"The Mountain society:" a history of the First Presbyterian Church, Orange, N. J. ... with an account of the earliest settlements in Newark

NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES

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THE OLD PA 11 SOX AGE.

"The Mountain Society:"

A HISTORY OF THE

FIEST PRESBYTEEIAN CHUEOH,

ORANGE, N. J.

ORGANIZED ABOUT TISE YEAR 1719 AS A:f IXDEPEXDEST SOCIETy, AND LONG KNOWN
-AS THE " CHURCH AT NEWARIt MOUNTAINS ;" PRESBYTERIAN SINCE 1748 ; INCOR-
PORATED IN 1783 AS THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN NEWARK ;
AND KNOWN BY ITS PRESENT TITLE SINCE 1811 : WITH AN ACCOUNT
OF THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENTS IN NEWARK AND ITS VICINITY, THE
SAfflES AND LOCALITIES OF THE FIRST SETTLERS NEAR THE
MOUNTALN, THE CONTROVERSIES AND RIOTS RELATIVE TO
PROPRIETARY AND INDIAN LAND TITLES, INCIDENTS OF
THE REVOLUTION, THE FORMATION OF OTHER
CHURCHESjj ETC., ETC. ; COMPRISING THE
MOST INTERESTING PARTICULARS IN THE
CIVIL AND REUGIOUS HISTORY OF
ORANGE.

BY JAMES HOYT

PASTOR OF THE CHURCH.

cf

NEW YORK :

PUBLI8HKD BY C. M. SAXTON, BARKER & CO.,
No. '25 Park Eow. -

186^

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by
C . M . S A X T N ,

In the Cierk's Office of the
the South

"Edwabd O. Je>'Ki>'8, 1 rinter,
26 Frankfort St., N. Y.

of the United States for
York.

/

This volume — the fruit of laborious and careful research, yet
somewhat hastily written — is respectfully presented to the Session
of the First Church, under whose advice it was undertaken ; to the
Congregation whose indulgence has been shown to the writer in its
preparation ; to his many fellow-townsmen who have encouraged
him in it ; to the gentlemen who have aided in the collection of
its materials ; and to all who shall further patronize it as a worthy
endeavor to preserve what is memorable in our past and passing
local history.

PREFACE.

The historical materials here presented have been
collected, during the last two years, in the midst of
professional engagements which only a pastor can
fully appreciate. The task of arrangement has been
executed during the latter half of that period. Had
all the difficulties of such a Avork been understood by
the writer in advance, it is not at all likely he would
ever have undertaken it. Yet he has felt in a degree
comj^ensated by the success of his researches. This
is the only compensation expected, aside from the
satisfaction of doing a service which may prove ac-
ceptable to the community among whom his lot is
cast. A local history of this sort can have no general

/circulation throusjli the book markets. Its value,

/ . . ....

however, is not entirely local, nor limited in time.

( JThe Christian public at large, and the Church of the

future, have an interest in the preservation from

oblivion of the names and deeds of those who founded

I our civil and sacred institutions.

/

6 PRKFACE.

He who planted His Church, and with it a purer
civiHzation, in Canaan, " made His wonderful works
to be remembered." This was done for a time by
historical monuments, as by the twelve stones taken
out of Jordan, the Ebenezer set up by Samuel, the
manna laid up m the ark, &c., — memorials that served
to perpetuate a traditional history. But these memo-
rials were perishable, and traditions could not long
be relied on. Hence the pens of historians were also
employed.

The early Puritan Churches of America have abun-
dance of unwritten memorials. In every piece of our
grand frame-work of institutions are seen the Ebeue-
zers which successive generations have reared. The
First Church of Orange may point to its " pile of
stones," containing the very material of a more an-
cient sanctuary — " our holy and our beautiful house,
where our fathers praised," more than a hundred years
ago. It has preserved, too, its ancient faith and pol-
ity. But no written history of it has ever before
been attempted. The men of the past knew little of.
their own importance to the religious future of the
country ; and if they had known it better, they were
so engrossed with the struggles and necessities of the
hour as to have little leisure for the historian's work.
If we have as little in these no less stirring times, we

1

PREFACE. 7

have reached a positiou which makes it imperative
that the task here midertaken be no longer delayed.
The past recedes, and the obscurity that gathers over
the annals of our older churches will soon be a dark-
ness forbidding all research. This conviction led to
the formation, in 1852, of the Presbyterian Historical
Society, with which all ministers, ciders and others
are invited to " cooperate, by collecting and trans-
mitting old sermons, pamphlets, ncAvspapers, maga-
zines, letters, books, manuscripts, portraits, or any
relics of the olden time wiiich throw liglit upon our
annals."^'

The existing records of our Church Session date
from January 30, 1803, about a year after the settle-
ment of Mr. Hillyer. Those which were extant when
he came to the parish are said to have perished in a
fire. Thus the names of the ancient officers of the
Church, the record of its membership, and the account
of its spiritual administration for more than eighty
years, were forever lost, except as the first might be
gathered from other documents and memorials which
time has spared. The oldest papers in the parish are
certain deeds preserved by the trustees, which date
I from its beginning. The oldest volume is the private

* Any contributions of the kind may be sent to Samuel Agnew,
/^\ Esq., 821 Cliestnut street, Philadelphia.

PREFACE.

account-book, in tlie form of a ledger, and once well
bound in parchment, kept by tlie second pastor,
Caleb Smith, and commenced in 1751. In this are
found tlie names of his parishioners, of a number of
bovs instructed by him, and an account of the settle-
ment of his estate by the executors. After his death
the trustees kept their records in it, and copied into
it the chaiter obtained in 1783. And from that time
the minutes of the trustees, and those of the annual
meetings of the parish, have been preserved. From
these and other sources much knowledge has been ob-
tained respecting the parish during the last century.
The labor involved in researches of this kind is
peculiarly tedious. Let the reader imagine himself
starting from the mouth of the Mississippi, without a
map, to trace backward its lengthened flow to its dis-
tant sources. Let him think of following the trunk
up to its branches, and these to their tributaries, and
these to their thousand little feeders and inlets.
Such a labor is this. It has sometimes required
months to trace some family stream to its ancient
springlet. Many an afternoon has been passed in the
old ofravevard, amoncr monuments so bronzed and
moss-£rro\^Ti bv the long; action of the elements, as
almost to defv the hand of Old Mortality. Recourse

• *

has been had to historical societies, to ecclesiastical

PREFACE. 9

records, to old account-books and journals, to deeds
and wills, to town records, and to tbe living descend-
ants of pastors and others noticed in the history.
The list of Church officers and the statistical tables
are the result of investigations renewed and perse-
vered in for a year or more. Of all this the reader
will have little thought as his eye runs over the
pages. But as the beauty and pleasure of life, or the
value of any work of art, is a result depending on a
thousand indispensable details and trifles, even so is
it "wath a historical narrative. The present labor will
have its reward, if, in this " w^alk about Zion," the
writer has gathered anything worthy of being " told
to the generation following."

In that portion of the work which relates to the
early settlements of the town, free use has been made
of Dr. Stearns' History of the First Church in ISTewark ;
and much personal aid has been received from Dr.
Samuel H. Congar, " the indefatigable antiquarian of
!N'ewark," and librarian of the New Jersey Historical
Society. Indeed, without the kind interest taken in
the work by the latter gentleman, the history in its
', present expanded form would never have been under-
taken. In the biographical notices of two of the pas-
tors (Smith and Hillyer), much information has been
drawn from Sprague's Annals of the American Pul-

10 * PREFACE.

pit. For many facts relating to Jedediab Chai)man,
the writer is indebted to his grandson, Rev. Robert
H. Chapman, D. D., of Asheville, X. C. He is also
under obligations to Rev. Dr. Van Rensselaer, of
Philadelphia, Rev. Dr. Sj^rague, of Albany, Rev. Dr.
Murray, of Geneva, Rev. Dr. Krebs, of Xew York,
and a number of others, for their courteous responses

to his inquiries.

The brief notices 2:iveu of other relisfious societies
in Orange are from statements kindly furnished by
their jjresent pastors. That of the Bloomfield Church
is from the published historical discourses of its late
23astor, Rev. J. M. Sherwood.

While the particular subject of this history is the
Mountain Society^ it will be seen to be identified
through a long period with a general history of this
part of the old township of Xewark. The author
has undertaken it in the hope of doing an acceptable
service to his fellow-townsmen of every class, as well
as to the conorre oration to whom he ministei*s.

CONTENTS.

^(1

CHAPTER I.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

A Hundred and Forty Years Ago — Glance at the Colonies — Ante-
cedent History — Proprietary Government — Settlement of New-
ark — Names of the Settlers — A Disappointment — Purchase of
Lands — Second Purchase — Casting of the Lot — Mountain Farms
— Settlers near the Mountain — Accessions — Men who Made their
3Iarli — Character of the Hackinsacks — Bears and Wolves —
Houses — Self-Government — End of Proprietary Rule— Horse-
neck Purchase 13-45

CHAPTER II.

THE MOUNTAIN SOCIETY.

Half a Century — A Generation Gone — Presbyterianism and Con-
gregationalism — Changes in Newark — A Society organized at
the Mountain — Lost Records — Deed given by Thomas Gardner
in 1719 — Site for a Sanctuary — Question of Date — Newark Par-
sonage Lands — Purchase made by the Mountain Society — Its

12 CONTENTS.

Boundaries — A " Dissenting Ministry '' — First Meeting-House —
Spirit of the Settlers— Samuel Pierson, the Carpenter — Hands
that Helped — A Happy Day — Pews and Pulpit — Lining the
Psalm — Peaceful Worship 46-57

CHAPTER III.

RET. DANIEL TAYLOR.

Graduation at Killingworth — Labors on Long Island — Death of
his "Wife— Removal to New Jersey — Deeds and Dates — Home-
stead and Farm- Revival of 1734-5 — Negro Plots— The Great
Land Monopoly — Its Rights Examined — Measures of Defence —
Prosecutions and Riots — The Rioters Vindicated — Defence of
the Proprietors — Mr. Taylor's Part in the Controversy — Mr.
Tavlor's Will— His Death— Officers of the Church - 46-81

CHAPTER IV.

KEY. CALEB SMITH.

Samuel Harrison's Day-Book — Parsonage House — The Young
Minister— The Church Presbvterian — The Minister's Marriage —
Parsonage Memories — Wood-Drawing — More Riots — A Queer
Wind — Influence on the Provincial Assembly — Indictments
and Fines — Second Meeting-House — Contract for Finishing —
Pewholders and Rates — A Hurricane — Death of Mrs. Smith —
Sanctified Sorrows — Second Marriage — Mr. Smith's Character —
Catechizing — Anecdotes — His Sickness — His Death — Memoir —
Settlement of his Estate 82-110

CHAPTER V.

EEY. JEDEDIAH CHAPMAN.

Letters to Rev. Joseph Bellamy— Settlement of Mr. Chapman —
His Marriage — Inadequate Support — Death of Mrs. Chapman —
Second Marriage— Samuel Harrison's Will— llie Patriot Pastor

CONTENTS. IS

— Revolutionary Incidents — Two Young Adventurers — A Court
Martial — Figures Sometimes Lie — Murder of Stephen Ball —
Effects of the War — Fourth of July — Mr. Chapman's Politics —
The Parish Incorporated — Orange Sloop — Orange Academy —
Division of Parsonage Lands — Caldwell Church — "Orange " and
" Orangedale " — Sermon before Synod — Items voted by the
Trustees — Collection of Rates — Bell-Ringers— Lots for Sale —
School Advertisements — Church at Ploomfield — Mr. Chapman's
Salary— His Dismission— Newark Cider — Anecdotes of Mr. C. —
His Missionary Labors, and Settlement at Geneva — His Death.

111-153

CHAPTER VI.

KEV. ASA HILLYEK, D. D.

A New Century — Light from the Inner Temple — Revival under
the Preaching of Mr. Grrhfin — Mr. Hillyer's Impressions of Him
— Board Account— Rev. Asa Hillyer — Ministry at Madison —
Call to Orange — Archibald Alexander — Yiew of the Parish —
Church Officers— The Common— Sale of Lots— Revival of 1801-8
— Effects on the Youth — A Ball given up — Strong Convictions —
— An Impressive Scene — The Ingathering — Orange Township —
Mr. H.'s Salary —Third Meeting-House— The Old Bell— Dedica-
tion and Thanksgiving — The Sermon— Cost of the Edifice—
The Mineral Spring — Provision for Servants — Removal from the
Parsonage— Revival of 1816-17 — Sunday-school— Bible Society
— National Societies — A Doctor's Degree — Academy Deed —
Retrospect— St. Mark's Episcopal Church — Death of Mrs. Hill-
yer — Methodist Church — Second Presbyterian and South Orange
Churches— Rev. Edwin F. Hatfield, and the Revival of 1832—
Dr. Hillyer's Resignation — Division of the General Assembly —
Sermon before the Synod — The Last Communion — His Death —
Tablet Inscription 154-202

14 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VII.

KEV. "WILLIAM C. WHITE.

His Nativity — Studies — Preaching at East Machias — Settlement at
Orange — State of the Parish — Causes of Diminution — Church
Officers — Salary — Second Parsonage — First Baptist Church —
School Laws — End of the Academy — TVest Bloorafield Church —
Sexton's Salary — Hymn Book — Lecture-Room — Decrease of
Membership — Increase of Beneficence — Revival of 1850 — Mor-
ris and Essex Railroad — Immigration — Alterations of the Sanc-
tuary — Grace Church — The Old Parsonage Demolished — Mr.
White's Resignation — His Declining Health — Rev. Silas Billings
— Mr. "White's Sudden Decease — ]Minute adopted by the Session
—Tablet Inscription 203-225

CHAPTER VIII.

PvE V . JAMES H O Y T .

Five Pastorates — Permanency of the Pastoral Relation — The
Writer's Settlement — Death of Judge Day — Officers of the
Church — New Officers — View of the Parish — James Greacen —
Mission School — North Orange Baptist Church — The Flock
Smitten — Commercial Crisis — Blessmgs in Adversity — Revival
of 1858— Features of the Revival — Additions to the Chui'ches —
New House of Worship by the Methodist Congregation — Gas
Lights — Church Edifice at Orange Valley— Sunday-school Re-
established for Colored People — What we owe to the Past —
Progress of Society — What we may Claim — Summary View of
the Churches 226-252

CHAPTEl^IX.

A VIEW OF ORANGE.

Orange in 1834— Climate— Relations to Newark and New York —
Extent and Appearance -'i'rade and Business— Farms and

I

CONTENTS. 16

Homes— Llewellyn Park — Eagle Rock— The Old Mineral Spring
— Barrett's Park— The Mountain House— Orange Valley — The
Village — Springdale Lake — Second River and the Streams that
form it — Rosedale Cemetery — Institutions of Orange — Printing-
Press — Orange Journal — The Old Academy Building — Orange
Female Seminary — Private Schools and Academies — Public
Schools — The Old Orange Library — The Lyceum — The Orange
Library Association — What the Village Needs— Late Improve-
ments — Fire Engine — Police Wanted — Preliminary Measures
Toward a Better Government of the Town - - 253-280

^

s

( 1

HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

IN those ancient lands where civilization had its
birth, the centuries pass with little change of
scenery or society. " That which hath been is now,
and that which is to be hath already been." Na-
tions revolve, like the planets, in a fixed orbit, and
the stereoscope of history presents ever the same
view. The pyramids are their historic symbols.
The current of the ages brings nothing to them and
bears nothing away. Even changes of race and
religion leave behind them a marvellous sameness.
The old is a receptacle of the new, and arts, man-
iners and ideas are soon shaped to the mould into
{.vhich they have been cast. The causes are ob-
^/ious ; the cautious conservatism of despotic gov-
ernments, and the stagnation of man's intellectual
life under them.
/ ■ 2

14 GLANCE AT THE COLONIES.

We need not suggest to the intelligent reader the
contrast seen in our western civilization, especially
in the free States of iS'orth America. Here all is
action, motion, progression. Turning the eye to
any part of the wide field of our history, we see
realized in society the gigantic strides ascribed by
Homer to his diYinities.

. The present history dates from a point not very
ancient — less than two hundred years ago. Its
proper beginning lies nearer, in tlie time of George
the First, about two-thirds of a century before our
national independence. The European popula-
tion of ^ew England then scarcely exceeded a
hundred thousand. East and West Jersey were
just united. The smoke of the wigwam rose here
in the forest ; the fox and the wolf strayed without
fear from their mountain coverts.

The Boston Kews-Letter^ the first American
newspaper, was but fourteen years old, and without
a competitor. Philadelphia and New York were
provincial villages.

The first post-of&ce in America, at Xew York
had been established less than ten years. The
spinning-wheel was just crossing the ocean, and the
potato was just taking root on the plantations of
Londonderr}^. The first cargo of tea was about em-
barking, to try its fortunes this side of the water.\
The colonists were yet dependent on Europe for
their table luxuries, for many physical comforts, i

ANTECEDENT HISTORY. 15

for Bibles and otlier books, for academic privileges
and preachers. There was in New York " a small
Presbyterian flock, assembling in a house without
galleries, six out of its eight windows being closed
with boards, poverty preventing their being glazed,
and the fraction of light being enough for the hand-
ful of people."*

The old Presbytery of Philadelphia, formed
about 1706 with seven ministers, had increased in
number to twenty-five, and had just resolved itself
in 1716 into four presbyteries, forming a synod.
New Jersey had scarcely a dozen churches. The
founder of ^lethodism was a youth of sixteen in
Oxford university, quite ignorant of the grand mis-
sion for which the grace of God was preparing him.
His future competitor in the work of evangelical
reform, George Whitefield, was playing about the
rooms of the Bell Inn, kept by his mother at
Gloucester, a lad of five years old. Since that day,
— a hundred and forty years ago — what hath God
wrought ! These fourteen decades, — have they not
b/cJen, in the progress of American civilization and
((Jlhristianity, as fourteen centuries ?
J But we shall have to go back a little farther to
gain the proper starting-point of the present narra-
tive. Our history will lead us over a considerable
period, during which civil and ecclesiastical affairs

. : * Webster's Hist. Pres. Church, p. 120. The Church was or-
I Mnized in 17] 5.

16 PEOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT.

were blended. We shall find the ground we stand
upon a field of conflict with English proprietors,
and a religious community unhappily agitated by
"questions of their law." We may as well, there-
fore, at the outset, explain the antecedents of that
controversy, by giving a short account of the settle-
ment of this region, under the proprietary govern-
ment.

As early as 1658, a settlement was begun upon
what was called the " Bergen grant," on which a
tradinof station had been established bv the Dutch,
forty years before. In 1663, a band of Puritans
from Long Island obtained permission of the Dutch
to plant their iDstitutions on the banks of the
Earitan and the Minnisink. In the following year,
some families of Quakers were found on the south
side of Earitan Baj'. In the same year. King
Charles the Second, by letters patent under the
great seal of England, granted to his brother James,
Duke of York, a tract of land stretching from the
Connecticut river to the Delaware. Of this exten-
sive grant, the portion now called jSTew Jersey wrs
conveyed the same 3^ear, by deeds of lease and ret-
lease, to John Lord Barclay [or Berkley] and Sir
George Carteret. This portion was again divided,
in 1676, between Sir George and the assigns of
Lord Berkley, the former taking the eastern part.
Carteret, by his will, dated December 5, 1678, de-
vised to certain trustees therein named a power to j

RULES OF SETTLEMENT. 17

sell East New Jersey ; a trust which was executed
three years thereafter, by a sale, conveying the
same in fee to William Penn, Eobert West and
others, to the number of twelve. These twelve
proprietors, by particular deeds, took each a part-
ner, so that East New Jersey became vested in
twenty-four persons, who were known thencefor-
ward as the tiuenty-four Pro'prietors. By these a
Council of Proprietors was appointed, to consist of
at least one -third part of the whole number of
proprietors, or their proxies, and possessing all ne-
cessary powers of administration.^

To encourage immigration, the proprietors, Berk-
ley and Carteret, published their " Charters of
Concessions," prescribing the fundamental rules and
methods by which property in their lands should
be acquired. One was, "That all such persons
who should transport themselves into the province
of New Jersey within certain times limited by the
said Concessions, should be entitled to grants or
patents under the seal of the Province, for certain
o u/».ntities of acres in the said Concessions expressed,
|)aying therefore yearly the rent of one half-penny,
sterling money, for every acre so to be granted."
'Another rule was, "That all lands should be pur-
chased by the governor and council from the
Indians, from time to time, as there should be oc-

* See Publication of the Council of Proprietors, March 25, 1746,
in appendix to Bill in Chancery ; also, in New York Post-Boy.

f

18 NEWARK SETTLED.

casion, in tlie name of tlie Lords Proprietors ; and
every person settling was to pay his proportion of
that purchase money and charges.""^ It will be
seen that the proprietors recognized in these rules
the right of the Indians to a compensation for their
lands, while they monopolized the right of purchase.
No others could buy but through them. The
Indians could sell only to them. Against this as-
sumption of power over the soil and its original
tenants, there was made subsequently a vigorous
and determined ojDposition.

In August, 1665, Philip Carteret, a brother of
Sir George, having received an appointment from
the proprietors as governor of the colony, appeared
among the tenants of the scattered cabins about
Elizabethtown, which was then but a cluster of four
houses. In honor of Lady Carteret, the place re-
ceived her name, and rose into dignity as the capital
of the province.

The settlement of Newark, by immigrants from
Connecticut, began in the following year. The
movement was occasioned by dissatisfaction with
certain measures attending the union of the New

* Publication, &c. as above. They also offered a bounty oV
seventy-five acres for the importation of each able slave. This in,-
human appeal to avarice had its motive in the fact that the Duko
of York was a patron of the slave trade, and president of the
African Company.

f Bancroft, Hist. U. S., Vol II., p. 318. y

OBJECT OF THE SETTLERS. 19

Haven and the Connecticut colonies, of wliicli one of
tlie most obnoxious was the half-way covenant^ that
secured certain ecclesiastical privileges, such as the
baptism of children, to persons not in full com-
munion Avith the church. The pioneer company,
which comprised about thirty families, came from
Milford in the spring of 1666. Tlieir first town
meeting was held the 21st of May, when delegates
were present from Guilford and Branford to con-
fer upon the subject of a union in the organization
of a township. The union was mutually agreed
upon, and its object and conditions explained and
arranged. The great object was '^ the carrying on
of spiritual concernments, as also of civil and town
affairs, according to God, and a godly government,"
which had ever been the cherished idea of the
Puritans. It was a grand religious idea, but every
experiment, before and then, only added to the
proof that '^ spiritual concernments" are best carried
on through institutions of their own, under political
protection, yet separated from civil affairs, A godly
government, as they understood it, cannot long be
maintained without the disfranchisement of worthy
citizens. And the making of piety and church
communion a necessary qualification for civil
offices, is but a premium offered to hypocrisy.
The settlement of Newark was among the last ex-
periments that demonstrated the delusive hope of
the old Puritans, who were greatly wise in many

20 FUNDAMENTAL AGREEMENT.

things, but not in all. It was anotlier and vain
repetition of an experiment whicli the Bran ford
pastor had already made at two previous settle-
ments, first on Long Island, and then at Branford.

In the following October, the delegates having
returned and reported, a meeting was held at Bran-
ford, and two articles drawn up, known as "the
fundamental agreement," to which twenty-three
principal men of the town attached their names.
The J were the following :

" 1. That none shall be admitted freemen or free
Burgesses within our town upon Passaic river, in the
Province of New Jersey, but such planters as are
members of some or other of the Congregational
Churches, nor shall any but such be chosen to
magistracy, or to carry on any part of civil judica-
ture, or as deputies or assistants to have power to
vote in establishing laws, and making or repealing
them, or to any chief military trust or of&ce ; nor
shall any but such charch members have any vote
in any such elections ; though all others admitted
to be planters, have right to their proper inheri-
tances, and do and shall enjoy all other civil liberties
and privileges according to all laws, orders, grants,
which are or shall hereafter be made for this town.

2. We shall, with care and diligence, provide for
the maintenance of the purity of religion professed
in the Congregational churches." "-

^ Newark Town Records. Stearns' Hist., p. 14.

(

NAMES OF SETTLERS.

21

These articles were subscribed by —

JASPER CRANE, RICHARD HARRISON,

ABRAHAM PIERSON,
SAMUEL SWAINE,
LAURENCE WARD,
THOMAS BLACTHLY,
SAMUEL PLUM,
JOSIAH WARD,
SAMUEL ROSE,
THOMAS PIERSON,
JOHN WARD,
JOHN CATLING,

EBENEZER CANFIELD,
JOHN WARD, SEN.,
EDWARD BALL,
JOHN HARRISON,
JOHN CRANE,
THOMAS HUNTINGTON,
DELIVERED CRANE,
AARON BLACTHLY,
RICHARD LAURENCE,
JOHN JOHNSON,

THOMAS LYON.

And upon being transmitted to the new settlement
the inhabitants already there held a public meeting,
June 24, 1667, when the following names, forty in
number, were also subscribed to them :

;

ROBERT TREAT,
OBADIAH BRUEN,
MATTHEW CAMFIELD,
SAMUEL KITCHELL,
JEREMIAH PECK,
MICHAEL TOMPKINS,
STEPHEN FREEMAN,
HENRY LYON,
JOHN BROWNE,
JOHN ROGERS,
STEPHEN DAVIS,

2*

GEORGE DAY,
THOMAS JOHNSON,
JOHN CURTIS,
EPHRAIM BURWELL,
ROBERT DENISON,
NATHANIEL WHEELER,
WILLIAM CAMP,
JOSEPH WALTERS,
ROBERT DALGLESH,
HANS ALBERS,
THOMAS MORRIS,

22 A DISAPPOINTMENT.

EDWARD RIGS, HUGH ROBERTS,

ROBERT KITCHELL, EPHRAIM PENNINGTON,

JOHN BROOKS, MARTIN TICHENOR,

ROBERT LYMENS, JOHN BROWN, JUN.,

FRANCIS LINLE, JONATHAN SEARGEANT,

DANIEL TICHENOR, AZARIAH CRANE,

JOHN BAULDWIN, SEN., SAMUEL LYON,
JOHN BAULDWIN, JUN., JOSEPH RIGGS,
JONATHAN TOMPKINS, STEPHEN BOND.

The names tlius brought from the Connecticut
coast to the banks of the Passaic have since ra-
diated in all directions over this portion of New-
Jersey ; while the church in Newark, whose roll
they first constituted, and in which many of them
are yet found, is still " Hkc a tree j^lanted by the
rivers of water." Its leaf has not withered by an
age of nearly two hundred years.

We have seen that, by the Concessions, all lands
were to be purchased of the Indians b}^ the G-ov-
ernor and Council in the name of the proprietors,
while every person settling was to pay his propor-
tion of the purchase money and charges. By tjiis
rule the colonists expected to find Indian claims
pacified, and the way clear for the undisturbod
occupancy of such lands as they needed. But
when the Milford company arrived and commenced
landing their goods, a party of the Hackinsacr-s
appeared, who warned them oft", saying the lan.^.

