USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Orange > The Mountain Society : a history of the First Presbyterian Church, Orange, N. J. organized about the year 1719 with an account of the earliest settlements in Newark > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16
In these circumstances, the proprietors looked to the judiciary. Even Governor Belcher was sus- pected of a want of firmness. The courts were more reliable. Riots were followed by arrests, and arrests by indictment and conviction. In 1755, at the June term of the Supreme Court, a large num- ber of persons were indicted, and the records of the court show that "some of the good people of the Mountain Society were certainly in this respect- able company."+ Jonathan Squier, John Vincent, Thomas Williams, Samuel Crowell, Nathaniel Wil- liams, Samuel Parkhurst, John Harrison, Moses Brown, Benjamin Perry, Levi Vincent, Jun., Josiah Lindsley, Bethuel Pierson, Nathaniel Ball, John Baker, Nathan Baldwin, Abel Ward, John Dodd, Timothy Ball, Ely Kent, Jonathan Davis, Jun., Ebenezer Lindsley, Eleazer Lamson, Enos Baldwin, Samuel Ogden, John Brown, Jun., Timothy Meeker,
* Analyt. Index, pp. 257-8.
+ S. H. CONGAR-to whom the writer is indebted for extracts from the records. "I say respectable," he adds, "for doubtless they were generally in good repute."
93
SECOND MEETING-HOUSE.
Zebedee Brown, and Thomas Day, threw them- selves on the mercy of the court. Daniel Williams, Amos Harrison, John Tompkins, Ebenezer Farand, Robert Young, Paul Day, Joseph Williams, and Elihu Lindsley, were fined five shillings. " Re- cognizance £100 for their good behavior for three years, and stand committed till fine and fees are paid."
But the Mountain Society showed signs of pros- perity and progress even amid these adverse influ- ences. Mr. Smith had been in the parish but a few years, when the erection of a new and better house of worship was undertaken. The following con- tract refers to the finishing of the house the year after its erection :
" Articles of agreement entered into this 13th day of March, 1754, between the committee of the Society of Newark Mountains, regularly chosen to manage in the affair of building a new meeting- house in said Society, by name Samuel Harrison, Samuel Freeman, Joseph Harrison, Stephen Dod, David Williams, Samuel Condict, William Crane, and Joseph Riggs on the one party, and Moses Baldwin on the other party; whereas the said com- mittee have bargained and agreed, with the said Baldwin perfectly to finish the said meeting-house excepting the mason work which now remains to be done to the same; which articles of agreement are, as to the most considerable particulars, as follows :
5*
94
CONTRACT FOR FINISHING.
" 1. That said Baldwin shall faithfully and hon- estly finish the said house in the general, after the model of the meeting-house in Newark.
"2. That said Baldwin shall find all the mate- rials for finishing the said house, such as timbers, boards, sleepers, glass, oil and paint, nails, hinges, locks, latches, bolts, with all other kinds of mate- rials necessary for finishing the said house after the model aforesaid, excepting the materials for the mason work.
-
"3. That he shall seal [ceil] the arch, ends above the plate, and under the galleries, with white-wood boards, and paint the same well with a light sky color.
" 4. That he shall take the desk of the old pulpit and so new model it that it shall be proportionable to the rest of the work, and that the rest of the gum-work be as the house in Newark, and oiled.
"5. That he shall make six pews, one on each side the pulpit, and two on the right and two on the left fronting the pulpit, with doors and hinges.
"6. That he shall make shutters for the lower tier of windows, painted blue and white.
" 7. That he shall set all the glass, and paint the sashes, and put springs in the same to prevent their falling.
"8. That he shall make a row of pews in the front gallery next the wall.
"9. That the said committee shall pay to the said
95
THE COST.
Baldwin for finishing the said meeting-house as above-mentioned, provided he completes it by the first day of December next, the sum of two hundred and forty pounds current money of this province, the payments to be as follows, viz .: that he shall be paid forty pounds upon demand, one hundred pounds more upon the first day of December next, and the last hundred pounds upon this day twelve months.
" 10. That the said Baldwin shall employ any of the joiners belonging to this Society for so long & time as they shall chuse to work, until they have paid what they shall freely give to the said meet- ing-house, and that he shall allow them four and sixpence per day.
" 11. That the said Baldwin shall have whatever he can get out of the old meeting-house that he shall work up into the new, together with all the hooks, and hinges, and locks.
