USA > New Jersey > Somerset County > Peapack > History of the Reformed Church at Peapack, N.J. : with biographical sketches > Part 3
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Smith, Elizabeth Stevens, wife of Stevens, Phebe Ann Oliver, wife of Zechariah Z.
Sherwood, Augustus.
Snediker, Matilda Nesbit, widow of Smith, Ellen E. John E. Savage, William J.
liam J.
Smith, Parmelia Rush, wife of Jacob Z. Sherwood, Ebenezer K., M. D.,
Sherwood, Jane M. Wilcox, wife of Angustus. Smith, Eliza Ann Van Nest, wife of William 4.
Sherwood, Marshall. Smith, John. Savage, John J.
George J. Sturges, Margaret ( widow.)
Smith, Mary Celinda.
Patrey, Sarah Au Crater, wife of Wil- liam 1 ..
Pierson, Christopher V. C. Pierson, Sarah Solomon.
Patrey, Catharine Elizabeth Logan, wife of Ira HI.
Petty, Peter S. Petty, Marietta V.
Rhinchart, Mary E. Hageman, wife of Martin.
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Smith, Margaret. Smith, Mary Ann. Smith, Joseph H. Smith, Luther C. Space, Melvina. Smith, Ann Daley, wife of Abram. Sutphen, Joseph Smith.
Smith, Sarah.
Salmon, Rebecca, wife of James. Smith, James C.
Smith, Alletta Catharine Philhower, wife of James C.
Schenck, Emily. Smith, Jacob Rush.
Smith, Maria. Smith, Josephine. Sutphen, Arthur P. Sutphen, Sarah E. Sutphen, Peter Theodore, M. D.
Stevens, Sarah Ellen.
Sutphen, Peter. Sntphen, Martha Ann Melick, wite of Peter.
Smith, Jacob Z. Smith, William. Smith, Catharine Guest, wife of Wil- liam. Smith, Carrie.
Smith, Amanda Drake, wife of Jacob Rush. Smith, Henrietta Bird, wife of Oscar. Stevens, Georgianna.
Stiger, Hampton A.
Struck, John N. Jay. Stevens, Elizabeth M., wife of George J. Sharp, Caroline C. Trinner, wife of William. Stevens, Hattie E.
Smith, Mary Loui-a.
Smalley, Laura E.
Sntphen, John.
Sutphen, Harriet Todd, wife of John. Sharp, Mary G. Sharp, Eliza. Sendder, Carrie. Stevens, Cornelia.
T.
Tiger, Jacob.
Tiger, Martha. Tiger, Christiana Garrabrant, wife Tiger, Mary Ann. of Jacob. Tiger, Nicholas.
Tiger, Elizabeth La Tourette, wife of William J.
Tiger, Hetty Ann Hutt, wife of Tiger, Sarah.
Nicholas.
Tiger, William J.
Tiger, Charity Wortman, widow of Tiger, Henry HI. Jacob.
Tiger, Sarah Howell, widow of Peter. Todd, James S. Todd, Margaret, wife of James S. Tiger, Christopher.
Tiger, Sophia D. Philhower, wife of Jacob J. Todd, Lydia.
Tiger, Catharine Cole, wife of Henry II.
Tiger, Catharine Skinner, wife of Todd, N. Patterson. John W. Todd, Esther Ann C. Todd, Augustus William McDowell. Tiger, Jacob J. Todd, Emily Baarkmau, wife of Jolm. Tiger, John W. Tiger, Mary Smith, wife of John. Todd, Sarah Emans, wife of Daniel. Tiger, Angeline Haas, wife of Chris- Todd, Caroline Wolfe, wife of David topher. M.
3.s
Tiger, Rachel Ann Miller, wife of Todd. John M. John Harvey.
Thornton, Byron, M. D.
Thompson, Sophia Ward, widow of Thornton, Martha B. Dunham, wife of Rev. William J.
Byron.