PURCHASE OF LANDS, 23

were not yet purcliased. This unexpected an-
nouncement came near defeating the enterprise.
For " on the subject of real estate in the New
World, the Puritans differed from the lawyers
widely ; asserting that the heathen, as a part of
the lineal descendants of Noah, had a rightful
claim to their lands. ""^ And so, putting their
goods back upon the vessel, they were about to
return. The Q'overnor, however, dissuaded them
from this, and as the Indians were not unwilling
to sell their lands, resort was had to negotiation.
The agents on the part of the town were Eobert
Treat and Samuel Edsal ; on the part of the In-
dians, the chief negotiator was Perro^ a Sagamore,
acting with the advice and consent of an aged
Sagamore, not then able to travel, whose name was
Oraton. John Capteen, a Dutchman, assisted, the
negotiations as interpreter. This was in 1666,
The bill of sale w^as not made out till July 11,
1667. This was signed by Obadiah Bruen, Michael
Tompkins, Samuel Kitchell, John Brown, and Eo-
bert Denison, on the part of the town ; and by
jWapamuck, Harish, Captamin, Sessom, Maraus-
,ome,. Peter, Wamesane, "Wekaprokikan, Cacnack-
que and Perawae^ on the part of the Indians.f

* Bancroft, Yoi. II., 319.

f Stearns' Hist., p. 11. "Was Perro^ (whose name is variously
spelled in the old manuscripts as Perro, Parow, Parrow, &c,) the
same person with Perawae ?

i

24 SECOND PURCHASE.

The purchase extended to the foot of the great
mountain called Watchung." The price paid was
" fifty double hands of powder, one hundred bars
of lead, twenty coats, ten guns, twenty pistols, ten
kettles, ten swords, four blankets, four barrels of
beer, ten pair of breeches, fifty knives, twenty
hoes, eight hundred and fifty fathom of wampum,
twenty ankers of liquors, or something equivalent,
and three troopers' coats." A second purchase,
March 18, 1677-8, extended the limits to the top
of the mountain, for " two guns, three coats, and
thirteen cans of rum."^

The second purchase was from " Winachsop and
Shenachtos^ Indians, the owners of the great moun-
tain Watchung." The reader who knows the pres-
ent worth of those mountain lands, would scarcely
imagine that the whole broad slope which men of
capital and taste are nov/ so eager to purchase and

* It may interest the reader to find a fragment of the language
spoken by these primitive masters of the soil. The following
numerals are remembered by Aaron Burr Harrison, as communi-
cated to him by his great uncle, Samuel Harrison, who was born
in the year 1719, and lived to his 92d year. We can fancy how
often they were repeated during the negotiations above described,
"We discover in them the decimal system.

1.

een.

6.

latter.

11.

een dick.

16.

een bumsack.

2.

teen.

7.

satter.

12.

teen dick.

17.

teen bumsack.

3.

tether.

8.

po.

13.

tether dick.

18.

tether bumsack

4.

fether.

9.

debbety.

14.

fether dick.

19.

fether bumsack,

K

fimp.

10.

dick.

15.

bumsack.

20.

enock.

CASTING LOTS. 26

occupy, was once valued at " two guns, three coats,
and thirteen cans of rum."

The territory thus acquired, by a moral right
from the natives, and by a legal right from the Pro-
prietors, embraced the present townships of New-
ark, Orange, Bloomfield, Belleville and Clinton.

In the division of the lands, each settler received
a " home lot " in the town laid out on the river, for
which lots were drawn ; the Jersey Canaan being
assorted in strict conformity with Hebrew prece-
dents — ever the Puritanic model. There were,
also, first, second and third divisions of the
" upland," with an equitable distribution of the
" bogged meadow," an indispensable accessory.

The settlement on the river began very soon to
spread itself in this direction. The inviting plain
between the Passaic and the mountain could not
long remain an uncultivated woodland, with a race
of hardy yeomanry growing up on its border. "We
give such names as we have been able to gather of
those who first located or had lands surveyed to
them in this part of the wilderness.

Robert Lymon^ by warrant of Aug. 19, 1675, had
*' part of his third division on the mountain " — 44:
acres — bounded north-west by the mountain, north-
east by John Baldwin, Sen., south-east by Capt.
Samuel Swaine, south-west by Eichard Harrison.

August 28, 1675. Samuel Swaine had 40 acres
at the foot of the mountain, with John Baldwin,

26 ORANGE SETTLERS.

Sen., oil the north, Robert Lymon and Kichard
Harrison on the west, Richard Harrison on the east,
the common on the south.

Sept. 10, 1675. John Baldwin^ Sen.^ had for his
third di\T.sion, near the mountain, 40 acres, with
Capt. Samuel Swaine and John Catlin north. Ser-
geant Richard Harrison east, John Ward (distin-
guished as John Ward, turner^) south, the top of
the mountain west. John Catlin had 60 acres, ex-
tending to the top of tlie mountain. Richard Har-
rison had fifty acres, with the widow Freeman
south, and also 15 acres "upon the branch of Rail-
way river," bounded west by John Catlin and
John Baldwin, Sen., east by a small brook running
from the moantain, north and south by the com-
mon.

June 9, 1679. Thomas Johnson had a tract by
the foot of the mountain, 50 by 13 chains, bounded
north by John Ward, Jun., south by Mr. John
Ward, Sen., east by the plain, west by the top of
the hill. Said tract to remain for 50 acres, allow-
ance being made for bad land.

John Ward, Sen,^ had 50 acres, with Thomas
Johnson north, the plain east, John Catlin south,
the hill west.

Anihonij Oliff (or Olive) had 50 acres, with Sam-
uel Harrison south, the mountain west, unsurreyed
lands on the north and east. This farm included
on its northern border the street now known as

ORANGE SETTLEKS. 27

Williamsville. It appears, from the town-book,
that the owner at first took possession of more
land than the agreements allowed, confessed his
fault, submitted the land to the town's disposal,
and by his request was admitted a planter in 1678.
He married the widow of George Day, — the orig-
inal of that name in Newark and Orange — and
died, without children, March 16, 1723, aged 87
years. His grave has the oldest headstone in the
old burial-ground. The owner of the farm after
his death was Peleg Shores^ who, on the 23d of
April, 1723, conveyed the eastern and southern
portions of it (one equal half) to Jonathan Linds-
ley, the deed being witnessed by {Rev) Daniel Tay-
lor and Matthew Williams. In 1726, the same was
sold to David Williams^ who, in 1730, purchased
also the other half.

June 13,- 1679. Fifty-nine acres of upland were
laid out for Joseph Harrison^ bounded on the north-
east by Benjamin Harrison^ and on the north-west
by " Perroth's brook."

If any of these farms were at this time under
improvement, they were scarcely occupied as
homesteads ; for it was not till Dec. 12, 1681, that
surveyors were chosen, of whom Eichard Plarrison
was one, " to lay out highways as far as the moun-
tain, if need be, and to lay out the third division
to all who have a desire to have it laid out, and
passages to all lands."

28 ORAXGE SETTLERS.

In Marcb, 1685, Paul^ George and Samuel Day^
heirs of George Daj, had surveyed to them by W.
Camp, surveyor, sixty acres, bounded with the
mountain west, Mattheiv Williams south. Wigwam
brook east, and the common north ; Matthew Wil-
liams having been admitted a j^lanter, with others,
in 1680, " provided they pay the purchase for
their lands, as others have done." In January,
1688-9, Greorge exchanged lands with Matthew,
the latter parting with a dwelling-house, shop, or-
chard, and other edifices and lands near Newark,
and receiving two tracts at the mountain, one
bounded east with Wigwam brook, and the other
(swamp land) with Parow's brook. The place to
which he seems to have removed his residence
about that time has since taken the name of Wil-
liamsville^ from his descendants.

By the will of Joseph Riggs, 1688, land at the
mountain was given to his sons, Samuel and Zo-
phar. The latter is supposed to have been the
father of Joseph, who died 1744, aged 69. It em-
braced probably the farm a little west of South
Orange, on which an old stone house yet remains, f^
in which Elder Joseph Riggs was born, in 1720.

By warrant of April 27, 1694, there was laid
out for Mm Gardner, in rieht of Abraham Pier-
son, a tract at the foot of the mountain, having
Azariah Crane on the north-east, Jasper Crane on
the south-west.

\

CRANETOWN. 29

Azariah Crane^ brotlier of Sergeant Jasper, and
son-in-law of Capt. Eobert Treat, was a deacon of
the Kewark Churcli. His sons, Azariali and Na-
thaniel (father of William and Noah), settled
Cranetown^ now West Bloomfield. At a town
meeting, held January 1, 1697-8, it was " voted
that Thomas Hayse, Joseph Harrison, Jasper
Crane and Matthew Canfield shall view whether
Azariah Crane may have land for a tan-yard at the
front of John Plum's home lot, out of the common ;
and in case the men above-mentioned agree that
Azariah Crane shall have the land, then he, the
said Azariah Crane shall enjoy it so long as he
doth follow the trade of tanninsr." As we learn
from the Town Book that, in 1715, he and Ed-
ward Ball had been settled near the mountain
many years, we conjecture that the decision of the
examiners in the matter of the tan-yard was against
the applicant, and that it gave to Cranetown one
of its first inhabitants, if it did not give to the
Mountain Society one of its first deacons. Deacon
Crane was by this time an old man. Whether his
relations were ever transferred to the new Society,
may admit of a doubt.

Nathaniel Wheeler obtained a warrant, April 10,
1696, for 100 acres at the mountain, which were
surveyed in three tracts : one north of the high-
way, with John Johnson north, Thomas John-
son and Mr. Ward's lots west ; one south of the

30 ORANGE SETTLERS.

mountain-path, witli Eobert Dalglesh cast, Jasper
Crane south, Harrison's lot west ; the third on the
upper Chestnut hill, by the stone -house brook,
bounded south bj said brook, west by Sarnuel
Freeman and unsurveyed land, north by Thomas
Luddinsfton ; these several tracts to lie for 100
acres, because there was much barren in them.
He was a son of Thomas Wheeler, of Milford,
where he was married, June 21, 1665, to Esther,
daughter of Henry Bochford. With his young
wife, he came to Newark with the first company,
signed the agreement with the Branford Company,
came to the mountain, and lived just long enough
to see the Mountain Society organized, and to con-
vey to it "a parcel of ground for a burying-place,"
where he was one of the first to be interred. He
died, Oct. 4, 1726, in his 87th year; his Vvdfe,
March 14, 1732, at the same age.

Samuel Pierson, who was probably one of the
first deacons of the church here, was born in Bran-
ford, in 166-4, a son of Thomas Pierson, senior , so
called to distinguish him from a son of Rev. Abra-
ham Pierson, His mother was Mary, daughter of
Eichard Harrison, Sen., of Branford. Coming to
l^ewark, he married Mary Harrison, daughter of
his uncle Richard, and sister of Joseph, Daniel,
Samuel, Benjamin, George, and John Harrison,
and settled probably in South Orange, where his
descendants lived. He was by trade a carpenter.

ORANGE SETTLERS. 31

His cliildren Avere Joseph, Samuel, James, Daniel,
Caleb, Jemima, Marj, Hannali. In. the line of
Joseph were Deacons Bethuel and Joseph Pierson,
of the next two generations. He (Samuel) was
buried in the old church-yard of Orange, March,
1730, with an honorable memorial.

Samuel Harrison^ one of the sons of Richard
just mentioned, owned land at the mountain, but
never resided on it. His wife was Mary, daughter
of John Ward, Sen., and sister of Dorcas, his
brother Joseph's wife. By his will, dated Jan. 7,
1712-13, he gave fifty acres to his son Samuel,
bounded by Anthony Olive on the north, widow
Abigail Ward on the south, a highway east, and
the mountain west. The farm was improved by
the son, whose descendants are now numerous in
the township. He had another son, John, who is
said to have settled in Bloomfield, and five daugh-
ters, of whom Eleanor, the youngest, wife of Eben-
ezer Lindsley, lived to the age of 100 years and
two months. She was born about 1696.

The Lindsleys, of Orange, are descended from
Francis, one of the Newark settlers. In the old
colony records of New Haven, the names of Fran-
cis and John Linsley, brothers, appear as early as
1644. The births of Deborah and Ruth, daugh-
ters of Francis, are on record in Branford. His
sons, Benjamin, John, Jonathan, Joseph, Ebenezer,
(and probably a Daniel,) were born in Kewark.

82 ORANGE SETTLERS.

Througli Ebenezer, Benjamin, and John, we trace
the line down to John M. Lindslej, the oldest liv-
ing representative of the name in this locality.
Ebenezer died in Orano^e in 1743, at the as^e of 78.
Joseph, at Whippany, 1753, aged 77. John, (or
one of that name, in whose will a brother Daniel
is mentioned,) at Morristown, 1749, aged 82. Fran-
cis, the ancestor, was living in Newark in 1704,
when he must have been more than 80 years old.
His grave is not found, and the writer is informed
by Samuel H. Congar, that not one of the name
has a headstone in the old burying-ground of
Newark.

From Edward Ball have descended the Balls
of South Orange, in the line of his son Thomas
and grandson Aaron. From Caleb, another son,
have sprung the Balls of Hanover. Those of
East Bloomfield are from Joseph, another son. A
daughter, Lydia, married Joseph Peck, ancestor of
the Pecks of Orange. There were two other chil-
dren, — Abigail, wife of Daniel Harrison, and Moses,
who had no children.

Of the two Canfields, (or Camfields,) who were
among the original settlers, Matthew died about
1673, and Ebenezer in 1694. From the latter,
through his son Joseph, and his grandson Eben-
ezer, who was buried in Orange at the age 73, have
descended the Canfields who are now with us.

We find on a headstone in Orange, the name of

ORANGE SETTLERS. 33

" the very pious and godly Mr. Job Brown, one of
the pillars of the church of Christ in this place,"
who was born in 1710. The man whose pious
worth is thus honorably commemorated, was a
great-grandson of one of the first settlers. Though
he left children and grandchildren, the name (though
not likely to become extinct in the world) has dis-
appeared from our church list. His ancestor, John
Browne, had a daughter Hannah, who married
Joseph Kiggs, and Elizabeth, who married Samuel
Freeman. Both these names belong to our history,
but we are unable to connect the latter with any of
the lines that we have traced backward among the
Freemans of a later day. He was doubtless an
ancestor of Deacon Samuel Freeman, who was
another " pillar of the church of Christ," contem-
porary Avith " the very pious and godly Mr. Job
Brown."

The Dodds^ now a numerous race, are descend-
ants of " Daniel Dod," (from England,) who died
in Branford in 1664:-5. He and his wife Mary
having deceased before the emigration to New ^
Jersey took place, and their sons being all minors,
the name does not appear among the subscribers
to the fundamental agreement. Of their children —
four sons and two daughters — Mary was the wife
of Aaron Blachthly (or Blatchly) ; Daniel had a
home lot assigned him in Newark, and a farm on
the hill west of the town ; Ebenezer was admitted

34 DODDTOWN.

a planter (on subscribing the agreement) in 1674,
and Samuel in 1679 ; Stephen settled in Guilford,
Conn.

'' In March, 1678, Daniel Dod and Edward Ball
were appointed to run the northern line of the
town from Passaic river to the mountain. About
this time Daniel Dod surveyed and had located to
him a tract of land on and adjoinmg to "Watsessing
plain [now Bloomfield], and bounded on the west
and south by unlocated lands. A considerable
portion of this land is yet in the possession of his
descendants. He was chosen a deputy to the Pro-
vincial Assembly in 1692, being then 42 years of
age."* On this land his sons Daniel, Stephen,
and John, and his daughter Dorcas, settled, — John
building on the site occupied by the late David
Dodd (and now by Josiah F.) in Doddtown. In
the numerous family of the third Daniel was our
elder and deacon, Isaac Dodd, whose name will
appear at a later period.

Among the early accessions to the Xewark col-
ony were John and Deborah Cundit, or Coudit.
Their son Peter married Mary, daughter of Sam-
uel Harrison, Sen., and was the father of Samuel,
Peter, John, jSTathaniel, PhiHp, Isaac and Mary.
His place of residence is not known, but his son
John was probably the John Cundit mentioned in

* Ilecords of Daniel Dod and bis descendants, by Rev. Stephen
Dodd. Tlie original orthography was Dod.

)

ORANGE SETTLERS. 85

1789, in connection witli John Ward, to wliom the
court gave license to keep piiblic-honses at the
mountain. The Cundit House, kept at a more re-
cent period by Isaac A. Smith, is identified in
locaHty with the " Orange Hotel," now kept by
T. A. Reeve. The name belongs to every period
of our church and township.

David Ogden came to Newark from Elizabeth-
town about 1677. John Ogden — probably his son —
married Elizabeth, daughter of Nathaniel Wheeler,
and their children ^vere Hannah, Phebe, Jemima,
Thomas, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Isaac. i^-^^

Joseph Pech appears in 1699. In 1719 he was
one of a commission, including Deacon Azariah
Crane, Joseph and Moses Ball, Joseph Baldwin,
and four others, appointed on the part of Newark
to meet the commisioners of Ackquackonong for
the purpose of renewing a boundary line. Joseph
Peck, Jr., born 1702, became an elder and deacon
of the Orange church. His son John, who held
the same offices, w^as father of Mr. John Peck, one
of the oldest living inhabitants of Pecktown^ (East
Orange,) which has taken its name from the family.

Besides these, among the first or second generation
of settlers, we find the names Tichenor, Tompkins,'^*

* Michael Tompkins is supposed by S. H. Congar to have been
the man who concealed the regicide judges in Milford, viz. : Gofie,
"Whalley, and Dixwell, concerned in the condemnation of King
Charles I. See the account in Stearns' Hist , p. 35, note.

36 .MEN OF MARK.

Kitcliell, Lamson, jSTutman, and others, now found
in Orange. The Munns and Smiths have come in
somewhat later. The Camps, of Camptown, lie
within or near the ancient limits of our parish, but
the name is not a frequent or prominent one upon
anj of its records that now exist.

These men had little thought that a historic in-
terest could ever attach to them. Eeared among
the peasantry of England, or in the American
wilderness before the schoolmaster was abroad,
they had simply the knowledge that is unto salva-
tion, and the ambition to live as members of a
godly community. Some of them could not write
their names. Thus, in signing the fundamental
agreements, Thomas Lyon made his L marh^ and
John Brooks his B marJ:^ and "Robert Lymens his
Y marJc^ and Francis Linle his F marlc^ and Robert
Denison his R marl:. Yet did these same illiterate
men make their mark also upon the institutions of
New Jersey, impressing upon them a character
they were never to lose. And they were the stock
whence others have sprung, who have adorned the
hic^hest stations. Thev brought with them the
energy of the Anglo-Saxon, and the somewhat
rigorous yet vigorous and stable religious princi-
ples of the Puritan. Entering the forest with bold
hearts, they placed the rude cabin by the side of
the wigwam, and made the woods vocal at once
with praise to God and with the sounds of civilized

INDIANS PEACEABLE. 37

industry. Wliilc tlie institiitions of Penn were
spreading and taking form in the bordering prov-
ince, and tliose of English Episcopacy in Vir-
ginia ; while Eliot, *' the morning star of missionary
enterprise,"* was giving the Bible to the Mas-
sachusetts Indians ; while the Pokanokets, under
King Philip, were spreading terror through settle-
ments around which they hung " like the lightning
on the edge of the clouds ;"f while Cotton Mather,
with a cruel zeal for the Lord, was exterminating
witchcraft from his parish at Salem ; tlie I^ewark
colonists, intermingling witli the peaceful Hackin-
sacks, whose rights they treated with justice and
respect, were quietly engaged in felling the forest,
breaking up the generous soil, buikling mills, dig-
ging mines, exterminating the bear and the wolf;
or, as often as the Sabbath came, assembling de-
voutly at the beat of the drum in their rude but
honored sanctuary.

To the peaceable temper of the Indians we have
this testimony from the Council of Proprietors at
a later period : " We are well assured that, since
the first settlement of New Jersey, there is not one
instance can be assigned of any breach of peace
with the Indians tliereof (though very few of the
other provinces can say so as to their Indians) ;
nor that any proprietor ever presumed to dispos-
sess one of them, or disturb him in his possession ;

*

Bancroft. t Washington Irvine:.

3

o

8 BEARS AND WOLVES.

but have ah\'a3's amicably paid them for their
claims, from time to time, as they could agree with
them ; nor was the Crown, nor the Legislature of
the province of l^ew Jersey, now for fourscore
years past, since the settlement of this province,
ever put to one penny of charge or expense for
keeping the Indians thereof in peace, in bounties,
presents, or otherwise ; which is well known to be
far otherwise in other provinces, and may, and
probably will soon be, otherwise here, if some late
tamperings with the Indians thereof be neglected
and passed over with impunity.'"'^

The bears and wolves, especfally the latter, in
the township of Newark, were more troublesome.
From their ramparts in the mountains they would
listen to no terms of negotiation. A peace with
them had to be conquered l^y stratagem or prowess.
And many a bounty, as tempting to the poor colo-
nist as the excitement of the hunt, had to be
offered. Repeatedly, for a considerable period, we
meet with such votes as the following, in the min-
utes of the town meeting: "September 6, 1698.
It is agTeed upon by vote, for the encouragement
of those that will kill wolves, that they shall have
twenty shillings per head allowed them in a tOAvn
rate for this year." Four years later, the bounty
offered was twelve shillings. This for a fulhgrow^n

* Publication of 25th March, 1746

BOUNTIES. o9

wolf; for a bear cub, five shillings. But the beast
must be caught and killed within the limits of the
town to secure the bounty. Sergeant Riggs, who
had charge of a w^olf pit, seems to have directed
his soldierly art and courage to this species of war-
fare, as the mighty Nimrod did long before him.
The wolf, being captured, w^as taken to a magis-
trate, w^ho took his ears to witness to the transac-
tion, and gave to the captor, in return, a receipt that
passed for the value of the specified bounty with
the tax-collector. The town had one expedient
for the relief of such as were out of purse, which
Governor Carteret had not, perhaps, thought of,
when he answered the objections originally made
to the halfpenny quit-rent by saying : " As for the
purchasers being out of purse, I cannot help them
therein."

A certain Scotchman, James Johnstone, writing
to his friends at home, said the wolves " are nothing
to be feared, neither are the country people afraid
to be among them all night, insomuch that I oft-
times going wrong, and lying out all night, and
hearing their yells about me, and telling that I was
afraid of them, the country people laughed at it."'^
The snakes were still less to be feared, ''for

^ Quoted with references, by Stearns, p. 79. In 1682, a double
bounty was offered for wolves, 15 shillings being paid by the
county, and 15 by the town. " In 1695, these bounties were re-
pealed, and it was left to the discretion of each town to adopt

40 HOUSES.

notliing can come near them but tliey give warn-
ing with the rattling of their tails, so that people
may either kill them or go bj them, as they
please." What influence these assurances had to
bring over the water any of the "kith and kin" of
the worthy Scot, we know not. There was a con-
siderable infusion of Scotch into the l^ewark settle-
ment before the beginning of the eighteenth century.
The style of the Jersey houses of that day is
thus described by Gawen Lawrie, writing to a
friend in London : "A carpenter, with a man's
own servants, builds a house. They have all ma-
terials for nothing, except nails. The poorer sort
set up a house of two or three rooms after this
manner: The walls are of cloven timber, about
eight or ten inches broad, like planks, set one end
to the gTOund, and the other nailed to the raising,
which they plaster within." At Ambo}^, where a
great city was to be built, a beginning was made
by Samuel Groome in the erection of three houses,
in 1683, which were thus described bv him : " The
houses at Amboy are thirty feet long, and sixteen
feet wide; ten feet between joint and joint ; a
double chimnev, made with timber and clav, as

such measures as might be necessary to exterminate the wolves.
General legislation, however, was again resorted to, in March,
IT 14, and the bounty was extended to panthers and red foxes."
In 1730, that on foxes was withdrawn. In 1751, the bounty was
" sixty shilhngs for wolves, and ten shillings for whelps." Barber
and Howe's Hist. Collect. (1844), p. 40.

SELF-GOVERNMENT. 41

the manner of the country is to build." Such edi-
fices " will stand in about £50 a house."* These
were doubtless a fair type of the homes of the
wealthier class.

The capacity of the Newark community for self-
government was early tested. " Will you know,"
inquires Bancroft, " with how little government a
community of husbandmen may be safe .^ For
twelve years the whole province was not in a set-
tled condition. From June, 1689, to August,
1692, East Jersey had no government whatever."
The maintenance of order, during this period,
rested wholly with the local authorities and with
the people themselves. A town meeting was ac-
cordingly convened, March 25, 1689-90, to pro-
vide for the exigency, Hamilton, the deputy-Gov-
ernor, having left for Europe the preceding August.
It was "Yoted, that there shall be a committee
chosen to order all affairs, in as prudent a way as
they can, for the safety and preservation of our-
selves, wives, children and estates, according to
the capacity we are in." The committee consisted
of Mr. Ward, Mr. Johnson, Azariah Crane, Wil-
liam Camp, Edward Ball and John Brown, '' with
those in military capacity." It was well for the
little commonwealth, in those times of disorder,
that they were qualified, not only for ^'the carry-

'"= Smith's New Jersey ; Steams, p. 30.

42 END OF PROPRIETARY RULE.

ing on of spiritual concernments," but also for the
regulation of " civil and town affairs^ according to
God and a godly government. ^^ It was not simply
that they were a community of hushandmen^ as inti-
mated by the historian, that made them safe with-
out the protection of provincial laws ; they had a
higher law, a more imperative rule of action, writ-
ten upon the Tieart.

The breaking up of the Proprietary government
took place during the war between England and
Holland, when the Dutch took forcible possession
of the province. On the return of peace, the Pro-
prietors were reinstated with new powers. Pro-
fessing still to adhere to the original Concessions,
they published a " declaration of their true intent
and meaning," which was really a declaration, in
some essential points, of things not intended and
meant. The people saw in it a breach of the Con-
cessions, and a dangerous abridgment of their priv-
ileges. And the seeds of discontent, thus rashly
sown by the Proprietors, rapidly ripened to such
power, that they were constrained, in 1702, to sur-
render the reins of government to the British
crown. Tyranny, acting in obedience to avarice,
defeated its own end. ISTor did the effect stop here.
The wave set in motion by the popular reaction
rolled on with accumulating force, and having first
stripped the Proprietors of their governmenial
functions, broke down at last their gigantic and

HORSENECK PURCHASE. 43

odious monopoly of tlie soil. This was, liowever,
the work of three-quarters of a century. The last
and effective sweep of quit-rents and proprietary
exactions was made by tlie American revolution.

About this time was made another extensive
purchase of Indian lands. The tide of population,
setting back from the coast, had reached the moun-
tain. It was now to break over, and carry its
freio'ht of civilization still farther into the interior.
Preliminary action was taken at a town meeting,
Oct. 2, 1699. "It was agreed, by the generality
of the town, that they would endeavor to make a
purchase of a tract of land lying westward of our
bounds to the south branch of Passaic river ; and
such of the town as do contribute to the purchase
of said land, shall have their proportion according
to their contribution." Mr. Pierson and Ensign
Johnson were chosen to go and treat with the Pro-
prietors about obtaining a grant. Samuel Harri-
son, George Harrison, Thomas Davis, Kobert
Young, Daniel Dod, Nathaniel Ward and John
Cooper were a committee to consider and put for-
ward the design. On the 3d of Sept., 1701, cer-
tain ^^ articles of agreement ^^ touching the matter
were adopted and subscribed by one hundred prin-
cipal men of the town, and one woman, each sub-
scriber designating the number of lots he would
take. These were subsequently known as the
"Articles of the First Committee." Mr. John

44 ITS LEGALITY.

Treat, Mr. Joseph Crane, Joseph Harrison, George
Harrison, Eliphalet Johnson, John ^[orris and
John Cooj^er, ^vere now appointed, with full power
to " treat, bargain and agree with such Indians as
they find to be the right owners thereof by their
diligent enquiry" — the major part of the commit-
tee to have full power to act.* It is a circumstance
not easily explained, that we find in these articles
no reference to tlie Proprietors, while the fourth
article declares that "the said land, purchased and
paid for by us, shall be held and continued as our
just rights, either in general or particular allot-
ments, as the major pare shall agree from time to
time." As, however, an act of the General Assem-
bly of the province, passed in 1683, ^vas still in
force, forbidding the taking of any deed from the
Indians, except in the Proprietors' name ; and as the
inhabitants of Xewark, down to the date of this new
purchase, had maintained an unimpeachable loy-
alty to the Provincial governnient ; especially, as
they had but two years before sent a committee to
the Proprietors to obtain a grant of this -very tract;
the presumption is, that they obtained the grant,
and that this important accession to their territory

« The tract was secured for £130, and a deed obtained of the
Indians. This important deed was destroyed by fire, March 7,
1744-5, in the burning of Jonathan Piersou's house. It was
promptly renewed within a week, so far as it could be, by another
conveyance, to which Daniel Taylor was a witues.s, signed by '.he
descendautb of the sagamores who had signed the first.

