Mr. Stelle, October 9, Mr. Miller, November 14, 1781. "Lovely and pleasant," says one, "were they in their lives, and in death they were not long divided, the one having survived the other only thirty- five days."
"If one was grieved, it did them both annoy, If one rejoiced, the other felt the joy ; When one was gone, the other could not stay, But quickly hastened to eternal day."
Mr. Stelle did not attain to the venerable ages of his predecessors, being scarcely sixty-three years old when the Lord called him to rest from his labors. But his works followed with him, to be, with him, held in everlasting remembrance. His pastorate covered twenty-two years,
1. President Manning, in his letter to Rev. Benjamin Wallin, of London, under date of May 23, 1783, informs him of the death of "two eminent Baptist ministers nearly two years ago-the Rev. Messrs. Miller and Stelle, of the Scotch Plains and Piscataway Churches."-M. and B. U., p. 295.
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his entire ministry twenty-nine years, and, excepting his occasional missionary tours and one or two visits to Rhode Island, were confined exclusively to this Church. In Piscataway he was born and born again, licensed and ordained. In Piscataway he lived, labored and died. His remains were placed by the side of his father's. The inscription on the stone reads :
In Memory of ye REV. MR. ISAAC STELLE, Baptist Minister of ye Gospel of Christ, at Piscataway, Who departed this life Oct. ye 9th, 1781, in ye 63d year of his Age.
A loving Husband, a tender Parent and a Friend to all that love ye Lord Jesus.
No more ye Gospel Trumpet sounds By him who had much given, One in this Lower World imployed But now imployed in Heaven.
Mr. Stelle left seven sons and two daughters. His son, Benjamin, graduated at Princeton in 1766, and soon after established a Latin School at Providence, which was largely patronized. It was a daughter of this gentleman who became the second wife of the Hon. Nicholas Brown, the distinguished benefactor of Brown University. Mr. Stelle was also Clerk of the Baptist Church in Providence for many years.
The descendants of the Rev. Benjamin and Rev. Isaac Stelle are spread over all the country. They are in our chief cities and in country places, occupying the marts of business, or engaged in husbandry and manufactures, or pursuing various professional callings. Their influence in this Church from the beginning, and in the Baptist Israel at large, is not to be estimated in time. May all that bear the name, as they multiply through future generations, be in no wise unworthy of their honored ancestors.
Before we proceed further in our narrative, let us pause and con- sider where we are in history. It is the month of October, 1781, nearly a century after the planting of the Church-an eventful and sad month in its history, and still more eventful and joyous month in the history of our nation. Isaac Stelle rests from his labors and receives his crown. Ten days afterwards the month witnesses to the last blow struck for American independence at Yorktown, and the surrender of Lord Cornwallis and his army, to an end of the toils, sacrifices and sufferings of the patriot army and people, and to the rejoicings and thanksgivings that begin in the victorious army and spread throughout the Union.
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No part of our country had suffered more than New Jersey, not only from the tread of armed hosts to and fro, and battles fought on her soil, but from the terrorism and robbery of marauding bands of British soldiers and from the insolence and destructiveness of their allies, the tories, of whom this part of the State had its full share. Few dwell- ings, few church edifices, in this region escaped pillage. Few were the farms that were not robbed of their stock and of whatever could minister either to the greed or revengeful spirit of these plundering bands.
Now all is changed. Peace begins to dawn. The nation feels that it must come, that its blessings are just at hand. Under the influence of these anticipations-soon to be realized-the people begin to be of good cheer. East Jersey, no longer ground between the upper and nether millstones of British oppression and tory vandalism, lifts up her bowed head and gratefully hails a new era of national and religious life. This Church, the members of which had borne their full propor- tion of privation and sufferings and had experienced with other churches the evils of declension in religion and vital piety, we find still holding on its way and gathering together for worship and mutual counsel and exhortation, though reduced in numbers.