V.
Van Nest, Nancy, wife of John. Van Arsdale, Brogan V. D.
Van Arsdale, Susan Jemima Crater, wife of Brogan V. D.
Van Dyke, Esther Tingley, widow (f Philip.
Voorhees, Jane Elizabeth. Van Arsdale, Ann Elizabeth.
Van Dorn, Elizabeth Hazel, wife of Van Arsdale, Euphemia C. Wolfe, wie William 1.
of William.
Voorhees, Maria Cortelyon, wife of Van Arsdale, Mary Ann Van Doren. Martin.
Van Dorn, Deborah Hite, wife of Vliet, Simon J., Jr. Isaac.
Van Arsdale, Philip E.
Van Arsdale, Elsie Voorhees, wife of Philip. Van Vleek, Rachel. Van Vliet, Alletta W. Hoffinan, wife of John. Van Arsdale, John W.
Van Doren, Eliza Cooper, wife of Van Arsdale, Sarah Lonisa.
Peter. Van Doren, Mary Jane. Vliet, John.
Van Arsdale, Sarah J. Potter, wife of George S. Van Doren, Mary Ann.
W
Wycoff, Henry II.
Wolf, Emaline. Wycof; Elizabeth Vroom, wife of Wood, Margaret. Henry Il. Wolf, Elizabeth, wife of James. Wolf, Nancy Savage, wife of Thomas. Wolf, Sarah J. Melick, wife of Jacob T. Wolf, Mary Ann Beck, wife of Da- vid P. Wycoff, Elizabeth S. Wycoff; Elizabeth Alpo, wife of Wack, Elizabeth F. Martin. Wood, An. Wohl, Martha Jane.
Winget, James H. Winget, Catharine Smith, wife .. James HI. Woodruff, Harriet Ludlow, wife ". John If. Wack, William N. Wack, Mary HI. Fritts, wife of Wil- liam N.
Wood, Catharine Henry, wite 0: James. Wortman, John.
wife of Charles.
Van Arsdale, Jacob W. Van Arsdale, Mary Jane. Vliet, Elizabeth A. Van Doren, Ida. Van Doren, Mary Ann. Ven Arsdale, George S. Van Arsdale, Mary Elizabeth Bili, wife of Orlando.
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Wack, Mary.
Wolfe, Mary A.
Winget, Calvin S. Woodruff, John H. Wolfe, Eliza Conaway, wife of Wolfe, Euphemia Jane. Austin. Wolfe, Sarah E. Winget, Anna A.
Wilson, Alice M. Wack, William W
Young, Adam.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF
REV. C. T. ANDERSON.
Charles Thomas Anderson, third son and fourth child of Alexander Gordon Anderson, a native of Scotland, and Eliza Hoadly Ames, a native of Wayne county, Pa., was born in Wayne county, Pa., September 26th, 1849. His great-grand- father was a soldier in the Revolution, and his father in the war with Mexico.
Ilis father died when Charles was two years old. When he was about four years of age his mother moved from Pennsyl- vania to New Jersey, leaving him to the care of an affectionate and energetic grandmother. His mother reclaimed him at the end of a year, and re-united her little family of four children in a humble home at Liberty Corner, Somerset county, N. J.
The year spent with his grandmother in Pennsylvania is remembered with peculiar interest. If he did not learn during this period all three of the Spartan accomplishments, he learned one, at least, viz., " to ride." He often rode on horseback with his grandmother when she " went out to spend the day."
When he was nine years old his mother married a second time, and moved with her husband upon a farm near Liberty Corner.
William Annin, a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church of Liberty Corner, his mother's second husband, was a Christian
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gentleman, and treated his wife's children with uniform kind- ness and consideration.
