USA > New Jersey > Hunterdon County > Amwell > The history of the First English Presbyterian Church in Amwell > Part 4
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To Governor and Mrs. Reading were born seven sons and three daughters. The children were all baptized in the Reading Reformed Church of which Mrs. Reading was a member at the time.
John, born March 30th, 1722, died November, 1766. Anne, born in May or June, 1723, as inferred from her baptism July 21st, 1723. George, born February 26th, 1725, died August, 1792. Daniel, born February 2nd, 1727, died October, 1768. Joseph, born November 23rd, 1730, died November, 1806. Elizabeth, born December or January, 1731. Richard, born December 8th, 1732. Thomas, born September 27th, 1734, died December, 1814. Mary, born July (?), 1736. Sara, born Septem- ber (?), 1738. Samuel, born November 25th, 1741, died August, 1749. He and many of the family are buried in the cemetery near the grave of Governor Reading. You will notice that the date of the birth of the daughters is not given. It can only be inferred from the baptism.
Judge James N. Reading, formerly a prominent lawyer in Flemington, was the son of Joseph and Eleanor Grand- in Reading, and a great-great-grandson of the Governor. Mrs. James N. Reading who died recently in Illinois, was Sara C., daughter of Isaac Southard. James N. Reading built the imposing residence in Flemington, now owned and occupied by Mrs. J. Newton Voorhees. Their children are now living in Morris, Ill. Another son of
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Joseph and Eleanor Grandin Reading was Philip G. Reading, late of Frenchtown, N. J.
Of Joseph Reading, born in Amwell, November 23, 1730, it may be said he was the first judge of the Hunter- don County Orphans' Court. He was a member of the Governor's Council from 1781-1783. He was a member and an elder of the Amwell Second Presbyterian Church, Mt. Airy, and frequently a delegate to Presbytery. He owned a plantation near Rosemont. The family bury- ing ground is at that place. He married Amy Pierson about 1754.
While I have had but the slightest acquaintance with James N. Reading I was intimately acquainted with Philip G. Reading, also with their sister Mary Ann, who became the wife of William Hedges, of Somerville.
Mr. and Mrs. Hedges came to Frenchtown about 1840, and Philip Reading a short time afterward. Mr. Hedges was engaged in mercantile business, and later he and Philip G. Reading united in conducting the lumber business which they carried on for several years at French- town. Joseph, the oldest son of Philip, was a pupil of mine a few years later, when I was engaged in teach- ing, while preparing for college.
This was in the early fifties, Mr. Reading and Mr. Hedges had both been associated with my father, Joseph Kugler, in establishing and sustaining the Presbyterian Church in that village. The first Church building was erected in 1845, and was used as a place of worship and for the Sabbath School, but was not organized as a Church until May 16, 1849. Of course many others were active helpers in building and sustaining the Church.
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Elizabeth R., the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Hedges was also a pupil of mine. During my college days I met her socially at the residence of Governor Olden of Prince- ton.
Previous to this, and in my boyhood, and early man- hood, I was often thrown in social relations with Mrs. Reading Hedges. She was a woman of culture and re- finement and I always have been thankful that in early life, I came under her influence. Mr. Reading also in- fluenced me in a way different from my old neighbors. There was a frankness of speech and manner about him in keeping with his manifest integrity, and the evident courage of his convictions that greatly helped me. Mr. Reading had several children, as Charles and James, mer- chants in Frenchtown, Charles having been once a member of the Senate. George, a physician in Southern, N. J .; Philip in business in Philadelphia, and John a distin- guished lawyer at Williamsport, Pa.
Having stated my indebtedness to Philip G. Reading during my boyhood, it will not be amiss I trust, to add another pleasant fact of my connection with this family. The only daughter of Mr. Reading, Miss Eva, I came to know in Clinton, N. J., where I am residing since retiring from the pastorate and am engaged in revising this his- tory. She is the wife of Hon. W. C. Gebhardt of the New Jersey Senate, and herself the distinguished presi- dent of the W. C. T. U. of Hunterdon Co., also active in Temperance, Sunday School and Church work. Here relations have been reversed, as I have had two of her daughters, the granddaughters of my old friend, Philip G. Reading under my instruction in the Sabbath School, and
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particularly in a Teacher-Training Class, in which, at graduation, they received along with one other, Miss Elizabeth Fox, by the bestowment of the State Superin- tendent of this department, the highest honors at his dis- posal. There are other descendants of the Reading fam- ily, residing in or near Clinton. Of these we men- tion Mr. John Stryker, son of Mrs. Theodosea Reading and Larison Stryker, also Nelson, the son of John Stryker, who with his wife are active workers in the Presbyterian Church of Clinton.
