USA > New Jersey > Morris County > Morristown > History of the First Presbyterian Church, Morristown, N.J., 1742-1882 pt 1 > Part 56
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Joanna; b. 17 May, 1784 ; B. f. w. 2 July, 1784 ; d. 26 Dec., 1785.
Lewis, b. 15 Feb., 1786; B. " 17 Sept., 1786.
Stephen Harrison, b. 4 Oct., 1788; B. f. w. 4 Jan., 1789.
Isaac, b. 5 April, 1791 ; B. f. w., 3 July, 1791. Lydia, b. 9 Oct., 1795 ; B. f. w. 10 March, 1796 ; d. 15 May. 1796.
Arnold, Stephen ; d. 1754, (letters of administration granted to his wife 16 Feb, 1754). Rachel - - d. 16 June, 1786, aet. 98.
ARNOLD, STEPHEN [s Stephen & Rachel] ; C. 6 Jan., 1765 ; moved away." PHEBE GUERIN ; m. 24 Jan., 1770 ; B. & C. 3 May, 1771 ; "moved."
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THE RECORD.
Ezekiel, b. 19 Dec., 1770; B. 3 May, 1771 ; d. 15 Jan., 1773. aet. 2.
Elizabeth, b. 14 Feb., 1772 ; B. 15 March, 1772 ; d. 14 Jan., 1773, aet. I.
Naomi, b. 13 Oct., 1773; B. 21 Nov., 1773; [d. 17 June, 1777.]
Phebe, b. 24 Sept., 1775; B. 29 Oct., 1775 : [d. 20 Dec., 1775.] Jacob, b. 14 Jan., 1778 ; B. 3 May, 1778.
Thomas. b. 29 Nov., 1779 ; B. 30 Jan., 1780.
Sarah, b. 5 April, 1781 . B. 12 June, 1781.
Susanna. b. 15 April, 1783 ; B. 8 Feb., 1784.
Hannah, b. 26 March, 1785 . B. 26 June, 1785.
Stephen, b. 23 Sept., 1789 ; B. 23 Jan., 1791.
Arnold, Ziba [s. Robard.]
MARY - C 2 July, 1785; d. 30 April, 1791, aet. 38.
Elizabeth, b.'30 July, 1771 ; B. f. w. 2 July, 1785.
Samuel, b. 20 April, 1775 ; B. ..
Mary, b. 11 April, 1778; B. “
" [m. to Joshua Guering, of Somer- set Co.]
RACHEL. b. 18 Dec., 1780 ; B. f. w. 2 July, 1785 ; C. 16 Dec., 1796; [m. to Jonas Alwood, q. v.]
Robert
Jonathan Reeve § b. 2 July, 1787 ; B. f. w. 19 Aug., 1787.
Joanna (
Gitty b. 13 Nov., 1790 ; B. f. w. 28 Feb., 1791.
Ashback, George ; m. 22 March, 1832, to Susan Gillem.
§ Austin (" Arstin"), Cornelius
MARTHA - M. in 1742 ; "moved away."
Peter ; B. 15 April, 1744.
Austin, Deborah ; n. I April, 1756, to Benjamin Bailey, Jr.
AUSTIN, JONAH ; M. in 1742 ; " moved.'
w. Jonah ; M. "
Moses ; B. 28 Aug., 1743. Mary ; B. 7 Oct., 1744. Jesse ; B. 12 July, 1747.
Axtell, in earlier records Extel.
Axtell, Amzi ; m. 3 April, 1830, to Mary Nixon.
Axtell. Bethany, [sister Major Henry] ; m. 21 Jan., 1767, to Artemas Day, of Mendham.
Axtell, Calvin ; R. C. 18 July, 1773.
Mary Mills, [dg. Timothy & Phebe], m. 7 Nov., 1771 ; R. C. 18 July, 1773,
TIMOTHY, b. 11 Sept., 1772; B. 18 July, 1773; C. 19 Dec., 1803 ; " moved." Ann, b. 29 Sept., 1774 ; B. 6 Nov., 1774.
Philip Lindsley, b. 3 Dec., 1779 ; B. 9 July, 1780.
