USA > New Jersey > Union County > Plainfield > History of the First Presbyterian church at Plainfield, New Jersey > Part 2
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The church stood on the lot almost to the sidewalk line, abreast of the front of the J. B. Coward house adjoining to the east. It was built of brick plastered with brown mortar, ruled into squares about 9 by 15 inches so as to give the appearance as having been erected of brownstone. Surmounting the building was a rather stubby latticed tower into which the bell, which hung in the origi- nal frame church, was placed and which, by the way, is still calling worshipers to service as it did when the first pastor of the church preached to the congregation. It is thus the only articu- late voice that links the congregation of 641 today with that of the 166 devout communicants who crowned their valiant con- struction efforts in 1827 with the opening service of praise and prayer when the little white church was completed.
The building had a peak roof, was about forty-five feet high, and its entrance was in the middle with two huge masonry but- tresses on either side to take up the remainder of the building's width. Two Ionic columns of brown stone to match the ma- sonry graced either side of the entrance and as one entered they faced at once the main aisle at the head of which was the communion table, standing upon a dais about seven inches from the floor and above it, raised from the floor by about thirty inches, stood the pulpit.
Looking from the pulpit one saw the gallery where the colored worshipers sat, they having access to their seats by circular stair- ways built on each side of the entrance up through the masonry
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THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
buttresses. A large gilt circular clock, given by Robert H. Rad- ford, had a place on the face of the balcony directly opposite the pulpit. The lighting was accomplished by gas and emergency kerosene lamps.
Natural illumination, however, was through long narrow win- dows on either side of the church. These windows were about twenty-four inches wide and the lights were made up of a great number of small panes of glass each about five inches square. The windows were bowed at the top and on the outside there were full length shutters running from the floor level to the roof.
When the sun shone through the clear glass windows too brightly, as it is even wont to do today, the ushers would be asked to go out and close the shutters.
This would result in the removal of two long poles from their recesses at the entrance near where Howard A. Pope and W. A. Woodruff were wont to sit for years as ushers, each taking two windows they would proceed to slap and poke the shutters closed, amid much clatter, especially in summer when the windows were opened for ventilation.
The expression that the church was "gloomy within and with- out" has its chief foundation in that when the shutters were closed the black walnut trim of the interior of the church re- flected so little light that at times it was difficult to read. How- ever, most of the singing at the time was done by the congre- gation by the aid of a melodeon and a singing leader. Regular meetings were held for the purpose of learning the words of the hymns.
Those who could afford them, however, owned their own singing books and cushions and when they left the church by dis- missal or otherwise, they took their hymn books and cushions with them for use in the churches to which they were transferred.
The seats were extremely narrow and straight backed. Miss Dietrich remembers an incident that gives an excellent idea of how uncomfortable the church pews were at that time. It seems that a Mrs. Milliken joined the church and in order to more com- pletely enjoy the service, caused to be made for her an excep- tionally wide cushion which, when it continued to slip off the pew onto the floor at prayer, finally had it nailed fast to the pew seat.
Each pew had a door with a catch upon it so that it would not swing open and encumber persons passing up and down the aisle.
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THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
The purpose of the doors is variously explained. Some insist that it was for the purpose of keeping the draft from the feet of the worshipers in winter. Others said that it indicated that the pew seats were reserved for belated members of the families. Pews were often sold and deeded to their owners for life use. Still others maintain that the real object of the door was to sym- bolize the Biblical admonition, Matthew 6:6:
"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."
The pastor's study was on the side of the church now used by the choir for assembly purposes and on the opposite side was a great heater the chimney for which ran up the rear wall of the church on the outside, about at the edge of the platform in the Sunday school room where, it will be recalled, there is a recessed arch in the face of the wall.
In course of time the chapel was added to the church, but it is not shown in the picture. When the chapel was added, the chim- ney seemed out of place. It left an awkward vacancy in the wall and so it was decided to build a counterpart of the chimney on the other side and the arch was put in so as to bridge the two structures and at the same time the wall above it was carried up to give added support to the roof of the chapel. Across this arch was formerly a motto, cut out and pasted, which read :
"Be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only."
An ordinary crockery bowl, held by an elder, served as the baptismal font for years.