Miss Elizabeth Grandin, daughter of Dr. John G., lives at the old Grandin homestead, and is a devoted student of Art.
Then there are large groups of the family residing in and about Sergentsville, N. J., and others at Rosemont and along the Delaware. These cannot here be traced. As to my pupil, Miss Elizabeth Reading Hedges, I feel warranted in making additional statements, because this pupil of mine afterwards became the highly esteemed wife of one of your pastors, the Rev. John H. Scofield, but alas no longer living. It is gratifying to have with us to-day at our anniversary services, and also at the parson- age, her daughter, Miss Mary Scofield. And this interest is increased by the fact that the parsonage is the birthplace of Miss Scofield.
As Miss Scofield is the only representative of the Read- ing family attending these services, we deem it fitting to trace her relation to the Governor.
Mary Reading Scofield is the daughter of Rev. J. H. Scofield and Elizabeth R. Hedges, his wife; granddaugh- ter of Mary Ann Reading and W. W. Hedges; great-
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granddaughter of Joseph Reading and Eleanor Grandin ; great-great-granddaughter of Captain John Reading and Elizabeth Hankinson; great-great-great-granddaughter of John Reading and Isabella, daughter of William Mont- gomery* of Ayr, Scotland, and great-great-great-great- granddaughter of Governor John Reading and Mary, daughter of Yoris or George Ryerson, of Pequenac, Pas- saic Co., and his wife, Ann Schoute. This makes Miss Scofield of the seventh generation from Governor Read- ing.
Captain John Reading in the above line styled "Valiant John" was ensign in the company commanded by his Un- cle Thomas, Second Lieut. in Captain Dougherty's Com- pany, and Jan. Ist, 1777, was made First Lieut. in Cap- tain Cox's Company same Batallion (Leach, page 55).
Mrs. John H. Scofield was the second of the descend- ants of Governor Reading who has presided in the Am-
*This William Montgomery, son of William, came in his ninth year, with his father to America. He settled in Upper Freehold, where he died in 1771, aged 78 years. William, the elder son of Hugh, was the heir and owner of the property in Bridgewood about one mile from Ayr. He married Isabel, daughter, of Robt. Burnett, of the family of Gilbert Burnett, Bishop of Salsbury, and also one of the proprietors of East Jersey. Having lost much of his property, he moved in 1701 with his family to New Jersey, and settled on the lands of his father-in-law at a place to which he gave the name of Eglington, two miles from Allentown. The ancestry of this William traces back to Lord Hugh Montgomery, who in 1508, was cre- ated by James IV of Scotland, Earl of Eglington. (Early settlers of Trenton by Cooley, page 223).
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well parsonage. The other was Theodosia, daughter of Daniel, who married Rev. Thomas Grant, the fifth pas- tor of the Church.
William Reading, a grandson of Daniel, attained the rank of Brigadier General in the regular army during the Mexican War. He was distinguished for gallantry in the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and Molino del Rey in Mexico. Ann also daughter of Daniel, married Thomas Wood, an eminent lawyer of New Jersey, and afterward of New York. Another descendant, Anna Far- lee, became the wife of the late Augustus Richey, a dis- tinguished lawyer of Trenton. In early life, and up to manhood Mr. Richey resided in Asbury, N. J., and was connected with the Musconetcong Valley Presbyterian Church, of which I was for many years the pastor. These are but a few of the names which show how widely ex- tended the influence and widely scattered the members and children of this Church, who, when they sit down to tell the history of their own lives or families, must turn back to the Old Amwell First Church as the home of their ancestors. There was Major Pierson Reading, grandson of Joseph who went to California, when it was a wilderness, and before the discovery of gold there. He was there before Commodore Stockton's arrival, and in command of a division in Stockton's little army, partici- pated in the victories which won for our country that paradise of the Pacific coast. His children are still there, holding positions of influence and responsibility. I must not pass by Thomas, the youngest son of Governor, except- ing Samuel who died in childhood. Thomas died in 1814, in the 80th year of his age. It is claimed for him by Dr.