ITS LEGALITY. ' 45

was made in a way tliat satisfied at once tlie rights
of the natives and the claims of authority.^ The
bonds of loyalty had not yet snapped under the
strain of oppression. It needed the administration
of a Cornbury, and the attempt to subject the Puri-
tans of New Jersey to an ecclesiastical establish-
ment from which their fathers had fled, to give
vitality to those seeds of discontent which had
already been planted, and which were to ripen
with the growth of another generation.

* Yet the account given of this period by the Council of Pro-
prietors, in 1747, bears certainly against that presumption. It
runs thus: "In 1688, the then king, James, broke through the
rules of property, by seizing the government of New Jersey, and
things continued in disorder and confusion till some time after the
glorious revolution in England, that the Proprietors' government
was restored ; from which time, peace and tranquillity remained
until 1698. From that time till 1703, all rules of property were
slighted ; many riots, and much disorder and confusion ensued*
In 1701, during that time, it's said that Horseneck purchase and
Yangeesen's purchase were made, and possibly the others that they,
the Committee, say they have concern in and for. And then was
a grand effort made, by the Remonstrance and Petition before-
mentioned, to King William, to overset aU the rules of property
in New Jersey, and to establish Indian purchases ; but in this
they failed, and kept their purchases secret. And to prevent the
like disorder, confusion and attempts for the future, the Act of
1703 was made, and peace and tranquillity restored ; which New
Jersey ever since happily enjoyed, to the great improvement
thereof; till 1745, that the worthy Committee, as is supposed,
formed great plans and estates for themselves in their own minds,
by setting up Indian purchases again." — Appendix to Bill in Chan-
cery, p. 37.

3*

CHAPTER 11.

THE MOUNTAIN SOCIETY.

FIFTY years have passed. The venerable Pier-
son, leader of the Branford flock, has long rested
from his labors. His son and successor, more dis-
tinguished as the first president of the Connecticut
college, to which he was removed from his Newark
charge, has also finished his course. The pioneers
in the settlement on the Passaic sleep in silence
within sound of its waters. A generation has
23assed awav. Five pastors have closed their min-
istry in Newark. The aspects of the congregation,
and its relations and circumstances, have consider-
ably changed. It adheres to its early faith, but it
has felt the force of surrounding influences upon
its ecclesiastical usages and forms. New Jersej^,
except as held by the Quakers, is in the main Pres-
byterian ground, and the Newark church, yielding
to the influences of its position, and having received
a considerable infusion of Presbyterian elements
from abroad, has received its sixth pastor. Rev.
Joseph Webb, from "the hands of the Presbj^tery."
The statement of Dr. McWhorter, quoted by Dr.

CHANGES IN NEWAEK. 47

Hodge,^ that Newark was settled by English Pres-
byterians, and had elders from the beginning, ac-
cording to his best information and belief, is dis-
proved b}^ well-established facts. At the same time
we must agree with Dr. Hodge, that on the soil of
New Jersey at large Presbyterianism has not in-
vaded and supplanted Congregationalism. It was
the earlier and predominant type of ecclesiastical
order, and naturally absorbed and assimilated the
Congregationalism that came in. This assimilation
was not, however, without a struggle between the two
systems, and in a community like that of Newark,
originally composed of Congregationalists only, the
process of change was necessarily slow. When the
second Pierson manifested some leanings toward
the Presbyterian order, the displeasure of his peo-
ple was excited, and troubles arose which resulted
in his dismissal. Yet on the 22d of October, 1719,
Joseph Webb; in the line of his successors, was or-
dained and settled over the same flock by the Pres-
bytery of Philadelphia, and the next year took a
seat in the Synod with a ruling elder from his
church.

Did that event precipitate an Independent or-
ganization at the mountain? A comparison of
dates will make the supposition appear at least
probable.

The records of the Newark Church, and those of

■'- Hist. Pres. Church, part I., p. 108.

48 CHURCH AT THE MOUNTAIN.

this church also (it is said), perished or were lost in
the time of the Eevolution. But iu a parcel of old
deeds and other papers preserved by the Trustees
of this church, is a deed of twenty acres of land
sold by Thomas Gardner to " Samuel Freeman,
Samuel Peirson, Matthew Williams, and Samuel
Wheeler, and the Society at the 2Iountain associated
with them," which bears date, January 13, 1719.
As the year then began on the 25th of March,
January, folio wed October in the calendar. The
deed was therefore given about three months after
Mr. Webb's ordination and settlement in Newark.
This coincidence, taken in connection with the
previous history of the old Society, and with the
well-established fact of the Congregational form of
this Church till after the death of its first minister,
affords presumptive evidence of the opinion ex-
pressed above, that the change which took place in
Newark stimulated the new movement here.

In 1720, ground was purchased of Samuel
Wheeler on which to erect a house of worship.
This again favors the supposition of a recent or-
ganization. Dr. Stearns places the event "in or
about the year 1718."* A congregation was doubt-
less collected here by that time. Yet it seems
scarcely probable that the Church had existed two
years before steps were taken to build a sanctuary.
With such light as the subject obtains from the

• On the authority of Dr. McWhorter,

PAESONAGE LAND, 49

facts above given, we incline to tlie opinion that
the Society took organic form sometime during the
jenT 1719.

Among tlie inducements held out to the settlers
by the Proprietors of East Jersey, was the offer of
two hundred acres of land for the support of public
worship in each parish. A warrant for the survey
of 200 acres and meadow for a parsonage was
granted to the Newark settlers October 23, 1676.
The actual survey, however, does not appear to
have been made till twenty 5^ears later, April 10,
1696, when, besides the two hundred thus appro-
priated, three acres were assigned for a burial-place,
three for a market-place, and six for a training-
place, the last being on the present site of the First
Park in Newark. We shall have occasion hereafter
to notice the contentions to which these parsonage
lands gave rise, and the measures adopted from
time to time to protect them from plunder. IIow
soon the Mountain Society set up its claim to a
portion of them we do not know. Such a claim
was very likely to have been among the first
thoughts of the new congregation.

However this may be, the mountaineers were not
indifferent to their supposed duty of making per-
manent provision for the miDistry. Their first act
as an ecclesiastical body, of which we have any
knowledge, was the buying of land for the minis-
ter's use. They were manifestly unwilling to leave

50 THE GARDNER PURCHASE.

SO important a matter to any issues connected with
their rights in the property of the Old Society.

The land purchased of Thomas Gardner in 1719,
being "the sixth year of the reign of our sover-
eign Lord, George, by the grace of God, of Great
Britain, France and Ireland ELing, defender of the
faith," &c., the deed informs us was sold " for divers
good causes and considerations, me thereunto mov-
ing, but more especially for and in consideration of
the sum of £25 current money of New York."
It was " to be and remain for the use and benefit
of a dissenting"^ ministry, such as shall be called
to that work by the grantees before-named, and
their associates from time to time." It is described
as " scituate, lying and being in the bounds and
limits of Kewark aforesaid, on the east side of a

* So called by English usage till the colonies became independ-
ent. The Puritans in America were in no just sense dissenters.
They secured here that " freedom to worship God " for which they
left the fatherland. In Xew Jersey, religious liberty was exphcitly
guaranteed by the Proprietors. When the latter, in 1702, surren-
ered their civil jurisdiction to the crown, an attempt was made
by Lord Cornbury, the governor, to subject the people to the forms
of the Church of England. " The Prayer Book was ordered to be
read, the sacraments to be administered only by persons episco-
pally ordained ; and all ministers, without ordination of that sort,
were required to report themselves to the Bishop of London. A
bill for the maintenance of the Church in the Jerseys was defeated
solely through the unflinching perseverance of a Baptist and a
Quaker— Richard Hartshorne and Andrew Browne." Webster's
Hist. Pres. Church , p. 88.

FIRST MEETING-HOUSE. 51

brook commonly called and known by the name of
Parow's Brook."^ Beginning at said brook near a
bridge by the road that leads to the mountain,
thence running easterly as the road runs, so far as
that a south-westerly line cross the said lot (it being
twelve chains in breadth) shall include twenty acres
of land, English measure : bounded southerly with
Joseph Harrison, westerly with said Parow's Brook,
northerly with said mountain road, and easterly
with my own land." This locates it east of the
"Willow Hall Market, south of, and includiDg, the
present park.

A meeting-house was the next demand. This
was the central object of interest in every commu-
nity of the Puritans.f If no D wight had ever
composed for their use the precious hymn —

" I love thy kingdom, Lord,
The house of thine abode,"

they were quite familiar with the inspired original

* Named from Perro, one of the Indians who negotiated in the
sale of the lands. See Robert Treat's testimony, Bill in Chancery,
p. 118.

t A joint letter sent in 1684 to the Proprietors in Scotland, by
David Barclay, Arthur Forbes, and Gawen Laurie, says : ' ' The
people being mostly New England men, do mostly incline to their
way ; and in every town there is a meeting-house, where they worship
publicly every week. They have no public law in the country for
maintaining public teachers, but the towns that have them make
way within themselves to maintain them." Stearns, p. *78.

52 THE BUILDERS.

from wliicli its touching sentiments were drawn.
" If I forget thee, Jerusalem, let my right hand
forget her cunning" — were words that echoed the
warmest feelings of many a settler's bosom.

If the reader has ever worshipped in any of the
primitive sanctuaries of the far West or South, he
will have no difficulty in limning for himself a
pretty correct portrait of the rude and lowly edi-
fice. The site selected for it was on the highway
leading to the mountain, a few rods east from where
the First Church now stands. Time has not spared
for us the name of the architect and the particulars
of the contract, as it has of the sanctuaries since
built on nearly the same spot.

The town records of ISI'ewark, though occupied
much with ecclesiastical matters, have nothing to
say of the Mountain Society. They are indeed
silent upon the building of the second house of
worship in jSTewark, which is supposed to have
been erected between April, 1714, and August, 1716,
where a vacancy in the records occurs. Had we
the details of that work, which took place just
before the Society here was formed, we might
obtain some probable clew to the men engaged
upon the building here.

The mountain consrreo'ation, however, were not
entirely dependent upon the Bezaleels and Hirams
of the old Society.

Samuel Pierson was a carpenter, and liis sons

HANDS THAT HELPED. 53

Joseph, Samuel, James, Daniel, and Caleb, — all of
tliem now arrived at manhood, for tlie father was
fiftj-six years old — must liave had some knowl-
edge of the trade. He was a good man, who liad
a care for the spiritual^ as well as for the material
edifice, as appears from the testimonial placed upon
his headstone ten years afterward. Wc surmise
that the holy structure went up under his superin-
tendence, though the use of the broad-axe, the
saw, and the auger, may have been left to younger
hands. Doubtless there were others of the craft
connected with the work. Many a right hand lent
its cunning. And many a rough hand, accustomed
more to the labors of forest and field than to those of
the carpenter's bench, lent to the enterprise its manly
strength. Samuel Harrison's saw-mill, which did
good service for the parsonage twenty-eight years
later, was not yet in operation, and planing-mills,
sash-and-blind factories and the like, were institu-
tions still more distant in the future. But our men
of the wilderness were men trained to expedients.
The want and the will brought the ways and the
means. One by one, the straight shafts of the
forest fell before the axe and were fitted to their
places. From Vv^eek to week the progress of the
meeting -Jwuse was a principal topic of conversation,
and when at last, on a little knoll in the midst of
the travelled road, which on either side retired like
the parting Jordan making way for the Ark, the

54 UGLY JOYS.

completed sanctuary was seen, we can imagine with
what care every domestic duty and labor of the
field were so arranged that the future worshippers
might join in the act of its solemn dedication to
the worship of God.

We have not the programme of that solemnly
glad occasion. AYho offered the prayer, who
preached the sermon, who read the psalm, who led
the congregation in their hearty song of thanks-
giving, were then matters of interest ; but they
have ceased to be matters even of traditional re-
membrance. A •' beam out of the timber " yet
remains of the ancient edifice, but it is silent when
questioned relative to the persons and scenes of
that distant day.* It is probable that Mr. Webb,
of the old Society, was among the ministers pres-
ent ; for tender ties yet existed between him and
the separating portion of his flock ; while eccle-
siastical ties may have brought from Connecti-
cut or Long Island some prominent Independent
minister to take the leading part of the service.f

* This relic of the first meeting-house is in the frame of Mr.
Charles Harrison's barn, in Valley street. It is a heavy cross-
beam, of white oak, worked clown a little from its original size,
and having a line of mortises for studs. The post that supports it
at the east end was also a post in the old meeting-house. The
barn, or that part of it, was built by Samuel Harrison. The beam
has answered one inquiry of the writer, viz. : that the meeting-
house was framed^ not a log house.

t According to a letter written March, 1729, by Rev. Jedediah

THE CONGKEGATION. 55

This supposition is the more likely, if Daniel Tay-
lor was at this time pastor, of which there is room
for doubt.

It is more easy to guess who were some of those
who occupied the pews. There was seen, if not
too infirm to attend, the hoary head of Anthony
Oliff, probably the oldest man in the society, a
patriarch in years though not a father. We have
in our thoughts a figure of the eccentric old man,
now about fourscore and five years old, and per-
mitted to sit a few times in the new meeting-house
before he was " in the church-yard laid." There
was Nathaniel Wheeler, who had also numbered
his fourscore years ; Matthew Williams, aged about
seventy ; and probably Azariah Crane, a veteran
of seventy-four. Around these aged men were
others somewhat younger, in the midst of family
groups that shared the joys and hopes inspired by
the occasion. Arranged in their square pews, the
more aged sat with their faces pulpitward, their
eyes reverently fixed upon the preacher. The
smaller ones were seated opposite, while on the
right and left were youths and maidens in a side-
wise position, suggestive of a state of mind that
lent one ear to the sermon and another to whatever
was passing in the rear of the house. High up in

Andrews, of Philadelphia, referred to by Richard Webster, (p. 583,)
this was the only church in the Province at that date which did
not conform to the Presbyterian mode.

56 STYLE OF WOKSHIP.

a little pulpit, with sounding-board above, sat the
minister of the day. And in his place, a person-
age not to be overlooked, stood the jprecentor^ to
line out the psalm which the minister had read, and
lead the coDSfresfation in the solemn service of sons".
Some recollections of the meetino'-house arransje-
ments, and the style of worship pertaining to that
remote period, yet remain in the minds of elderly
people. Time has since brought with it many
modifications in matters not affecting the spiiit and
benefit of religious worship.^

The old Society in Newark had built its first
meeting-house amid the alarms created by Indian
atrocities in New England, where Philip's war was
at that time rasino:. The men who had worked
upon it had their arms ever at hand, and the walls
of the house, ''filled up with thin stone and mor-
tar as high as the girts," were for walls of protec-
tion in case of an attack. But those days of terror

* "We are not sure but one change has aflfected the spirit and
true effect of public worship. While the introduction of hjnnn
books has obviated the necessity of reading the hymn by couplets
the introduction of choirs has almost set aside the hymn book, or
its appropriate use by the congregation. There are exceptions to
the statement, which are happily increasing in number. In some
parts of our country the precentor yet exercises his primitive func-
tions. The writer, while laboring in one of the Southern States,
where he preached occasionally to a number of Scotch congrega-
tions, has often, after reading the psalm, handed the book to the
chorister, to be read again by him as the lines were sung.

MIXTURE OF EACES. 57

were now past. Fifty years of peaceful intercourse
with the natives had produced a general feeling of
security. It was no longer necessary to worship in
forts, or to erect flankers at the church corners for
the shelter of armed sentinels. Indeed, the gospel
had by this time penetrated the darkness of the
aboriginal mind, and in the same Christian assem-
bly might have been seen the white man with his
African servant and his Indian neighbor. Amid
this mixture of races the foundations of our Zion
were laid. Just about a hundred years later, (Feb-
ruary 24, 1820,) New Jersey passed her emancipa-
tion act, and now African and Indian have together
receded before the resistless intelligence of a supe-
rior race.

CHAPTEE III.
REV. DANIEL TAYLOR.

IT may be presumed that the year 1721 found
the Mountain Society in circumstances to invite
to their pulpit a pastor, if this step had not been
already taken. There is a tradition in the parish,
that before the settlement of Daniel Taylor, the
Society had a minister, who was drowned, together
with his sou, in crossins; the Connecticut river at

7 O

Saybrook, on a visit to his friends. This tragic in-
cident, however, belono-s to the historv of Eev.
Joseph Webb, " of the iSTewark church. It is quite
likely that before the congregation had obtained a

* Tlie Boston Gazette and TVeekly Journal of Oct. 27, 1741,
contained the following: "We have an account that, on Tuesday
last, the Seabrook ferry-boat overset, wherein were the Rev. Joseph
Webb, of New Haven, and his son, a young woman, and several
others. The two former were drowned ; the others with great
difficulty got safe to shore." (See the New England Historical
and Genealogical Register and Antiquarian Journal, January,
18.56.) Mr. Webb had been about five years dismissed from his
Newark charge.

HIS NATIVITY. 59

minister, Mr. Webb had occasional appointments
here. The people were a part of the flock to
which his predecessors had ministered. It it also
likely that during the four years of his residence
in Newark, after his dismission from that charge
in 1736, when he continued still to preach in the
neighborhood, this part of the town received his
occasional labors. He, however, could not have
been Mr. Taylor's predecessor here, and the fatal
casualty at Saybrook ferry did not occur till 1741,
when the latter is known to have been in the field
eighteen years.

According to the inscription on his tombstone,
Mr. Taylor was born about the year 1691," and
was in liis sixteenth year when he graduated at the
high school, or college, at Killingworth, the embryo
Yale. It was laot uncommon at that period for
boys to be put through the required course of
Greek and Latin at sixteen years.

Inquiries respecting his nativity have been fruit-
less. We have sought for it among the Taylors
of Deerfield, Mass., and among those of Norwalk
and Danbury, Conn. It appears, from the town
records of Smithtown, Long Island, that he resided
there four years, ending with 1717, and that Eich-
ard Smith and his four brothers, on the 13th day

* Not 1684, as given T\y Thompson ; Hist. Long Island, 2d ed.,
vol. L, p. 460.

60 LABORS OX LONG ISLAND.

of February in tliat year, gave liim fifty acres of
land on the west side of Nesaquake river, in con-
sideration of his ministerial labors. There, too, at
the age of twentj'-four years, died his wife, Jemima,
April 20, 1716, as indicated by a headstone in the
old burial-place of the Smiths.

In what year he came to ISTew Jersey is not
known. It was prior to April 23, 1723, at which
time he and Matthew AVilliams were witnesses of a
deed given by Peleg Shores to Jonathan Lindsley,
conveying " one equal half of the farm or planta-
tion which did formerly belong to Anthony Olive."
On the 18tli of May, 1726, the same land was con-
veyed by Jonathan Lindsley to David Williams,
and the deed again witnessed by Daniel Taylor
and Elizabeth Taylor." The latter may be pre-
sumed to have been his "beloved wife, Elizabeth,"
mentioned in his will. She married a Hedden
after his decease.

According to traditions handed down in the line
of his family, ^Ir. Taylor brought a wife from Long
Island, whom he buried here. From such light as
we can gather from his will, and from the ages
recorded on their tomlDstones, we suppose her to

* On the back of the deed is a deposition, certified Dec. 27,
1765, to the effect that the said Elizabeth Taylor, now Elizabeth
Hedden^ personally appeared before Samuel Woodruff, one of his
Majesty's Council for the province of New Jersey, and swore that
she saw the within deed lawfullv executed.

MK. TAYLOR'S FAMILY. 61

have been the mother of his oldest son and second
daughter ; and if he came to this parish after the
year 1721, he must have brought with him three
children. This second wife is said to have been
afflicted with a nervous disorder, which so affected
her mind as to bring great trials upon her hus-
band. Toward the end of her life she had a ham-
mock suspended in her room, on which she was
laid and gently swung, with a view to its soothing
and sleep-inducing influence. Before the spring of
1726, her sufferings had evidently terminated ; un-
less we suppose the Elizabeth Taylor mentioned
above to have been the mother or sister of the min-
ister, instead of his wife.* The lady whom he
next married, and v/ho bore that name, outlived
him by at least eighteen years. From this and
other circumstances, it may be inferred that she
was considerabl}' younger than he.

From the number of deeds witnessed, and appar-
ently drawn up by Mr. Taylor, he appears to have

* An ancient volume of sermons, said to have been given by
Mr. Taylor to Susan Ticlienor, and now in the possession of Widow-
Mary Freeman, of South Orange, contains upon a ^-leaf the in-
scription: " Elizabeth Taylor, her Booke, 1686." The tradition is,
that it had belonged to his sister. If so, she had probably received
it from her mother, as the name v;ras inscribed five years before
Mr. Taylor's birth. The volume is a thick quarto, published in
London in 1674, and containing thirty-one sermons by leading
preachers of the time ; the first being by the compiler, Dr. Samuel
Annesly.

4

62 HOME AND LANDS.

been the scrivener^ as well as the minister, of the
parish. His readj^ pen and knowledge of legal
forms were in frequent demand, and doubtless
saved to the planters many a fee that would other-
wise have gone to the lawyers.

He was the owner of his residence, which stood
on the site now occupied by Joseph B. Lindsley,
corner of Main and Hillyer streets. This bordered
upon the twenty acres bought of Thomas Gardner
by the parish. His house is said to have been
afterwards moved to where the Park House stands,
and to have been fitted up for a tavern.

Besides the homestead, he had a tract of land,
lying a quarter of a mile to the north, on the south-
west side of Washington street, now owned by the
"Williams family. Fifteen acres* of this, lying be-
tween the upper end of Park street and the brook^

* Described as " one certain tract or parcel of land, scituate,
lying and being in the bounds of Newark aforesaid, at the moun-
tain plantations, so-called, and by a brook commonly called and
known by the name of Perrow's brook : Beginning at a walnut -tree
marked.on the western side of the higliway ; thence running north-
west down to said brook ; thence northerly, as the brook runs,
to the land of said Matthew Williams ; and thence by his land to
an highway, and so round by highways to the place where it
began : containing and to contain fifteen acres, be there more or
less." Signed by DANIEL TAYLOR.

GoRSHOM Williams, 1

TnoMAS + Lamso.v, [ ^'i^^^^s^s-
mark. J

KEVIVAL OF 1734. 63

were deeded by him to Matthew Williams, Jun.,
June 1, 1731. The rest of it lay on the other
side of Park street, including the ground on which
Aaron Williams now resides. Between it and the
main road were twenty-six acres, owned by Na-
thaniel Williams, and sold by him, Feb. 10, 1735,
to Matthew Williams, who again sold four acres of
the same to the parish, in 1748.

We know little of Mr. Tajdor as a preacher.
From the boldness and zeal with which, according
to their statements, he took sides against the Pro-
prietors in defence of Indian titles, we may infer
a character of energy, fearlessness, and firmness.
Such a man must have been one who shunned
not to declare the whole counsel of God. And it
is pleasing to know, not onlj^ from the perpetuity
and growth of the Church, but from records made
at that time of the mighty works of God, that
power divine attended his words, and that revival
scenes were passing here while the great awaken-
ing in New England was in progress. President
Edwards, in his Narrative of Surprising Conver-
sions, thus alludes to a work of grace here : " But
this shower of Divine blessing has been yet more
extensive : there was no small degree of it in some
parts of the Jerseys, as I was informed when I was
at New York (in a long journey I took at that time
of the year, for my health), by some people of the
Jerseys whom I saw : especially the Kev. Mr. Wil-

64 REVIVAL IN NEWARK.

liam Tennent, a minister who seemed to have such
things much at heart, told me of a very great
awakening of many in a place called the Moun-
tains, under the ministry of one Mr. Cross," &c.*
What numbers were truly converted and added to
the fellowship of the Church, as the result of this
^^ very great awakening o/" ?/■<«/??/," we have no means
of ascertaining.

About four years later, viz , in August, 1739, a
revival of similar power took place in Newark,
under the then j^outhful Rev. Aaron Burr. It was
just before the first visit of Whitefield to this part
of the country. Beginning among the youth, it
reached the adult portion of the congregation by
the following spring, when " the whole town were
brought under an uncommon concern about their
eternal interests." As the work abated in Newark,
it broke out in Elizabethtown, after Whitefield
had been laboring there with aj)parently no sue-

■"" It is stated by Rev. Richard "Webster (Hist. Presb. Ch., p.
413,) that Jolui Cross, '* styled by Dr. Brownlee ' a Scottish
worthy,' was received as a member of Synod in 1732. and settled
at a place 'called the Mountains, back of Newark.' Tlie remark-
able revival in his congregation there, in 1734 and '35, is noticed
in Edwards's ' Thoughts on Revivals.' " Here is a double error.
Mr. Cross, of Baskingridge, could not have been settled here,
though he may have preached here during the revival — for he
was very zealous in revival labors : and the passage referred to
in Edwards is cited from the wrong treatise, being found in his
Narrative of Surprising Conversions.

NEGKO PLOTS. 65

cess. Again, in the following year, it was revived
in Newark, with more glorious manifestations of
Divine power than before. To what extent its in-
fluence was felt by this congregation, we have no
means of knowing.

It is painful to tarn from these pleasing views of
the triumphs of the gospel of peace, to the troubles
and disorders that ensued. Serious apprehensions
were excited, about this time, of insurrections
among the servile population. As early as 1734,
a rising was attempted in the neighborhood of the
Earitan, in consequence of which one or more ne-
groes were hung. In July, 1750, two others were
executed at Perth Amboy, for the murder of their
mistress. Between those events, in 1741, a formi-
dable negro plot was thought to be discovered in
New York, which resulted in " many executions,
both by hanging and burning." The plan laid in
the insurrection of the Earitan was, to join the In-
dians in the interest of the French, in a general
massacre of the English population.

But the troubles in which the planters of this
locality were more seriously involved, grew out of
their relations with the great land-monopoly. The
Proprietors of East Jersey had, in 1702, surren-
dered to the crown their powers of government,
but not their right to the soil. It was stipulated,
among the conditions of the transfer, that "the
crown disclaims all right to the province of New

66 RIGHTS OF THE CKOWN.

Jersey, other tlian tlie government, and owns the
soil and quit-rents, &c., to belong to the said Gen-
eral Proprietors; and the Governors are directed
not to permit any other person or persons, besides
the said General Proprietors, to purchase any land
whatsoever from the Indians within the limits of
their grant." By an act of the Assembly, pub-
lished in ISTovember, 1703, after the arrival of Lord
Cornbury, not only all Indian purchases which
had not been made by the Proprietors before that
time, were declared null and void, unless grants
for them were obtained within six months ; but
also all who should thereafter make purchases of
the Indians, except Proprietors (and they only in
the manner prescribed by the act), should forfeit
forty shillings per acre for every acre so pur-
chased.

This stringent prohibition was thus confidently
vindicated : " Has not the crown of England a right
to those void or uninhabited countries which are
discovered by any of its subjects? Has not the
crown of England a right to restrain its subjects
from treating with any heathen nation whatsoever?
And has not the crown of England, in consequence
of that right, power to grant the liberty of treating
with any heathen nation to any one particular per-
son, exclusive of all others, and that upon such
terms as by the crown may be thought proper?
Has not the crown of England at least gra,nted that

CHALMERS' OPINION. 67

right to the proprietors by the grants of ISTew Jersey,
under the great seal of EngLand ?"*

Yet there were some in Newark, as there had
been long before in Elizabethtown, who ventured to
call this right in question; "blindly led on," say
the Proprietors, " by a position, that the Indians were
once the owners of the soil ; and therefore they con-
clude that those who have purchased, or got deeds
of their right, must also be owners now."