One Fourth of July eve some youths bent upon proclaiming anew the continued and successful independence of the United States of America, broke into the church and made the very welkin ring above the sleeping town until by dint of too great effort to ac- complish their purpose, they swung the bell so that its lip caught under the mechanism controlling the tolling hammer, thus effect- ually silencing it while the drowsy populace hazily wondered what dire punishment had been so promptly meted out to the perpetrators of the tumult, with the nation's birthday still unborn.
The sexton, seeking to summon the people to their accustomed place of worship the following Sunday, pulled first on the ring-
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THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
ing rope and then on the tolling line, only to find both inflexible in his hands. Climbing into the belfry he saw, with consterna- tion, the bell swung back as if to ring, but silent in the iron grip his feeble hands could not unloose, and so it came to pass that on that day those who went to church did so from sturdy habit instead of being bidden by the customary summoning bell.
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CHAPTER IV
How the "Anxious Seat" Issue Divided the Church
HERE came about this time experiences which must have sorely tried the pastor's soul and caused the gravest appre- hension among many of the congregation as to whether the Pres- byterian Church of Plainfield would survive.
After protracted negotiation a section of the church departed to form the Second Presbyterian church, which later became the Crescent Avenue Presbyterian church.
The First church then had 230 communicants and the Session minutes show that indeed it had been richly blessed "with refresh- ings from the presence of the Lord."
During this period the question, probably inspired by frequent revival meetings held in the city, arose, regarding the installation of the Anxious Seats in the Presbyterian church. It might here be explained that the Anxious Seats were the front pews of the auditorium and whenever any member attending public worship, felt especially moved by the words of the pastor or by the Spirit they would leave their places in the pews and move up forward as a sign that they desired to be especially prayed for.
To this proposal the Rev. Mr. Bond was unalterably opposed; but some of the people, stirred by a deep religious fervor, launched a movement not only for the purpose of establishing another Presbyterian church, but of forcing the pastor, the Rev. Mr. Bond, to resign.
There came a time when Mr. Bond actually handed in his resignation as pastor. It was accepted and referred to the Pres- bytery of Elizabeth Town, but in view of the fact that the resig- nation had been acted upon by members of the church and by Elders who had already been dismissed from the church on their own application for the purpose of establishing another Presby- terian church in Plainfield, the Rev. Mr. Bond held that its accept- ance was unconstitutional, unauthorized and therefore illegal, a position which the Presbytery of Elizabeth Town subsequently upheld.
On February 16, 1844, another Parish meeting was author- ized and, upon due notice being given that it was the intention of the applicants for dismissal to organize another church, the
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THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
dismissals were granted to the following as a means of avoiding litigation :
William L. Simpson William Hendrickson
Charlotte Martin
Elizabeth Pound
Sarah Coriell
Ira Pruden
Jane V. Clawson Mary B. Clawson
Eliza Jane Vermeule
James Thorn, Jr.
Nancy B. Southard
Harriett Townsend
Daniel P. Martin
Agnes Anderson
Elizabeth Boice
Frederick Cadmus
Eliza Anderson
William McD. Coriell Mary A. Shotwell
Henry A. Cory
Agnes Anderson, Jr.
Isaac Van Nostrand
Mrs. Hariett H. Cory
Eleanor Cadmus
Leonard Vermeule
Mrs. Sarah Layton
John L. Laing
Elias Kirkpatrick
John L. Heath
Elisha Coriell, Jr.
Albert Marsh
Sophonia M. Heath
Eliza Coriell
Richard Townsend
Sarah M. Campbell Hannah Staats
Martha H. Coon
John S. Parker
Altha M. Marsh
Ann Martin Ann B. Bullman
Daniel Bullman J. H. Coward
Phebe Marsh
Margaret Barton
Jinnette E. Martin
Zupporah R. Irven
Eliza Jane Ditmas
William B. Hill
Mary Hendrickson
Sarah Ditmas
Harry Harris
Margaret Hendrickson
Eliza C. Coriell
Caroline Hill
Henrietta Hendrickson Mary C. Van Kirk
Frederick H. DeCamp William Wilberson
Deborah C. Coward
Harriett Van Kirk
William B. Shotwell
William Nicoll
David Whyte, Sr.
