USA > New Jersey > Cumberland County > History of the early settlement and progress of Cumberland County, New Jersey and of the currency of this and the adjoining colonies. > Part 9
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In March, 1864, a law was passed setting off more than half the township of Millville into a new township, to be called the town- ship of Landis. This law embodies most of the peculiar features of the system adopted by the founder, which it is believed have
87
MAURICE RIVER, MILLVILLE, AND LANDIS.
aided very materially in promoting its rapid growth and its con- tinued prosperity.
Besides the usual powers of the inhabitants and officers of the townships in New Jersey, this act gives authority to the township committee to appoint overseers of roads and authorizes the election of one superintendent of roads, with a salary, whose powers are very ample, and who is required to have work on the roads done by contract. The side of the roads in front of all improved lands, are required to be seeded in grass within two years, and kept clear of noxious weeds; and shade trees are to be planted at such dis- tances apart as the committee shall direct. The committee may require all buildings to be set at a distance not exceeding seventy-five feet from the side of the road outside of Vineland, and not exceeding twenty feet in the town. These powers have been exercised to the great benefit of the settlement, adding very much to its symmetry and beauty. The roads called avenues are 100 feet in width, and have generally two rows of trees, mostly maples, but in some cases fruit trees on each side, while the other roads are from 50 to 66 feet in width with one row of trees on each side, the road-beds for carriages being thirty feet in width. No person is required to inclose his ground with a fence, no cattle, sheep, or swine being allowed to run at large. The absence of fences and inclosures about the dwellings is a marked feature of the place, causing it to present as yet a naked appearance to eyes accustomed to these hitherto indispensable incumbrances, but when the hedges and ornamental trees and shrubbury which are being very gener- ally planted shall have time to grow, this absence will no doubt be found to be a great improvement.
The law also provides that no ale, porter, beer, or other malt liquor shall be sold as a beverage, except at a regularly licensed inn or tavern; and that it shall be submitted to the people annually at their regular town meeting, to decide whether they shall apply to the court for a license for an inn or tavern to sell intoxicating liquors as a beverage in the township, and that no license shall be granted unless a majority of the votes shall be in favor of the same. The result has been that no license has been granted, and at the last annual town meeting the vote against a license was unanimous.
Two other rules were adopted by Mr. Landis in making most of his sales, which, it is supposed, have materially aided his design.
88
MAURICE RIVER, MILLVILLE, AND LANDIS.
One is that he has sold his farm lands in small parcels, of from five to fifty acres each, and most generally not exceeding fifteen acres, so that the engrossment of the soil by speculators other than the proprietor himself has been prevented, persons of small means have been enabled to purchase, and the number of settlers has been largely increased. Another is that a full title to the land is not made until the purchaser has erected a dwelling, cleared up and cultivated a certain portion of his land, usually two and a half acres, and made the required roadside improvements. The com- bined influence of these measures, the extensive advertisements of the scheme, the favorable reports of invited visitors engaged in agricultural clubs and in writing for the newspapers, and the real advantages of the place, especially to persons whose residence was in the Northern and Eastern States, and whose liability to lung or other complaints, or other causes, made a change to a milder and dryer climate advisable, caused a rapid growth, probably unsur- passed in any place outside of a commercial centre like Chicago or other cities in the United States, which have astonished the world.
Most of the land comprised in Mr. Landis's tract could have been purchased ten years ago at from two to ten dollars an acre, ac- cording to the growth of timber it contained. Now the unimproved town lots, having 50 feet front and 150 feet deep, sell for $150, and some on Landis Avenue have sold at $40 a foot front, while much of the improved land sells at $150 to $200 an acre. A large population has collected, and many very handsome dwellings have been erected, so that the town is selected by many persons possessed of means as a most desirable residence. Good church buildings have been erected by the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists, who have stated preaching and a good attendance, and there are besides, Unitarians, Second Adventists, and Friends of Pro- gress, who have organized societies. Two weekly newspapers are published. Education has been carefully provided for, there being now fourteen public schools in the township, and an academy for the higher branches. The Methodist society has located its semi- nary for South Jersey at this place, and have commenced a fine building estimated to cost about $75,000. Various manufactures have been established, operated by steam power, and much activity prevails. A leading object of the settlers has been to cultivate fruits, for which the soil and climate are supposed to be peculiarly
89
MAURICE RIVER, MILLVILLE, AND LANDIS.
favorable. While it cannot be affirmed that these efforts have been always successful, it is certain that there has been a large production of berries, grapes, and peaches, and a considerable amount of sweet potatoes and tomatoes. The number of inhabit- ants in Landis Township at this time (1869) may be estimated to be 6500. On the whole tract of Mr. Landis in the three counties there are probably 10,000 inhabitants.