All which articles we whose names are above written do promise and oblige ourselves faithfully to perform and fulfil: in witness whereof, we have hereunto interchangeably set our hands the day and year above written."*
This agreement had reference to the carpenter work upon the house, the walls of which were stone. The latter furnished work for many in the parish, who had doubtless equal privileges with the
# The original paper is preserved by S. H. Congar.
96
HELPERS IN THE WORK.
joiners. Thus, on the 20th of March, Samuel Jones received credit, 15 shillings, for six loads of rough stone; David Peck, for four loads, 10 shil- lings ; David Williams by Davie Taylor, two loads, 3 shillings ; while Deacon Freeman had 7 shillings for laying sleepers two days, and Justice Harrison, William Crane, Thomas Williams, Samuel Cundict, Isaac Cundict, John Cundict, Stephen Dod, David Williams, Capt. [Matthew] Williams, Isaac Wil- liams, Joseph Harrison and others, for "taking down the ceiling of the old meeting-house," and for other work, were duly and equally credited at the rate of three shillings sixpence a day. In "Justice Harrison's" old account-book already referred to, we find a series of charges to the meeting-house ac- count from May to July 4th, when, says the record, "we raised the meeting-house galleries." On that day thirty years later, another generation were raising liberty-poles.
By the autumn of 1754, six years after Mr. Smith's settlement, the new house must have been occupied by the congregation. It was built for en- durance, and was to continue in use nearly twice as long as its predecessor. It stood a few rods farther west, nearly in front of the present edifice.
It is not known that the Second Meeting-House was ever pictured by any contemporaneous hand. The view here presented was drawn from descrip- tions furnished by those who well remember it and
ANIS TON. DE i.
97
MINISTER'S SALARY.
who often worshipped in it. The representation given by the artist (E. E. Quinby, New York,) is said to be an accurate one.
Of the state of the parish at this period we are able to furnish some particulars from a book of ac- counts kept by Mr. Smith. It contains the names of about eighty persons who are regularly charged for their annual rate, varying from a few shillings to the sum of two pounds and upwards. The ag- gregate per annum was not far from £65, or about $150 .* The rates were doubtless graduated by the civil tax list. This income was added to the use of the parsonage house and lands. There were, how- ever, as the account shows, some tardy rate-payers, who had several years of arrearages to settle for with Mr. Smith's executors, after his decease.
A New York paper of July, 1756, notices a destructive hurricane, from which some of Mr.
From an entry made in 1762, it appears that the dollar was then equal in value to eight shillings eight pence. Wheat was 6s. to 7s. per bushel; oats, 2s. 6d. ; Indian corn, 3} to 4s .; buckwheat, 2s. 6d. to 3s .; flax, 9d. per lb. ; tallow, 8d .; beef (by the quarter) 3d. ; pork, 6d .; butter, 18d. ; cider, 10s. a barrel ; cider spirits, 3s. 6d. a gallon ; a quart of rum, 15d. Jonathan Young received 3d. a yard for weaving 114 yards of cloth, and £1 for weaving two coverlets. James Wood, alias Gold, received 3s. a day for cutting wood at the door; 3s. 6d. for cutting saw logs; 4s. for dressing flax. Isaac Williams had 4s. 6d. for a day in the meadows; Jedi- diah Crane 2s. 6d. for tobacco. For a clock and case, Aaron Miller received £17 10s. ($40) ; for cleaning watch, 3s. 6d. ; for grinding 5 razors, 3s. 9d.
98
A HURRICANE.
Smith's parishioners suffered. " The gust "-it says -- " was felt in Philadelphia-also in a very severe manner in the afternoon at Newark Moun- tain in New Jersey, where the orchards, fences, cornfields, and woodlands, for about a mile and a half in length, are entirely ruined, many large trees being broken down and carried an incredible dis- tance from where they stood. Twenty-five houses and barns were quite blown away, among which were Samuel Pierson's barn and mill-house, Justice Crane's barn and part of his house, Capt. Amos Harrison's house and barn, two widows named Ward, their houses and barns, and a new house be- longing to one Dodd, almost finished." One might fancy the elements sharing the agitation of the times, and getting up a riot on their own account. But we doubt if the effects of this émeute gave as much satisfaction to the mountain farmers as did those of the " north-west wind " which, seven and a half years before, burst the doors of the Newark jail.