Axtell, Daniel. of Mendham ; m. 8 Oct., 1770, to Ruth Tuttle.
AXTELL, FRANCES : C. 6 March, 1858.
Axtell, Hannah ; m. 29 May, 1764, to Zepheniah Burt.
§ Axtell, Henry ; " Major Henry" d. 6 April, 1818. aet. 80.
Phebe Day, [dg. Capt. Samuel] ; m. 7 Jan.' 1767 ; d. 6 July, 1829, aet. 89.
AXTELL, HENRY ; L. 9 Nov., 1836, fr. Mendham ; dis. 26 Jan., 1841, to 2d. Ch .; [d. at Newark, 28 July, 1863, aet. 69.]
ABIGAIL - L. 9 Nov., 1836, fr. Mendham, dis. 26 Jan., 1841 to 2d. Ch.
ELIZABETH, L .; C. 24 Nov., 1836 ; dis. 26 Jan., 1841, to 2d Ch.
PHEBE ANN C .; C. 27 Feb., 1837 ; m. 16 Oct., 1839, to Ziba S. Smith ; dis. 8 June, 1841, to 2d Ch.
Axtell, Jacob T. [s. Timothy ?] ; d. 26 Oct., 1880, aet. 75.
Joanna - d. 18 Oct., 1826, aet. 18.
RACHEL ENSLEE ; m. 22 Dec., 1827 ; C. 5 Feb., 1829 ; dis. 8 June. 1841, to 2d Ch. ; d. 7 Oct., 1849, aet. 43. Phebe Elizabeth ; B. 4 Sept., 1829.
THE RECORD
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, MORRISTOWN, N. J. " THIS SHALL BE WRITTEN FOR THE GENERATION TO COME."-Psalms 102: 18.
VOLUME V.
FEBRUARY, 1885. NUMBER 26.
[Printed with the Approval of the Session. ]
THE RECORD
Is published monthly ; terms $1.oo a year, in advance. Single numbers for any month, 10 cents each. Subscriptions should be made to Mr. James R. Voorhees. Matters pertaining to the publication should be addressed to the
EDITOR OF THE RECORD.
Entered at the Post Office at Morristown, N. J., as second class matter.
The regular edition for subscribers this month contains twenty pages instead of twelve.
This part of THE RECORD will hereafter be distributed in the pews of the Church on the Sunday after publication.
It is not designed, however, to force the publication upon the attention of any, or to make it exactly free. If not wanted, the paper can be left in the pew ; if wanted, take it, and welcome to it.
Subscribers will continue to receive their copies through the mail. New subscribers will be gladly enrolled. From the first, the subscriptions have never paid the cost of publication, and the deficit has been made up by a few who appreciated THE RECORD as a means of preserving the valuable his- torical materials of our Church.
In this part of THE RECORD it is now proposed to publish some matters of present moment. A beginning is made this month on the last two pages. Besides recording items of passing interest, the various de- partments of Christian work will be given an opportunity to make known their aims and needs ; and subjects of importance can be brought to the attention of the Congre- gation in this way, which could not well be published in any other.
NEW HISTORICAL PAPERS.
In response to a large number of requests. we begin in this number the publication of the sermon delivered last spring by the Pastor.
Dr. Irving, in his historical sermons, which have been published in THE RECORD, touched but lightly upon the period from 1842 down to his own pastorate ; while from the beginning of the latter period no ac- count has ever been published, or even written so far as is known. We are, there- fore, happy to say that a gentleman, who has been an active member of the Church throughout these periods, promises a his- torical paper to bring the narrative down to 1882. The publication of this paper will probably begin some time during the sum- mer.
EXTRA SUPPLEMENT.
In addition to the regular supplement, containing the Minutes of Session, Parish and Trustees, for the close of Dr. Irving's and the beginning of Mr. French's pasto- rates ; we issue with this number eight pages of the Combined Registers. The succeeding parts of the Combined Regis- ters will be issued during the year, in the form here presented, the pages being numbered continuously; so that the parts may be bound in a volume by themselves, or with the Minutes. Although this puts extra expense upon the few who are interested in publishing these records-since the sub- scriptions fall considerably short of paying the cost of publication-it is adopted in order to make the valuable historical ma- terial more convenient for permanent pre- servation in book form. There will be a delay of three or four months before the issue of the next part of the Combined Registers.