At the death of Mr. Annin, in 1872, the home near Lib)- erty Corner was broken up, and his mother moved to Somer- 1 ville, N. J., where she still resides. Mr. Anderson attended the village school in Liberty Corner during childhood. When he was twelve years old he began to study Latin in the Classical School at Basking Ridge, four miles distant. In the Summer, when the weather was fair, he walked to the Ridge and baek every day. In the Winter he rode on horseback occasionally, but generally in a long-seated sulky, with two neighbor boys.
This school he attended about a year, when it was closed, and he returned to the village school. When he was between fourteen and fifteen he began to prepare for college. This step was taken with the encouragement of his pastor, Rev. J. T. English, D. D., an earnest and efficient minister of the Gospel, now deceased, whose little congregation boasts of five college graduates, and of several, besides, who entered professional life after preparatory study at school ; but especially with the encouragement of a pious mother, whose faith overcame all obstacles, and who cheerfully provided means, to the extent of her ability, with much self-denial, and to whom, under God, and to no one else, he owes it that he is in the ministry to-day.
He attended, first, a preparatory school at Mendham, N. J., under the care of a Mr. Day. This school was also, unfortu- nately, short-lived, and at the end of a second term he went to " Chester Institute," Chester, N. J., under the care of Rev. L. I. Stoutenburgh, where he spent a year, and finished his prepa- ration.
He entered the Freshman Class in Princeton College in August, 1865, and graduated in 1869. The Winter of 1869
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and Summer of 1870 he spent in teaching a select school at Scarsdale, Westchester county, N. Y.
In September, 1870, he entered Princeton Theological Seminary, and graduated from the seminary in 1873. He was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Presbytery of Elizabeth in April, 1872.
Before graduating he was invited by the Presbyterian Church of Port Kennedy, Pa., to become their pastor as soon as he should be licensed. He was ordained and installed pastor of the Port Kennedy Church May 8th, 1873. He was married May 14th, 1873, by Rev. Abram Messler, D. D., to Joanna Bergen Van Liew, of Somerville, daughter of Simon Van Liew, late sheriff of Somerset county.".
April 30th, 1874, Mr. Anderson was called to be pastor of the Reformed Church of Peapack, N. J. He was installed over this church June 17th, 1874.
During his pastorate of less than seven years seventy-four members have been added on confession and by letter, an aver- age yearly addition of over ten. A debt of nearly $5000 has been reduced to less than $2000.
In 1879 Mr. Anderson published " All Things Pertaining to Life," an illustration of 2 Peter i : 5-7, which has been favorably received by the press.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF REV. HENRY P. THOMPSON.
CHILDHOOD.
My first remembrance is of a severe illness I had when but two and a half years old. I remember very little about it, except that the place occupied by the bed in the room, and the room itself, are distinctly marked.
It was before fever patients were allowed to have cold water to drink. My mother insisted that I should have it, but the good doctor, whom we all honored and loved as " Old Doc- tor Quimby," forbade it. Finally my mother said, " Doctor, let me wet his lips with water, at any rate." He, supposing that all hope was gone, assented, saying, " It'll do no harm now." For the time I revived.
After this it was supposed that I died. When I was laid back as dead, the watchful eye of my mother being yet upon her child, she said, " Doctor, he breathes !" Stimulants were given, and I revived.
It was during this sickness that my father and mother, as I have always supposed, agreed together (though I never heard them say anything directly about it) that if my life was spared I should be devoted to the Gospel ministry. This has been before my inind since I was twelve years old, and I have no
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doubt influenced me to make choice of the ministerial profes- sion, though I never mentioned it till now. I want here dis- tinetly to state, however, after what I have said, that this cir- enmstance, or no other, in my life, was ever mentioned to influence me in making choice of a profession.
I wonder if parents ever solemnly dedicated a child to God-to serve Him in the Gospel ministry-and were disap- pointed in having him enter it ? I think that God, having all forces at his command, somehow, in due time, will turn the heart of the child in the proper channel, and will so order affairs that means are provided for the preparation of that child for the work to which he has been devoted.