David Pound
William Thorn
David Whyte, Jr.
Christopher Stewart Mary Thorn
Milton F. Cushing
Jane Whyte
Elizabeth Whyte
The requests were also granted of Robert Anderson, John Layton, Jr., Ephraim Coriell and William Hill, Jr., who were dismissed, their letters "stating that the applicants were mem- bers of this church and as such dismissed."
The remainder left in the original Presbyterian church was 148, and from that time the church had its serious struggles, finally resulting in the application previously made to the New Jersey State Legislature, for a change in the corporate title re- corded March 28, 1826, as "The First Presbyterian Church and Congregation of Plainfield, New Jersey," to that of "The First Presbyterian Church of Plainfield, N. J." This change in name
was approved March 27, 1857.
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Fanny Cushing
Eunice V. Van Nostrand
Phebe E. E. Coward
Martha E. Woodruff
Josiah Layton ยท
Elsey Vermeule
Abraham Cadmus Anna Cadmus Jenetie Cadmus
THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
But during these years the same calm, dignified, kindly pastor went his way in the community. Those who remember him speak of his infinite patience and of his exemplary life. For nearly thirty-two years he was the leader of his flock. Slight in build, gentle of voice, he was always immaculately attired in the ministerial frock coat of the day and the white stock forming both collar and scarf.
Two years after the separation and the new church building had gotten well under way, he gave notice to the Session of his intention to ask leave to resign his Pastoral Charge, and on May 2Ist, 1857, the Session records the calling of the Rev. Joseph H. Myers to take his place.
It is interesting to note that when the Rev. Lewis Bond relin- quished his charge there were only two members of his church still numbered among the founders of his church.
The Rev. Lewis Bond's picture is still reverently preserved by this congregation, having a place of honor in the Chapel. Some of his sermons have been preserved by his grandson, Clar- ence E. Bond.
The Manse of our church then stood directly across the street from the present edifice, where the Young Women's Christian Association Building is just being completed. The original build- ing, however, now stands around the corner on Church Street, next adjoining the Y. W. C. A., where it was moved, and has been considerably altered to meet modern dwelling requirements. Later the church owned a manse on East Fifth Street, which was sold to aid the building fund for improvements to the present chapel.
This minute appears in the Session records of March 8, 1885 :
"In recognition of the death on January 23, 1885 of the Rev. Lewis Bond, for 32 years Pastor of this church, the Session desires to record its sense of his sterling character and worth as a Christian and a Gospel Minister, his long life of fidelity and usefulness, his tranquil and Godly walk and conversation, his unabated interest in the church, his peaceful death in the Lord as the Lord's."
The new church building was completed and dedicated during the pastorate of the Rev. Mr. Myers, who resigned within two years of his call to found a college in Florida.
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The next minister was the Rev. Samuel M. Studdiford, who was installed in 1860, but who, after a brief pastorate was called to the Presbyterian church at Stewartsville, New Jersey, and in 1862 the Rev. Daniel V. McLean was called.
His pastorate was inaugurated with much enthusiasm and closed with circumstances which resembled in some degree the difficulties the congregation passed through when the Second Presbyterian church was formed, except that it contributed largely, in this case, to the formation of Trinity Reformed church, there being some question as to the legality of dismissing some forty members after he had resigned as pastor. Those who remember him recall that he was of a dynamic turn of mind, impetuous, fiery and yet a magnetic man who conceived for our church a militant place in the exposition of the Christian life.
A new pastor again occupied the pulpit in 1863 when the Rev. Benjamin Cory of Perth Amboy was called. He stayed between four and five years, during which time the church prospered and the membership increased greatly. He was in every respect a most charming and popular preacher. His daughter was mar- ried in the church during Mr. Cory's pastorate. Mr. Cory's wife was a member of the well-known Crane family of Elizabeth. He was called elsewhere and resigned early in 1868.
The Rev. Henry L. Teller, young, eloquent, polished, and an earnest Christian worker, became pastor as successor to the Rev. Mr. Cory, but resigned within two years of his being called to go to the Amsterdam, N. Y., Presbyterian church. His wife, who was wealthy in her own right, did not fancy the life of a minister's wife and soon induced her husband to give up the ministry.