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THE RECORD.
A SUNDAY IN THE FIRST CHURCH, BETWEEN 1800 AND 1825. HISTORICAL SERMON BY THE PASTOR, PREACHED 13TH APRIL. 1825 .*
I Cor. xii .: 5 .- " Ther ar diferences of administration, but the same Lord."
The year of the Presbyterian Church thru-out the land closed with March. Our own Parish year came to an end only a few weeks ago. Last Sunday's was the shird April communion in this Church at which I have officiated with a pastoral in- terest. Valuabl lessons miht be drawn from the twelv months thru which we hav just cum. Their course has bin impressiv- ly markt by the Lord's diversities of minis- trations. In worship and in charities, in activ labors and in patient endurance, in gladnes and in grief, in sweet surprises and in bitter disapointments, in songs over the repentant and tears over the bakslider, in helth and in siknes, in life and in deth ; -in all our varied experiences the same Lord, our wise and loving Father in hevn, has souht to make us worthy of the blesed- nes to which another year brings his disci- pls nearer.
But why recall these experiences now ? They ar yet fresh in memory ; and too ten- der, perhaps, with joy or soro for public re- cital. We may well leav them in silence, til they bring forth, in good time, the fruits of chastend hope and consecrated endevor ; while we spend this anniversary hour in noting sum of the contrasts between the old and the present life of our Church. A contrast of this sort wel illustrates our text, since it givs one, in a particular and famil- ar exampl, a vivid conception of the difer- ences of administration thru which the same Lord imparts those divine impulses that make for ritiusnes in sinful humanity.
During the year I hav becum much inter- ested in THE RECORD of our Church ; the i:tl pamflet that is hardly appreciated acording to its valu, in which ther ar pub- lisht, once a month, original papers of his- torical importance, extracts from the Min- utes of the Session, of the Parish, and of
the Trustees, with long lists of names from the Registers of Baptisms, Comunicants, Marriages, and Deths. No dout this publi- cation offers very dry reading, except to those who ar curious about odities in spel- ling and others who seek the names of an- cestors. But to me it is a cool and crystal spring of history. which clearly reflects the scenes witnest by these walls in the oldn time ; the rinkls of laufter, of soro and of age, that crost the faces of those who ust to sit in these pews long ago; their quaint costumes and their customs, now almost forgotn. As I hav red THE RECORD from month to month, altho neither engraving nor wood-cut has enlivend its pages, it has seemd full of pictures. And perhaps the diferences of administration, which have foloed one another in the history of this Church, can be set forth most plainly and from the tru historic point of view, if I at- temt a ruf description,-what miht be cald a charcoal sketch,-of a Sunday in the oldn time. I do not mean a particular day of a particular year, but a typical day ; for then slight anachronisms wil only giv our view a broader range without impairing its accu- racy. Let us chooz a typical Sunday in the midl age of the Church, that is in the period between 1800 and 1825, for then we shal hav contrasts to note on both sides.
It is "a tedious day," the frozn ground and leafles trees swept by angry gusts of a piercing wind ; a patch of snow only here and there in sum shelterd spot. The old bel, -- not queen Anne's but king George II's gift, as tradition goes,-rings out its high, sharp, impatient call for the pepl to wor- ship in the new Presbyterian Meeting house. The hand of William Cherry is not upon the rope this morning, for that hand has grown feebl with age, in the twenty years it has bin ringing the bel; digging graves, at from five shillings to a dollar each; and compiling his Bill of Mortality, in which he aimd to bestow as impartial im- mortality upon the child of poverty, that livd but an hour, as upon the patriarch who died amid honors and welth and widest af- fection, His son Moses pulls the rope to- day, having begun his long career as Sex- ton at the age of seventeen.
While the pepl gather we wil look about the town, to note the growth of half a cen-
*The spelling follows the rules of the Spelling Reform Asso- « ation, which ar advocated by scolars like W. D. Whitney of , ale, and Max Muller of Oxford .