4
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Miller K. Reading, of Virginia, that he was by far the ablest and most active man in war, in Church and in State, of Governor Reading's sons. He was Captain of the 6th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the New Jer- sey Brigade. He was mustered into service in 1774. He took part in the operations before Quebec, in 1776, and continued in command until his regiment was mustered out in 1777. He was chosen Member of the Colonial Congress February 9th, 1776. He was a Trustee in our Church and our very meagre records of the time, show him to have been very active in measures for the Church's advancement. It is asserted that he was also a communi- cant member of the Church. And while he naturally went with the Flemington Church at the time of its or- ganization, he was not only an active member there, but the first man to be ordained to the office of Ruling Elder in that Church. John, a grandson, entered the company of his Uncle Thomas.
Another grandson of the Governor, Thomas, was First Lieutenant in Captain Stout's Company of the Jersey Line. He was taken prisoner at Three Rivers, June 8th, 1776. He became Captain February 5th, 1777, and Ma- jor of the First Regiment December 29, 1781, and served until the close of the war. Yet another, Charles, was Lieutenant of the Third Regiment, and afterward Cap- tain.
Dr. Miller K. Reading, great-grandson of Thomas, re- siding in Aden, Va., has shown much interest in the pub- lication of this history. He informs me that his grand- mother, wife of Joseph Reading, was a Miss Waldron, whose family at the time attended this Church, which
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enables us to place the Waldrons among the early wor- shippers at Amwell. This lengthy account of the Read- ings must admit of one more branch, in justice to the Church's record, as well as to the family.
We have stated there were seven sons and three daugh- ters born to Governor and Mrs. Reading,
"Woman is too much to the fore" in this day, to be left "unnamed, unhonored and unsung."
The daughters were Ann, married to Rev. Charles Beatty. Mary, married to Rev. William Mills of Ja- maica, Long Island, and Elizabeth, married John Hack- ett, from whom Hackettstown takes its name. Of Ann only, and a few of her children we wish to speak. She was the second child of Governor Reading, having been born early in 1723. Her baptism took place at the Re- formed Church of Readington, July 21st, 1723. June 24th, 1746, Ann Reading was married to the Rev. Charles Beatty, Mr. Beatty was a graduate of the Log College at Neshaminy.
The Rev. William Tennent was the able head of this school. Mr. Beatty came to this country from the North of Ireland. His mother was Christina, daughter of James Clinton. She was the sister of Charles Clinton, whose son, George, was successively General in the Army of the Revolution, Governor of New York and Vice-Pres- dent of the United States with Jefferson during his second term. This shows good blood for young Beatty. The Beattys were of Scotch-Irish descent, and of the Presbyterian faith. The elder Beatty having died, Mrs. Beatty and her four sons, accompanied her brother, Charles Clinton, to this country in 1729. Charles Beatty was then a lad of
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fifteen years. He undertook to support himself by sell- ing linen fabrics, and carried his goods, as was the cus- tom, on his back. In one of his excursions, as the tra- dition has given it to us, he approached Mr. Tennent, and addressed him in Latin, seeking to sell his goods. The result of the interview was that Mr. Tennent persuaded him to sell the goods on hand and return to the Log Col- lege and study for the ministry. Whether this is all true or not, it is given on the authority of Dr. Rodgers, and there is no doubt about his studying at the Log College and entering the ministry of the Presbyterian Church. He was licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, Octo- ber 13th, 1742, adhering to his teacher, Mr. Tennent, in what was called the New Side. His license was one year after the division of the Synod. He was called to suc- ceed Mr. Tennent at the Forks of the Neshaminy, May 26, 1743, and ordained and installed there on the 14th of December. Mr. Beatty possessed, in a large measure, the missionary spirit, and sympathized with the celebrated David Brainard, in his efforts to evangelize the Indians. He entertained Brainard at his house in 1745, when on a visit to confer with the Governor on business connected with his mission. In June of that year occurred a mem- orable communion, when Brainard on Mr. Beatty's invi- tation came to assist, and preached to a large audience of two or three thousand, and many were deeply affected. Mr. Beatty and Ann Reading were married as already stated, June 24th, 1746. In the fall of that year Mr. Brainard's health having failed, and he having decided to leave New Jersey, Mr. and Mrs. Beatty called to bid him farewell, to which Brainard refers in his journal "as
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unexpected, and refreshing to his Spirit." Mr. Beatty's personal connection with this Church was not as pastor, but only as a supply. It was in this way the Church was served from its origin to 1751. Mr. Beatty was prominent among these supplies. In October Mr. Beatty was appointed by Presbytery "to supply Amwell one- quarter of his time, and Mr. James Campbell before our next." Again in 1748 and 1749, Mr. Beatty, Mr. Camp- bell, Mr. Allen and Mr. Chestnut are some of the sup- plies. During these years you will remember he was, by his marriage to Ann Reading, the son-in-law of the Gov- ernor, which perhaps had something to do with his fre- quent services of this kind. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Beatty were able, godly and influential. So from this Amwell girl, Ann Reading, wife of Charles Beatty, sprung men and women to benefit and bless both the State and the Church at large.