A sadder visitation came the following summer. Death entered for the first time through the doors of the stone parsonage, and claimed for his own, after a year of suffering, the yet young and lovely wife, now the mother of three daughters. On the 20th of August, 1757, eight years from his marriage, Mr. Smith was left a widower. This early bereave- ment, which took from him a woman of rare excel-
99
SANCTIFIED SORROWS.
lence, very deeply affected him. He thus wrote in his diary-which he then began to keep with more regularity, it being chiefly a record of his religious exercises : " This morning, a week ago, a holy God was pleased to make a wide breach upon me, in taking away the wife of my bosom with a stroke of his righteous hand. I have, therefore, thought proper to set apart this day for secret fasting and prayer, besides finishing some part of my prepara- tions for the approaching Lord's day ; and this prac- tice I am resolved, by the help of God's grace, to continue upon the last day of every week, without I am necessarily prevented, for some considerable time, without setting any particular time. And I would now look to God, that he would by his grace so influence my heart, and would so order things by his providence, that I may be enabled to keep this, which I judge in my present circumstances to be a necessary resolution. And it is my earnest prayer to God, he would keep me from a self-right- eous, Pharisaic spirit in regard to this practice, but that I may engage in it warmly and heartily, in the strength of God, for the health of my soul, only as an appointed means.
"Now, the work I have before me this day is in particular :- (1.) To get my heart affectionately moved and touched with a sense of the loss I sus- tain by the death of so dear and excellent a com- panion, to the end I may be led to suitable grief at
100
SECOND MARRIAGE.
the cause of this controversy, which God hath, and indeed hath for a long time had with me. There- fore, (2.) One main part of my work this day is to search after and find out my sins, which have found me out by their deserved punishment, and in con- sequence to be abased and deeply humbled under the mighty hand of God for them." Another spec- ification was, to plead importunately with God that his long and heavy afflictions might answer their end upon him.
This custom of fasting was continued to the end of his life. It is also stated by Mr. White, that " he was one among a number of ministers in this country and Scotland, who united in a concert of prayer for the spread of the gospel, observing Sat- urday evening of each week, and the first Tuesday of the last week of February, May, August, and November, when there was a public exercise."
Left with three young children, Mr. Smith found it necessary, after the death of his wife, to employ a housekeeper. The person who served him in this capacity, for a consideration of three shillings a week, was the widow Phebe Richards, who had the care of his household, as his accounts show, from November, 1757, to June, 1759. In the following October he formed a second marriage with Rebecca, daughter of Major Isaac Foote, of Branford, Conn. This lady, with an infant son named Apollos, sur- vived him.
101
RELATIONS TO THE COLLEGE.
In the latter years of his ministry, there was added to his other labors the task of giving classi- cal instruction to a number of boys. Among these we find the name of Matthias Pierson-the Doctor Matthias of a later day, who was one of the first trustees of the society under the charter.
He was a patron of learning, and did much to further the interests of the infant college of New Jersey, of which he was made a trustee in 1750, and Clerk of the Board of Trustees soon after. Upon the death of Burr in 1757, whose funeral sermon he preached, he was sent to Stockbridge to use his influence in persuading Rev. Jonathan Ed- wards to accept the presidency of the college. Af- ter the decease of the latter in the following March, he performed for a few months the duties of the presidency. During the summer of 1758, the choice of the trustees having fallen upon Davies, of Virginia, Mr. Smith was again sent as one of a committee to use his personal influence in giving effect to the election. In this mission he was not immediately successful .*
* His representations appear to have had more weight with Davies than with the presbytery to which the latter belonged. Davies wrote (Sept. 14, 1758) to Cowell, of Trenton: "Though my mind was calm and serene for some time after the decision of the presbytery [against his removal], and I acquiesced in their judgment as the voice of God till Mr. Smith was gone, yet to-day my anxieties are revived, and I am almost as much at a loss as ever what is my duty. . . . If matters should turn out so as to
102
STATE OF RELIGION.
He was one who abounded in the work of the Lord. Few men have more conscientiously appro- priated the injunction : "Meditate upon these things ; give thyself wholly to them ; that thy profit- ing may appear to all."
In the pulpit he had little action, and was some- what monotonous, yet his enunciation was clear, and his manner affectionate and forcible. Deeply in communion with the word himself, it fell from his lips with solemn weight.