The area of Cumberland County is stated in the recent geologi- cal survey of the State to be as follows :-
Townships.
Tide Marsh.
Total.
Bridgeton
9,849 acres
Deerfield
21,517 acres
26,656
66
Downe
14,176
66
57,043
66
Fairfield
48,192
66
Greenwich
4,410
11,360
Hopewell
1,875
19,200
66
Landis .
7,174
67,559
66
Millville
1,158
32,224
66
Stone Creek
768
66
11,475
66
Totals
51,078
330,080
66
Area of the whole State .
295,474
66
4,849,069
66
Prior to 1851 there was no attempt to assess taxes upon the tax payers in proportion to the value of their property. But in that year such a system was commenced, and with some variations has been since continued. The values returned by the assessors of the several townships have been as follows :-
Townships.
1852.
1860.
1865.
186S.
Cohansey
$300,000
$401,000
Bridgeton
900,000
850,000
$2,279,000
$2,303,000
Deerfield
443,000
500,000
742,000
773,000
Downe .
580,000
657,000
681,000
715,000
Fairfield
705,000
875,000
1,059,000
1,000,000
Greenwich
556,000
571,000
631,000
656,000
Hopewell
561,000
686,000
1,000,000
1,200,000
Landis
650,000
800,000
Maurice River
538,000
575,000
673,000
750,000
Millville
620,000
870,000
1,148,000
1,681,000
Stone Creek .
342,000
550,000
550,000
572,000
Totals
5,545,000
6,535,000
9,913,000
10,450,000
..
46,522
66
Maurice River
90
RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.
CHAPTER V.
RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.
THE first organized church in this region of which there is any authentic record was the old Cohansey Baptist Church, although it is believed the Cohansey Presbyterian Church in Fairfield was cotemporaneous, if not earlier. Many Baptists and Presbyterians came into the county together from New England and Long Island. Morgan Edwards, who was from Wales, and is mentioned in Sabine's History of the American Royalists, published a History of the New Jersey Baptists in 1789, which is now a rare book. He states that "about the year 1683, some Baptists from · Tipperary, Ireland, settled in the neighborhood of Cohansey ; in 1665, arrived Obadiah Holmes, from Rhode Island. About this time Thomas Killingsworth settled not far off, which increased the . number to nine souls, and probably as many more including the sisters; the above nine, with Killingsworth, formed a church in the spring of 1690. The Baptist church from which it sprung in Tipperary, called Cloughkatier, was flourishing in 1767 when I visited it."*
"In 1710 the Rev. Timothy Brooks, and his company, united with this church; they had emigrated hither from Massachusetts, about 1687, and had kept a separate society for 23 years, on account of difference in opinion relative to predestination, singing psalms, laying on hands, &c." He continued to be the pastor until his death in 1716. As early as 1702 he purchased 107 acres of land at Bowentown, comprising the farm on which the brick house on the hill stands, which was afterwards conveyed to the trustees of the Cohansey Baptist Church, and held as their parsonage until 1786, when it was sold to David Bowen, and was for several years the residence and property of Ebenezer Elmer. It is said there was a meeting-house, erected and occupied by Brooks' society,
* Rev. Mr. Wright, in his recent historical sketch of the Roadstown Baptist Church, says Cloughketin (as he spells it) Church was still in existence in 1838.
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RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.
opposite the parsonage, which stood a few rods south of the road, about forty rods west of the brick house, and was still in use within the writer's memory.
In 1711 Edwards says, the society put up a building on the lot afterwards occupied, a little east of Sheppard's mill, South Hope- well. 'It is supposed, however, that this is a mistake. The Bap- tists about this time built a log house in that part of Fairfield called Back-Neck, the graveyard attached to which is still visible, and it is most probable that this is the house he refers to, for he says the title proved defective and the tradition is that there was no little difficulty in fixing upon the proper location in 1741.