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THE RECORD.
tury. And first, try to imagin the original setlment. A bilding down Water street is associated with those oldest times and wil help to recall the past. It is now a distil- 'lery of apl whisky, but once it formd part of the first Meeting house. When that was put up by ardent piety, in 1740, amid the hardships of the new setlment, it stood a litl east and north of the present Church ;* a low, square structure with shingld sides, to which later elegance aded a steepl that re- maind in the graveyard, doing duty as a scool-house, several years after the main ·bilding had bin removed. Water street, or rather a cuntry road running up a natural ""'gully," was the only approach to the Meeting house for more than a generation ; and no bilding was in siht on the south, the primitiv forest cuming almost to the ·door. That old sanctuary, standing on the edge of the hil and looking down upon the river bank, saw a gradual and prosperous ·Chanj during the fifty years of Dr. Johnes' pastorate ; the three or four dwelings, an iron forj, a cuntry store, expand into a vil- lage of 250 inhabitants at the date of the Revolution. In that hard winter of 1777 & 8, when the pews wer beds for the small- pox patients from the Continental camp, the congregation gatherd under the shelter of the hil in Dr. Johnes' orchard.t It was at one of these services that Gen. Washing- ton partook of the communion for the only recorded time in his official life ; and there, on another day, he gave up his own camp- chair to a poor woman, who was trying to hear the sermon while she stood with a babe in her arms.
( To be continued.)
THINGS OF TO-DAY.
Baptism of Infants :
30 Jan., Lemel Ellsworth, son of Lemel E. and Jane E. Pierson ; born 10 May, 1884. Communicants Received :
21 Jan., by confirmation, Virginia, daugh- ter of Dr. James C. Dustan.
30 Jan., by certificate from the 2d Mans- field Presbyterian Church, Melissa, wife of William C. Prudden.
I Feb., by baptism, Georgiana, wife of J. Frederick Richter ; and Georgian, daughter of William C. Prudden.
Certificates Granted :
2 Jan., to Martha C. Kneighton, to unite with the Ist Presbyterian Church of Ottumwa, Ia.
I Feb., to Mr. and Mrs. Josephus S. Guerin, with their baptized daughter, Eliza- beth L., to unite with the Ist Presbyterian Church of Mendham.
Marriage :
21 Jan., Frank Ellsworth Prudden to Almeda Conklin Walling.
The prayer meetings during January have been well attended, and have exhibited a very earnest spirit.
Why will people choose seats on the west wall of the Chapel? As respects both hearing and light the seats are better in any other part of the room.
Some one suggests that we all sing fre- quently at our homes from the new Spiritual Songs for Social Worship, saying that many very beautiful hymns and tunes are thus found. The book may be obtained thru Mr. H. G. Emmell.
One of the Divisions of the Children's Missionary Society has been very active during the past month. The special inter- est is connected with the Gould Home in Rome, Italy. Is this your Division ? If not, do you propose to let another excell you in good works ?
Two new Bible Classes have recently been formed in the Sunday-school; with Mr. Hastings and Prof. Platt as their re- spective teachers. These classes are for ladies. They are not yet full. Did you not say, and not very long ago, that you wished there was a class which you might join, be- cause, for one reason or another, you could not be a teacher just now? Suppose you join one of these new classes ; it may be just what you were wishing for.
The Young Ladies' Missionary Society- Oh ! dear, what a long name !- would not have made a very long procession, if the regular attendants on Friday afternoons during December, had marched around the Green at the end of their hour of meeting.
*A litl back of the big butn-wood tree and nearer Morris St., tho ther was no street or road then.
+The peculiar hollow on the north of Morris St., between Mr. King's and Mrs. Ayers' houses,
152
THE RECORD.
But it is different now. They took a new departure the other Sunday, and followed it up on the following Friday with a room - full. A good many new members are as eager as the former ones to lend a hand in doing something for the waifs of a mission school in New York City. Perhaps they will have to turn to the Primary room to find a place big enough for the many busy fingers that sew together on Friday after- noons. Even that would not be big enough, if every young lady in the Congregation would deny herself one entrance to the Rink a week, and bring the price, with ready fingers to work, for the needy.