As already stated the minutes that have survived the Revolution begin on the 29th day of August, 1781, and are called the "Minutes of the First-Day Baptist Church at Piscataway." It might be supposed that at this meeting, or one held soon afterwards, there would be some allusion to the great loss the Church had sustained in the destruction or theft of its minutes for the preceding hundred years, but there is not the slightest allusion to so deplorable a fact. 1 But in strict harmony with the aim of the Church doubtless from the beginning, certainly for the last century, namely, to maintain the purity of the Church, its first " proceedings " relate to three delinquent members. The next meet- ing for business is held in October2 of the same year, and opposite the numeral 9, in the margin, we meet with this brief statement : "Our much esteemed pastor, Rev. Isaac Stelle, departed this life." Nothing more. How much it would gratify us to know more-to know how the death of such a man, minister, pastor, affected the Church and congre- gation ; to know which of his brethren officiated at his funeral, and sought to extol the grace that had made him the devoted servant of his Lord that he was, and one of the most useful men of the age.
1. Church records in those days were kept with-it might almost be said-provoking brevity.
2. The Church meetings were then held bi-monthly.
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For some unexplained reason the "proceedings " of the Church between October 31, 1781, and May 26, 1784, are not recorded. But, from a marginal note, we infer that it did meet, perhaps at irregular intervals, and took into consideration the call of a successor to Rev. Isaac Stelle. That note reads : "November, 1783, Rev. Reune Runyon became pastor of this Church." Thus are we brought down to the life and times of the fourth pastor.
REUNE RUNYON, FOURTH PASTOR ... 1783-181I.
This gentleman was a son of Reune Runyon, Esq., who, like the Stelles, was of French extraction.1 The Runyons came into the town- ship in 1676, but how many and from whence they immediately came, cannot be definitely ascertained. It is, however, known that the great grandfather of Rev. Reune Runyon,2 viz : Vincent Runyon, was of the province of Poitou, or Portiers, France, and tradition states that he and others of the same name were Hugenots who, to escape persecution, went first to the Isle of Jersey and thence came to East Jersey in 1676. Reune Runyon married Miss Rachel Drake. Their son, Reune Runyon, was born in Piscataway, November 29, 1741. In 1765 he married Miss Anne Bray. He was licensed to preach in 1771, and in June, 1782, he
was ordained as pastor of the church at Morristown, and continued in that relation about eleven years, embracing the period of the Revo- lutionary war, during the great part of which the house of worship there was used as a military hospital and storehouse. The meetings of the Church were necessarily suspended and its members scattered. Yet was the pastor accounted faithful, and through his labors about twenty souls were added to the Church. He was the fourth pastor of that Church, the first one having been the eminent John Gano.3 In the month of November, 1783, he entered upon pastoral duties here. The Church promised him £50 per annum, which, it was said, was not always promptly paid ; but, as he owned a good farm he obtained from it a comfortable support for a large family. His ministry proved a rich blessing to the Church, which, at the time of his settlement, numbered only forty persons. Two only were added the following
1. The name was originally spelled " Rongnion, " or " Rongneon."
2. See Genealogical Table at the close of this History.
3. Mr. Gano married a daughter of John Stites, Esq., Mayor of Elizabethtown, and a ruling elder of the Scotch Plains Church. Miss Stites was a sister of President Manning's wife. Mr. Gano was pastor, after leaving Morristown, of the Church in New York about twenty-five years, except when acting as chaplain in the army. He removed to Kentucky in 1787 and there died at a good old age,
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year ; none the next year. The whole number reported to the Associa- tion in 1785 was thirty-nine. The year 1786 was a year of special grace and large prosperity to this and other churches in the State, 1 twenty-eight being reported to the Association as having been baptised in that year, making the whole membership one hundred and twenty-one. This revival continued many months, twenty-two baptisms being reported the next year, the total membership reaching, in 1790, one hundred and forty- eight, or nearly four-fold that of 1785.
In the early part of Mr. Runyon's pastorate he was not ex-officio, Moderator of meetings for business. He may, possibly have declined to preside for prudential reasons, there being then some delicate matters before the Church which should, in his opinion, be determined by the independent judgment of the brethren. Be this as it may, at the meet- ing of May 26, 1784, it was "Resolved, That for the future on days of business, it shall be the practice of this Church at the opening of the business of the day to choose a Moderator."2 Most generally Deacon Edward Griffith3 was chosen to preside. The custom of choosing a Moderator at each meeting for business was observed for many years. It was discontinued at the settlement of the seventh pastor when it was " Resolved, That Brother Lewis be chosen as our Standing Moderator."