It is not our business to discuss the question here
at issue. The reader will however be interested in
the following views of Dr. Chalmers, touching the
same question. A band of Moravian missionaries,
exploring the coast of Labrador in 1811, took formal
possession of the country in the name of George
III., whom they represented to the natives as the
Great Monarch of all those territories. " We do
not see the necessity of this transaction," says Chal-
mers, ^' and confess that our feelings of justice some-
what revolted at it. How George III. should be
the rightful monarch of a territory whose inhabi-
tants never saw a European before, is something
more than we can understand. We trust that the
marauding policy of other times is now gone by,
and that the transaction in question is nothing more
than an idle ceremonv."t

* Publication of April, 1746.

f On the efficacy of Missions as conducted by the Moravians. —
These claims of the Christian potentates of Europe have a curious

68 PAPAL CLAIMS.

Sentiments similar to these began to be general
in our mountain settlement in the course of twenty
years after the constitution of the parish.

Various causes had operated to excite disaffection
to\vard the proprietors. Many of them were ab-
sentee landlords, living in England and Scotland on
the rents which they drew from the province. It

history. They began with the pope^, who. as God's vicegerents,
claimed to be the earth's sovereign masters and proprietors. All
heathens, heretics, and infidels, according to their theory, had no
right to any possession of the earth's soil. Hence, Pope Eugene
lY., in 1440, made a munificent donation of Africa to King Al-
phonso Y., of Portugal : '• not because that continent was unin-
habited, but because the nations subsisting there were infidels, and
consequently unjust possessors of the country." By the same
principle, Pope Alexander YL, in 1493, the year after its discovery,
gave the whole of America to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain,
(although one of his infallible predecessors had declared that no
such continent as America did or could exist) ; a grant which the
royal pair accepted (according to Herrera) against the advice of the
Spanish civilians and canon lawyers.

The disposing power thus assumed by the popes was too absurd
to be regarded by Eoman Catholic princes, when exercised to the
prejudice of their interests. Yet, with greater absurdity, they
arrogated for themselves the power which they denied to the suc-
cessors of St. Peter. Thus, Henry VII. of England, in 1496, com-
missioned John Cabot and his three sons, with their associates, "to
navigate all parts of the ocean, in five ships, under the banners of
England, for the purpose of discovering such heathen or infidel
regions, countries or islands, wherever situated, as were unknown
to christian states ; with power to set up the King's standard in
any lands, islands, &c.. which they might discover, not previously
occupied by christians, and to seize, conquer, and possess, all such

DISAFFECTIOK. 69

happened in a few instances that lands were twice
sold Tinder conflicting proprietary titles, so that cer-
tain purchasers were dispossessed. Some who had
purchased a proprietary interest, with the privilege
of selecting their land afterward, took advantage of
the circumstance to select and sell at their pleasure.
Licenses to buy of the natives were also forged or

lands, islands, &c. , and as his liege vassals, governors, locumtenentes
[lieutenants] or deputies, to hold dominion over and have exclusive
'property in the samey Elizabeth, James, and their successors, gave
similar commissions, all containing this proviso, " that the territories
and districts so granted be not previously occupied and possessed
by the subjects of any other christian prince or state."

What kings would not concede to popes, was by virtue of their
power conceded to kings, but under protest. Thus, Bartholomew
De Las Casas, bishop of Chiapa, in a treatise dedicated to Charles
v., represented that the natives of America, "having their own
lawful kings and princes, and a right to make laws for the good
government of their respective dominions, could not be expelled
out of them, or deprived of what they possess, without doing vio-
lence to the laws of God as well as the law of nations."

"It is universally acknowledged that discover}^, the only title
that any European State could allege to the lands of America,
affords no just claim to any but derelict or uninhabited lands, which
those of America are not. [Griffith, vol. 10.]"

" All the nations of Europe, and indeed of the world, have been
as unchristian and as savage as the aborigines in America ; and
if ignorance, either in matters of religion or science, could defeat
the title of a people to their country, the English must be unjust
possessors of the British soil, and incapable of conveying it to their
posterity.''

See an " Examination into the rights of the Indian Nations to
their respective countries," &o. Fhila. 1781.

4*^

70 OPPOSITION MEASURES.

altered. These things all together created no little
confusion ; and between the errors of agents and
the arts of the unprincipled, the planters often found
their just interests sacrificed. It was not difficult
to turn the current of popular indignation against
the proprietors, even when the latter were victims
of the fraud.

As early as 1744, we find the settlers about the
mountain adopting measures for the defence of their
titles.* Contributions were raised for defraying the

^ See Samuel Harrison's account-book, preserved by Edward
Pierson, Esq., of Newark, in which is the following ''account of
what each one hath paid in order to the establishing their right of
land, and in defraying the charge." The dates belong to 1744.

" Nathaniel Crane, £1-

-10-0

Thomas Williams,

£ 3-0

Sam. Harrison, in casti to

Samuel Wheeler,

17-6

Capt. "Wheeler,

T-0

Going to N. England 4 days.

1- 4-0

Nathaniel Camp,

7-0

Going to N. England 9 days,

2-14-0

Samuel Baldwin,

7-0

Going to Horse Neck with

Sam. Hftrrison p'd Mr. Tay-

ilr. Taylor,

5-0

lor,

8-6

Going to Horse Neck with

John Con diet p'd Mr. Tay-

Dan. Lamson,

5-0

lor,

7-0

Cash p'd to Mr. Taylor,

3-6

August CO. Garhshom Wil-

'• j/d to John Cundict,

14^0

liams,

7-0

do.

2-4

Oct. 7. I received of Amos

" p'd to John Tompkins,

17-10

Williams, on accompt of

Going to New York,

10-0"

the charge of the purcha.se

&c. «tc.

right,

7-0

"We find the following entry also about that time: "Jan. 23,
1744-5. Samuel Freeman brought to me two wolves' heads, and
I marked it [them] according to law and gave him a ticket for the
same." We may infer that Mr. Harrison was a magistrate, and
that Deacon Freeman did not consider the poor wolves entitled to
the charities of his office.

LOSS OF DEED. 71

expenses of agents sent to Connecticut and to Horse
Neck [Caldwell], for the purpose, it is presumed, of
obtaining j)a'pers or affidavits tending to confirm
their rights.

In these proceedings Mr. Taylor appears to have
taken a prominent part.

From the coincidence of dates it would seem
that these measures were made necessary by the
loss of the deed of the large Indian purchase of
1701. That important document was destroyed —
whether accidentally or intentionally cannot be
known — by the burning of Jonathan Pierson's
house, March 7, 17-14-5, With all haste another
was drawn "up, which was signed on the 14th by
certain descendants of the old Sagamores, and
witnessed by Isaac Yangiesen, Francis Cook, [his
mark,] Daniel Taylor, and Michael W. Yreelandt
[bis mark.] The event furnished an occasion,"^ow-
ever, whicb. seems to have been seized upon for
disturbing many persons in their claims and pos-
sessions, and this in turn gave rise to the riots that
ensued. Samuel Baldwin, for getting saw -logs off
his land, was arrested and put in jail. His friends
went to his rescue, broke open the jail and released
him. In November, depositions were made before
Joseph Bonnel, Esq., "by John Morris, aged 79
years, Abraham Van Giesen, aged 80 years, Michael
Yreelandt, aged 81 years, Cornelius Demaress,
Samuel Harrison, John Condit, Deacon Samuel

72 RIOTS.

Ailing, Samuel Tompkins, Francis Spier, Hen-
drick Francisco, Joseph Riggs, and others, relating
to the course of the Proprietors of East Jersey, in
oblieina' them to repurchase their lands after hav-
ing enjoyed long and peaceable possession."^ In
the same month, ISTehemiah Baldwin, Joseph Pier-
soUj Daniel Williams, Nathaniel Williams, Eleazer
Lamson, Gamaliel Clark, and twenty-one others,
stood before the Supreme Court for riots committed
in Essex county.

Affairs were now converging to a general and
spirited struggle with the Proprietors. During the
year 1745, an association was formed, and another
large purchase west of the mountain was made of
the Indians, in which all proprietary claims v/ere
ignored. It was the famous purchase of fifteen
miles square^ obtained, as the Proprietors sneer-
ino^lv asserted, " for the valuable consideration of
five shillings and some bottles of rum . . . from
Indians who claimed no right^ and told them they had
none ; but no matter for that, it was enough that
they Avere Indians, and they had their deeds." The
purchasers took a different view of the transaction.
They had their vindicator too. There was

'• A Daxiel come to judgment : yea, a Daxiel."

Toward the close of the year, there appeared in
New York a little pamphlet of forty-eight pages,

* Rutherford MSS. See Auah^ical Index, by N. J. Hist. Soc.

VINDICATION, 73

entitled " A Brief vindication of the Purchassors
Against tlie Proprietors in a Christian Manner."
It is supposed to have been written bj Mr. Taylor.*
A writer also in the New York Post-Boj, of Feb-
17, 1745-6, just after another riot and release of
prisoners in the Newark jail, took up the cause
of the planters, laying on the Proprietors the blame
of the disturbance. And in April a petition was
addressed to the General Assembly, in which the
charges set forth in the Post-Boy were enlarged
upon, and measures of relief were sought. In the
meantime, prosecutions were renewed against the
agitators ; a list of forty-four persons concerned in
the last riot being filed in the Supreme Court at
the May term.

But law owes its potency to public opinion, and
so the Proprietors in turn made their appeal to the
public by means of the press. From their publica-
tion of April 7, 1746, it appears that this part of
Newark bore its full share of responsibility for the
riots, while a very charitable apology is suggested
for some of the offenders. They say : " Possibly

* Tliere is a copy in England among the Board of Trade papers.
On the title-page is this note in the hand of Mr. James Alexander,
of the Council of New Jersey : " This ought to have been with
papers transmitted in December and February last, but copies
could not then be got at New York, the author having carried all
to New Jersey for sale there." See Analytical Index to the Colo-
nial Documents of N. J., p. 196,

74 REPLIES.

many of the rioters, being ignorant men, and many
of them strangers to tlie Province, and since tliey
came to it living retired in and behind the moun-
tains of Newark, upon any land they could find,
without enquiring who the owner thereof was, have
of late been animated and stirred up to believe,
that those things which the laws of the Province
have declared to be criminal and penal were law-
ful ; and that those crimes committed gave the
criminals rights, privileges, and properties ; but
though many have been ignorant enough to be so
seduced, we cannot think that all can with truth
plead that excuse." Doubtless among the excepted
cases was " Parson Taylor," suspected by council-
man Alexander (who vrished he had sufficient evi-
dence of it) to be the composer of all their papers.

In their publication of Sept. 1-i, 1747; we find
the following spicy allusions to our ancient pastor :

" The Committee [of the opjDOsition] who appear
on the stage, are nine expert men, with an Assem-
blyman in the number, and many hundreds, even
thousands, say they, of club-men at their command.
And who can withstand that interest ? Especially
as the worthy Committee and clubmen have two
supernumerary prompters behind the curtain —
Clergymen — who sanctify their actions ! One of
them, it's said, is the before-named Mr. Taylor, a
reverend Independent minister of the mountains
behind Newark, secretary, scribe, and councillor to

PULPIT VIEWS. 75

the wortlij Committee, in their several late per=
formauces in newspapers, petitioDS, proposals, and
answer now before us ; and a worthy partner with
the Committee in the Jifteen'mile'Square purchase
aforesaid, lately (as before is said,) for a five-shil-
ling York bill and some rum, bought of some
Indians who claimed no right ; and yet (if we will
take their words for it) this their purchase was
honestly, duly and legally made : which Reverend
Pastor, it's said, makes it as clear as the sud, in his
sermons to the Committee and Rioters, that all that
they have done is authorized by the Bible ; for
there, he assures them, he has found a charter-grant
for their lands ; and even cites book, chapter and
verse for it ; and no man can question that to be
the best record on earthy and all authority of man
that would derogate from that charter, is rightly to
be resisted and opposed. The other clergyman,
it's said, is the Rev. Mr. John Cross, late minister
of Basking- Ridge, Secretary, scribe and counsellor
to the worthy Mr. Roberts, who assumed to be com-
mander-in-chief of the rioters in their late expedi-
tion to Perth Amboy, on the 17th of July last ;
and for which he and many others stand indicted
of high treason."

Such was the tone of the controversy. It is not
unlikely, if the sermons alluded to could be repro-
duced, we should find indignation as eloquent, if
not sarcasm as abundant, on the other side.

76 OTHER THOUGHTS.

But Mr. Taylor's interest in tlie controversy was
now ending. A subject of more solemn concern-
ment claimed liis thousflits. About three months

o

after the above publication was issued, he was setting
his house in order as one whose time of departure
was at hand. We present to the reader a copy of
his will, taken from the probate records at Trenton,
as showing the manner in which the old Puritans
closed up their earthly affairs.

" In the name of God, amen : this twenty-first
day of December, Anno Domini one thousand
seven hundred and forty-seven, I, Daniel Tay-
lor, of Newark, in the county of Essex and prov-
ince of New Jersey, clerk,* being aged and infirm
of body, but of sound and perfect mind and mem-
ory, thanks be given unto God therefor, calling
unto mind the mortality of my body, and knowing
it is appointed unto all men once to die, do make
and ordain this my last Avill and testament. And
principally, and first of all, I give and recommend
my soul into the hands of God who gave it, hoping
through the alone merits of Jesus Christ to have
eternal life ; and my body I recommend unto the
earth, (being dead,) to be buried in a decent Chris-
tian manner at the discretion of my executors,
nothing doubting but at the general resurrection I
shall receive the same again by the mighty powder

* That is, dei-ic, or clergyman.

MR. Taylor's will. 77

of God. And as toiicliiDg sucli worl ly estate
wlierewitli it hath pleased God to bless me in this
life, I give, devise and dispose of the sama in the
following manner and form :

" Imprimis^ I give, devise and bequeath unto
my beloved wife Elizabeth, one equal third part
of all and singular my household goods and chat-
tels, if she please to accept it as her dowry from
me.

^^ Item, I give my son, Daniel Taylor, besides
what he hath already had from me since he came
of age, (which is to the value of more than sixty
pounds,) the sum of ten pounds, to be paid within
one year after my decease, either in money or what
may be equivalent thereto.

" Item, I give my daughter Jemima what hath
been provided for her against the day of her mar-
riage of household furniture, as also a cow, and the
sum of five pounds to be paid her as is above said.
" Item, I give unto my other two daughters, viz.,
Mary and Elizabeth, the other part of my house-
hold goods, and the sum of twenty pounds in
money, to be paid to each of them by their breth-
ren hereafter mentioned, when or as they shall
come to full age, &c.

" Item, I give unto my other three children, viz.,
Davie, Joseph and Job, all and singular my estate?
(not otherwise herein disposed of,) both real and
personal, to be unto or for them (when they come

78 THE WITNESSES.

of age) and their heirs and assigns forever. And
my will is, that if any or either of my children do
or shall decease before they come of age, or with-
out issue, their portion or inheritance shall be dis-
tributed or divided unto or among the survivors,
viz. : if males, unto the males, and [if] females,
unto the females ; and also that the negroes, if they
desii^e it, shall be sold, or at the discretion of my
executors put out on hire, for the good of my sons
aforesaid, till they come of age, and that they, par-
ticularly Joseph and Job, be put to learn some
trade.

"/^e??z, I do hereby constitute, ordain and appoint
my beloved friends and brethren in covenant rela-
tion, Joseph Peck and David Williams, executors
of this my will to see it duly performed, and I do
hereby utterly disallow, revoke and disannull all
other and former wills, legacies, bequests, and
executors, at any time before-named, willed or
bequeathed, ratifying and allowing this to be my
last will and testament. In witness whereof I
have hereunto set my hand and seal, the day and
year first above written.

Daniel Taylor. [L. S.]"

The witnesses were " Abraham Soverhill, Eleazer
Lamson, Sarah Lamson [her mark.]" Eighteen
days afterward, the testator experienced the solemn

HIS DEATH. 79

change " appointed unto all men." The will was
proved January 23d.

On a plain horizontal slab of brown stone in the
old graveyard may be read the following :

" Survivers, let's all imitate
The vertues of our Pastor,
And copy after him like as
He did his Lord and Master.
To us most awfull was the stroke
By which he was removed
Unto the full fruition of
The God he served and loved."

And below it —

" Here lyes the pious remains
Of the Revi Mr. Daniel Tayler,
Who was minister of this parrisli
Years, Dec^ Jany 8'^, A.D., 1141-8,
In the Sith year of his age."

The omission of the numeral before years, has
left it impossible to determine just when he came
to the parish.

We have already spoken of his family. His
•first wife, buried at Smithtown, was probably the
mother of his daughter Jemima, who bore her
name, and who, as we may infer from the will, was
considerably older than her sisters. Daniel and
Mary were nearly of an age, and are supposed to
have been children of his second wife. As the
will implies that at least one of his daughters was

80 r DESCENDANTS.

a minor at the time of his decease, we suppose
Elizabeth and her younger brothers to have been
children of his third marriage. The grave of his
second wife, if she was buried here, is without a
headstone and its place unknown. Daniel,^ the
oldest son, who lived on a farm beyond the moun-
tain, died Oct. 17, 1794, aged 74 years, and was
buried near his father. Of the daughters, Mary
became the wife of Deacon Amos Baldwin, and
died Sept. 30, 1795, in her 7oth year.

In common with many of his parishioners and
ministerial contemporaries, Mr. Taylor was a slave-
holder. His will indicates a humane regard for
the wishes of his servants in the disposition to be
made of them after his decease.

We should like to be able to pay a due tribute
to some of those worthy men who were the helpers
of Mr. Taylor's ministry ; but with a single excep-
tion, the names of the church officers of that period
are unknown. Their only record is on high. There
is iDresumptive evidence that Samuel Pierson, the
carpenter, was one of the first deacons. The evi-
dence is found in the following lines upon his head-
stone :

* Daniel and Anne Taylor had a son Oliver, who died Aug. 11,
1785, in his 31st year. Also a son Daniel, who lived to old age
and had several children. Among them was the late Mrs. Char-
lotte, wife of John M. Lindsley. The descendants of the old
pastor are found among the Lindsleys, Baldwins, and Cranes.
None of the Taylor name, now resident here, have been traced.

CHUECH OFFICERS. 81

" Here lies interred under this mould
A precious heap of dust, condoled
By Church of Christ and children dear,
Both which were th' objects of his care."

His decease occurred March 19, 1780, in bis GTth
year.

Joseph Peck, one of the " beloved friends and
brethren in covenant relation " selected by Mr.
Taylor to be the executors of his will, held subse-
quently the double office of elder and deacon. He
was forty-six years old at the time of Mr. Taylor's
decease. It is not known that he was then an offi-
cer. The same may be said of the " pious and
godly Mr. Job Brown," who wsiS in his full man-
hood — thirty-eight years old. Deacon Samuel
Freeman, whose name will occur in the following
chapter, was six years younger. These and others
soon to be mentioned, received the bread of life
from the first pastor of the flock, and formed a
part of the sorrowful procession that followed him
to his rest.

CHAPTER TV.

REY. CALEB SMITH.

IF, when Samuel Harrison was writing tlie accounts
of his fulling-mill and saw-mill, he could have
foreknown what was yet to be the historic value
of a single leaf of his account-book; that after
a hundred years and more the church records of
that day would all be lost, the names of its officers
lost, and all knowledge of the age and origin of the
old parsonage lost, till the said account-book should
open its bronzed and tattered lips to reveal the in-
teresting secrets ; possibly that knowledge would
have secured for the volume a more careful hand-
ling and a choicer place in his writing-desk. Be-
yond a doubt, it would have put in exercise all his
clerkly skill. The pen would have striven for a
little m.ore method and grace, and the dictionary
would have corrected sundry slips of orthography.
This Samuel Harrison Avas the second of that
name in Newark, and a grandson of Sergeant Rich-
ard. He exercised the quadruple functions of mag-
istrate, farmer, fuller and sawyer. He was, withal,

THE PAESONAGE. 88

a lojal rent-payer, as appears from a petition ad-
dressed to Governor Belclier in 1747, and signed by
Nathaniel Wheeler, Jonathan Pierson, John Con-
diet, Nathaniel Camp, Samuel Harrison, Samnel
Baldwin, and others, asserting their loyalty, and
vindicating themselves against an implied connec-
tion with recent disturbances and riots.

From the entries in his day-book, we learn that
in July, 1 748 — the summer following Mr. Taylor's
death — he was sawing *'oke plank" "gice," "slep-
ers," and other material, and also receiving sundry
sums of money, " on account of the parsonage." The
money was received, in sums ranging from a few
shillings to near twenty pounds, from David Ward,
./Jonathan Shores, David Williams, Thomas Wil-
liams, David Baldwin, Nathaniel Crane, Noah Crane,
Azariah Crane, Stephen Dod, John Dod, Eleazer
Lamson, Gershom Williams, Ebenezer Farand, Peter
Bosteda, William Crane, Jonathan Ward, Jonathan
Sergeant, Samuel Cundict, Joseph Peck, Deacon
Samuel Freeman, Bethuel Pierson, Thomas Lam-
son, Samuel Wheeler, Eobert Baldwin, and Joseph
Jones ; — a list of twenty-five names, chiefly repre-
senting (we may presum.e) heads of families.

It thus appears that the society took occasion from
the loss of its pastor to provide a home for his suc-
cessor. Instead, however, of placing it on the par-
ish lands, a new lot of four acres was bought of
Matthew Williams, lying "on the north side of the

84 CALEB SMITH.

highway that leads to the mountain, near the house
once the Eev. Daniel Taylor's, late of Newark, de-
ceased." It lay opposite to the twenty acres previ-
ously owned by the parish, and included the ground
now occupied by Grace church. The deed was given
September 14th, the price being " four pounds per
acre, current money of Xew Jersey, at eight shil-
lings per ounce."

The house was to be of stone, and while the saw-
mill aforesaid was turning out plank, &:c., the quarry
was yielding more solid material for the walls. At
the same time the committee-men were looking out
for a minister. This search was not a long one.

There was a young man — a licentiate — who had
just completed his theological studies with Rev..
Jonathan Dickinson, of Elizabethtown. He was a
son of William and Hannah Smith, of Brookhaven,
L. L, where he was born December 29, 1723. Enter-
ing Yale College in his sixteenth year, he displayed
during his course of study a vigorous mind and com-
mendable application. He became also, in his sec-
ond year, one of the hopeful subjects of a work of
grace in the College. After receiving a degree in
1743, he remained some time as a resident graduate.
In 1746 he was applied to by Rev. Aaron Burr, of
Newark, to aid him in conducting a large Latin
school. Other engagements prevented him at the
time from accepting the place ; but some time after,
upon an invitation of Mr. Dickinson, he went to

THE CHURCH PKESBYTERIAN. Sb

Elizabethtown to instruct a number of young men
in the languages. There, as we have said, he prose-
cuted simultaneously his studies for the ministry,
and having, by the advice of Mr. Dickinson and
other ministers, presented himself to the Presbytery
of ISTew York for licensure, and creditably sustained
his trials, he was licensed by the Presbytery in
April, 1747.

In the course of the next year and a half, he re-
ceived a number of invitations to a settlement. He
referred these to the Presbytery, but the latter sub-
mitting them to his own judgment, he decided in
favor of the call received from this society. Ac-
cordingly, on the 80th of [N'ovember, 1748, about
eleven months after the death of his predecessor, he
was ordained and installed by the Presbytery.

We see in this ecclesiastical act a previous and
important decision of the Church, of which we know
not the particular reasons and history. The relig-
ious elements in iNew Jersey — and in New Eng-
land no less — were originally mixed. There Con-
gregationalism, and here Presbyterianism, had grad-
ually absorbed the others.

The Mountain Society maintained its Indepen-
dent relations about thirty years. But the influ-
ences that caused this were now yielding to others.
The generation of its founders was passing away.
New circumstances produced new views. Either
before or in connection with the acquaintance made
o

86 ME. smith's marriage.

with Caleb Smith, the Church resolved to conform
to the prevailing type of ecclesiastical order in the
province. From that period to the present, it has
adhered steadily to constitutional Presbyterianism
— ever true, at the same time, to the common cause
of RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, ou whosc battlc-ground it
stands.

Mr. Smith was about twenty-five years of age at
the time of his settlement. He was not married.
But as he stepped into the nev/ house from time to
time to observe the progress of the woi'k, or to drop
a suggestion relevant thereto, we fancy thoughts of
other relations than those which bound him to his
people were sometimes present with him. The fu-
ture mistress of the manse, Miss Martha Dickinson,
was yet at the parsonage in Elizabethtown. It is
quite likely that during the winter the young pas-
tor found occasion now and then for a short absence
from his mountain charge. As spring came on,
Mr. Harrison's day-book received sundry charges
(at the rate uniformly of three shillings sixj^ence a
day) for work done on the parsonage. May 3d was
employed in "slaking lime." Another day was
devoted " to toj)ping up the cliimney." The sum-
mer saw the work completed. In September^ 1749,
the minister's youngest daughter became the young
minister's wife, and was happily installed in the
stone mansion, then one of the best houses, we sup-
pose^ this side of Newark.

PARSONAGE MEMORIES. 87

That mansion was to have a long history. It
was to be occupied about thirteen years by Mr.
Smith ; then several years by others, as it might
find tenants ; then thirty years by another pastor ;
then about fourteen years by another ; and finally
used as a tenement house near forty years more be-
fore its demolition.

What memories have since gathered around it !
There were life's sweetest pleasures. There were
its tenderest sorrows. It beheld in turn the hy-
meneal joy and the mourner's anguish. The
serene happiness of the fireside, the calm intellect-
ual life, the steadv flame of devotion, all that is
generous and grateful in the charities of the heart
and the benefactions of the hand, had there a
home. Many a kind token found a silent way to
its kitchen, its wardrobes, its library. Warm
greetings were exchanged within its doors. Vigor-
ous thoughts Avere born in it. Well beaten oil went
from it to the candlestick of the sanctuary. And
there freedom found ever an advocate, if not always
a shelter. In the days of the Eevolution it was a
mark for British vengeance. But He who guards
and blesses the habitation of the just, preserved it
from the torch of war and the accidents of time till
more than a century of years had rolled over it.

There was one custom which had a long exist-
ence in connection with the parsonage. Once a
year there was a general turn-out of men and teams

88 WOOD-DRAWING.

for placing at the minister's door a suitable quantity
of fuel. While the forest 3'et waved over the par-
sonage lands, the invading axe was directed thither.
When these were stri|)ped, the standing wood was
purchased elsewhere. The minister having con-
tracted for the wood, his people did the rest. On
a day appointed axes and oxen were in motion.
The strokes resounded in the forest. The roads
were astir. The pile in the parsonage yard grew
large as the day grew small. There was a lively
commotion too loithin doors, where the ' better-half
of the parish provided the last and best part of the
entertainment. A supjDer and a scene of right
social cheer for old and young was the winding up
of the wood frolic. Time and chano^e have set
aside this merrj" custom. The woodlands have
vanished or been shorn of their strensfth, and the
blaze of the old broad chimnev has waned to the
dull glow of the imprisoned anthracite.

There was another species of wood-drawing prac-
tised upon the parsonage lands of the old society —
in which the mountain society contended for an
interest — that it was found no easy task to suppress.
Yote followed vote in the town meetino^s against
the trespassers, with little apparent effect. Was
the plunder stimulated by the cupidity and jealousy
of contesting claimants? As a sample of town
legislation on the subject, wc give the following :

March 10, 1746-7. — It was "unanimouslv voted,

A QUEER WIND. 89

that whoever shall cut any wood or timber on any
of the land called the parsonage land, shall forfeit
for every cart-load, ten shillings, and so in propor-
tion for a larger or lesser quantity, for the u.se of
the poor ; also to forfeit the wood and timber, to be
fetched away by any person, for the use of the poor ;
the person carting the wood or timber to be paid
by the overseers of the poor. Joseph Peck, Josiah
Lindsley, Emanuel Cocker, David Crane, Samuel
Plum, and David Bruen, were chosen to take care
of the parsonage lands and prosecute offenders."*

The circumstances of the parish, when Mr. Smith,
entered upon his labors here, promised anything
but a quiet and successful ministry. Disorders
were rife. Not a week had passed after his ordina-
tion, when the following appeared in a New York
paper, of date Dec. 5, 1748: "We are informed
from New Jersey that one of the heads of tbe
rioters having been committed to jail at Newark, a
number of those people came to the jail on Monday
night last and let him out ; and he afterwards made
his boast that a strong north-west wind blew the door
off the hinges, and he walked out of prison as Paul

* A depredation of another sort, upon the produce of the Newark
orchards, is noticed in a letter of Gov. Belcher to Col. Low, April
12, 1748. The Governor had a fortnight before desired the Colonel
to send him some cider, " rich and potent, without any spirits put
into it." Out of the seven barrels sent, such a quantity was drawn
by the wagoners and others that it took all but seven gallons of
one to fill up the other six. Analyt. Index, p. 227.