Work on the Parsonage is nearing the end; the plastering will be done before the close of the month. It has been proposed to hold a general reception in the house as soon as it is completed, so that all the Con- gregation may inspect it. But why not call it the Manse, which is a good Presby- terian name, and would distinguish it from the Methodist Parsonage as well as from the Episcopal Rectory.
A Seal was agreed upon by the Trustees of our Church, on the 24th of April, 1788, "the device & impression of which is a Sheaf of Wheat," according to the Minutes of that date. This was chosen at the first meeting of the first Board of Trustees elect- ed by the Congregation, when they "as- sumed the name of THE TRUSTEES OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AT MORRISTOWN." Previously, under the Charter granted by George II, Sept., 8th, 1756, vacancies in the Board were filled by the appointment of "the Minister or Ministers, Elders, and Deacons for the time being." Apparently this original seal was never made, or at least became lost and for- gotten before the sons of those who adopt- ed it came into the active work of the Church ; for in 1846, Nov. 14th, the Seal in present use was adopted. This is very commonplace, having the word " SEAL" in plain letters across the face, and the follow- ing around the margin, " Ist PRES. CH. MT. M. J." There is a rumor that the Com- mittee talk of having the original Seal of the Church appear in a prominent part of the window of colored giass. which the Sun- day-school proposes to put in the Manse.
WOMEN'S FOREIGN MISSIONS.
The new year has already shown a good deal of very commendable energy in the work and the giving for missions among the women of heathen lands. At the pop- ular meeting, held at Miss Dana's on Mon- day afternoon, Jan. 19th, the large room was nearly filled by the ladies of the Church. Dr. Ellinwood, one of the Secretaries of our Board of Foreign Missions, presented the scriptural grounds for the work in an ex- ceedingly impressive and persuasive state- ment; and then took his hearers upon an imaginary journey around the world, to see the work for women, its needs and its re- sults, as he had seen it in the schools and missions in Japan, in China, in India, in Syria, in Africa, and in Chili.
After the address, the ladies present were · asked to pledge themselves to give what they could for this special work, and re- sponded generously ; many of them large- ly increasing their offerings over the amounts given in previous years.
It was also decided to hold monthly meet- ings of a popular character. At some of these meetings speakers from abroad will be present, and at others papers upon differ- ent fields and different phases of the work will be read by ladies of our Church. The first of these popular gatherings will be held in the Chapel on Monday afternoon, Feb. 9th, when papers will be read upon the new world opened in Africa by the re- cent discoveries of Livingstone and Stan- ley, and the providential opportunities there for our prayers and our gifts, to send the Light of the Gospel into that Dark Continent.
The managers of the Zenana Society are talking of abandoning their organization, in order to put their energies into this popular form of the work. The desire of all seems to be to effect two things principally; To car- ry on the work in a way that is most likely to inform and interest the largest number in the Congregation, so that each will see and feel that she has a part in it ; and, To rely for gifts upon the free-will offerings of all who feel that it is a privilege and a joy to give what they can, to send the message of their Savior's love to their sisters who are now in heathen lands.
THE RECORD
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, MORRISTOWN, N. J. " THIS SHALL BE WRITTEN FOR THE GENERATION TO COME."-Psalms 102 : 18.
VOLUME V.
MARCH, 1885. NUMBER 27.
[Printed with the Aproval of the Session. 1
THE RECORD
Is published monthly ; terms $1.00 a year, in advance. Single numbers for any month, 10 cents each. Subscriptions should be made to Mr. James R. Voorhees. Matters pertaining to the publication should be addressed to the
EDITOR OF THE RECORD.
Entered at the Post Office at Morristown, N. J., as second class matter.
The Supplement for this month contains the Minutes of the Session, during the pas- torate of Mr. French, from 3d Aug., 1870, to 3d March, 1875.
Last month the types gave a wrong date for the preaching of the historical sermon. It was not preached in 1825, but in 1884. The Preacher may be taken for the father of one of the Elders, but hardly for his grandfather.