Yet, he labored with little apparent fruit. For this discouraging result there were special causes. The writer of his memoir observes, that "through the whole of his ministry there was a surprising deadness in the things of religion-a season of gen- eral backsliding and defection through the land, and his people partook of the spreading degeneracy, notwithstanding all his labors and pains; so that there was no remarkable revival of religion during the time of his ministry." The times were too troubled for the success of the gospel of peace. There was strife at home, there were rumors of wars abroad. Amid the general confusion, landlords contending with their tenants, while the English and French were fighting for territory on a larger scale, and the treacherous savage was made more
constrain me to come to Nassau Hall, I only beg early intelligence of it by Mr. Smith, who intends to revisit Hanover shortly, or by post."
103
CATECHIZING.
treacherous by the white man's bribes, it is to us no occasion of wonder that this faithful minister of the Lord Jesus should often have felt that he almost " labored in vain, and spent his strength for nought." But the shepherd was needed at such a time, and his ministry was not lost. "He was especially blessed in feeding the lambs, and edify- ing the body of Christ."
In the religious instruction of the young, Mr. Smith took a peculiar interest. It is said in his memoir that he " was abundant in catechetical ex- ercises. He used sometimes to catechize the chil- dren of the family where he visited; and often at his lectures, in the different parts of the congrega- tion, he catechized the young ones present before he preached. But he found it very difficult to get the youth that were grown up to attend catechizing on week-days. Therefore he undertook this part of instruction on the afternoon of the Sabbath, when the public exercises were ended. His method throughout the summer season was, to divide the young part of his charge into three classes ; children, young women, and young men. The children, that is, those from six or seven years of age to twelve or thirteen, he used to catechize on one evening, the young women on another, and the young men on a third; and at those seasons he generally had from fifty to a hundred of each class. These were sea- sons that he highly prized, not only for instructing
104
CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE.
the young in the principles of religion, but because he had such special opportunity to address them in particular, upon the great concerns of their souls and eternity. This practice he began soon after his settlement in the ministry, and maintained it to his death, and found great benefit from it. His usual method was, to ask them first a question out of the Assembly's Catechism, which he esteemed a valuable summary of religious principles, and then some questions contained or naturally arising from what he had asked ; concluding all in a practical address, urging and exhorting them to comply with the great things of religion."
Mr. Smith possessed much influence in the eccle- siastical bodies to which he belonged. He was for many years Stated Clerk of the Presbytery. In debate he was easy, calm, candid. He was espe- cially a peace-maker, and was often happily success- ful in preventing or healing differences. His emi- nent piety, sincerity, and sound judgment combined to secure the confidence of his brethren. To these traits were added great modesty and a natural diffidence, which sometimes made large crosses of little duties.
Once, on his way to his residence-so he wrote in his journal-he rode part of the distance with a person whom he had long desired to speak to on a point of moral conduct. "Knowing him to be a man of pretty rough disposition," said he, "I was
105
EXCHANGE WITH TENNENT.
distressed how to begin, and anxious what reception I should meet with. However, having first lifted up my heart to God for direction and resolution, I opened the matter and dealt plainly and affection- ately with him, setting forth the awful consequen- ces of such a practice in reference to himself and family, this world and another. He said little or nothing until I was about to part with him on the road, and then, with tears flowing, he gave me his hand and thanked me over and over. I bless God for this encouragement, and think myself much to blame I have not attempted the same sooner. I have several times undertaken private reproof with a fearful, trembling heart, and have met with a kinder reception than I expected. This should encourage me to go on."
The anecdote is related of him, that he once ex- changed pulpits with Rev. William Tennent, of Freehold. In the interval of service he passed round among the people, shaking them by the hand, inquiring after the health of their families, and winning their best opinions by his peculiar ur- banity and dignity of manners, which somewhat contrasted with those of Mr. Tennent. The latter, on returning home, heard the praises of Mr. Smith in every one's mouth. Thinking to profit by the circumstance, he, on the following Sabbath, passed round among the people in the same way, bowing, shaking hands, inquiring of health, and assuming
106
MR. SMITH'S SICKNESS.
the dignified manners of Mr. S. The thing was so evidently a piece of affectation, that a man of his congregation said to him, "Mr. Tennent, you are imitating Mr. Smith." "So I am," he replied, "and I am a fool for it! How are you ?" resuming his free and easy style.