90 A pastor's feelings.

and Silas did." We doubt if tlie mountain pastor
shared the feelings of the liberated prisoner with
respect to this north-west gale. He was evidently
a man of different temper from his predecessor,
while we are not to judge of the latter by the hear-
say accounts repeated and amplified in proprietary
documents. Mr. Smith was eminently a peace-lov-
ing man, and one who appears to have devoted
himself with great singleness of aim to the specific
duties of his high vocation. Only with feelings of
anxiety and grief could a man of his spirit have
contemplated the disturbances which agitated his
jDarish during the whole period of his connection
with it, and \vhich were at once a cause and a conse-
quence of the low state of religion that prevailed.
He knew of course the state of things when he
came here, but we do not doubt that his whole
personal and ministerial influence bore in the direc-
tion of pacification and comjoromise. His voice,
however, had not power to allay the storm.

In the July following the above incident, the jail
was again opened by a mob. Two prisoners were
in it, whose friends (so wrote Mr. Alexander, one
of the Proprietary Council,) tried to obtain a commis-
sion for a special court to try them " by their fellow-
rioters and relatives." Failing in this, " on the
15th inst., in the dead hour of the night, a number
of peojDle in disguise came to and broke open the
jail, and rescued the two prisoners. By their com-

MORE RIOTS. 91

ing in disguise, (tlie writer added,) it seems they
have got a little more fear and modesty than they
used to have." The congratulation was premature.

A letter written October 14, 1749, by David Og-
den, of jSTewark, to James Alexander, discovers to
lis the confusion which at that time involved the
subject of land claims in this region. The letter
states that the bearer, Daniel Pierson, a man well
informed on the subject, " would testify that three-
fifths hold lands under proprietary titles ; one-fifth
have no pretensions to any title, and these were the
chief destroyers of timber ; and the other fifth hold
under Indian titles ; but not more than one-third
first settled their lands under an Indian title ; and
the other two-thirds purchased the Indian title
within a few years then past."

By this time, a strong sympathy with the people
in their opposition to the proprietors began to show
itself in the provincial assembly. Governor Belcher,
in a letter to the Board of Trade, November 27,
1749, complained that the Assembly of New Jersey,
during the whole session, was in dispute and con-
tention with the Council ; and that it would enter
into no measures to suppress the riots. On the
same day, David Ogden wrote again to Mr, Alex-
ander at Perth Amboy, relative to a riot committed
a fortnight before at Horseneck, when the house of
Abraham Phillips was broken open, the owner
turned out, and a stack of his oats burnt ; suggest-

92 ARRESTS AND INDICTMENTS.

ing that "proper affidavits of tliis riot would be
proper to accompany our Assembly's representation
home, of the pacific spirit of the rioters." In the
following March, according to another letter of the
Governor, the rioters were spreading their influence
to such a degree that the legislature seemed to be
stao^nated bv it.*

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."f Jonathan Squier^ John Vincent,
Thomas Williams, Samuel Crowell, Is'athaniel 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. 251-8.

f S. H. CoxGAR — to whom the writer is indebted for extracts
from the records. "I say respectable,'' he adds, "for doubtless
they wore generally in good repute."

SECOND MEETING-HOUSE. 93

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. "Ee-
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 Societ}^, 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 FOK 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 touting the pulpit, with dooi's 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 ia the
front gallery next the wall.

"9. Tiiat the said comniittee shall pay to the said

THE COST. 95

Baldwin for finisliiiig the said meeting-house as
above-meutioned, provided he completes it by the
first day of December uext, the sum of two hundred
and forty pounds current money of this p.ovince,
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 a
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 v/ork for many in the
parish, who had doubtless equal privileges with the

*'' The original paper is preserved by S. H. Congan

96 HELPERS IN THE WOKK.

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 Tajdor, two loads,
8 shillings ; while Deacon Ereeman 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
d'ay 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 bv those who well remember it and

fM

m i

M

'.■'Yi''.*' "ii'^.V. 't '''

MINISTER S SALARY. 97

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 raie^ varying from a few shillings
to the sum of two pounds and upwards. The ag-
gregate per annum was not far from £^b^ 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 It 62, it appears that the dollar was
then equal in value to eight shillings eight pence. Wheat was Qs.
to Is. per bushel ; oats, 2s. 6of. ; Indian corn, 3^ to 4s.; buckwheat,
2s. Qd. to 3s. ; flax, 9c?. j)er lb. ; tallow, 8c?.; beef (by the quarter)
^d. ; pork, 6t?.; butter, 18f?. ; cider, 10s. a barrel ; cider spirits, 3s.
%d. a gallon ; a quart of rum, 15(?. Jonathan Young received 3c?.
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. 6c?. for cutting saw logs ; 4s. for dressing
flax. Isaac Williams had 4s. Qd. for a day in the meadows ; Jedi-
diah Crane 2s. 6c?, for tobacco. For a clock and case, Aaron Miller
received £17 lOs. ($40) ; for cleaning watch, 3s. Brf. ; for grinding
ri razors. 3s. 9c?.

98 A uuimia^'E.

Smith's parishioners sufifered. " The gust " — it
sajs — '' was felt in Philadelphia — also in a very
severe manner in the afternoon at Newark Moun-
tain in New Jersej^, 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 Avere 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 emeute gave as
much satisfaction to the mountain farmers as did
those of the " north-west wind " which, seven and a
half years before, bui'st the doors of the Newark
jail.

A sadder ^dsitation came the following^ summer.
Death entered for the first time throusrh 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 earlv bereave-
ment, which took from him a woman of rare excel-

SANCTIFIED SORROWS. 99

lence, very deeply affected him. He thus wrote ia
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 Grod'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 provitlence, 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 controversv, ^Yhich 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 amonsf a number of ministers in this
country and Scotland, w"ho 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 vouns: 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 marriasfe with Rebecca,
daughter of Major Isaac Foote, of Branford, Conn.
This lady, with an infant son named Apollos, sur-
vived him.

RELATIONS TO THE COLLEGE. 101

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 Kev. 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
Yirginia, 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 whicli 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 ray duty. .... If matters should turn out so as to

102 STATE OF RELIGIOISr.

He was one who abounded in the work of the
Lord. Few men have more conscientiouslj appro-
priated the injunction : " Meditate upon these
things ; give thyself wholly to them ; that thy profit-
ing may appear to all."

In the pulpit 1^ 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 j^eople 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 ministrj^." 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."

CATECHIZING. 103

treacherous by the white man's bribes, ifc 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 tliose 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 tlie principles of religion, but because
he had such special o|)portunity to address them in
particular, ujDon 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 Presb3'tery. 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

EXCHANGE WITH TENNENT. 105

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 Eev. 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.

tlie 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 1 How o.re 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 tenderlv invoked the divine
protection and blessing. His wife, at his desire,
suns: the last four stanzas of the 17th of Watts'

o

Psalms :

""What sinners value, I resign:
Lord, 'tia enough that thou art mine ;

HIS DEATH. 107

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 ?

" glorious hour ! blest abode I
I shall be near and like my God I
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 ;
Tlien burst the chains with sweet surprise,
And in my Saviour's image rise."

At about six o'clock the same morning, lie 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 Phihp. 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 : bat I found none."

On a large slab over his grave are the following
lines :

"Beneath this tomb the precious rehques He
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,
I'he 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, Kew Jersey, in a
|)amphlet 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. AZKL 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 Eev. Azel Eoe, a young clergyman who studied
theology with Mr. S., and w^iio, the next year,
(1763) married the widow, and was settled at Wood-
bridge, f

Thus ended a ministry of fourteen years — a short

«

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 doatli, 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 stxcam.—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 tlie Soutli, and was never heard of by his
friends." — fVehster.

6

110 SERMONS PUBLISHED.

introduction to one higher, more glorious, and eter-
nal.

Two productions of his pen were published; an
"Exhortation to the people," delivered at Con-
necticut Faniis, in 1750, at the ordination and set-
tlement of Daniel Thane ; and the funeral sermon
of President Burr, 1757.

CHAPTER Y.
REV. JEDEDIAH CHAPMAN,

A YEAR passed. In December, 1763, a messen-
ger from tlie Mountain Society was on his way
to Betlileliem, Connecticut, bearing two letters to
Rev. Josej^li Bellamy.* The first, dated the 23d, was
written by Rev. Alexander McWhorter, then four
years a pastor in Newark, and contained the fol-
lowing : "I have here wrote you by the bearer, at
the appointment of the Presbytery, in behalf of the
church of Newark Mountains, and I hope, sir, you'll
recommend them to some young man whom you
esteem for his knowledge of the truth ; and don't
send us one of your Antinoinians or Arininians^
neither send us any of your Sandemanians ; we
hear you have several such in New England, but I
am apprehensive very few of them thoroughly un-
derstand Sandeman's scheme. I thank you, sir, for
the few remarks you have given us upon this in-

* See the Bellamy correspondence, Pres. His. Soc, Pbila.

112 LETTERS TO DR. BELLAMY.

genious and subtle writer. . .The messenger is iu
haste."

Six days later, December 29, Mr. Joseph M.
White wrote from Danbury, Connecticut : " The
bearer of these are in pursuit of a candidate. They
are from Newark Mountains ; probably you are
acquainted with that j^lace, and what sort of man
w^ould be like to do good among them. In that
country they insist very much on a man's being a
good sjDeaker, and they hate the Xew England
tone (as they call it) ; they insist likewise upon
one that is apt to be familiar. But most of all, 'tis
necessary that a man be a man of religion and good
principles, in order to be useful among them. They
seem to be a kind, curtious people, and willing to
support the ministry." The results of the journey
and the recommendations are not known.

A year later, Mr. Bellamy was again addressed :

Newark, Dec. 19, 1764.

" Rev'd Sir : — The church at Newark ^fountains
have represented to us their yqtj unanimous desire
to obtain Mi\ Daniel Hopkins to settle with them
in the gospel ministry, for which they have desired
our approbation and assistance. We therefore do
earnestly desire that you, sir, would use your influ-
ence with Mr. Hopkins to return; assuring him
that we not only concur with the people, but are
very solicitous he may listen to their call. 'Tis a

DANIEL HOPKINS. 113

cliurcli we esteem df great importance, and tiope
there may be much service done here to the Re-
deemer's kingdom. And they seem so hopely
[happily ?] united in Mr. Hopkins, that we think
the door is effectually opened to him. We doubt
not you will engage bis worthy brother and your
other brethren to flxvor the call of the church, who,
as well as we, place much dependence on your in-
terest. And as we are not particularly acquainted
with your constitution, we desire that you would
act for us, if any application to the association be
necessary, that he may come in a regular way.

We are, Rev'd Sir, with due respect, your
hearty friends and fellow-servants.

By the order and in behalf of the Presbytery,

James Caldwell,
Alex'r McWhorter."

Mr. Hopkins was then a licentiate, in feeble
health, so that he divided his time between manual
labor, travelling, and occasional preaching. The
state of his health probably caused him to decline
the offered settlement.*

* Dr. Hopkins went two years later to Salem, Mass., where,
after teaching and preaching for twelve years, he was settled in
the pastoral office, and died in 1814, in the 81st year of his age.
His abilities and patriotism led to his election, in 1775, as a mem-
ber of the Provincial Congress. His theological sentiments were
those of his brother Samuel, with whom he pursued his ministe-
rial studies, and to whose writings he was an acknowledged con-
tributor. He was thirty years of age when invited to this church.

114 ME. chapman's settlement.

For another year and a lial§ the mountain flock
were without a shepherd. The Chief Shepherd was
putting their lessons of faith in exercise. In due
time his care was manifest.

On the 10th of April, 1766, Eev. James Caldwell,
of Elizabethtown, wrote to Mr. Bellamy : ^' Yester-
day Mr. Chapman was examined for ordination,
and received parts of trial. His answers were well
accepted. He did honor to his tutor and his senti-
ments. The Presbytery were highly pleased. The
congregation at I^ewark Mountains are much satis-
fied, except in his delivery and something as to the
manner, particularly the management of his voice,
and his dwelling rather too long upon one thing,
which is, or seems like, repetition. I should not
write this, only I know you are his friend and may
befriend him. TVe love him much."

This was Jedediah Chapman, a theological pupil
(we suppose) of Bellamy. He was born in East
Haddam, Connecticut, September 27, 17-11; being
a descendant in the sixth generation of Hon. Eobert
Chapman, of Hull, England, who came to America
in 1635, and settled at Say brook. Graduating at
Yale, in 1762, he received license two years after-
wards, and having preached here as a candidate in the
spring of 1766, was ordained and settled over the
church on the 22d of July. The call was not unani-
mous, but the field had now been vacant almost four
years, and we can easily credit the statement that the

HIS MAKRIAGE. 115

congregation general!}^ were "much satisfied" at
seeing in their pulpit again, a youthful, energetic,
and ]3romising pastor. He was neither Antinomian,
Arminian, nor Sandemanian; his oratory, though
it did not escape criticism, proved acceptable ; and
though bred a Congregationalist, he was to do a
work for the Presbyterian church, and to bequeath
to it a posterity that would place his name upon
its records among the fathers.

He entered the parish in his twenty-fifth year^
unmarried, and poor. We make the latter state-
ment on the authority of tradition, which represents
that the attention of his parishioners was at first
divided somewhat between the wants of his ward-
robe and the word that he preached. It was enough,
however, that he was clothed with salvation. They
could furnish the rest.

About the second year after his settlement, he
entered into matrimonial relations, and the stone
parsonage was again the minister's home. The
lady he married was Miss Blanche Smith, a Hu-
guenot on her mother's side, and of a family that
intermarried with the Adamses of Massachusetts. He
had by this marriage three children, viz, : William
Smith, Eobert Hett, and John Hobert, the last
dying (April 30, 1773) at the age of ten weeks and
four days. The others are still remembered as ju-
venile associates by some of our aged citizens.*

* Robert Hett Chapman, bora at Orange, March 2, 1771, gradu-

116 WANT OF SUPFOKT.

Mr. Chapman had not long been settled and mar-
ried^ before he began to be straitened in his means
of support. Writing to his friend, Dr. Bellamy, in
April, 1772, he said : "I have been on the very point
of breaking with this people on the account of their
withholding my support, =^ but this seems to be in

ated at the College of New Jersey in 1789, received license in
1793, and after an extensive missionary tour in the Southern States,
in which he labored several months without compensation, was set-
tled at Railway, in 1V96. In 1811 he was elected President of the
University of North Carolina. He entered upon the duties of the
presidency the next year, and discharged them till 1817, to the
great advantage of the institution. At the time of his death, June
18, 1833, he was a pastor in Tennessee. The degree of Doctor of
Divinity was given him by Williams' College, in 18] 5. He mar-
ried Hannah Arnette, of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and had a
family of twelve children, of whom seven survived him. Among
them is Rev. Robert H. Chapman, D. D., of Asheville, N. C. —
Sprague' s Annals, 4, 95.

* Bellamy, in 1764, had been in the same condition. In appeal-
ing to his society for relief, he reminded them of a declaration
made by him twenty-four years before, when their call was before
him : " I do not intend, if I should be a minister, to work for my
living, or quarrel for my living. I am not willing to settle in the
work of the ministry, unless I may give myself wholly to it, and I
fear you are not able to maintain a minister." To which their
committee replied : " It is just such a minister we would have, and
do you settle among us and you shall never want." Now, he re-
minds them of the straits and difficulties he went through for
many years, when they were very poor. The appeal resulted in a
pledge of " £80 lawful money, to be paid in money at or before the
12th day of March, annually:'' and "sufBcient firewood, in the
same manner we have done in years past."

About the same time, (1768,) Samuel Hopkins, of Great Barring-

REVIVALS. 117

some measure got over now." The excellent char-
acter given them by Mr. White, of Danbury, had to
be taken, it would appear, with some allowance.
We may infer, however, that the delinquency was
not general, nor of long continuance. In the same
letter he wrote : " My people seem to be in a very
languid state in religious respects, though of late
there seem to be more promising appearances.
There has been a considerable revival of religion
at Elizabethtown. Our college also has been visited
again in a remarkable manner by the spirit of God,
which I understand has been general — in which, I
am informed, God has improved Mr. Bradford as
an instrument of great good to the boys. I have
had a very pressing invitation to visit them, which
I hope to have it speedily in my power to comply
with. Mr. Edwards' sentiments make surprising
progress there." *

ton, wrote to Bellamy : " There is no prospect of my being main-
tained by my people. I must go to farming, or leave them. But
where shall I go ? Where is there a clergyman who is well main-
tained ? Where, then, is there a congregation that will maintain
me ? Let such an one be found, where there is a prospect of use-
fulness, and I am ready to go. I have a great aversion to go into
worldly cares, but begin to suspect I am called to it,"

* It was otherwise in Scotland, to which (as we learn from the
letter quoted in the preceding note) Hopkins sent, in 1*767,
Edwards' Life, Sermons, and Dissertations, by the desire of a Mr.
Hogg. This gentleman dying before the books arrived, they had
no sale, and were sent back with forty shillings cost. "I am told
few of the impression have gone off. Mr. Kneeland's house is full
of them, which must soon be sold for waste paper."

6*

118 DEATH OF HIS WIFE.

Four months later (Aug. 14) he sent a letter to
Bellamy by a " Mr. Perriam, who was formerly
a tutor at Prince town college ; " introducing him
as "a very ingenious young gentleman, I trust a
truly pious and humble Christian, one whom I
greatly love and esteem — a steady, zealous friend
to truth. He comes with a design to spend some
time in the study of divinity with you, and I trust
that on acqiaaintance with him you will be pleased
to think it of great importance to encourage and
forward him." He also hoped that Bellamy
would think it a matter of no small importance to
abridge and reprint his treatise on True Eeligion.
" We have our hearts (said he) much set upon it." *

This correspondence favors the opinion that he
had himself studied with the distinguished Con-
necticut divine.

But a discipline of another kind now awaited

him. On the 21st of Is'ovember, 1773, a few

months after the decease of their infant son, Mrs.

Chapman was removed by death, in her 29th year.

The parsonage was again a house of mourning. A

double sorrow had fallen upon the heart of the

young pastor. By the hand of the engraver it was

stereotyped for posterity to read in the following

lines :

For thee in death, thou one so dear,

Each common friend will drop a tear,

^ Between the dates of these letters (July 12, 1772) died Josepli
Peck, the senior elder and deacon of the church, at the age of 70.

SECOND MARRIAaE. 119

But what can ease, what can heal
Pangs which a kinder husband feel,
When thus the j^oung, his joy, the just,
Consume and moulder into diast ?
Those balsams Faith alone can give,
Which tells us that the dead shall live,
That Death his conquest shall restore,
The just shall meet and part no more.

The ministers of Jesus need affliction. How
shall they lead others to springs of consolation from
which themselves have never drawn ? And so the
Master sends them forth, as He went often Himself,
weeping — sowing in tears that they may reap in joy.
Mr, Chapman, like his two predecessors, saw the
wife of his young affections laid in an early grave.

His second wife was Margaret, daughter of Dr.
Peter Le Conte, of Middletown, Conn. This lady,
who was slightly his senior in years, adorned to a
good old age the station she was called to fill. She
came to it at a critical time. The first notes of
American independence were sounding. She was
to share not only the anxieties of the pastor, but
the perils of the patriot*

'"■ The date of their marriage is not known to the writer. Their
children were Peter Le Conte (born Jan. 8, 17*78); John Thomas
(born April 24, 1779) ; Valeria Maria (born Feb. 23, 1784). The
first, who became a lawyer, dropped the name of Chapman to pre-
serve the name of his mother. He had three sons and four daugh-
ters, but his sons are dead, leaving no children to perpetuate the
name. Mrs. Chapman died at Geneva, Sept. 9, 1812 — the autumn
before her husband's death — in her 74th year.

120 SAMUEL HAEKISOX.

Just at this time an aged man of the parish, with
whose name the reader is familiar, closed the con-
flicts of a loDG^ life. We refer to Samuel Harrison.
Born in 1684, half a life-time before the parish had
a separate existence, he had seen its beginning and
aided its growth. On the 6th of April, 1748, when
he was sixtv-four years of acre, and w^hen the first
pastor of the chnrch, several years bis junior, had
just been buried, he set his house in order for his
own departure bj making his will. Yet he lived
tx) follow another pastor to his grave at the end of
fourteen years, and was not followed to his own
rest till yet another fourteen was added. On the
loth of September, 1776, when a national contest
was taking the place of that land controversy in
which he had been a somewhat conspicuous actor,
at the age of almost ninety-three, he passed away.
It was twenty-eight years after the making of his
will, in which, after the distribution of his real
estate betwen his sons Amos, Samuel, and ]Mat-
thew, he gave to the second-named a yoke of
oxeu, ahorse, and his young riding mare; "also
a horse colt one year old." We may doubt
whether even the yearling lived to be interested in
the execution of the will. The " team tackling,"
given to Samuel and Matthew, " to be equally
divided, as they do agree," could hardly have fur-
nished by this time any occasion of strife. As to
the "pale white brindle cow with white head,'

DANGEES GATHERING. 121

given to "Jane Bunel," and another brindle cow
devised to Abigail Shores, " with two suits of ap-
parel, one for Sabbath-da j, and one for every-day
wear, with a Dutch spinning-wheel and a Bible, to
her and her heirs and assigns forever, as a reward
for her service," these tokens of grateful remem-
brance and benevolent forecast (the Bible excepted)
must have proved of small avail to the legatees^
supposing them still alive. A blind providence is
man's ! But it is more commonlv death, and not
Zi/e, that deranges his plans and disappoints his
good intentions.*

In the revolutionary struggle, Mr. Chapman
espoused warmly the American cause. His bold-
ness in defending the Eevolution made enemies of
those who opposed it, and more than once were
plans laid for conveying him to the British camp.
Soldiers were sent to his house to capture him, but,
more fortunate than Eoe and McKnight, his minis-
terial compatriots, he eluded them. Freedom's
sentinels were around him to give a timely signal
when danger was seen, and under the shield of
that Providence which favored our country's arms,

"^'' A number of persons have attained to great longevity in this
parish. Samuel Harrison reached his 93d year. His sister Elea-
nor, (Mrs. Ebenezer Lindsley,) lived to 100 years and two months.
His son Samuel (above named, and who lived unmarried) reached
his 92 d year. Mrs. Martha, widow of Jedediah Freeman, died in
1831, in her 100th year. Several members of the church now
living are almost ninety.

122 THE REV^OLUTION.

he received no harm. Yet lie was obliged several
times to flee the parish, — seeking a temporal}^ asy-
limi behind the mountains, as did many of the
families who composed his flock.

In iSTovember, 1776, the American army under
Wasbington, then reduced to three thousand five
hundred men, and fast diminishing, was retreating
through Xew Jersey. Crossing the Passaic at Ac-
quackonoc Bridge, it came down the river to New-
ark, and there rested six days, till threatened by
Cornwallis, who was on its track. As it left Isew-
ark, the place was entered by a British force of six
thousand men.

The whole vicinity was now traversed by for-
aging j)arties and troops sent out for plunder. The
Hessians were particularly dreaded for their merci-
less depredations and cruelties. A company of
those mercenaries came in this direction from
Bloomfield. A few of the party, riding in ad-
vance, promised protection to such of the inhabi-
tants as should remain in theu' houses. If the
people fled, as many did, they afterward returned
to find their houses and farmyards thoroughly
stripped. jS'or were the plunderers over scrupu-
lous to discriminate between friends and foes.

The following incidents are yet remembered. A
Mr. James Jones, of Bloomfield, hearing of the
approach of the British army, loaded hastily his
wagon with such articles as were most valuable, and

A SKIRMISH.' 123

was about starting for the mountain with his family,
when the enemy came upon him. The captured
family were taken to New York, where they re-
mained till the end of the war. They afterward
Avent to Nova Scotia.

Cornelius Jones, a brother of the man just named,
was living near " the Junction," (Bast Orange,)
where his son, Mr. Cyrus Jones, yet resides. His
house was plundered, and his hogs and cattle taken
by the Hessians, the family having temporarily left
the premises.

After their return, a skirmish occurred a little
east of their residence, on the hill by Judge John
Peck's, between several Highlanders and three
Americans, whose names were John Wright, John
Tichenor, and Joshua Shaw. Wright and his
party having muskets, while the others had only
swords, ordered the latter to lay down their weap-
ons. This was done, but as the men with tlie mus-
kets came within reach, the swords were dexterously
caught again and laid upon them with bloody effect.
The captors were now the vanquished, and were
left upon the ground badly wounded, while the
Highlanders retreated to the army. It was about
noon. The same afternoon a company of the ene-
my returned. They came to the house of Mr,
Jones in search of " the three rebels," whom his
nephew, Moses Jones, had in the meantime taken
upon a sled and removed to their homes in the

124 THE BRITISH IN OKAXGE.

present neighborhood of Riker's store, Doddtown.
Not finding them at the house, they set a guard
over Mrs. Jones, while they took her husband to
the barn to renew the search. As they were thus
engaged, the nephew returned with his team and
sled, which was covered with the blood of the
wounded men. The affair ended in the two Joneses
going to Newark as prisoners. They were released
the followino^ dav. The uncle was afterward in the
battle of Springfield, where he narrowly escaped
death by a cannon ball.

A division of the American army, as it receded
from the approach of Cornwallis, is said to have
passed through Orange. Turning down the road
now known as Scotland street, it was just out of
sight when a detachment of the enemy appeared.
Two men from over the mountain were coming
into the village. The British officer in command
inquired of them if the American troops had passed
that way. Being answered in the affirmative, he
asked if thev were a numerous force. " Yes," said
one of the mountaineers, " the woods in that direc-
tion are full of them." Fearing an ambuscade, the
officer desisted from pursuit.

The British force then encamped in the old bury-
ing-ground. Two boys — Adonijah Harrison and
David Lyon — who lived up the valley near " Tory
Corner,""^ resolved upon having a sight of the en-

* Tliis place received its designation from a number of families

TWO YOUNG ADVENTURERS. 125

campment. So passing across tlie swamp and over
the hill where St. John's (Catholic) church now
stands, they had just leaped the fence which di-
vided the forest from an open field, when they
found themselves in alarming proximity to some
soldiers who were lounging on the grass. " Oh I
oh !" exclaimed the boys, while a miscliievous sol-
dier added to their fright by discharging a pistol.
Prudence now prevailed over curiosity. Scram-
bling over the fence with all conceivable agility,
they ran homeward for dear life, quite cured of the
disposition for martial adventure.

The mountainous range that divides the town-
ship of Orange was the limit of the enemy's incur-
sions in this direction. Behind it large numbers
of the exposed inhabitants took refuge, with such
property as they were able to remove.* The
mountain also served another purpose. A tall tree
which now lifts itself conspicuously above the line
of its summit, is said to mark the spot where tele-
graphic signals with New York were given and
received.

who then resided in that vicinity. Many worthy and excellent peo-
ple were conscientiously opposed to the struggle for independence.
Some of them left the country during the war, suffering the confis-
cation of their property as the penalty of their principles. Others
finally gave in their adhesion to the new government.

* Those who remained at their homes obtained a "protection"
— as it was called — from the British officers, as persons friendly to
their cause.