At this time a new wooden church building was erected on the ground south of the road leading east from Sheppard's mill, where the old graveyard still remains. One of the stones has on it this inscription. "In memory of Deborah Sweeney, who departed this life the 4th day of April, 1760, in the 77th year of her age. She was the first white female child born in Cohansey." Edwards says, this house was 32 by 36 feet and "had a stove." By this is meant that it had a stove when he wrote in 1789, and this was so unusual as to claim special mention. Very few churches in this region, were warmed with fires until after the commencement of the pre- sent century, and they were not then introduced without much opposition from old people, who thought them needless, if not dan- gerous. For many years a stove was not to be had; and open fire- places, which were alone used in dwellings, were not suitable for a church. After stoves were introduced, so long as wood continued to be burned, that is to say until about twenty or twenty-five years since, they did not comfortably warm the buildings, it being com- mon for females to have footstoves in their seats. It is also to be noticed that most of the early churches were built near to running streams, for the purpose of enabling those who attended to procure water for themselves and their horses. It was common for the minister to hold two services on the Sunday, with an intermission of an hour or half hour; a practice which was continued at Fair- field within the memory of the writer. The old frame house re- mained until after 1804, about which time the new brick church was erected at Roadstown, to which the congregation removed.
Brooks was succeeded by William Butcher, who died in 1724, and was succeeded by Nathan Jenkins from 1730 to 1754. Robert Kelsay, from Ireland, came to Cohansey in 1738, became a Baptist
92
RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.
in 1741, and pastor in 1756, dying in 1789. He frequently, if not statedly, preached in the court-house at Cohansey Bridge, where there was no organized church of any denomination until forty-five years after it became the county town. Henry Smalley succeeded him and died in 1839. The particulars of the various churches in the county it is not proposed to continue longer than during the first years of the present century. This church consists now of 288 members.
Edwards states in his history that " Mr. Wrightman, one of their ministers, was invited to preach at Fairfield in 1714, but forgetting his situation, he talked away as if he had been in a Baptist pulpit, and eight Presbyterians joined the society." But in a note he adds, " Since I have been informed but four joined Baptists, the other four were baptized to ease a scrupulous conscience, and then returned to their own church." Those were days of controversy. He says, "In 1742 a great stir in Cape May ; but some one of the party converts joining the other party, caused a howling among the losing shepherds and issued in a public challenge. Mr. Morgan accepted ; his antagonist was Rev. Mr. Finley. The contest ended as usual in a double triumph ; but two things happened to mar the glory of the day. One was a remark that a stander-by (Mr. Lee- man) was heard to make. He was a deist, and therefore a disinte- rested person. He said, " The littleman (Finley) is thrown down, and his antagonist will not let him rise for another tussle." Both parties published their discourses.
Among the members of the old Fairfield congregation was Na- than Lawrence (or as he spelled his name, Lorrance), who was a large property owner at Cedarville, on the southern side of Cedar Creek. He became à Baptist, and was perhaps one of Wright- man's converts in 1714, and was so zealous in propagating his new faith as frequently to journey with the ministers to Cape May and other places. He erected a meeting-house on his own land, where the Baptist meeting-house now stands, a little south of the school- house. Dying early in 1745, he, by his will, dated November 23, 1744, left to his two sons, Jonathan and Nathan, and three daugh- ters, several tracts of land and other property, and to his daughter Abigail Elmer (the writer's grandmother) "all that messuage called Flying Point, except one acre where the Baptist meeting-house now standeth, where the Baptist members that liveth on the south side of Cohansey Creek shall think fit to take it, to her or her heirs
93
RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.
forever by her present husband, Daniel Elmer;" they to pay a cer- tain sum to two of his daughters and complying with what shall be hereafter enjoined. "I also lay and enjoin a penalty on all or any of my afore-mentioned children, whereby they, any one or more, shall forfeit all their lands above mentioned, to their other brothers and sisters, to be equally divided between them, or pay ten pounds current money, amongst their brothers and sisters, for every time that any of them shall be convicted, or that it shall be made to appear by any one or more of them, that any one has agreed or obliged him or herself to pay, or has paid any sum of money, or any consideration whatsoever, toward supporting or maintaining minister or congregation of those called Presbyterians, direct or indirect."