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The First Presbyterian Church 1888-1925
CHAPTER V
Sarah M. Latimer and the "Little Black Cross"
HE present church edifice stands as the monument to the personality and activity of the Rev. Kneeland P. Ketcham as the leader of this congregation from 1871 until March 13, 1902.
The Rev. Mr. Ketcham was called from Allentown, New Jersey, a settlement located near the present town of Bridgeton. He was a man of vision and action, energetic and with a per- sonality that inspired great confidence and cooperation.
In the strange working out of God's plans it was not intended that the then pastor of the First Presbyterian church in Plain- field, just entering upon the second half of his long pastorate, should know that the business success of a non-believing cotton shipper from South Carolina would be the indirect source from which the physical monument of his ministry in Plainfield would rise even before his leadership was to end.
Yet the story of the remarkable life of Henry Latimer, proud of his disbelief in the Christian church, is not only entwined about the First Presbyterian church of Plainfield, but successive generations who shall gaze upon the little cross that tops the steeple will know that it is there because of him.
Born in poverty in the Carolina cotton fields, Henry Latimer as a boy took ship on a boat that was bringing cotton to New York at a time when there was a boom in that staple. The first time he arrived in the great metropolis, he bought himself a new hat and some clothes.
Earning his passage back and later coming north again with another shipment of cotton, he induced the captain to let him buy a bale. His earnings, great because of the boom, were quickly turned into the purchase of several more bales on the next trip north and the result was that in a short time he was operating a fleet of cotton-carrying boats for himself and finally directed the shipment north of great quantities of cotton so that in compara- tively early life he was enabled to retire.
By some strange coincidence Mr. and Mrs. Latimer, the latter formerly Sarah M. Stocking, of Kentucky, selected Plain- field as their home and by a still stranger coincidence, in the light of the part this couple were later to play in the affairs of the
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THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
First Presbyterian church, they moved into a home on Bank Place within stone's throw of the very spot where the first church ser- vice of that congregation was held on the brink of what for years was known as Tier's pond. They later built a home on the cor- ner of Bank Place and East Front Street near where now stands the Strand theatre.
As has been stated, Mr. Latimer did not believe in churches, but he is reported to have given an organ to the Masonic fra- ternity of this city.
At the time of his death his wife, desiring to have someone conduct the funeral services, called in the pastor of the church "up the street" and the Rev. Mr. Ketcham responded, conduct- ing the services also at the grave.
This was the first time the Latimer family ever came in con- tact with the Christian church, according to Miss Addie Dietrich, who was intimately acquainted with Mrs. Latimer, the two fam- ilies being very closely associated as neighbors and friends ..
Mr. Latimer's death, and the loss of their adopted son, David, in the Civil War caused Mrs. Latimer to reach out for the con- solation of the church and when Mr. Ketcham called to comfort her in her affliction, Mrs. Latimer asked what she could do to aid him in realizing the aspirations he had for the enlargement of the influence of his church in Plainfield.
Upon hearing that the church had decided to build a new edi- fice, she volunteered to give the necessary amount needed to com- plete the contributions which had already begun to come in from the members of the congregation, which had grown to a total of 268, not including the membership of the Bible Class, totalling 190 in addition.
Her gifts embraced $32,000 for the church, $6,000 for the organ which, plus $2,000 received by the sale of the old one, cost $8,000. Gifts for finishing the church and special purposes brought the total of Mrs. Latimer's gifts to the church, so far as known, to $44,000, which also included the beautiful stained glass circular window in the front of the edifice.
Two incidents are sufficiently authenticated in connection with Mrs. Latimer's benefactions as to merit inclusion in a History of the Presbyterian Church of Plainfield. One concerns the cir- cular stained glass window and the other the little cross that sur- mounts the steeple.
J. M. Bettman and the pastor of the church believed, with the
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THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
members of the congregation, that some tribute should be made to Mrs. Latimer's generosity either in the form of a stained glass window or a tablet. To all proposals of this sort the modest widow of the cotton trader entered objections. She desired that her gifts be received in as great secrecy as possible.