126 THE MOUXTAIX SENTINELS.

From the top of the mountain the movements of
the enemy were carefully watched. Sometimes the
latter from the opposite side of the valley, would
also discover the reconnoitering partj^, and salute
them with a well aimed discharge of their artillery.
On one occasion, when Captain Jonathan Condit
and his company were thus keeping watch on the
hill-top, some shots from the old burying-ground
swept through the forest quite near them. "Cb?i-
sarn it^^ exclaimed Capt. Jonathan, " how careless
the felloiijs do shuie .^* The captain and liis broth-
ers David, John, and Daniel, lived in the valley
between the first and second mountains. His neph-
ew, Dr. John Condit, was a surgeon in Washing-
ton's army, and afterwards a member of Congress.

Th.e drafts made upon the Xewark militia from
time to time took manv from their farms in this
part of the town. An order, dated Xewark, Aug.
29, 1777, and signed by Samuel Hayes, was ad-
dressed to Captain Williams, or the officer com-
manding in his absence, to detach his proportion of
men to relieve those on duty there, whose month

* From what is said of iiim, we suppose this Yankee impreca-
tion was about the nearest approach to profanity of which he was
capable. He was a conscientious church-goer, and in his old age.
being poor, and having no vehicle but an ox-cart, he and his wife
rode regularly to church in that. But not caring to show it, he
would stop as he entered the village, hitch his cattle to a tree,
(which stood in front of Mr. Patterson's present residence in Main
street,) and thence walk to the house of God.

DEAFTS AND FINES. 127

was just expiring ; also to meet, witli his subal-
terns, " at tlie house of Captain Pierson, to-morrow
at three o'clock P. M., to appoint officers for said
detachment ;" the same " to be marched into this
town on Sunday, at three o'clock P. M."

There were some — tories of course — upon whom
these orders were ineffectual. " At a court-martial
held at Newark Mountain, July 7, 1780, at the
house of Samuel Munn, for the trial of several
persons, soldiers in Col. Philip Y. Cortlandt's regi-
ment, Essex county militia, belonging to Capt-
Thomas Williams' company, being charged for
disobeying orders and not turning out on their
proper tour of duty the 20th day of June last, and
on the alarm the 23d of June, and for desertion ;
agreeably to an act of the Governor, Council and
Generiil Assembly in that case made and provided,
entitled an act for the more effectual defence of the
State in case of invasion or incursion of the ene-
my :" the court having met, according to order,
found three persons guilty of the above charges,
and unanimously agreed to fine them in the fol-
lowing sums : Jonathan Williams, £500 ; Charles
Crane, £200 ; Joseph Tomkins, £3 15s. The pre-
siding officer was Captain Josiah Pierson, the other
members of the court being Captains Thomas Wil-
liams, Isaac Gillam, Henry Jarolaman ; Lieuten-
ants Henry Squier, John Edwards ; Ensigns Rem-
ington Parcel, Thomas Baldwin, Ralph Post.

128 FIGURES SOMETIMES LIE.

The reader may tliink the cause was not likely
to suffer much by derelictions so dearly paid for.
But the adao^e that " iiornres do not lie." has its
falsifications in our Revolutionary history. By the
act of June 9, 1780, about a month before these
penalties were laid, the legislature had estimated
the currency of the State " at the rate of one
Spanish milled dollar in lieu of forty dollars of the
bills now in circulation." During^ the winter of
that year, while the army lay at Morristown, Gen-
erals "Washington, Green, Knox, and others, sub-
scribed for the expenses of a " dancing assembly "
at the rate of $400 (equal to $10) apiece. So de-
preciated was the currency, as stated by the of&cers
of the Jersey line in a memorial addressed by them
to the Legislature, " that four months' pay of a
soldier would not procure for his family a single
bushel of wheat ;" and " the pay of a colonel
would not purchase oats for his horse." These
facts will correct any extravagant opinion the
reader may have formed of the atonement ren-
dered by the above delinquents.

A contest so nearly approaching the character
of a civil war must have been highly disastrous to
the churches. This was peculiarly the case in
those parts of the country in which, as in New
Jersey, the heat of the excitement was most intense*
Friends were made enemies, families were divided,
brother rose against brother, those who had walked

EFFECTS OF THE WAR. 12 'd

together in loving fellowship met as foes on the
battle-field, or were identified with hostile camps.
The patriot whose prayers were with the Ameri-
can army, was denounced as a rebel and his cap-
ture sought by some neighbor, now a refugee under
the British flag. The honest refugee was in turn
denounced as a traitor, whose blood it would be a
virtue to shed. The tragic fate of Stephen Ball is
yet remembered, who having carried four quarters
of beef to the British encampment on Staten Island,
under a general promise of safety to all who would
bring supplies to the army, was seized by a band
of bloody-hearted refugees, taken across to Bergen
Point, and hung with ten minutes' grace, the mur-
derers having tried in vain to effect his arrest by
the British ofiicers.

The end of the war was the auspicious beginning
of a new and happier era.

This occurred in 1782. The country was full of
rejoicing, and no class of its citizens hailed the event
with heartier joy than the ambassadors of a gospel
of peace. With what thankfulness did they see
their scattered flocks returning, and the stir and
strife of arms succeeded by quiet industry and peace-
ful worship !

Mr. Chapman had seen the hearts of his people
bitterly alienated from each other, and many of them
from himself, by the war. The issue of it was,
however, in his favor. God's arm had been mani-

330 LIBERTY AXD THE CLERGY.

festly outstretched to give victory to the cause
Avhich he had boldly vindicated. Certain members
of the parish, who, during the war, had refused to
identify themselves with what they viewed as a re-
bellion, now, that the fact of independence was
established, took the oath of allegiance to the new
government.

The voices of the clergy on the subject of free-
dom did not cease to be heard when the cause was
won. As they had stimulated the patriotism of
their countrymen, and invoked the aid of Provi-
dence, during the struggle, so they now contributed
to enlighten the people as to the nature of true
liberty, and the way to preserve and perpetuate it.
Among no class of professional men were public
speakers more sought, or more ready to take a lead-
ing part iu patriotic celebrations. Mr. Chapman
''played the orator" on many such occasions.* On
almost any Fourth of July, he might have been
seen with the military and civic procession, as it

* It is less common now, as there is less need, for ministers o
the Gospel to perform such an office. The writer has done it
twice ; in his native town (while preparing for the ministry) in
1843, and at Orange, in 1859. On the last occasion he addressed
from three to four hundred citizens, mostly native residents, in
Library Hall, several of the clergy of the place being present.
" The Christian's prayer for his Countrj'" was eifectively sung by
the choir of the day. Prayer is a proper element of patriotism,
and, it is hoped, will ever accompany, as it yet does, the exercises
of our national celebration.

PARISH INCORPORATED. 181

moved from the Common, along the main road,
toward the meeting-house, to the sound of fife and
drum ; and often did he stand at Eeligion's altar to
lead the devotions of Christian freemen, when the
task of expounding their liberties, and fanning the
patriotic flame, Avas assigned to others. There are
men yet with us who remember those occasions,
and who received, at his lips, some of their earliest
lessons of political wisdom. In the division of
parties that followed the war, he was known as a
Federalist.

Measures were soon taken to incorporate the
parish, which had now been organized more than
sixty years without a charter ; its property being
held in trust by private individuals, for the benefit
of the congregation. The Legislature, then held at
Burlington, being petitioned on the subject, passed
an act, June 11, 1783, incorporating Joseph Riggs,
Esq., John Range, Doctor Matthias Pierson, Stephen
Harrison, Jun., Samuel Pierson, Jun., Samuel Dodd,
and John Dodd, a Board of Trustees, the church
now receiving the name of " The Second Presby-
terian Church in Newark." Their tenure of of&ce
was perpetual, and, in case of vacancies, by death
or removal, the power of appointing their succes-
sors was conferred upon the " minister or ministers,
elders and deacons of the church." The power
also extended to the displacement of a trustee,
whenever the said minister or ministers, elders and

182 OATH OF TRUSTEES.

deacons, or the majority of them, should judge his
removal proper and for the benefit of the corpora-
tion. The trustees were required to be persons of
the congregation, and the number was limited by
the statute to seven.

Each trustee, in assuming office, took the follow-
ing oaths: 1. I do solemnly swear I do not hold
myself bound to bear allegiance to the King of
Great Britain. 2. I do solemnly profess and swear
that I do and will bear true faith and allesriance to
the Government established in this State, under the
authority of the people. 3. An oath to execute
well and truly the duty of a trustee, agreeably to
the true intent and meanmg of the charter. It was
a three-fold cord, not easil}- broken, and which
shielded the important trust from all suspicion of
disloyalty to freedom. The charter required these
oaths to be taken and subscribed bv " each and
every of the trustees herein appointed, and their
successors ;" agreeably to '• an Act for the security
of the Government of ISTew^ Jersey," passed Sep-
tember 19, 1776.

The trustees being duly qualified before John
Peck, Esq., at the parsonage house, the 22d of Sep-
tember, organized bv appointing Joseph Riggs pres-
ident, and John Rans:e clerk. Mr. Rio-o-s " de-
livered in a book, formerly the property of the
Rev. Caleb Smith, in order for the trustees to keep
their accounts in :'' and thf' charter was carefullv

ORANGE SLOOP. 133

copied into the same by the Clerk. The President
of the Board removed to JSTew York the sam.e
autumn, when Jonathan Hedden was elected his
successor.

This charter, which gave the whole appointing
pov/er to the Church session, (for the deacons were
at that time venerable select men within the elder-
ship,) proved unacceptable to the people. Its lead-
ing provision was not in harmony with the spirit
of the times. In consequence of the '' great un-
easiness and dissatisfaction" which it occasioned,
the Legislature, agreeably to a petition of the con-
gregation, so amended it, June 3, 1790, as to make
" all regular supporters of the Gospel in said con-
gregation" electors in the appointment of trustees.
The election was to be made arinuallViOn the sec-
ond Thursday in April, by a plurality of voices.*
The charter of the 23arent church received a similar
amendment four years afterward. We see in these
changes, the gradual working and extension of
the principle of popular suffrage — a principle which,
apparently, has not yet reached the limit of its ex-
pansion in our national system.

In the course of the year 1784, the project of
the " Orange Sloop" v/as formed. The plan was,
to buy or build a boat, to be used for the benefit of
the parish, running from Newark to Albany and

* The time was changed, in 1829, to the first day of .Taunary,
and in 1856, to the second I\Tonday in April.

•7

134 ORANGE ACADEMY.

Other ports. Subscriptions for the purpose having
been circulated, it was resolved, at a parish meeting,
to build a boat, for which a committee of three
managers was chosen. The craft was, in due
time, launched upon its useful mission, the parish
receiving one-third of the profits. The income
from this source was from forty to sixtj^ pounds a
year.

Closely following this enterprise was another, of
more vital and lasting importance to the parish.
This was the founding of a public school, long
known as the Orange Academy. Incipient meas-
ures were taken at a meeting of the parish, of
which Deacon Bethuel Pierson was Moderator, held
in April, 1785. Mr. Chapman, Doctor John Con-
dit, Doctor Matthi?iS Pierson, and four others, were
appointed a committee to- select the location and
obtain subscriptions. A site — one-tenth of an acre —
was obtained of Matthew Condit. In the follow-
ing January, the same three persons,, with Josiah
Hornblower, Esq., and Bethuel Piersoii,. were chosen
trustees. A substantial two-story building of brick
^Jid stone was put up, in which a parochial school'
of high grade was soon in successful operation.
Mr. Chapman's name uniformly headed the list of
trustees, who were appointed annuallj-, and his love
for sound learning, as well as sound doctrine, made
him an efficient patron of the institution. The
building, which has passed to other uses, is yet

watts' psalmody. 185

standing, in good condition, on Main street, oppo-
site the cliurcli.

At the annual meeting of the parish, in January,
1785, '^ a move was made by Mr. Samuel Pierson,
that there were not a sufficient number of musical
clerks for the convenience of public worship ;" and
" it was agreed to by the major part, that jSTathaniel
Crane, John Dodd, Jun., Aaron Munn and Joseph
Ward, shall assist in that office." The custom still
continued of reading the lines as the psalm was sung.

Watts' psalmody was now in u.se. The time of
its introduction is not known. As early as 1763,
^' sundry members and congregations," within the
bounds of the Synod, had adopted it, and the Synod
had " no objection to the use of said imitation by
such ministers and congregations as incline to use
it, until the matter of psalmody be further con-
sidered." The subject was renewed in that body
several years without any decisive action upon it.

In the old society of Newark there was, in the
year 1784, " the commencement of a very great and
lasting revival of religion." It was a pleasing re-
action from the sad condition of things produced
by the war — a troubled sea in which the piety and
hopes of large nunibers of supposed Christians had
foundered. More than a hundred souls, according
to Dr. Griffin, were, by this awakening, added to
that church, the heavenly influence spreading till it
pervaded the whole communitv. It can scarcely

136 CALDWELL CHURCH.

be doubted that the consreofation here received a
refreshing^ from such a cloud. But as "sve have no
record of admissions prior to 1786, it is only a sub-
ject of conjecture.

The coincidence is, however, to be noted, that
simultaneously with that revival a new church
sprang into life, v.'hich must have taken from this
the larger portion of its constituent members. This
was the church at Horseneck, about seven miles
farther in the interior, vrhich was organized by Mr.
Chapman, the pastor of this church, December 3,
178i. Forty persons united in its covenant. This
movement favors the inference just stated, that the
religious interest which was manifesting itself in
Newark, vras not confined to the banks of the Pas-
saic. Eternal things v\'ere coming back to their
place in the thoughts and feelings of the people
through the settlements. In February, 1787, the
new parish was incorporated "by the name and
style of the First Presbyterian Church at Cald-
well."*

* This name is commemorative of Eev. James Caldwell, D. P.,
pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Elizabethtown, and chaplain
in the revolutionary army. He was shot, for reasons unknown,
by an American sentinel, who was hun§^ for the deed. His v. ife
was shot through the window of her sitting-room, in the midst of
her children, by a British soldier. Their granddaughter, the second
wife of Rev. John E. Freeman, of Futtehgurh, India, was one of
the martyr missionaries, in the great mutiny of 1857. She waa
phot upon the parade ground at Cawnpore.

PARSONAGE LANDS. 137

The reader is already informed of an endow-
ment of two liundred acres of land, granted to the
town of Kewark, by the original proprietors, for
ecclesiastical use. In process of time, as the civil
and religions affairs of the town were separated,
and new religious societies were formed, these lands
became a source of much contention. The Moun-
tain Society and the Episcopal Church demanded a
division, claiming for themselves an equal share
with the First Society. The latter had the legal
title to sustain it in claiming the whole. From
1760 onward, the subject was agitated in almost
every town-meeting. Yotes were passed, and then
reversed, as the opposite parties happened to be in
the majority. In March, 1761, " at a very full and
public town-meeting," it was " voted and agreed
that the said lands, gTanted by said letters patent
to lie for a parsonage, be equally divided in quantity
and quality, exclusive of the improvements made
thereon, among said three societies or congrega-
tions." Bethuel Pierson and five others were "ap-
pointed agents to divide and allot said lands to
said societies, and to apply to the Governor, Coun-
cil and General Assembly, to confirm the same by
a law." In this committee, those who represented
the old society refused to act, and the trustees of
that society entered their protest on the record.
The measure was thus frustrated, and the strife
prolonged. In 1784, the year of the revival, just

138 THE NAME — ORANGE.

noticed,* the animosity was quieted by a compro-
mise, tlie new societies receiving a dividend of the
lands, but holding: them under lease, as tenants at
will. In May of that year, a lease was given to
the trustees of this parish of eighty-six acres and
sixty-hundreths of an acre.

The settlement near the mountain had begun, at
this time, to assume the character of a village, and
to be known by the name it now bears. By whom,
or from what circumstance the name was first be-
stowed, we have no means of ascertaining. The
Presbytery of ISTew York, as its records inform us,
met at Orange Dale, in October, 1785. Two years

* Not in 1786 or 178Y, as given by Dr. Stearns, (p. 226,) on the
authority of Dr. McWhorter. We find the above date in an orig-
inal paper, preserved by the trustees of this parish, from which,
and other papers in their possession, we gather also the following
facts, which may as well be presented here. ITie lease given " on
or about the 10th of May, 1784,'' to be continued at will, was
revoked by the Newark trustees, acting under instructions from
that Society, May 20, 1791. The controversy was thus revived.
In 1802, another conveyance was made, by lease, of fifty-six acres,
lying between Newark and Orange, the terms of the lease being,
that it should be renewed at the end of each twenty-one years, for
ever ; the lessees paying an annual rent of sixpence, if demanded.
It was accordingly renewed, in 1823. This was the only title the
old Society could give under the original grant. But having, in
1825, applied to the Legislature for a special act, enabling them to
convey the land in fee simple, such an act was passed, and a deed
of the said fifty-six acres was given to the Orange Society, August
29, 1826, which ended the matter. The land has long ceased to
be the property of the parish.

SYNOD OF 1787. 139

later an acre of ground, conveyed to tlie parish by
Isaac Williams — "for £15, current money of New
Jersey" — was described in the deed as "lying in
the bounds of Newark, aforesaid, at a place called
Orangey It was bought for the parish by Matthew
Pierson, in exchange for an acre taken by him from
the parsonage lot. From that period we find the two
names in apparent competition till 1806, when, the
town of Orange being formed and christened by
the authorities of the State, the village, now raised
to metropolitan dignity, lost the romance of its
name, if not its romantic surroundings.

Nineteen years before this latter event, an im-
portant dignity was conferred upon our village
pastor. By the Synod of 1787 he was elected to
preside over its proceedings. It was the last meet-
ing of the Synod previous to the formation of the
General Assembly. This appointment is evidence
that Mr. Chapman had, at this time, won an honor-
able and influential standing in the Presbyterian
body. At the next convocation, when the Synod
was about to be divided into four, under a higher
and broader organization, he preached the opening
sermon from Ephesians iv., 3, 4 — " Endeavoring to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace —
there is one body," The discourse, which was
published,* was an able and well-timed exhibition

"^ Mr. Chapman published, also, five sermons on baptism. That
preached before the Synod, with discourses by his son and grand-

140 MFw CIIAPMAX'S SERMON.

of these points : That the church of Christ on earth
is one body ; that there is a glorious foundation in
the church of Christ for unity and peace; and,
thirdly, some of the ways in whicli this unity is to
be kept.

The following passage in the sermon shows a
catholic spirit, and contains a suggestion which has,
since that time, been carried into effect in more
ways than one: "I would beg leave just to suggest
here, should some general plan of mutual inter-
course, in brotherly love, vrith all the churches of
Christ throughout the world, be formed and carried
into execution, in the spirit of our text, whether it
would not have a most happy tendency to heal the
present divisions of the church, preserve the peace
and unity of the body, and generally promote the
prosperity and welfare of the common cause."
This feeling, which was vigorously working and
spreading, Avas, ere long, to give birth to those
great cooperative measures which belong to the
church history of the present century."^

son, is preserved bj the Pres. Hist. Society, in a small volume
presented by the grandson.

" Mr. Chapman had then just taken part in forming the " So-
ciety in Morris County, for the promotion of Learning and Relig-
ion ;" a humble pioneer of the education societies which have
since sprung up. It received its charter in the latter part of May,
1787, about a week after Mr. C. was chosen to moderate the
Synod. The first trustees were, Benjamin Howell, William Rosa
and Joseph Harrison, Esquires ; Jacob Green, Jedediah Chapman,

TILLAGE. 141

From the records kept by the Trustees of the
parish during this period we select the following
items :

It was voted, January 12, 1786, that Stephen
Harrison, Esq., do provide a good box or chest, with
a lock, to contain the books and public writings
belonging to this parish.

March 12. Yoted, that Cornelius Jones be paid
four shillings a load for six loads of stone used at
the parsonage well. Also, that any person getting
stone on the parsonage lands allotted for this parish
shall pay into the hands of Deacon Amos Baldwin,
treasurer, the sum of one shilling the load. Also,
that the old parsonage field may be plowed for a
crop of buckwheat the ensuing summer, and that
the parish receive every fifth bushel free from all
expense, except some person will give more.

October 12. Yoted, that the buckwheat for the

Amzi Lewis, Joseph Grover, David Baldwin, and Stephen Monson .
This Society still exists, with a fund invested in the banks of New-
ark and Orange, from which it has a revenue of nearly $300 per
annum. Three young men are receiving aid from it, in prepara-
tion for the ministry. The present trustees (the sole representa-
tives of the Society) are, Eev. E. Seymour, Pres. ; Eev. J. M.
Sherwood, Eev. J. S. Gallagher, Eev. John Ford, Eev. James
Hoyt, Zophar B. Dodd, W, S. Baldwin, Charles E. Day, and John
Provost. Five of the Board reside in Bloomfield, where its semi-
annual meetings are usually held. The project of the Society is
believed to have originated in the old Morris County Presbytery,
(not now in existence,) which was organized on the union principle
by Presbyterians and Congregationalists.
7-^

142 COLLECTmG RATES.

rent of tlie parsonage land is to be converted to the
use of the whole parish. Also, that the price for
the buckwheat shall be two shillings and sixpence
per bushel.

January 15, 1787. Yoted, that the ^vidow of
"William Matthews have the care of oj^ening the
meeting-house and sweeping the same, and taking
all the care respecting it that those formerly ap-
pointed for that purpose had, for the sum of one
pound two shillings and sixpence for three months.

During the next year, John Tichenor received
the sum of fourteen shillings for pulling down an
old oven and building a new one in the parsonage.
In the following year the " old parsonage field " was
put again to buckwheat, the parish to have "every
fourth bushel, if nobody will give more."

In 1791, it was voted, that Aaron Munn do go
through the parish and settle wdth all delinquents
respecting Mr. Chapman's rates, and make report to
the Board of Trustees ; for which service he was to
have a reasonable compensation from the funds of
the parish, agreeable to a vote of the same. In
June of that year. Deacon Baldwin resigning the
treasury, twenty shillings were voted to his daugh-
ter Esther ''for her services as treasurer for a num-
ber of years." In November it appeared that Mr.
Munn had spent six days in collecting rates, for
which he was rew^arded in the sum of as many
shillings per day, for "him and horse

5e."

HINGING BELL. 143

It appears that some of tlie then acting board of
trustees put an easy construction upon their oath
of of&ce ; for in January, 1792, we find the board
adjourning to meet again on the 30th of said month,
at Samuel Munn's, at sundown, " on forfeiture of six
pence," This httle addition to the weight of official
responsibility appears to have wrought the needed
reform. At the day and hour specified, the whole
board was present.

The burying-ground was this year let out for
pasture to Josiah Quinby at six shillings. It was
also enlarged by the purchase of about two acres
of ground from the executors of the estate of
Simeon Ogden, The meeting-house and parsonage
received repairs, the former being newly roofed.

In 1795, Josiah Quinby was engaged to ring the
bell through the year on Sabbath and lecture days
for £3 105 ; Bethuel Pierson to ring it at nine
o'clock every evening, for £4 ; the widow Martha
Davison " to sweep the meeting-house and keep it
clean all the year" for £4 IO5. The teacher of the
Academy had liberty to ring the meeting-house bell
for the use of the school. The parish about this
time received a legacy of fifty pounds from the
estate of Job Tompkins,

^ The following advertisement in Wood's Newark
Gazette and JSTew Jersey Advertiser* of June 10,
1795, indicates that '* building lots" and " boarders"

* N. J. Hist Soc. Library.

14^ BUILDING LOTS.

were beginning to figure in the business nomencla-
ture of the village.

" To BE SOLD,

By way of public vendue, on Saturday the 25th
of July, twenty-three building lots, pleasantly sit-
uated in Orange Dale, on the main road, opposite
the meeting-house, and adjoining the Academy.
Four of said lots have a never-failing stream of
water running through them, which renders them
convenient for the tanning business. On one of said
lots there is a well of excellent water, and likewise
a number of good fruit-trees dispersed through the
different lots, all of which are fronting a road,
which renders them convenient for both mercantile
and mechanical business. Thev are situated in a
very flourishing part of the country, and would be
very convenient for any person or persons who may

wish to take in boarders.

Matthew Condit.

Joseph Coxe.

]Sr. B. Scythe-makers, nailers and silversmiths
will find it tend gTeatly to their interest to settle
themselves and carry on their business in this place,
as they are much wanted."

The following appears in the same publication.

" The Academy at Oeange Dale

Opened on Tuesday the 17th inst., under the im-
mediate instruction of ^Ir. Wyckoff, who has taught

ACADEMY ADVERTISEMENT. 145

the English and learned languages, the arts and
sciences in this place with approbation and success
for a number of years. Those who choose to send
their children to this institution may be assured
that great care and attention will be paid both to
their education and morals, under the attendance,
direction and influence of a board of trustees annu-
ally chosen by the parish for that purpose.

Jedediah Chapman,
Orange, May 24, 1796. PresHJ'

The expenses of instruction are not given ; but
in an advertisement of the Newark Academy pub-
lished at the same time, and signed by "Alexander
McWhorter, minister of the First Presbyterian
Church," and " Uzal Ogden, rector of Trinity
Church," we have the English language, writing,
arithmetic, and public speaking taught for $2 per
quarter ; geography, book-keeping, Latin, Greek,
and the mathematics, for $3.25 ; French by a native
for one guinea.*

* Nothing is said of religion in these advertisements. In the
Newark Academy, under the joint control of two denominations,
the use of catechisms was impracticable. The Orange Academy
was more properly a parish institution, and the Synod of 17 G6 had
enjoined " that special care be taken of the principles and charac-
ters of schoolmasters, that they teach the Westminster Catechism
and Psalmody ; and that the ministers, church-sessions, and fore-
said committees, (where they consistently can,) visit the schools
and see these things be done."' This recommendation, made nineteen

146 A REFRESHING.

It was voted by the parisli three years before
this, that ''the public exhibitions of the Academy
school may be held in the meetiug-honse." About
the same time shade trees were ordered to be
planted around the sanctuary.

A gentle shower of reviving influence appears to
have fallen on the Church at this time. The nunr-
ber of persons brought into its communion does
not indicate, how^ever, a deep and general awaken-
ing. According to an old register of baptisms and
admissions to the Lord's table kept by Mr. Chap-
man, and which (dating from 1786) has escaped the
accidents of more than seventy years, the additions
by profession in 1796 and the year following were
thirty-three.

By the expansion of the population of ISTewark
and Orange, quite a settlement was at this period
formed in what is now the township of Bloomneld.
The place was then called by the Indian name Wai-
sessing. Eeligious meetings appear to have been
regularly held there as early as the year 1790. In

years before the founding of our Academy, at the instance of a num-
ber of lay elders and other zealous Presbyterians of Philadelphia,
had probably little force at this time, if it ever possessed any. Of
as little account in the esteem of the parties concerned must have
been the recommendation appended, that '■ where schools are com-
posed of different denominations, said committees and sessions in-
vite proper persons of said denominations to join with them in such
visitations." First ^eacA the Catechism ; then invite others in to
Bee how well it ha.s been done

BLOOMFIELD CHURCH. 147

May, 1794, tlie advice of the Presbytery was sought
on the subject of organizing a church. The Pres-
bytery in July recommended the movement, which,
for reasons unknown, was hoAvever delayed. In
1796 the congregation by a vote assumed the name
of Bloomfield; a compliment paid to Major General
Bloomfield of Burlington, who returned it the next
year in a donation of $140 toward their house of
worship. The church was organized by Mr. Chap-
man in June, 1798, receiving twenty-three of its
members from Newark and fifty-nine from Orange.
Among the latter were Elders Isaac Dodd (better
known as " Deacon " Dodd) and Joseph Crane.
Deacon Dodd had previously resigned his office in
this Church, and Elder Joseph Pierson had in Feb-
ruary been ordained to the diaconate as his succes-
sor. At the same time Linus Dodd and Zenas
Freeman were ordained elders. The latter was to
have a short service — less than two years — before
joining the elders around the throne.

Mr. Chapman had now been settled in the parish
more than thirty years. He had passed the peril-
ous period of the revolution without having the
pastoral bond severed by its divisions and animosi-
ties. He had risen to a position of eminent esteem
and influence in the Presbyterian body, and though
in the ripeness of his powers, their decay could
hardly have been visible at the age of fifty-seven.
Circumstances were, however, beginning to shape

148 MR. chapman's salary.

themselves uncomfortably around him. The prom-
ise of his people that he should be freed from
■worldly cares, failed, by the fault of some of them,
to be kept.