This part of the will, however, appears to have been treated by all concerned as mere brutem fulmen, and disregarded. The daugh- ter and husband were, or soon became, members of the Presbyterian church, and the other children supporters of it. The testator was buried in the ground annexed to the meeting-house, where his tomb- stone was formerly to be seen; but his two sons were buried in the old Cohansey graveyard, on the river side, at New England Town. The meeting-house does not appear to have been used by the Bap- tists, who were either ignorant of the will, or preferred to concen- trate their support on the new house recently erected in lower Hopewell. During many years after this, those living south of the Cohansey were accustomed to cross that river at a place something more than a mile above Greenwich, which was long known as the Baptist Landing.
The house at Cedarville appears to have been possessed by Daniel Elmer during his life, and after the split in the Presbyterian church, it was said was frequently used by preachers of the new- light side, and among others, by the celebrated Whitfield, in 1748. It was removed by Timothy Elmer, son of Daniel, and converted into a barn on his property below the tavern of Cedarville, prior to 1780. The lot was afterwards, about 1828, sold under the Elmer title, although then claimed by the Baptists, who soon purchased it, and erected on it the house now in use.
A descendant of the Rev. Mr. Brooks, who states that he had been a member of the church thirty-two years, and a deacon twelve, had a bitter controversy in the year 1765 with Jonathan Bowen, father of Jonathan Bowen, afterwards of Bridgeton, who
94
RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.
was also a prominent member of the church, which involved in it the pastor, Mr. Kelsey, whose daughter had married a son of Mr. Bowen. This resulted in the expulsion of Mr. Brooks from the church communion, and caused him to print, " A plowman's com- plaint against a clergyman, being a letter to the Baptist Associa- tion of Philadelphia." The pamphlet exhibits a sad want of tem- per, and shows that the prevalent habit of freely indulging in the use of strong drink, which in those days occasioned much scandal in all the churches, had much to do with it. The dispute grew in part out of a controversy about a lot claimed to belong to the par- sonage, at the southwest corner of Bowentown Cross-roads. Mr. Kelsey, it appears at length, preached a sermon, taking as his text the 17th and 18th verses of the 16th chapter of Romans. This was of course very offensive to the deacon, who proclaimed before he left the house, and repeated it in his pamphlet, that he wished the minister to preach Christ crucified, and not Jonathan Bowen crucified.
Edwards says that in 1716 several of the Baptists embraced the sentiments of the Sabbatarians, who insisted that the seventh day Sabbath was of perpetual obligation. This led to the establish- ment of the Shiloh Seventh Day Baptist Church about the year 1736. The founders were John Sweeney, Dr. Elijah Bowen, John Jarman, Rev. Jonathan Davis, Caleb Ayres, and others. About the year 1790 a considerable number embraced the Universalist sentiments of Winchester, some of whom became in fact deists, whereby the society was much disturbed and troubled. This diffi- culty has now passed away, and the society, as well as the town itself, surrounded by fertile land, has greatly improved. Their tenets are believed to be the same as those of the regular Calvin- istic Baptists, with the exception of that relating to the observance of the Sabbath. At their first organization they erected a wooden meeting-house, which, about the year 1761, was superseded by the old brick building still standing on their burial-ground lot. This latter was in its turn superseded in 1854 by the present neat edifice of brick, a little nearer to the town than the old one. They have also a neat and commodious school-house of two stories, in which a good school is maintained.
An offset from this church has a building, not very distant, just within the limits of Salem County.
A regular Baptist Church was formed at Dividing Creek, in
95
RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.
Downe Township, by members of the old Cohansey Church in the year 1761, and still continues to flourish, having now 222 mem- bers.
There were also for many years a church called the West Creek Baptist Church, a little west of the boundary between Cumberland and Cape May. The old meeting-house is still standing, but does not appear now to be used.
The Baptist church in Bridgeton, known as the Second Cohan- sey, was erected by the old Cohansey Church in 1816, during the pastorate of Mr. Smalley, and continued to worship in connection with them until 1828, when they were constituted a separate church, and the Rev. George Spratt was chosen their pastor. In 1857 they erected a new and larger building on the north side of Commerce Street. Their members now number 348.