One daughter, Mary, married the Rev. Enoch Green, a member of the Green family of Ewing. and Trenton, who graduated at Princeton College and was pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Deerfield, N. J. He entered the Army of the Revolution in 1776, as Chaplain, con- tracted fever and died in December.
But Mary lived until 1842. When she died in the ninety-sixth year of her age, and was buried in the grounds of the Presbyterian Church, corner of Fourth and Pine Streets, Philadelphia. Elizabeth, another daughter, mar- ried Rev. Philip Vicars Fithian. He, too, was a Presby- terian clergyman, and entered the army as Chaplain. He was at the battle of White Plains and soon after died from exposure in camp. Their son, John, graduated at Prince-
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ton, in the first class under Dr. Witherspoon, whose com- ing to Princeton was due as much to his grandfather, Charles Beatty, as to any other man. But as the war broke out he entered the army, received a Captain's com- mission in the Fifth Penna. Batallion, attained the rank of Major, was taken prisoner at the surrender of Fort Washington, November 1776. On his exchange, he was appointed commissary-general of prisoners. As a man of business he held many positions of great responsibility. He returned to Princeton after the war and represented the State in Congress from 1783 to 1785.
Dr. Reading Beatty, son of Charles and his wife, Ann Reading, was a student of medicine when the war broke out. He at once entered the army, and was taken pris- oner with his brother at the surrender of Fort Washing- ton. He was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church at Newtown. Pa. His daughter, Ann, married the Rev. Alexander Boyd of Newtown, Pa. His daughter, Mary, married the Rev. Robert Steel, pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Abington, Pa. Another daughter, married Rev. Henry Wilson and died as a missionary in Arkansas. A daughter of Rev. Robert Steel, D. D., Mrs. Mary Har- vey, is now (1898) residing in Hoboken, N. J. She is an eminently brilliant woman and active in church and educational work. This at least, was true of her, during the time of my pastorate in that city, but being the widow of an Episcopal clergyman, her connection was not with the Church I served. She has rendered me material as- sistance in the preparation of this history.
Col. Erkuries Beatty, another son of Rev. Charles Beat- ty was preparing for college when the war broke out. At
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the age of sixteen he entered the army under Lord Stirl- ing, who had espoused the cause of the Colonies. He was in the battles of Long Island and White Plains. He ob- tained an Ensign's commission in the Fourth Penna. Bat- talion. He was engaged in the Battle of Brandywine May 1777, and in that of Germantown in which he was severely wounded. He fought at Monmouth, June 28th, 1778, under Wayne. He then joined LaFayette and was present at the capture of Yorktown, October 19th, 1781.
Dr. Charles Clinton Beatty, son of Erkuries, was a distinguished clergyman of the Presbyterian Church. He was settled at Steubenville, Ohio, where in connection with his wife, he founded a large Female Seminary. He was Moderator of the General Assembly in 1862. He was an influential member of the Committee which con- summated the Union between the old School and the new School Presbyterian Churches. He was a very liberal benefactor of the Church and educational institutions. His gifts to the Female Seminary at Steubenville, to Jefferson College and to the Western Theological Seminary at Pittsburg are said to amount to $500,000. And he and his descendants must trace back to Amwell, and to Ann Reading when they would write up their history .* Just one more illustration of this wide influence of our Church. Mary, a daughter of Ann Reading and Charles Beatty married Rev. Enoch Green, Lydia Elizabeth, a grand- daughter of this Enoch Green married James W. Moore, D. D., and settled at Little Rock, Arkansas, and was
*We are indebted to Dr. Charles Beatty's History of the Beatty family, for many of the above facts.