In October, 1798, the trustees met "to inspect
Mr. Chapman's rates, and to make a statement of
the bad debts." Collectors were apj)ointed to visit
those who had unsettled accounts, and Mr. Chap-
man was applied to for a power-of-attorney to en-
force their settlement. This, he reminded them
was unnecessary, the power being already theirs.
To cover delinquencies, a paper for subscriptions
was also passed round, agreeably to a vote taken at
a parish meeting, in order to make the salary equal
to what it was at the time of his settlement. It ap-
peared upon examination that the rates, as now
received, " amounted to about £134 6s. yearly."
With this stipend, equal to $B57, he had a house,
which was kept in repair by the parish, a parson-
aofe lot of four acres, and the twentv acres on the
other side of the road, purchased by the society at
its origin. It is supposed that no privileges were
at this time allowed on the contested lands held by
the Kewark Society, from which the Orange claim-
ants had bean ejected the year previous by the
withdrawal of their lease.

"When the parish came together in January, 1799,
it was agreed to raise the salary that year to £160,
($427). The plan, as arranged b\^ the trustees,

MISSIONAEY APPOINTMENT. 149

was : That tliose wlio did not assent to this agree-
ment should be rated as heretofore; "then deduct
the amount of those who have agreed to pay "by
certainty ; the residue to be raised from those who
have agreed on the subscription to pay by way of
rate." In the following December, the old debts
still giving trouble, the trustees appointed Jotham
Harrison and Isaac Pierson a committee to wait
on Mr. Chapman, to make some arrangement of
his old debts previous to any suits being com-
menced.

This was the posture of affairs v/hen a call came
from another quarter. The General Assembly, in
May, 1800, desiring to locate a missionary on " the
north-western frontiers," which then lay in Western
New York, made choice of Mr. Chapman.'^ About

* See Assembly's Digest, p. 349. The plan of the Assembly
was to employ a missionary four years, who should be engaged in
missionary labor six months each year, with a compensation of
$325 per year. The rest of the time he was espected to serve
statedly gome congregation. The compiler of the digest is wrong
in saying that "Mr. Chapman was a settled pastor, and his pulpit
was filled by a committee of the Assembly while he was engaged
in these missionary labors." He had left his charge here, and he
was not settled over the Geneva church till 1812. It was organiz-
ed bv him in 1800.

It may be added here that the Presbyterian churches were early
engaged in sending missionaries to the " frontiers," for the bene-
fit no less of the red man than of the white. Their efforts to
instruct the aborigines appear to have had some influence in pro-
voking others to the same work. Colonel Babcock (an Episcopalian),

150 REMOVAL TO GENEVA.

tlie same time, and in conformity mth the appoint-
ment, his ministerial services were solicited by the
people of Geneva and its neighborhood. The
result was, that on the 13th of August his pastoral
relation to this church was dissolved — a relation
which had existed thirty-four years.

In the final settlement of liis affairs with the
parish, he received £29 for a study and other build-
ings added by him to the parsonage, and £10 for
money spent in rej)airs.

A number of persons are yet living at Orange,
who sat under Mr. Chapman's ministry here, and
who cherish their reminiscences of those by-gone
days. Jacob and Moses Harrison remember the
barrel of cider which went annually to his cellar
from their father's cider-mill — a large manufactory
of the article. It was in the days when the " New-
ark cider," produced from the famous Harrison and
Canfield apples, enjoyed a wide reputation. It is
said that one thousand barrels a year flowed from
the presses of the single mill just mentioned. Of
the extensive orchards that fed them, only the
remnants now remain.

writing to Rev. Dr. Cooper in 1773, and recommending the estab-
lisliment of an academy among the Indians near Albany, urged as
one reason, that '' this might in a great measure prevent the Pres-
byterians, who are tucking and squeezing in every possible crevice they
can, their missionaries among the Indians^ Documentary History
of New York.

REMINISCENCES OF HIM. 151

This article was then a popular beverage, as-
sociated with the hospitalities of every home. It
was found in the minister's house, and was furnish-
ed without scru|)le to the family, to the friend, to
the laborer, and the stranger. The evening visit
never closed without it, and the story is told of a
certain parishioner of our pastor, Avhose neighborly
calls were observed to be most frequent while the
the cider lasted. The times of this ignorance have
happily passed by.

Mr. C. is remembered as an early riser, who
might be seen at his well by day-light, on a sum-
mer morning, performing his ablutions. He was a
stout man, of fresh complexion, and fond of manual
labor. In the pulpit he was earnest, and used a
good deal of action. When a little excited, he
would smite vigorously the desk, and speak in the
tones of a " son of thunder."

His temper was naturally quick, and being once
rather rudely treated by a neighbor, with whom he
had some difficulty about repairing a fence, he is
reported to have said to him: "If it were not for
my coat, Sir, I would give you a flogging." Hav-
ing some hay out when a shower came up, and
having succeeded in getting it in before the cloud
reached the field, — " There," said he, "the prince of
the power of the air meant to give my hay a wet-
ting, but he got disappointed."

He had a cornfield on the parsonage land, the

152 MISSIONARY LABORS.

soil of which, was a good deal impoverished. One
of the farmers in passing it one day observed to
him, that his corn looked rather yellow : '^ It was
yellow corn I j^lcmted,^^ was the reply.

Down to the end of his ministry in Orange, Mr.
Chapman continued to wear the three-cornered hat,
formerly a badge of the clerical profession. This
was ordinarily set a little obliquely upon the head,
but it was observed that in riding against the wind
he was accustomed to turn it transversely, that is,
with its broadest side foremost. When a friend
asked him the reason of this, he said that a man in
facing a noi^iJi-iu ester should 'present a hold front.^

Upon leaving Orange, Mr. Chapman established
his family at Geneva, where he supplied a congre-
gation for many years, while performing a labori-
ous missionary service in the region around. He
had the surveying and superintendence of the whole
missionary field in Western New York assigned
him by the General Assembly, to which he reported
annually his labors and their results. The oldest

* "When Archibald Alexander (afterwards Professor in the
Princeton Seminary) was travelling through Mew England in the
summer of 1801, he distinguished the country ministers by the
cocked hats which they still wore when they appeared in public.
And Dr. Eckley told him that " even in Boston, when he visited
the older people, he was obhged to put on the cocked hat, as they
considered the round hat too 'buckish' for a clergyman." — Life of
Dr. Alexander, p. 257.— In Orange the round hat came with Mr.
Hillyer — the innovation of a new century.

HIS DEATH. Ibo

churches ia that region, those of Geneva, Romulus,
Ovid, Rushville, Trumansburg, were organized by
him. And he lived to see accomplished an object
to which all his powers were devoted — " a complete
union between the Presbyterian and Congregational
churches in Western New York." "

About ten months after his settlement over the
Geneva church as its senior pastor, and after a fifty
years' service in the ministry, he rested from his
labors. May 22, 1813, in his seventy-third year.
His last illness came on him in the pulpit, preach-
ing from the words : "I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course, I have kept the faith :
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness," &;c.

He left to the Presbyterian Church a patriarchal
name, and works that do still follow him. Few
men among his contemporaries did an equal service
for the church. The most of his descendants are
Avarmly attached to the Presbyterian faith and or-
der.

* Hotchkin's Hist. Western N. Y. At the formation of the
Synod of Albany, he preached the opening sermon, and presided
till a moderator was chosen.

CHAPTER YI.
KEY. ASA HILLYER, D.D.

I^HE preceding portion of our narrative is ratlier
a ]^arisli history than a history of the church.
Much would have been added to its religious in-
terest, could the writer have had access to the
perished records of the Church Session. These
would have let him into the temple, while he has
been treading in the outer courts ; permitted to
" walk ahoid Zion and go round about her," but
not to enter the sanctuary of her spiritual life.
Stepping across the line which divides the centu-
ries, we now enter a period distinguished by the
interest of its events and less obscured by distance.
Henceforth we have a more luminous path, and
one more divergent from matters of a civil and
political nature.

At the time Mr. Chaj^man was leaving Orange,
a clergyman of New Hartford, Conn., was making
arrangements to pass a winter in New Jersey in the
hope that his wife's health would be benefited by
its milder climate. It was the Rev. Edward Dorr

LABORS OF GRIFFIN. 155

Griffin, who had then been eight years in the exer-
cise of those eloquent gifts which have placed his
name among those of the ablest preachers of the
century. Being an acquaintance and friend of Mr.
Hillyer, who was settled at Madison, and being
invited to pass some time at his house, he in Octo-
ber accepted the invitation and remained there seve-
ral weeks. His proximity to Orange brought him
to the notice of the congregation here, who engaged
him to supply their pulpit during the winter. An
extensive awakening accompanied his preaching.
Having labored in the parish six months, with a
large blessing upon his labors, about fifty souls
being hopefally converted, he would have received
from the congregation a call had he given them
sufficient encouragement. He was soon after set-
tled in Newark as the colleague of Dr. McWhor-
ter, while his friend, Mr. Hillyer, became pastor of
this church. These circumstances led to a still
closer intimacy.

" In no situation," wrote Dr. Hillyer many years
afterward, " was Dr. Griffin more entirely at home
than in a revival of religion. It was my privilege
often to be with him in such circumstances ; and I
knew not which to admire most, the skill and power
with which he wielded the sword of the Spirit, or
the childlike dependence which was evinced by his
tender and fervent supplications. Though he was
certainly one of the most accomplished pulpit

156 HIS PREACHING DESCRIBED.

orators of his time, oil these occasions especially,
the power of his eloquence was lost sight of in the
mighty effects which were produced. A quicken-
ing influence went forth through the church, and
an awakening and converting influence spread
through the surrounding world ; the pressing of
sinners into the kingdom was such as seemed
almost to betoken the dawn of the millennial day ;
and yet the instrumentality by v/hich all this vras
brought about wns little talked of. This result,
after all, I suppose to be the highest effect of pulpit
eloquence. He wrought so mightily on the relig-
ious j)rinciples and affections of his audience, that
they had not the time, or scarcely the ability, to
marvel at the exalted gifts with which these effects
were associated.''"

During his brief ministry in Orange, Mr. Griffin
was a boarder in the family of Captain Jotham
Harrison. From a statement drawn up by the
latter in June, 1801, and laid before a parish com-
mittee appointed the December previous " for the
purpose of procuring suitable accommodations for
Mr. Griffin," it appears that the boarding account
was settled by the parish. What farther compen-
sation was given is not known. As he received
no salary from his people in New Hartford during
his absence, it is altogether probable that he was
paid for his labors here something more than enough

* Annals of Am. Pulpit, IV., 39.

BOARD ACCOUNT. 157

to settle liis board bill. This latter, for twenty-nine
weeks and two days, amounted to £144 3s. 7d, or
$385. It included, liowever, besides board, (at £2
per week for Mr. and Mrs. Griffin,) a charge for
two rooms entirely furnished (£20) ; the service of
a hired woman, at six shillings a week, and her
board at ten shillings ; the v/ages of a nurse for
Mrs. Griffin at sixteen shillings a week, and her
board at twelve shillings ; the keeping of a horse
at twelve shillings a week, on " one peck of oats a
day and the best hay ;" harnessing horse for Mr.
Griffin and his visitors ; cutting wood, making
fires, running on errands, &;c., (£11 12.?.); candles
for the 29 weeks (£2 10s.). It will be seen that
some of these chars:es arew out of the state of Mrs.
Griffin's health. From the whole the reader will
infer a disposition on the part of the people to sur-
round the minister of Christ with all necessary
comforts and facilities for his work. Their reward
was proportionate.

Failing to secure the permanent ministrations of
Mr. Griffin, the congregation of Orange had their
attention soon directed to the Eev. Asa Hillj-er, of
Madison. His long and useful ministry in the
parish demands at our hands some notice of his
earlier history.

Mr. Hillyer was a native of Sheffield, Mass.„
where he was born April 10, 1763. He was the son
of a physician, who became a surgeon in the Bevolu-
8

158 REV. ASA HILLYEE.

tionary army. Entering Yale College when he was
nineteen years old, he graduated after a four years
course of study in 1786. His father was at this
time residing at Bridgehampton, L. I. In crossing
the Sound on his return home from college, he
came near losing his life by a storm, which arose in
the niofht and drove ashore the vessel in which he
sailed. Among his fellow-passengers there was a
mother with several children. The sight of these
touched the heart of vouno;; Hillver and roused all
his heroism. Obtaining a boat, he placed them in
it as soon as it began to be light, and then spring-
ing into the water himself, pushed the boat to land.
At this time he had no Christian hope, and the
effect of the night's disaster and of its merciful ter-
mination was the immediate and solemn consecra-
tion of his life to God.

Having resolved upon entering the ministry, he
began a course of theological study with Dr. Buell,
of East Hampton, which he subsequently pursued
and finished with Dr. Livingston, of New York,
and in 1788 he was licensed to preach by the Pres-
bytery of Suffolk. His ordination and settlement
at South Hanover, now ^ladison, IST. J., by the
Presbytery of jS'ew York, took place July 28,
1790. The next year he was married to Miss Jane
Piker, of Newtown, L. I. — a union destined to be
long and happy. In 1798, under an appointment
of the General Assembly, he went out upon a mis-

MISSIONARY TOUR. 159

sionary tour tlirougli northern Pennsylvania and
western New York, being absent from his charge
nine weeks, travelling more than nine hundred
miles, and preaching daily or oftener. He carried
the gospel to places where it was never heard be-
fore. Among these may be mentioned the place
where now stands the city of Auburn.*

* At this place he was entertained at the house of a lawyer of
sceptical sentiments, whose father, one of the signers of the Dec-
laration of Independence, had been a man of piety. In convers-
ing with the wife of his host, Mr. H. discovered her to be in a
state of serious concern for her salvation. The gentleman pro-
posing a ride the next day, for the purpose of giving him a view
of the country, he accepted the invitation. After riding a short
distance, the former observed that he had a special motive for the
ride, desiring to have some conversation with him on a subject
which was deeply engaging his thoughts. He informed him that
he had been a disbeliever in the Bible. The book had lain in his
ofiBce unused, except in the administration of oaths. One day, as
his eye rested upon it, these thoughts arose : " I have read much
that has been written against that book, but have never honestly
examined the book itself. My father was a firm believer in it.
He was not a man of weak intellect or of doubtful integrity, but
intelligent, conscientious, patriotic, and pure-minded. It did not
injure him, but contributed to make him what he was. I will now
be honest with mj^self and give it a fair examination." He had
commenced reading it, and its truths had so impressed and dis-
turbed his mind that he had since found no peace. " Have you
ever spoken to your wife on the subject ?" asked Mr. H. He said
he had not. As they continued their ride, the opportunity was
improved to deepen his convictions of Gospel truth. On their
return to the house, as the gentleman was fastening his horse, Mr.
H. stepped in and disclosed to the wife what he had learned of

160 CALL TO ORANGE.

After laboring about t\velve years with great'
acceptance at Madison — tlieu known by the name
of Bottle Hill — Mr. Hilly er was invited to the pas-
toral charge of this congregation. After a due
consideration of the subject, he decided to accept
the invitation. The people of his former charge,
in receiving his resignation, placed a minute upon
their records, which (in the language of the present
pastor of thcat church) " does honor both to them-
selves and to him ; and furnishes a beautiful exem-
plification of the spirit which ought to be exhibited
both by pastors and people, when in the providence
of God thev are called to separate."* Althousfh
the call from this church was not unanimous, Mr.
Hilly er entered the field hopefully, believing that
a general concurrence would not long be withheld.
He did not miscalculate the powxr of love. The
field was soon his own, long to be held by the
power that vron it.

The call, drawn up in the usual form, was as
follows : " The Congregation of Orange Dale, be-
ing on suf&cient grounds well satisfied of the minis-
ter husband's state of mind. In a few moments the latter en-
tered. His wife met him affectionately. As their eyes met, both
"were overcome with emotion. They embraced each other and
wept, and were soon rejoicing together in the hope of salvation. —
Related by Dr. Hillyer to Rev. James W^ood, now President of
Hanover College, Indiana, and by him to the writer.

* Hist, of Pres. Church, Madison, by Rev. Samuel L. Tuttle, p.
40.

TERMS OF THE CALL. 161

terial qualifications of you, the Rev. Asa Hillyer,
and having good hopes from our past experience
of your labors that your ministrations in the Gos-
pel will be profitable to our spiritual interests, do
earnestly call and desire you to undertake the pas-
toral office in said congregation, promising you in
the discharge of your duty all proper support, en-
couragement, and obedience in the Lord. And
that you may be free from worldly cares and avo-
cations, we hereby promise and oblige ourselves to
pay to you the sum of six hundred and twenty-
five dollars in regular annual payments, together
with the use of the parsonage house and twelve
acres of land adjoining the same, and thirty cords
of wood annually, during the time of your being
and continuing the regular pastor of this church.
The congregation, moreover, engage to put the
buildings and fences in good repair. But the Eev.
Asa Hillyer is to be at the expense of after repairs,
with the privilege of collecting the necessary mate-
rials from the parsonage to repair the fences. In
testimony whereof, &c. Done October 20, 1801."

The call was signed by the trustees, viz. : Aaron
Mun, Joseph Pierson, Jun., Thomas Williams, Dan-
iel Williams, Samuel Condit, Isaac Pierson ; — by
the elders, viz. : Joseph Pierson, Jun., Amos Har-
rison, John Perry, Aaron Mun, Linus Dodd, Henry
Osborn ; and by Rev. Bethuel Dodd, Moderator.

162 THE SETTLEMENT.

The installation took place December 16.*
Mr. Hillj^er was now in his full strength, being
in his 39th 3'ear — the age at which one of his pre-
decessors had been called from his work. He had
a tall and manly figure, and features not a little
resembling those of George Washington. With-
out the eloquence of Grifi&n, he had a vigorous
intellect, sound learning, ardent piety, courteous
manners, and great benevolence of character. Few
men have possessed a happier combination of min-
isterial qualities.

There was another, however, possessing many
similar traits of character, whose name is inciden-
tally connected Avith our history at this point, and
between whom and Mr. Hilly er a long and warm
friendship subsequently existed. He was nine years
younger, being in his thirtieth year, when, in the
summer of 1801, having resigned a brief presidency
of Hampden Sidney College, in Yirginia, his native
State, he made an extensive tour of observation on
horseback through the Northern States, for the
improvement of his health and mind. Having
travelled through New England, he was returning
homeward by way of New York and New Jersey.
A Sabbath was passed in New York, where he
preached in the evening for Dr. Eodgers in the

* Dr. McWhorter presided and gave the charge to the miuister ;
James Richards, of Morristown, preached; Aaron Condit "made
the address to the people."

AKCHIBALD ALEXANDER. 163

Brick Churcli. " The next day was partly spent
at Newark, with the venerable Dr. McWhorter,
after which he proceeded to Elizabethtown, and
visited the Rev. Henry Kollock, at the liouse of
his father. It a was a favorite plan of Mr. Kollock
to have his friend settled in the congregation of
Orange, but the steps taken by him were unsuc-
cessful."* This young Virginian was Archibald
Alexander, then little known in this region, but
whose name Kew Jersey was yet to cherish with
a just pride as enrolled among those of her ablest
theological teachers and most useful writers. It
is likely that the congregation of Orange had their
thoughts fixed upon Mr. Hillj^er, if they had not
already invited him, and Providence had other
and yet larger designs for Mr. Alexander. His
friend Kollock, (afterward Dr. Kollock,) one of the
most eloquent preachers of his day, settled in Sa-
vannah, Ga. He was a son of Shepard Kollock,
of Elizabethtown, an active patriot in the Revolu-
tion, and for some time editor and publisher of a
newspaper.f

The old stone meeting-house was now the memo-
rial of a generation gone. It had stood almost

* Life of Dr. Alexander, p. 264.
f Mr. Hillyer's oldest son, Asa, married Lydia, a daughter of
Shepard Kollock. He lived but about eighteen months after their
union. The widow became the wife of Rev. Dr. Holdich, of the
Am. Bible Society.

164 CHUKCn OFFICERS.

half a century. The stone parsonage had more
than completed that period. Both had from time
to time seen their age renewed by sundry improve-
ments, and they were not yet to be released from
service for a dozen vears or more. The church
had a membership of about two hundred. The
exact figure is not known prior to 1806, when it
was reported at two hundred and twenty-three.
The congTcgation v;as among the largest to be
found in the rural parishes. Such was the field.
It was entered by the new pastor in the hope of a
more expanded usefulness.

And who were to be the helpers of his ministry ?
Few Y/ere left of those who, thirtj^-five years be-
fore, had given the right hand of their confidence
to his predecessor. In the line of elders, Bethuel
Pierson had been gone some ten years, and Josej^h,
his son, had succeeded to the '' double honor " of
which he had been counted worthy. ISToah Crane,
at the age of eighty-one, had passed away but a
year and a half before, and Zenas Freeman, at half
that age, had speedily followed. Isaac Dodd and
Joseph Crane had been transferred to Bloomfield.
Of the of&cers who remained, Deacon Amos Bald-
win was in his eighty-second year — old enough to
retire from service. Judge Peck, also an elder and
deacon, stood next in seniority, being in his sev-
entieth year. John Perry was fifty-five. Joseph
Pierson, Aaron Munu, Linus Dodd, Amos Harri-

THE SEXTON. 165

son, and Henry Osborn, were younger. The names
of Moses Condit and John Lindsley were added to
the list a little more than three years after. These
were the associates of our pastor in the earliest period
of his administration here. They were all literally
his elders^ who were to finish their course before him.
There was in the parish a young man of twenty-
six, who was to be an office-bearer at the end of
thirty years, when these were gone. At this time he
might have been seen on a Sunday morning or a
Wednesday evening performing the duties of bell-
ringer. This w^as Josiah Frost, who was employed
in 1800 to ring the bell " on Sabbath and lecture
days " for £3 14.s. ; the widow Sarah Condit hav-
ing charge of the sweeping at £5 per annum. The
sexton's offices were thus divided between the two
till 1805, when the former assumed the whole busi-
ness, with a salary of $33 87. By the terms of
the contract he was to take the whole and proper
charge of the meeting-house, sweeping the same,
finding the sand, ringing the bell, and lighting the
candles ; the last named-article to be found at the
expense of the parish, and " the ends left to go to
the person who lights the candles." This service
Mr. Frost performed through a number of years.
In due time he was called to serve the church in a
higher office, and at the time of our present writ-
ing he has just " entered into the joy of his Lord,"
ripe in years and spiritual fruitful ness.
8*

166 LOTS ON THE COMMON.

The growtli of the village creating a consider-
able demand for building lots, the parish in 1802
resolved to sell a portion of its lands along Main
street for that purpose — the interest to be appro-
priated to the support of the Gospel. Five lots
north and eight lots south of the street were accord-
ingly sold, for the sum of $8,546, secured by bond
and mortgage. The strip of ground already used
for a Common, tying opposite the parsonage, was
to be reserved for that purpose forever. The eight
lots lay along the southern border of this, and
comprised six acres and fifty-eight hundredths of
an acre. The Common was for a special and pa-
triotic use, as well as for the jDublic convenience
and for the adornment of the village. The mar-
tial parade drew hither annually its display of
arms, and a crowd of citizens, old and young, who
looked to the occasion as the carnival of the year.
Generous dinners were furnished by the tavern
hard by, while travelling hucksters and auctioneers
did a thriving business by the wayside. The
locality is that now known as the park.

In 1806, the trustees resolved to build a store-
house on the Orange Dock, " 18 feet by 30." The
work was executed by Amos Harrison, he being
the lowest bidder, for $239 75.

About two years from Mr. Hillyer's settlement,
the church received a gentle refreshing. This in-
dication of the divine fiwor excited his thanks-

REVIVAL OF 1807. 167

givings, and relieved him of a lingering fear that
he had mistaken the voice of Providence in the
matter of his settlement. If any measure of that
fear remained, it was put to rest a few years subse-
quently, Avhen there came down a baptism of the
Spirit which surpassed anything known, before or
since, in the history of the congregation. There
is, happily, a narrative of this great revival, writ-
ten by himself to some clerical friend. The name
and date are not found in the transcript before us.
We give his account of it without abridgment

" Rev. and Dear Sir : — A weakness in my side, occasioned
by the illness from which I was just recovering, when I saw you
last September, which rendered it extremely painful for me to
write, has prevented my complying with your request until this
time. But supposing that, even at this late hour, it may not be
displeasing to you to receive a brief account of the wonders of
divine grace which have been witnessed in this congregation,
and a general view of the work of God in this vicinity, I will
endeavor to give as general and succinct a relation of these
things as I am able.

" In the beginning of September, 1807, some tokens of good
were discovered. A number of praying people were stirred up
to fervent prayer, and there appeared to be an increased at-
tention to the preached word. For more than three years a
meeting for special prayer had been attended in the church on
the first Monday evening in every month. This meeting now
increased in numbers and solemnity.

"This church, in connection mth two neighboring churches,*

* Those of Newark and Bloomfield, doubtless. Dr. Griffin, then
pastor in Newark, made this record in his journal: "September,

168 STATE OF MORALS.

agreed to set apart September 4th for fasting and prayer, aud
in an especial manner, make supplication for the effusion of the
Holy Spirit. A number of praying people also agreed to
meet at nine o'clock on Sabbath morning, in the academy, to
spend an hour in prayer for their minister, and for a divine
blessing on the exercises of the day. This has been attended
from that time to the present by a great proportion of the
praying people of the congregation. It has been very refresh-
ing to them, aud accompanied with very happy effects.

'' But it may not be improper to remark here, that for some
time previous to this, everything around assumed a gloomy
aspect in regard to evangelical piety. All meetings for prayer,
except the first Monday in the month, were relinquished.
Gambling, horse-racing, intemperance, and dissipation of every
kind, threatened all social order with destruction. A moral
society had been established for two years, the object of which
was the suppression of vice aud immorality ; but no human
effort was able to withstand the torrent of vice which threat-
ened us on every side. At the same time the exertions of
Christians were paralyzed ; the wise were sleeping with the
foolish. This state of things alarmed a few praying people ;
they agreed to resume a prayer-meeting which had, for the first
time in more than forty years, been relinquished the spring be-
fore. This took place about the latter part of July. For a
number of weeks not more than twelve or fourteen persons at-
tended ; but such fervent aud earnest wrestling with God I
never witnessed. They prayed as though they saw their chil-
dren and neighbors standing on the verge of destruction, and
that, without aa immediate interposition of almighty grace,
they were lost for ever.

1807. Began a great revival of religion in the town. Ninety-
seven joined the church in one day, and about two hundred in all. ''
Fifty, or more, were gatliered in at Bloonifield.

THE BALL. 169

" It was soon perceived that our public assemblies were un-
usually solemn, but no special impression appeared to be made
until the third Sabbath in September. In the morning the
assembly was addressed on the awful solemnity of a future
judgment ; and, in the afternoon, from these words : Choose you
this day whom yeiuill serve. This was a day long to be remem-
bered. Such solemnity had not been seen for many years, and
many date their first impressions from that day.