The extra Supplement, issued to sub- scribers last month, has a title page, which reads as follows : "History of the First Presbyterian Church, Morristown, N. J. Part II., The Combined Registers, From 1742 to 1885." This title page, and the new numbering of the pages, will allow the "Combined Registers" to be bound by it- self, or with "The Minutes." A complete history of the Church should contain three parts : Part I, The Minutes of the Session, Trustees and Parish. The printing of this part is nearly completed. Part II, The Combined Registers, containing all the names on the books of the Church, with all the facts of record concerning each, arrang- ed in alphabetical order. The printing of this part has just begun. Part III, The Historical Sermons of Dr. Irving, and such other papers as can be gathered. Whether
the work shall reach this complete form, depends on the interest taken by the friends of the Church in providing means, in sub- scriptions and contributions, to meet the cost of publication.
A SUNDAY IN THE FIRST CHURCH. BETWEEN 1800 AND 1825.
HISTORICAL SERMON BY THE PASTOR, PREACHED 13TH APRIL 1884. (Continued.)
When the new Meeting house was pro- posed it met with strong opposition, under the lead of elders Phillips and Condict ; tho Dr. Johnes urgd the project, and preacht a special sermon in its favor one Friday after- noon in Dec., 1789. That sermon must hav bin a rousing one, for imediatly after the benediction the pepl appointed Joseph. Lewis,-the Dr.'s son-in-law-with Moses Estey, and Daniel Phoenix, Jr., a comitee to bild the new house. But discussion delayed: the undertaking, so that it was a year later before material began to be gatherd, and. not til Sept., 1791, did the frame rise on the present foundations. The first service was held in the new house while it was still in- complete ; a weekly lecture, on the last Thursday of Nov., 1795.
Before examing the new Meeting house, note sum of the great improvements that. hav takn place within the sixty years and more since the old one rose on the edge of the forest. At the date of our visit, the stores and mils and shops, stil cling to the river bank, and only there ar the dwelings clusterd together. Among them rises the spacious new hotel, a striking evidence of enterprise ; for it has just bin bilt, " in sixty days from the stump," imediatly after the fire which destroyd the old tavern : [and tho bilt so hastily, it stands to our day-the yellow bilding opposit the gas-works.] Al-
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THE RECORD.
redy the tendency of growth is towards the hil, and especially along the lane which is soon to becum Bridge street. But now, near the corner of Water, it passes between two houses that stand so close together as to be almost grazed by any wagon going thru. Ther is talk, however, of widening, and, in the course of time, of throwing a bridge over the stream beyond. In con- fidence of this improvement, Abraham T. Schenck has just erected, half way to the brook, on the south side and overlooking his brik mil, a duble mansion, one of the most elegant in town. Just beyond is Mrs. Edwards' bakery where sum folks get their lunch between meetings ; one of the Dea- cons being always on hand, to see that the poor ar provided with cake and ale at the expense of the Church. Nearer at hand, the Baptist Church, on its present site, not yet enlarjd, its doors ofn shut for lak of a preacher, is still, in 1825, the only other Church in town, or for more than ten miles around. On the Green-which has hardly yet ernd this titl, for it is now a treeles and grassles comons, with wagon ruts runing from opposit corners,-in the angl near the Baptist Church stands the Court-house. As it was bilt in 1770, the shingls that cover its cupola and sides as wel as its roof, tho once glaring with red paint, ar now a dingy gray, and the bilding is forlorn with neg- lect. A few dwelings ar scaterd around the comons. Off to the left can be seen the Academy, on land bought in 1792 from this Parish for £30. Jersey money, equivalent to only £15. sterling. The long radius from the Meeting house to the Academy would make a circl inclosing nearly the hole town and its population of about 1,000. Beyond this circl, in all directions, ar farm and wood lands.
Now take several positions at a litl dis- tance, and look more particularly at the new Meeting house. It has bin finisht, painted, and otherwise beutified, only a few years. Observ its fine proportions which modestly hide its larj size; its steepl rising 173 feet into the air ; and the clok, with its three faces. Ther ar not six other Meet- in houses in the hole State as larj and grand and perfectly appointed as this. The ball that crowns the spire looks like a Con- necticut pumpkin, as if a symbol of the
New England origin of the community ; and old William Cherry points out to us a hole in this ball, which sum vandal made by a riff bullet before the spire had bin up six weeks.
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