The parish suffered no common loss when this studious, judicious, amiable and devoted man was cut down in the early maturity of his piety and usefulness. In the first part of October, 1762, he was seized with dysentery. For a time, his mind was somewhat clouded, but as his illness continued, his faith took hold of the promises, and his peace and joy were great. His people in the mean time showed their interest in the preservation of his life, by appointing a day of fasting and prayer, with re- ference to his condition. On the morning of the 22d, at an early hour, perceiving his end near, he called his family around him, and commending them fervently to God, took an affectionate leave of them. At his request, his little son was brought and placed in his arms. Unable to lift his hand, he desired some one to lay it on the head of the child, for whom he tenderly invoked the divine protection and blessing. His wife, at his desire, sung the last four stanzas of the 17th of Watts' Psalms :
" What sinners value, I resign : Lord, 'tis enough that thou art mine ;
107
HIS DEATH.
I shall behold thy blissful face, And stand complete in righteousness.
"This life's a dream, an empty show ; But the bright world to which I go Hath joys substantial and sincere; When shall I wake and find me there ?
" O glorious hour ! O blest abode ! I shall be near and like my God ! And flesh and sin no more control The sacred pleasures of the soul.
"My flesh will slumber in the ground Till the last trumpet's joyful sound ; Then burst the chains with sweet surprise, And in my Saviour's image rise."
At about six o'clock the same morning, he ex- pired, at the age of thirty-eight years and ten months .*
At his funeral, which was attended on the follow- ing Sabbath by a large concourse of people, and by a number of ministers, a discourse was preached from Philip. 1 : 21; " For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." In the afternoon another minister preached from Ezek. 22 : 30 ; " And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge,
" Two pupils had the month before entered his school, viz .: John Mitchell, Sept. 6, " to give a dollar per week for board, to make some proper allowance for wood and candles in winter be- sides, and to be schooled after the rate of £5 per annum;" and Caleb Cooper, Sept. 13, who " came to school again, to pay, for board and schooling, twenty pounds per annum."
108
MEMORIALS.
and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none."
On a large slab over his grave are the following lines :
" Beneath this tomb the precious reliques lie Of one too great to live, but not to die : Indued by nature with superior parts To swim in science and to scan the arts, To soar aloft, inflamed with sacred love, To know, admire, and serve the God above ; Gifted to sound the thundering law's alarm,
The smiles of virtue, and the gospel's charm ; A faithful watchman, studious to discharge The important duties of his weighty charge. To say the whole, and sound the highest fame,
- He lived a Christian, and he died the same. A man so useful, from his people rent,
His babes, the college, and the church lament."
The next year, 1763, there was published a memoir of him at Woodbridge, New Jersey, in a pamphlet of about sixty pages, of which two or three copies are yet in print. Mr. White, some years ago, was at the pains to make a manuscript copy of it, from which our quotations have been drawn.
In the settlement of Mr. Smith's estate, his widow received in "goods and money given by will," £102; for "her third of the land sold by vendue," £37; upon which, it being under lease, a charge was made of £13 for " new tenor money." This conveyance included "all her goods she brought " at
REV. AZEL ROF. 109
her marriage, now valued at £89. Parishioners in arrears for rates had to settle, by note or payment, with the executors, of whom Joseph Riggs was the one on whom the business chiefly devolved .*
His library was sold at auction. A part of the books were purchased by Mrs. Smith, and a part by Rev. Azel Roe, a young clergyman who studied theology with Mr. S., and who, the next year, (1763) married the widow, and was settled at Wood- bridge.t
Thus ended a ministry of fourteen years-a short
0 See "Caleb Smith's Book of Accounts." On page 110 there is a charge made by the executors, in an account with Mrs. Smith, for butter received of Deacon Thompson. We find no other men- tion of this officer.
f Dr. Roe preached at Woodbridge till his death, in 1815. He was twenty-nine years a trustee of the College of New Jersey ; was a member of the First General Assembly, in 1789, and moder- ator of that body in 1802. His zeal for American freedom was such, that in the war of the Revolution the British and Tories plan- ned his capture, and with McKnight of Shrewsbury, he was carried away a prisoner. In fording a stream, the officer who seized him, and who treated him with great politeness, insisted on carrying him over. He consented, and as he was crossing on the officer's shoulders, he observed-for he was a man of ready wit-" Well, sir, if never before, you can say after this that you were once priest- ridden." The joke so convulsed the officer with laughter, that he came near letting him fall into the stream .- Sprague's Annals. Mrs. Roe, by her second marriage, became the mother of two sons and six daughters. Apollos, the son of Mr. Smith, "on reaching manhood, went to the South, and was never heard of by his friends."- Webster.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.