In the year 1789 the question that had long been agitated among Baptists, and concerning which the churches differed in sentiment and practice, namely: whether deacons should be ordained by imposition of hands, came under discussion in this Church, and by a formal vote was decided in the negative. It was destined, however, to come up again, as will presently appear.
In the month of August, 1791, a communication was received from the Scotch Plains Church requesting this Church " to consider the pro- priety of holding meetings two-thirds of the Lord's days at Samptown, steadily for one year, to be conducted by Rev. Reune Runyon and Rev. William Van Horne.4 After the appointment of a joint com- mittee by the two churches which met at Samptown the same year and brought their combined wisdom to bear on the whole matter, the result was the recognition of the members living in the neighborhood of
1. Middletown reported 25 baptised; Scotch Plains, 47 ; New York, 41; Mt. Bethel, 76; Morristown,27 ; Hightstown, 66.
2. This resolution justifies the inference that heretofore the pastors had been Moderators, ex- officio.
3. This good deacon was the maternal ancestor of the esteemed and well-known Dr. E. M. Hunt, now of Trenton.
4. The successor to Rev. Benjamin Miller, the first pastor. He served the Church twenty two years and then started for Ohio, intending to reside there, but died on the way at Pittsburg in 1807, aged 61 years,
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Samptown as an independent Church in the year 1792. As a majority of the constituent members were dismissed by the Scotch Plains Church, the Samptown Church must be regarded as a daughter of that Church.
As a matter of interest connected with this event, it may be stated that the removal of the meeting-house to that neighborhood had been mooted by some members of the Church, and so intent were they in having it done that they offered a motion in a business meeting held in February, 1791, "that our meeting-house be moved to Samptown." Strange as it may seem, the minutes do not inform us how this motion was decided. But we know it was decided, and only as a people "having understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do " could have decided it.
The year 1792 is also memorable for the withdrawal of the Church from the Philadelphia Association, after a union with it of eighty-five years, and for greater convenience, uniting with the New York Associa- tion, for which purpose it had been dismissed by the mother body the previous year. Mr. Runyon was Moderator of the New York Associa- tion in the years 1797, 1801, 1803 and 1808. At the session of 1810 he preached the introductory sermon from Hebrews, 12:2, "Looking unto Jesus," etc. He was honored among his brethren. The con- dition of the Church from 1793 through several subsequent years, though one of peace and harmony, was not one of growth. In 1794 it appointed a day of fasting and prayer, and again in the following year, in accordance with the recommendation of the Association to all the churches, it observed four days of public prayer "on account of the coldness and barrenness in the affairs of religion." There were addi- tions until 1807 when, in that and several successive years, numbers were baptized, in all nearly fifty persons. Mr. Runyon's pastorate ended only with his life. After a tedious illness, which he bore with patient resignation sustained by "a good hope through grace," he entered into rest November 21, 1811, aged seventy years. The length of his pastorate was twenty-eight years, of his entire ministry nearly forty years. The Church, at the time of his death, numbered one hundred and forty-nine, a higher number than it had ever before reached. That he was a faithful pastor and careful to maintain the discipline of the Church, let the following resolutions, passed early in his pastorate, doubt- less with his sanction if not at his instigation, testify :
" RESOLVED, That our stated meetings of business shall be attended by every male member, and, any neglecting, without being able to show cause, shall be deemed blameable and ought to be reproved."
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We yield to the temptation to quote another resolution of April 27, 1788 :
" RESOLVED, That no one member speak to any matter without rising up, and not more than thrice to any one particular, except on leave of the Moderator then acting."
Other items of interest during the ministry of Mr. Runyon will be hereafter referred to under their appropriate headings. As already stated, Mr. Runyon had a large family. His descendants and those of his ancestors are to be found all over our land. The name has been on the Church Register, probably from near the beginning, certainly for the last hundred years. One of this name is now a deacon, another is Clerk of the Church. Nearly a score of others are on the Register.