The building committee consisting, besides the pastor and Mr. Bettman, of Robert H. Radford, William H. Shotwell, Edward St. John, Howard A. Pope and F. C. Lounsbury, believed that at least some record should be made of this gracious woman in the structure she so freely helped to build. It was decided that the manufacturer of the stained glass window be appealed to in some way to work in her name, and those desiring to see the artist's handicraft in this particular need may look on the selvedge of the window near where it enters the frame on the central edge.
Mrs. Latimer did not live to see the church entirely com- pleted. Toward the completion of the structure, however, she was taken in a wheel chair, accompanied by J. Fred MacDon- ald, who, with William H. Shotwell and William A. Woodruff were later named executors of her estate, to the site. She sat on the platform with Mrs. N. W. West, another generous con- tributor toward the building fund, when the corner stone was laid.
During the course of conversation on the way back, Mr. Shot- well, not knowing about the inscription of her name on the window, again pressed her for permission to place her name somewhere on the church or in it.
After some thought on the subject, and when she had been placed in a comfortable chair in her home, she spoke of her hus- band saying that the only reference of a sympathetic nature she had ever heard him make to a Christian church was the fact that once when he was a little boy on the cotton plantations he had gone to a Sunday school on which there was a little black cross. Mrs. Latimer then said, in the presence of all three men who had walked back with her from the church site, that if they in- sisted upon doing something in memory of her that, in remem- brance of this remark by her husband, they put a little black cross on the top of the church.
After her death, which occurred very soon thereafter, the Executors, who proved to be the three men who heard her make the remark, advised the church, through its finance committee, which included the Pastor, Elders, Deacons and Trustees, and F. C. Lounsbury, W. H. Van Slyke and Peter Hoagland, that
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THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
a little black cross had to be included in the architecture of the church as a condition of the payment of the remainder of Mrs. Latimer's benefactions.
Reporting this to the congregation, some protest developed from a small section of the membership, upon the ground that a cross of whatever color was out of place upon a Presbyterian church. The position of the Executors could, of course, be only that of "No cross, no money."
It was finally decided to put the cross on the top of the steeple and, while there was some quiet mumbling, it soon caused little comment and few finally noticed that it was there.
At about noon time one extremely hot day in July when the interest in the cross had entirely waned, a puffy white cloud came out of the west in what otherwise was a clear sky. It proved to be a little shower with only a single flash of lightning, but that bolt struck off the little black cross and tumbled it in fragments upon the church yard below.
At once there was a vigorous renewal of the discussion about the propriety of having the cross on the church, but when the Executors, who had long since settled up the estate, paying the residue to two nephews who lived somewhere in Kentucky, were appealed to it was their insistence upon keeping faith with the only stipulation Mrs. Latimer made in connection with her great gifts, and, further, upon the continued importunities of the church people she benefited, that a little black cross should be replaced upon the steeple, which was accordingly done.
Again the cross incident had passed into mutual forgetfulness when, again, also on a July day, and at noon, another small puffy cloud came over the low lying Watchung mountains and, during the shower that followed, a single forked flash from its curling center again removed the cross without doing any other damage to the building.
This time the objection to the presence of the cross was based upon the belief that, lightning having struck twice in the same place, was most certainly a manifestation of the displeasure of Providence and that the cross should not be replaced.
However, after due course, the cross again appeared at the top of the steeple, and while the tower has been struck since by lightning, the cross has remained to this day, having lately been substituted by a copper cross of sturdy construction.
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THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
It is interesting to record at this point some other incidents and facts concerning the erection of this church.
On June 6, 1888, a special meeting was held by the Session when it was decided to call a Parish meeting for the purpose of building, if the way be clear, a new church. On June 19, 1888, the building committee appointed Oscar S. Teale, architect, who now lives in the city of Newark.
J. W. Pangborn was the builder who submitted a bid of $26,900 for the construction of the building and the contract was awarded to him. The records of the Session under date of September 16, 1888, show that the building, including the organ and every appurtenance, cost about $45,000. The entire church building was appraised by John Abbott, of the Board of Trus- tees, before the Great War, for the purpose of determining how much insurance the congregation ought to carry on the property, at $100,000. Mr. Abbott was a practical builder.
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