My grandfather owned the house in which we lived. It was a long, low house, with a kitchen on either end. He and my father, with their families, occupied it at the same time.
How well I remember the kindness of my grandfather. I have often heard my mother speak of his kind attention to her and her little children when my father was away from home, as he often was in the Winter season, two or three days and nights at a time. My father was a teacher, and would have a school some miles away, so that he could not get home oftener than once or twice a week. At such times, my grandfather would come from his part of the house before my mother was up in the morning, build her fire in the "ten-plate" stove, and then, going to the bed, would take my older brother to the fire and amuse him till my mother, having dressed herself and me, would relieve him of his self-imposed task. And we were not his first grand- children. Did ever a father-in-law show himself more kind ?
When I was about four years old my grandfather, having bought a farm at Pleasant Rum (about a mile from the " ok farm ") removed to it. He was equally kind, however, for
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thirteen years more, when he died, (A. D. 1847,) revered and honored by all who saw him, and loved by all who knew him. My grandmother resided on the same farm till she died, aged eighty-five years, in 1861. The farm is now owned by her youngest son, Aaron Thompson.
I was in the corn-field, in the hay-field, at the barn, at the wood-pile, in the orchard, hunting eggs, and doing what busy farmers' little boys usually do.
After my grandfather moved away, my father, who was something of an enthusiast on the subject of education, (consid- ering that he never went to school after he was twelve years old,) engaged a lady to teach his own and some neighboring children. A room was set apart for the school in the " long house " aforesaid. A Sunday-school was also organized in the same place. To both of these schools I was sent.
An incident occurred when I was about five and a half years old, which, like Macbeth's ghost, will keep coming up, though I say " down " never so often or so fiercely. I have two or three times alluded to it in Sunday-school addresses, with the hope of warning others, little boy, especially, from my experi- ence, to be more careful in their conduet.
My brother Abraham, two years younger than I, was with me under a large apple tree. There were many large apples lying on the ground, and we had amused ourselves by throwing apples at each other, a dangerous business for the eyes of little boys. After awhile, being tired of the fun, I said to my brother, "Stop ! don't throw any more." He replied, " Yes, this one." I said, " If you do, I'll hit you with this," at the same time picking up what to me then seemed a large piece of wood. Presently, after threatening two or three times to throw the apple, and I as often threatening him with the wood, he
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threw the apple, striking me, but not hurting me in the least. I immediately threw the wood, striking my little brother (whom I ought to have watched over and guarded from harm) on the nose and face. The blood flew, the child cried, and I was frightened. A kind-hearted girl, " help " for my mother, ran from the house, picked up my brother, and carried him to my mother. I followed at a respectful distance, to see what would be the result of my naughtiness. My mother met me at the door, and said, " You can't come in ; Cain killed his brother." That was all that was said, but it was enough. The punish- ment was severe. Had I nearly killed my little brother? I did not know how severe the injury was. I had seen the blood flow freely, and now I could not see him nor know how severe his injury was. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon, and my father would not be home till night. When it began to grow dark my fears increased. Soon after, my father came. I was assured that fatal results would not follow my brother's injury, was forgiven, warned against a like recurrence, and allowed to go to bed.
Another occurrence about this time, which has fastened itself deeply in my memory, is the following:
I was a little more than six years old. Father and mother were both gone from home, and I was with the " hired man " at the wagon-house. About eleven o'clock in the forenoon he asked me to go to the cellar and get him his tobacco. 1 answered that " I would if he would give me my box full too." To this' he readily assented, and a little brass box which I owned was filled. At noon it was empty. When we were called to dinner I sat down on a step in front of the house, which received the full benefit of the noonday sun. After sit- ting there a few minutes I wanted no dinner, nor could I even
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get in the house. The same kind-hearted girl to whom I have before alluded, carried me in and laid me on the bed, where I remained till evening. That was more than forty years ago, and I have never attempted to chew tobacco since.
SCHOOL DAYS.