Mr. Runyon's remains were interred in the old graveyard at Piscatawaytown hard by those of his predecessors. The inscription on his headstone reads :
Sacred to the Memory of
THE REV. REUNE RUNYON, Who died Nov. 21, 1811, In the 71st year of his Age.
My flesh shall slumber in the ground Till the last trumpet's joyful sound ; Then burst the chains with sweet surprise, And in my Savior's image rise.
The following great grandchildren of Rev. Reune Runyon are now members of the Baptist churches :
Piscataway Church .- Mr. and Mrs. George Drake, Mr. William Drake, Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Dayton, Mr. William Dayton, Mr. Isaac Dayton, Mrs. Henry Brantingham, Mrs. Mefford Runyon, Mrs. Samuel S. Dayton.
New Brooklyn .- Mr. Jesse Dayton, Mrs. Ephraim Boice, Mr. Reune B. Manning, Mr. William Manning, Mrs. Manning Randolph.
First Plainfield .- Mr. Samuel R. Manning, Miss Gussie Runyon.
New Market .- Mr. John Dayton, Mrs. Peter Benward, Mr. Simeon Dayton, Mrs. Lewis Walker, Miss Laura J. Runyon.
JAMES MCLAUGHLIN, FIFTH PASTOR. 1812-1817.
After an interval of nine months from the death of Mr. Runyon, Rev. James McLaughlin was unanimously called to the pastorate, and began his labors October 1, 1812. Mr. Mclaughlin was born in 1768 and was baptized in Wilmington by Rev. Philip Hughes in 1784, and was probably a licentiate of the Church in that place. He was ordained
1578797
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in 1789 as pastor of the Hilltown, Pa., Church, where he remained until 1805. From 1806 to 1809 he was at Flemington ; in the year 1810 at Burlington, and at Kingwood in 1811, from which place he came to this field.
The Church having no parsonage at the time of Mr. McLaughlin's settlement, he rented a House in New Brunswick where a number of the members lived, and for whose accommodation and more direct Gospel effort in that place, a house of worship had been built two years before. The New Brunswick brethren had united in perfect harmony with the Church in the call to Mr. Mclaughlin. He preached in the Piscataway meeting-house in the morning and in the New Brunswick house in the afternoon on Lord's days. The members in New Bruns- wick, twenty-three in number, were, on September 21, 1816, recognized as an independent Church.1 Mr. Mclaughlin supplied the Church at New Brunswick till the following May (1817) when, owing to its desire to have the exclusive services of a pastor he terminated his connection with it, and a few months afterwards, October 9, 1817, resigned the pastorate of the mother Church, having served it just five years. During these years the Church was not favored with many additions, the minutes recording only eleven baptisms. The total number of members reported to the Association in the year 1818 was one hundred and thirteen. The decrease is to be attributed chiefly to the large numbers dismissed to form the Church at New Brunswick. The late Deacon Samuel Smith, in his reminiscences of former pastors in an unpublished manuscript of twenty years ago or more, describes Mr. McLaughlin as "a man of eminent piety, a good minister of Jesus Christ, grave in his deportment, and unusually solemn in pulpit address." The memory of his many virtues and faithful labors is still tenderly cherished by the few yet remaining of those who are contemporary with him in the Church. On leaving here Mr. Mclaughlin became pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Philadelphia ; in 1826 of the New Britain Church, Pa. He died in Lambertville, N. J., August 19, 1827, aged fifty-nine years, and was buried in the graveyard of the Second Baptist Church of Hopewell. The late Mrs. G. S. Webb, so much beloved by all who knew her, was a daughter of Mr. Mclaughlin.
1. The names of these constituent members were Asa Runyon, Elizabeth Rimyon, Joseph Runyon, Sarah Runyon, Sarah L. Dunham, Sarah Post, Ruth Branon, Henry Wright, Richard C. Runyon, Phoebe Runyon, Sarah Corkins, Sarah Merrill, Sarah Ayres, Squire Martin, Susannah Martyn, William Potts, Esther Potts, Richard Lupardus, Char- lotte Lupardus, Sarah Probasco, Sarah Kent, Abigail Coon, Mary Vansycle.
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