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the first missionary of the Presbyterian Church in that part of the State. A son of this James W. Moore, was Charles Beatty Moore, who graduated at Princeton in 1857, in the same class with myself. When I began to write this history I was struck with the name Charles Beatty and made inquiry as to his ancestry. You may imagine my surprise and delight to find that this classmate whom I love as a brother was also a descendant of the old Am- well Church of which I am pastor. For years we sat to- gether in grand old Princeton. During the war he was in the Confederate Army, and I in the Church, and my sym- pathies with the North. The war is ended, and old friends clasp hands with the friendship of earlier days. I believe him to be as true to the flag as I am, or any other man. He is an elder of the Presbyterian Church at Little Rock. In 1897 Major Charles Beatty Moore, such is the record in the minutes of the Synod of Arkansas, was elected to the office of Moderator of the Synod for the second time. Unfortunately, I have lost the date of his first election, which was said to be the first time that a layman had filled that office in America. I am confident he honored the office as truly as the office honored him. Naturally he is interested in this Church of his ancestors, and in this history.
This family history should not close without recording the fact that a Miss Beatty, a great granddaughter of Ann Reading and Charles C. Beatty was a pioneer mis- sionary in India, stationed at Dehra, where, after a life spent in obedience to the Saviour's last command, she died and was buried. So it comes to pass that we have representatives of Old Amwell, or their descendants, scat-
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tered over the whole country. We find them on the At- lantic Coast, in the great Central States, in the Central and Southern part of the Mississippi Valley, on the Pacific Coast, and among the missionaries of far off India, all making a deeply interesting history of the family and an honor to the Church.
And yet "the half has not been told," nor can we even mention the vast multitudes who trace their origin back to the Amwell Church, and to those honored ances- tors whose faith in God, and whose Christian character have stamped themselves upon their numerous descend- ants. Truly we have a wonderful heritage in the vener- able and sacred organization whose story we are trying to tell to the present, and the generation following.
In presenting these family records I have answered with sufficient fullness the questions who was on the ground at the beginning of the Church? and presumably by whom was it organized? And who sustained the Church in the days of its infancy? For some of these I have car- ried the record down so as to connect the past and the present.
Now, leaving the records of families, or individuals, we recur to the organization of the Church. The date of the organization I have been able to give only proximately. But I have the pleasure of stating for the first time to the present generation at least, the date of building the old Church which stood in the cemetery grounds between Reaville and Ringoes. This date is not given either by Dr. Mott or Dr. Blattenberger, in the sketches they have published of the Church. We have on file a paper. in the handwriting of Jasper Smith, which was prepared
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in order to secure the removal of the Church to Flem- ington, and rebuild it there. This paper was presented to Presbytery, and its facts used in an address before Presby- tery, as an argument for the change of location.
The paper gives numerous reasons for such removal. The very first reason mentioned is this, "Because the house," (meaning the old Church) "is ex-central. It was built fifty-two years ago, for the people between the Del- aware River and the Dutch Congregation in Reading Town." This paper is dated November, 1791. But fifty- two years before 1791 gives us 1739, thus fixing the date of building the old Church. That building continued to be the house of worship, though undergoing numerous and extensive repairs for one hundred years. For the other record is, that in 1839, during the pastorate of Rev. David Hull, the old Church was taken down, and the present Church building erected. That event closed a marvellous century in the history of this Church, and yet, so far as I have been able to learn, it was allowed to pass without a centennial celebration; most likely without the knowledge that the Church had stood there for one hundred years. Who the people were who were inter- ested in the erection of that Church, we have already shown with very strong probability, if not certainty.
A brief description of that building was given by the late George P. Rex, M. D., and was included in a sketch of the Church furnished by Dr. Blattenberger, for Snells History of Hunterdon County, published in 1881. Un- like our present Church building, its greatest length was parallel to the highway. The door was on the side fac- ing the road, and directly in front of it was the pulpit.
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There were galleries on three sides. It was built of wood. It contained neither stove nor fire place.
"It was unfinished, and ever likely to be, and very cold," is given as the second reason, in the paper of 1791, already quoted for removing and building in Flemington, "And because when the people arrive, there are no houses nearby, with fire, where people can warm." A third rea- son for moving the Church was, "There is no place by the Church where victuals and drink can be procured for the hungry and thirsty."
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