I now come to the time which was not only an epoch in my own life, but in the history of my father's family. In the Spring of 1838 my parents, with their four boys, removed to the farm where my father now resides, five miles from the " old farm " of my grandfather.
In the year 1836 my mother's grandfather, Abraham Post, died, aged ninety-six .* My mother and her brothers and sisters were his principal heirs. His homestead my father bought.
It was an entirely new neighborhood for all of us but mother. She was happy, but so was father. To her it was coming back to the home of her childhood to rear her own family. To him, it was coming to his own farm, where he had chosen to make a home.
My father was a very busy man. He did not work much npon the farm, but he managed it, and began to improve it by liming, composting, changing fences, " clearing up " hedges, &e. He taught school, occasionally, during the winter; surveyed a great deal of land; wrote deeds, mortgages, and wills; and so went rapidly into what has proved his great life-work-writing, settling estates, and doing publie business generally.
My mother was a true help-meet for father. Meals for the hired men, as well as for her own family, were provided; the house, the garden, the poultry, the milking and churning; the children to be provided for and cared for, especially their moral
* My father's grandfather, Joseph Morehead, died in 1818, aged ninety-one.
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and religious training to be attended to. The greater part of the care, and no small part of the labor of all these, came upon her willing hands.
In March, 1842, occurred a great sorrow in my father's family. He had gone to attend court, at Flemington, and would not come home-ten miles-that night. During the forenoon, a baby brother, three months old, was taken siek, and a mes- senger was dispatched for the doctor, three miles away. The messenger returned, saying he was not at home. The child grew rapidly worse, and in the afternoon, the doctor not appear- ing, the messenger was again dispatched, this time with direc- tions from my mother, " Ride till you find him." The doctor had not yet arrived when I went to bed, in the open garret, almost directly over where the sick child lay. In the night I was awakened ; my mother was sobbing, and I heard the doctor distinctly say to her, " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away." I knew then that the child was dead. When morning came the doctor was gone ; a messenger had been sent for my father, the house was quiet, the morning work was regularly done, and special arrangements for the funeral were left till father arrived. He came shortly after breakfast. I well remember his look when he drove up; he spoke not a word, but his look expressed his feelings. My respect for Doctor Quimby was greatly increased, from the knowledge I had of hi- trying to comfort my mother, in her great sorrow, with words of Scripture. I wonder what proportion of physicians take advantage of their great opportunities for doing good in this way.
I neglected to mention, in its proper place in this narrative, that my parents lost a child about a year old, when I was five
.
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years of age; but I remember so little abont it, that I will not Awell upon it.
For six years-till I was twelve years old-I was sent to school quite regularly, to a variety of teachers. I count seven that I recall now. As I remember my standing, studies, and deportment, in school, I was not one of the best scholars, nor one of the poorest ; and yet I think I was a little above the average. Those were the days of corporal punishment, yet, in school ; and during those years, my misdemeanors subjected me to it three several times. The first was when three of us put a fourth one-all about the same age-one summer day, into the fire-place of a ten-plate stove. The stove was large, and main- tained its place in the centre of the school-room, all summer. It was only " for fun" that we put our play-fellow into this ashy hole. But as soon as he saw the " master " coming for the afternoon session, he ran and told him, when, as soon as school was called, "we three jolly boys" were brought up and punished, by having our hands well smarted with a large rule. "The second time, for some misdemeanor, I had my ears well boxed. . The third, and last time, was from a lady. There had been much vonfusion, that day, in the school, and the usnally very amiable teacher had been minch annoyed. Finally she said, "I will punish the next one that whispers." I am ashamed to say how very rude I was; but I have started to tell it, and will not screen the naughty boy. Scarcely had she uttered the threat, when I said to my nearest neighbor, " I'll whisper whenever I please, and won't ask Miss L-, either." Immediately he told of my whispering-not honorable in him, at any rate. I was called out, and, with folded arms, philosophically received the whipping I so richly deserved. No pupil that I punished, in after years, would have stood with folded arms and received
+
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a flogging without wineing! I have often thought my punish- ment was not half severe enough.