Another offset from the old Cohansey is the church at Green- wich, which erected a neat edifice on the north side of the main · street in 1844. They were constituted a separate church in 1850, and now number 115 members.
A church was constituted at Cedarville in 1836, and numbers now 114 members.
Millville Church was constituted in 1842, and has 44 members. That at Newport was constituted in 1852, and numbers 147 mem- bers. The aggregate number of members in all the regular Bap- tist churches of the county is 1218.
In 1863 a Baptist church was constituted in Vineland, and a meeting-house erected. In 1868 the old Second Cohansey Baptist meeting-house on Pearl Street, Bridgeton, was enlarged, and a new church constituted, which is now (1869) very flourishing.
No records or documents remain from which it can be ascer- tained when the "Cohansey Church" of Fairfield was first estab- lished, although there can be but little doubt that it was not later than 1690. At first it was like the churches of Connecticut, inde- pendent. The Presbytery of Philadelphia, with which it became united in 1708, was first established in 1705. Before this time a log meeting-house had been erected at the place known as New England Town Cross-Roads, probably on the lot situate on the south bank of the Cohansey, where the old graveyard still remains.
The first minister known to have preached here was the Rev. Thomas Bridges, belonging to a family of considerable importance
96
RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.
in England, who graduated at Harvard College, and, after being engaged in mercantile pursuits, went to England, and returned to Boston in 1682, with testimonials from John Owen and other emi- nent Dissenters. He appears to have preached for some time in the West Indies. About the year 1695 he came to Cohansey, and located several tracts of land. How long he preached at Fairfield is uncertain; but he is said to have been called from there in 1702, to be the colleague of Mr. Bradstreet in Boston, where he died in 1715, at the age of fifty-eight. Whether any one succeeded Bridges before 1708 is unknown. Early in that year, at the instance of his college classmate, Jedediah Andrews, who came to Philadelphia in 1698, and became the pastor of the first Presbyte- rian church there, being ordained in 1701, Joseph Smith, a gra- duate of Harvard, who had been licensed as a preacher, came to Cohansey. Andrews wrote to him that they were "the best people of his neighborhood." Smith met the Presbytery in May, 1708, and was ordained and installed in May, 1709; but, complaining of negligence in making up his support, he soon returned to New England.
In 1710 Samuel Exell came to Cohansey, but in 1711 the Pres- bytery wrote to the people that, " by the best account they had of him, they judged him not a suitable person to preside in the work of the ministry." In 1712, John Ogden represented the church in the Presbytery as an elder, and by him a petition was sent to which no answer was returned. In 1713 Ephraim Sayre appeared' as elder, and asked advice about the choice of a minister. They sent Howell Powell, who had been ordained in Wales, and he was installed pastor, continuing until 1717, when he died, leaving descendants still maintaining a respectable position in the county.
About this time, or perhaps sooner, the old log meeting-house was superseded by a comfortable frame building, covered on the sides, as well as the roof, with what in this country are called shingles. It stood on the southeast corner of the old graveyard, and was furnished only with benches, upon which the audience sat. About the year 1775 it became so dilapidated as to be unsafe to preach in, and the benches were taken out, and placed under a large white-oak tree at the corner of the lot, which has been cut down; and there, in good weather, the pastor preached. Old in- habitants of Fairfield have said, and probably with truth, that no person ever rode to this church in a wheeled vehicle. It was not
97
RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.
until 1780 that the "old stone church," now in its turn deserted, was fit to preach in.
Henry Hook, from Ireland, came to Cohansey in 1718, and was installed pastor. During his time there was a congregation at Greenwich, to which it would seem that he ministered. . In April, 1722, Andrews writing to Mather, says: " The week before last, by the pressing importunity of the minister of Cohansey, I went thither to heal some differences between the two congregations there, which being effected contrary to expectation, such charges were laid against him as have subverted him from acting there or anywhere else." He removed to Delaware, and the New Castle Presbytery met at Cohansey to investigate the case. The judg- ment was, that though several things were not proven, yet it was due to rebuke him openly in Fairfield meeting-house, and to suspend him for a season. Noyes Parris, a graduate of Harvard, preached to the congregation from 1724 to 1729, when having fallen under serious imputations, he in a disorderly manner with- drew to New England.
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