Two or three times, during this six years, I was severely ill, once when I was about eleven years old. My brother John was with my uncle, Rev. William J. Thompson, in Bergen county, N. J. It was supposed that I would die, and I was very anxious to see John. He was sent for, and came home immediately. I suppose it was during this sickness that I became a Christian, though I cannot say positively. After it, I was more interested than before, in the prayer-meeting. I was especially impressed on communion Sabbaths. During the solemn feasts, I remember saying to myself, "Why can't I be there?" I at times maintained a habit of private prayer. I suppose if I had been encouraged to do so, I would then have united with the Church. But I think that Mr. Van Liew, the minister; my parents, and the elders of the Readington church, would have been surprised that I, a mere child, wanted to unite with the Church, had it been mentioned. I am glad that child- ren of pions parents, in these days, are expected to be Christians, even while they are children.
YOUTH:
I make this division of my narrative thus early because I then entered upon a different kind of life. Hitherto, I had been counted as a little boy, and performed a little boy's duties. But now it was different.
In addition to his other branches of business, my father was building, clearing woodlands, &e. There were carpenters, masons, and other laborers employed. There was timber, wood, and stone to cart. Much of this I did. By this means I was constantly with the men, and it pleased me. I carted wood and
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grain to market, and whenever the team was wanted, I was ready and anxious to go with it.
When about fifteen years old, my father, the minister, the doctor, and a few others, wanting better educational advantages for their children than the common school afforded, employed a teacher of Latin, and established a "High School," in addition to the other, in the same building. I was sent to this school from April 1st to December 20th, 1846. In January, 1847, 1 went to the grammar school at New Brunswick, N. J., of which my uncle, Rev. William J. Thompson, was rector. He was then in his prime, the school was large, and for three months I studied harder than at any other time in my life.
Rev. Dr. Porter, of Brooklyn, says of him, as he knew him several years before this :
" Mr. William J. Thompson was at the head of the Somer- ville Academy when I was placed under his care and instruc- tion. He was a full and exact scholar. He had the art of inciting his pupils to study. Reared in the church of Reading- ton, and graduated at Rutgers College, he had enjoyed very ample opportunities for broadening the foundations of his knowledge. With a warm heart, capacious and active brain, and an innate nobility of spirit, he never could be settled into any cast-iron groove of cold, pulseless surrender to a formal and perfumetory discharge of routine duties. Firm and authorita- tive, indeed sometimes to the verge of severity, still he was magnanimous, self-sacrificing-with not a bit of the pedant or pedagogue in his composition. Blonde, blue-eyed, ruddy, of nervo-sanguineous temperament, he had a most attractive face, though not handsome, and a right princely bearing, which asserted the regnant force of the great soul within him. He knew how to translate crabbed mathematical problems into a species of epic eloquence; to make Latin and Greek texts dis- close the honeyed sweetness of Hymettus, while Plato's bees
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seemed to repose as at home upon his lips, when with his fervent and never-flagging enthusiasm he commended to his pupils some striking beauties in the pages of classic writers. The boys who loved books and hard study found in Mr. Thompson a friend and benefactor, who aroused them to diligence in their studies, not by promising them that they were to be presidents, govern- ors, or senators, but by awakening in them a hunger and thirst for the higher orders of knowledge."
My brother John taught the school at Pleasant Run, in Hunterdon county, this Winter. He united with the church at this time, and wrote to me of it at New Brunswick. I was alone in the room when I received his letter. I knelt down, and, with tears of joy, thanked God for my brother's conver- sion. I have never made that fact known before. It has been confined within my own memory nearly thirty-five years, and is now stated as evidence that I was then a Christian. Would I have done as I did, on receipt of this knowledge, if I had not. been a Christian myself?
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