" The case of one young Miss it may not be improper for
me to mention. She had been excessively fond of balls and
parties of pleasure ; and had so strong an aversion to the public
institutions of religion, that it was with difficulty she could be
prevailed upon to attend public worship. This day she re-
solved to give up her amusements, and attend to the vast con-
cerns of her soul. In the evening we had a crowded assembly.
An address was made from these words : All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. TKe doctrine brought to view in
this passage of Scripture greatly exasperated a number present,
among whom was this young lady. She now declared she
would attend no more meetings ; ' for,' said she, ' if I am given
to Christ, I shall be saved ; if not, all my efforts will be vain.'
In the conclusion of the exercises, the youth were particularly
addressed, and affectionately told of the wonderful things God
was doing for the young people of Newark and Blizabethtown.
The young lady above-mentioned, notwithstanding her enmity to
the truth, resolved to break up a ball she had engaged to attend
the next Tuesday evening. Accordingly, early Monday morn-
ing she called on a number of her female companions, and per-
suaded them to unite with her, and have the contemplated ball
deferred until the next week. They succeeded ; the ball was defer-
red, and has not since been attended. The disappointment
which this occasioned greatly exasperated some of the young
men, who determined to seek revenge on their minister and
others, whom they accused of breaking up the ball ; although

170 THE PRAYER-MEETINa.

their minister knew nothing of the ball until they mentioned
it afterwards, with abhorrence. Thev resolved to attend the
prayer-meeting the next Wednesday evening, and then fix upon
another time for their favorite amusement. ' We will go,' said
they, * and crowd out the old fellows, and let Mr. H. see that
for once he has enough young people at his prayer-meeting.'

" When I came to the house, I was not a little surprised to
see two rooms and the entry filled with people, the most of
whom had never been seen in such a place before ; and, as I
entered the room, to see the seats previously occupied by a few
praying persons now filled by some of the most profligate youth
in our village. The first prayer was made by an aged Christian,
who is the only surviving member of the meeting when it was
established, forty years ago. His prayer was solemn and im-
pressive. An address was then made from these words : Come
now, and let us reason together. No attempt was made to
work upon the passions. The* youth, in an especial manner,
were exhorted to consider the reasonableness of giving their
hearts to God, and consecrating the best of their lives to his
service. The assembly was unusually solemn. These daring
youth were made to tremble under the word. Numbers were
evidently pricked to the heart. Their tears, which they made
great exertions to conceal, betrayed an awakened conscience.
Such a scene had never before been witnessed by any person
present.

" No disturbance was made. All retired in solemn silence.
Twelve or fifteen of the youth, who came with an intention of
disturbing the meeting, went away trembling under a sense of
guilt. As they had no suspicion of each others' feelings, each
made an effort to conceal his own. One of them has since said,
supposing that none of his companions felt as he did, and that
he should be unable to conceal his feelings, he crossed a corn-
field and went home unobserved. Another said, while walking
the street he assumed an unusual gayety to conceal his feelings,

POWER OF THE REVIVAL. 171

although the terrors of his mind were such that it appeared to
him the earth would open and swallow him up.

'' One, who had not been in the house, made an effort to stop
the young people in the street, to concert a plan for the contem-
plated ball ; but his efforts were vain — all hurried home. After
the people retired, four or five young women, who had waited
in a back room, came in the room where the family were sitting,
wringing their hands, and exclaimed, ' Oh, Mr. H., what shall
we do ? ' After giving them such instruction as their case
seemed to require, I engaged to meet with them the next even-
ing. These, with a number of others, met the next evening in
conference. Saturday afternoon we again met in conference. The
beginning of the next week, the number under serious impressions
had become too great to be accommodated at a private house.

"V^ithin a mile of the church we have an academy and two
large school-houses. It was agreed to hold our conferences at
these, alternately. Our assemblies, on these occasions, were
frequently so large we were obliged to repair to the church.
Sabbath and Wednesday evening we had stated lecture in the
church. Our assemblies were all solemn, but without noise or
disorder. After the usual exercises of our evening meetings
were concluded, it was often difficult to persuade the people to
retire. Indeed, this was impossible, until they were left by
those to whom they looked for instruction.

" One evening, after the benediction had been pronounced,
the whole assembly stood in solid column. Scarcely an indi-
vidual moved from his place. Such evidences of deep and heart-
felt sorrow I never witnessed before, on any occasion. While
all stood in solemn silence, there seemed a greater appearance
of solemnity than during any part of the previous exercises.
Sometimes it seemed we had only to stand still and see tlie sal-
vation of God. It seemed, indeed, that the Lord was there,
and that he gave us an example of his immediate work upon
the conscience and the heart.

172 TOWNSHIP OF ORANGE.

" If it were proper for me to go further into detail, I might
mention other scenes similar to this. "Within two weeks from
the commencement of the work, more than one hundred were
deeply impressed. A visible change seemed to be produced
throughout the village.''

The cliurch received mucli streagth from this re-
markable work, one hundred and fortj-five persons
being added to its communion in the course of the
next year. So large an ingathering belongs to no
other 3^ear of its history.

Orange had continued, till about this time, to be
a part of the township of Newark. In 1806 it was
organized as a town, under the name it novv' bears.
The new township was consecrated by a glorious
baptism !

About the close of the year 1808, JSTathaniel
Bruen and David Munn were chosen elders. The
latter, though his name appears at two or three
meetings of Session, declined the appointment, and
was never set apart to the office by ordination.

In 1809, an addition was made to the pastor's
salary, raising the amount paid in money from §625
to $800.

By the separation of the town from ISTewark, it
became necessary for the church to change its cor-
porate name. The legislature being applied to,
changed its title, in 1811, from the Second Presby-
terian Church in Newark to the First Presbyterian
Churcli in Orange.

HONORABLE TRUSTS. 173

It was during this year Mr. Hilljer was made a
trustee of tlie College of New Jersey — an office which
he held to the close of life, and which was accom-
panied with a sincere and active devotion to the
interests of the institution. He was also chosen, in
1812, one of the first directors of the Theological
Seminary at Princeton. This appointment was
regularly renewed until the disruption of the
church ; and, also, subsequently to that event, after
a single omission. These important trusts, held for
a quarter of a century, are indicative at once of a
generous public spirit, of persistent good-will to-
ward those from whom he was ecclesiastically sepa-
rated, and of established confidence in his integrity
and administrative ability.

A similar confidence, on the part of his people,
was manifested, and also justified, in the success of
an impoi'tant enterprise within the parish, which is
said to have oris^inated with him. This v/as the
erection of a new and larger temple in which to
worship God. Time, and the progress of popula-
tion, had created what seemed to him a necessity
for this. He proposed it. Some approved, and
some objected. Some thought it feasible, and some
impossible. He asked certain persons of the latter
class, if they would favor the undertaking, provided
he would secure the subscription of a certain sum
of money which he named. They answered him,
Yes. He started out with his paper on Monday,

174 THIRD MEETING-HOUSE.

and bj the close of the week had procured double
the amount specified. We learn, from Mr. Moses
Harrison, that his father, Jared Harrison, opened
the subscription with $500. A laudable emulation
was awakened. Those who refused donations stood
ready to purchase pews. The thought, once fairly
before the people, kindled desire, and desire led to
action.

The initial steps of the enterprise were taken in
1811. At the parish meeting in May, the trustees
were authorized to purchase a half acre of ground
for a site, lying on the north side of the road in the
rear of the church. It was purchased of Stephen
D. Day, for $400. The next year the work began,
under the direction of the trustees, assisted by a
building committee. It was voted by the parish
that the front and sides of the new edifice should
be built of dressed stone, the rear of undressed.
The trustees were at first instructed to have the
work done by contract, but these instructions were
subsequently recalled, the matter being left to their
discretion. They accordingly employed an archi-
tect and proceeded with the work, many members
of the parish preferring to turn in their labor on
their subscription account. The principal architect
was Moses Dodd, who received, for his services,
three dollars a day. AVe have found no written
details relating to the progress of the work, but we
are told by Mr. Adonijah Osmun, that the corner

ITS DIMENSIONS. 175

Stone was laid tlie 15tli of September, 1812. At
the meeting of the parish, the next April, it was
voted to take down the old meeting-house, for the
purpose of using its material in the construction of
the new. The double work of demolition and edi-
fication followed, — the Sabbath assembly, in a meas-
ure broken up and reduced in numbers, being for
several months held elsewhere. The stone tablet,
over the door of the demolished edifice, was trans-
ferred to the inside of the tower in the new, where
the inscription upon its face may yet be read, un ob-
scured by the mould which has gathered upon its
contemporaries in the old graveyard.

A goodly sanctuary was reared, considerably ex-
ceeding the dimensions of its predecessor. It had
a front of sixty-three feet, and a depth of ninety in
the central and longest part^ the rear wall having a
curvature or convexity of four or five feet. This
length does not include the projection of the tower
in front, which was four feet. The walls had an
elevation of about thirty-six feet to the roof The
tower, eighteen and a half feet wide, was carried
up to the top of the building. The steeple was re-
served for the work of another year. Three large
folding- doors admitted the worshipper to the vesti-
bule. Two opened from that into the audience-
room, connecting with two aisles between which, at
the hither end, stood the pulpit. The house had
double rows of windows, which numbered ten on

17(3 THE OLD BELL.

each side, six at the rear end, and three in front,
exclusive of licrhts above the doors. Galleries at
the sides and end rose above the pulpit in sublimity
of position, if ihej were not always to equal it in
sublimity of thought and solemnity of feeling*
These, for some time to come, were to be kept in
order by a Sunday police stationed at suitable dis-
tances.

The bell, taken down from its modest quarters in
the old steeple, was suspended on a pole to perform
its last offices in calling the workmen to their tasks.
A calamity had befallen it some time previously,
of which it still bore the mark. The tongue hav-
ing dropped out when its voice was needed on a
funeral occasion, was taken by the bell-ringer and
struck upon the rim of the bell, by which a frac-
ture was produced. The bell vras taken to a smith,
who attempted to weld the fracture. Instead of
this, a piece was melted out. The failure, however,
proved a success, for the tone of the bell Avas in a
good measure restored. Having in this condition
continued to do duty, it was now, as we have
stated, put to a useful service in signaling the hours
of labor. But it was destined to share the fate of
the old church — bequeathing its metal, while losing
its individuality. As the new house went up and
the work drew near completion, a workman named
"William Halsey, to secure the parish against possi-
bilities which excited uneasiuess in some minds,

THE THIRD MEETING-HOUSE.

DEDICATION. 177

gave the bell a finishing stroke with his hammer.
A piercing knell — and the tongue which had so
long discoursed solemnly of eternity and sweetty of
heaven, which had called a generation to their
nightly repose and to their weekly devotions, which
had been the music of their lives and a mourner at
their burial, was silent forever !

The new building (except tlie steeple) went up
during the summer and autumn of 1813. The date
of its dedication v/e have not been able to deter-
mine. According to the recollections of some who
were present, it occurred in the month of Decem-
ber, the weather being quite cold. Mr. Hillyer
preached. The assembly was large and the occa-
sion inspiring. Taking a text from Genesis 28 : 17,
he thus congratulated his audience, who were now
partakers of his joy as they had been of his toil
and hope :

" My Brethren : — The circumstances in which
we meet this morning are calculated to inspire us
all with unfeigned gratitude and lively joy. By
the good providence of our God, a work of great
labor and expense is so far accomplished that we
may this day begin to enjoy its fruits. If we look
back to the moment when, with solicitude and
trembling hope, we laid the corner-stone, and con-
sider the rapidity and safety with which the work
has progressed — that in a little more than twelve
months this lare^e, convenient and beautiful build-

178 MR. hillyer's sermon.

ing has been thus far completed — that in all the
dangers to which a numerous body of useful
mechanics and laborers have been exDOsed, not a
life has been lost, nor a bone broken^ — what heart
does not feel, and what tongue does not confess,
that this is the finger of God ? We are permitted
in health and in peace to assemble around these
altars, and by prayer and thanksgiving dedicate
this house to our God and Eedeemer."

TTords equally earnest, and which have not yet
lost their fitness or force, were heard as the speaker
drew his discourse to a close. The thoughts
evolved from his subject and from the occasion,
were thus brouo^ht home to his cono'reofation :

'' The God of Jacob has given you a Bethel —
not in the wilderness, not in exile from domestic
endearments, not in circumstances of poverty and
want, but in circumstances happily adapted to
spiritual imjDrovement. Let me beseech you, my

* This was true ; yet one of the workmen (David S. Roflf) had
fallen from the scaffolding, when the wall was within one tier of
the top. By a singular providence he fell where a pile of sand was
or had been lying, and thus escaped being broken on the frag-
ments and chips of stone which covered the ground all around the
spot. Those who saw him fall observed that he rebounded from
the ground a foot or two. It was on the east side of the building.
The accident was occasioned by stepping on a loose bit of stone.
Tlie injury did not prove serious. Josiah Frost was standing
where he fell Hearing the noise, he looked up, saw the man de-
scending, and had just time to save him.self by stepping a.side.

EARNEST WORDS. 179

brethren, to look around witli suitable emotions of
gratitude and praise upon this spacious and con-
venient temple of tbe Lord, wliose doors are opened
to invite you and your children to the gospel feast.
And realize the obligations you are under to attend
constantly and devoutly on all the duties of the
sanctuary. A solemn responsibility attaches to
every member of this congregation. No excuse
can be ordinarily made for Ms absence, who has
health and strength to come to these courts. If
any now neglect the public worship of God, it be-
comes them very seriously to consider what excuse
they will make at the great day of account. Let no
one suffer his seat to be empty unless imperious ne-
cessity compel him. Let your example never en-
courage the negligence of others. Let parents and
heads of families learn their indispensable obliga-
tion, not only to be present themselves, but to be
careful that their children, their servants, and all
under their care attend constantly upon the public
worship of God. Soon 3^ou must leave your chil-
dren, and upon them the interests of the church and
of religion will devolve. Oh, how important, before
you die, you should see in your children and those
who are to follow you the habit formed of constant
and devout attention to the public institutions of
religion !"

The younger part of liis flock were thus admon-
ished :

180 BUILDING OF STEEPLE.

" Eemcmber, this house was in a peculiar sense
built for you. Your fathers can enjoy it but a
little while. Oh, be entreated earlv to form the habit
of constant and devout attention to the means of
grace administered here ! Let it not be said of
you, my 3'oung friends, as is the case with too
many others, that you prefer amusement, idleness,
or parties of pleasure to the public w^orship of your
God and Redeemer."'

Forty-six years have left but few even of the
youth who listened to these solemn counsels.

The edifice thus consecrated was built at a cost
of about $28,000. A steeple was yet necessary to
complete the design. This vras added in the follow-
ing year by a contract with Mr. Dodd, the architect,
for §2,750. The parish in April voted that the
surplus money raised by the sale of the pews in the
new church remain in the hands of the trustees, to
defray the expense of finishing the house, pur-
chasino- a bell and chandeliers, and fencing: the
church lot. The fund at interest amounted at this
time to about $6,000, the most of it secured, by
bond and mortsrao^e.

Among these securities was a mortgage on the
*' Orange Dock," for the sum of $750, given by
Jacob Plum, and bearing date the 25th of May,
1812. From the sale of the dock we infer that the
sloop owned by the parish* was likewise sold about
this time, the whole capital thus invested being

MINERAL SPRING. 181

probably absorbed in tlie new churcb. building.
We learn that some difficulty was experienced in
tlie adjustment of the claims of private stockholders.
Those claims were, however, satisfied, and the
whole shipping interest transferred to the common
fund.

Orange was at this time celebrated as a watering-
place. The chalybeate spring, which nov;- adds its
attractions to the romantic and tasteful grounds of
Mr. Pillot, was much resorted to as a public foun-
tain of health. Near by was a boarding hotel,
which has since been transformed into the mansion
occupied by the gentleman just named. Every
season brought to this spot hundreds of invalids
and pleasure-seekers, whose presence added a new
feature to the social character of the place, and
swelled perceptibly the large assemblies which on
the Sabbath received from Mr. Hillyer's lips the
word of life. The mineral spring, it is said, was
" once the most fashionable place of resort in the
United States. Up to 1824, Orange was the great
American Saratoga."^''

There was a class of worshippers in the new
sanctuary for whose accommodation special provi-
sion was made. They are brought to our notice in
a resolution of the parish in 1815, requesting the
trustees " to call on the slaveholders for the annuity

* See Specimen Number of the Orange Journal, Jan. 7, 1854.

9

182 PEO VISION FOR SLATES.

on the pews set apart for their slaves." This was
five years before the emancipation act, and ten
years before it began to talvc effect in the dissolu-
tion of the servile bond."^ It is gratifying to know
that while the day of emancipation was dawning,
the light of the gospel was already shining on this
portion of the population. The first Sunday-school
in this parish was established for their benefit in
1816.

The demolition of the old meeting-house was to
be followed not long after by the abandonment of
the parsonage — four years its senior in age. This
event was occasioned bv a conviction in Mrs. Hill-
yer's mind that her health, which was delicate, was
injuriously afiected by her residence there. In
consequence of this impression, Mr. Hillyer remov-
ed in 1815 to a wooden house on the corner of the
street which bears his name. It is now the resi-
dence of his son-in-law, Dr. William Pierson. The
parish this year resolved to pay $200 in lieu of the
wood formerly provided for him.

The temple so recently consecrated was receiv-
ing evidences that the Lord of hosts had made His

* By the act of February, 1820, children born of slave parents
subsequent to July 4, 1804, were to become free, the females upon
arriving at twenty-one, the males at twenty-five years of age. The
slave population of the State reached its maximum (12,422) in
1800. In 1810 it was 10,857. In 1850, there were 236 slaves;
23,810 free colored.

REVIVAL OF 1817. 183

abode there. His people liad proved Him witli
their offerings; a blessing was poured out upon
them in return. Before their work was finished in
building him a house, a special work of grace was
going on. This is indicated by the fruits gathered
in during the year 1814, when thirty-one persons
took the vow of obedience at the altars of the new
sanctuary. Things more glorious were to be spo-
ken of Zion three years later, when there came an-
other general awakening. In Newark, Elizabeth-
town, Bloomfield; Caldwell, Connecticut Farms,
and other places, the Spirit came down with signal
power.

The first manifestations of the work here were in
the autumn of 1816. The weekly meetings held
in the academy began to assume an unusual inter-
est. Such was the attendance that the place be-
came too strait, and the services were transferred
to the church. Additional appointments were also
made, both for preaching and prayer, in Doddtown
and other neighborhoods. Two young men from
Princeton, Messrs. Barnes and Riggs, assisted Mr.
Hillyer several weeks.

The praying men of the parish were at work in
their several localities, and on the morning of the
Sabbath might be seen coming together from each
point of the compass, to intercede for the Spirit's
presence, and for a blessing on the word. Of this
number was Elder John Perry — a personal illustrav

184 MEN OF PRAYER.

tioD of the proverb that "the legs of the lame are
not equal," but demonstrating no less the truth of
the promise, that "the lame man shall leap as a
hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing ; for in the
wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in
the desert." It might have been said of him with
very little of poetic exaggeration : " Behold, he
Cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon
the hills." His mountain home was not too high
nor too distant for him to descend from it, thou^'h
with uneven, limping pace, to the solemn convoca-
tions of the house of prayer ; and having waited
upon the Lord, and with tears entreated men, he
would return to his home in the promised strength
and joy of the Lord, mounting up with wings as
eagles. Associated with him in the work, and in
ofS.cial responsibility, were the two Joseph Pier-
sons, Amos Harrison, Linus Dodd, Moses Condit,
John Lindsley, Adonijah Osmun, and Daniel Con-
dit ; not all of them men of like zeal, but men
whom the church delighted to honor, and vrhose
prayers prevailed with God. "We could wish
that the scenes of that revival had some other
record than the unwritten memories of them which
remain. Such indeed thev have, but the record is
on high.

The particulars here furnished are from the re-
collections of one who was a subject of the revival.
His own mind was wrought upon with great power.

SUNDAY - SCHOOLS. 185

At night, he says, he looked upon the heavens,
and thought how these declared their Maker's glory,
while he, His rational creature, had done nothins:
but rebel against Him. In every star that shone,
and in every object of nature and blessing of prov-
idence, he seemed to meet an accuser. And so
completely was his mind engrossed and overwhelm-
ed with the thoughts of his own guilty condition
and exposure to the anger of a Holy God, that for
a considerable time he scarcely took note of what
related to others.* Many others there were, who
were passing through a like experience. The
records of the session for the year 1817, show an
ingathering of one hundred and thirteen souls, the
hopeful trophies of recovering grace.

A blessed and permanent institution of the
church — the Sabbath-school — grew out of this re-
vival, or had its origin in it. We have spoken of
a school instituted for the colored people. Another,
for the benefit of the children and youth of the
congregation generally, was established in 1817.
The two schools assembled in the upper and lower •
rooms of the academy. Among those who devoted

■* Mr. Nicol, now an elder in the Second Church. Mr. Osmun,
his venerable colleague, was a subject of the revival of 1807. The
latter relates to me that Dr. Griffin, being once in Orange, after he
had preached here, and meeting Elder John Perry, saluted him on
this wise : " Well, brother Perry, you are still limping along to-
ward heaven, are you ?" — " The first part is true,'' was the reply.

186 BIBLE SOCIETY.

themselves to the religious instruction of the colored
population — then in servitude — was a daughter of
the pastor, one who is yet with us, and yet un-
wearied in the Christian labors that engaged her
youthful love.

There sprang from the same revival another in-
stitution not now existing, though its spirit lives.
This was the Orange Bible Society. The National
Society having been organized the year previous, a
local society in furtherance of the same object, '' in.
our own vicinity," was formed here, Nov. 1, 1817.
One dollar was the price of admission to its mem-
bership ; ten dollars to a life-membership. Mr.
Hilly er took an active interest in the enterprise,
drew up the constitution, and was chosen Yice-
President. The society does not appear from its
books to have been a highly ef&cient one. The
members paid pretty regularly their dollar a year
till 1828, when the books were closed, the aggre-
gate receipts for eleven years being $250.65.

In the spring of 1817, "the trustees and com-
mittee appointed at a late parish-meeting to make
arrangements with Mr. Hillyer respecting a parson-
age," reported —

" That they had agreed with Mr. Hillyer to
raise his salary to $1120 per year ; on condition
that he Would relinquish his claim to the old par-
sonage-house and one half acre of land adjoining, a
quarter of an acre adjoining Samuel W. Tichenor,

NATIONAL SOCIETIES. 187

a quarter of an acre adjoining Allen Docld, and all
the land owned by tlie parish on the south side of
the road. They further reported that they had con-
ferred with Mr. Hilly er on the subject, and that he
was satisfied with the arrangement. The meeting ap-
proved and confirmed the contract by a solemn
vote, and authorized the trustees to use the above-
mentioned pieces of land to enable them to fulfil
the contract on their part."

The great idea of religious beneficence, and of
Christianity as a grand power for reforming the
world, was at this period seizing the best and most
vigorous intellects of the country as it had never be-
fore done. In 1809 was formed the American Board ;
in 1814, the American Tract Society (of Boston) ; in
1816, the American Bible Societ}^; in 1817, the
American Colonization Society, and (within the
^Presbyterian church) the United Foreign Mission-
ary Society. This last Mr. Hilly er assisted to form,
and he gave his earnest sympathies to the rest, as he
did subsequently to the Education Society (1818),
the Sunday School Union (1824), the American
Tract Society at New York (1825), the Home Mis-
sionary Society (1826), the Seamen's Friend Society
(1828). It will be seen from the dates how rapidly
these institutions sprang up during his ministry.
They found in his liberal views, and his warm
sympathy with whatever could benefit man, a sure
ground of support.

183 REVIVAL OF 1825.

During the year 1818, in the fall ripeness of his
mind and rninistrj^, he received from Alleghany
college the degree of Doctor of Divinitj^ The
honor was worn as modestly as worthily.

The church had at this time grown to a member-
ship of 520. At about this number it stood, till
the years 1824r-5 brought another Pentecost. In
this revival Dr. Hillyer was assisted by a young
man from Greenfield, K Y., who had then just
completed his theological studies at Princeton.*

* T

The young man alluded to was James Wood, now Rev. Dr.
Wood, President of Hanoyer College, Ind. He was from my na-
tive parish. "When I visited Philadelphia in June last, to obtain
some material for this history from the library of the Presbyterian
Historical Society, he was just closing his labors as one of the
Secretaries of the Presbyterian Board of Education. My business,
which led me to his room, at once interested him ; and he related
an anecdote of Dr. Hillyer which is worth preserving. The inci-
dent was told him by the latter when he was with him in the re-
vival above mentioned.

A Methodist clergyman sometime previously had visited Orange,
and preached at a private house where a lady of that denomination
resided. There were at that time very few Methodists in the
place. It was the evening of Dr. Hillyer's lecture, and the Doctor,
on his way home from his own service, passing the place, saw
quite a crowd assembled, some of them standing outside the door,
among whom was a man of his own society, who seldom went to
church. The next day, meeting this man, the conversation turned
upon the Methodist preacher, and he was asked what he thought
of him. " Why, I thought this," replied Dr. H., " that I ought to
be thankful to God for sending a man here to preach His gospel
who can get the attention of such men as you. My preaching does

DEED OF THE ACADEMY. 189

We know not tlie particular aspects of tlie work.
Nearly a hundred conversions were reported the
next spring. As in previous revivals, the awaken-
ing was simultaneous in Orange and Newark.

Some changes worthy of notice occurred about
this time, affecting the Orange Academy. Mr.
Hillyer, like his predecessor, had served the institu-
tion as a trustee and a patron. In 1823, we find
associated with him as trustees, Stephen D. Day,
Doctor Daniel Babbit, John M. Lindsley, Daniel D.
Condit, Abraham Winans and Samuel W. Tiche-
nor. Of those who originally held the property by
a deed of trust, John Condit was yet living, but
had removed to Jersey City. It was necessary the
title should now rest in others, and accordingly, in
November, 1823, it was conveyed by him to the
actinsj board of trustees. The terms of the deed in-
dicate that the Academy had ceased to be, if it ever
was such, in any sense a parocliial institution ; * it

you no good, for you don't come to hear it. If another can draw
you out, I shall be glad, and still more if he is made an instrument
in bringing you into the kingdom of God." The result was, that
the man was seen at Dr. Hillyer's next inquiry meeting, and was
soon a member of his church.

^' The deed says : " To be kept and held by the trustees of the
aforesaid academy forever in trust, (agreeable to the above conveyance
to myself and others, which is as follows) : for all the inhabitants in
general of the place and neighborhood of Orange, to he and remain a
place for an academy, ichich shall be for the tise of a public school.
Furthermore, it is the true intent and meaning of these presents,"
9*

190 RELIGIOUS CHANGES.

being affirmed to be " the true intent and meaning"
of the conveyance, " that no particular sect or pro-
fession of people in said place shall have any right
to said premises on account of the profits which
may arise from it more than another ; but it shall
be and remain for the 23urpose of a good public and
moral school of learnina:, for the use of all the in-
habitants which now are or ever shall be in said
Orange, to the end of time.'' These terms indicate
the religious changes which thirty-eight years had
gradually effected in the community.

Yet the population of Orange, until this period,
adhered so generally to the doctrines and polity of
the Presbyterian church, that no movement was
made to collect a congregation on any other basis.
Persons who belonged to other communions, or
were drawn to them, either went to Newark to
worship, or consented to forego their preferences.
It speaks much for the vitality of our system, that
it struck its life so deep, and maintained its growth
so long, without decaj' and without division. It
was guarded and fostered by no State patronage.
It was planted in a field open to the freest competi-

&c. The quotation from the original conveyance shows that the
institution had never, in form, been denominational ; while the
furthermore shows that something more explicit upon the point
was now felt to be needed in the title. It may be added that tiiia
was inadvertently given by Mr. Condit in his own right, and not
as a trustee ; a defect subsequently remedied by the Legislature.

ST. mark's church. 191

tion. Yet it held the groand, almost unquestioned,
for a century. Evidently it had taken deep root in
the convictions and affections of a free, intelligent
and Bible-loving people. An established church may
be held up by the civil arm. A lordly and showy
hierarchy, claiming apostolic sanctity, and clothed
with mystery and magnificence, may draw the world
wondering after it by its very arrogance and excess
of gorgeous absurdities. The Presbyterian churches
of New Jersey borrowed no strength from these
sources. They claimed no exclusive commission
from God. They had no captivating ceremonies.
They had neither monarchy nor hierarchy in their
favor. The Church-of-England sympathies of the
Provincial Government were long against them.
Whence came their vigorous life? What gave
them so long and so strong a position in the intel-
lects and hearts of men trained to piety and thought
and freedom ? The question is not asked invidious-
ly or boastfully. We would gratefully honor the
goodness of God, and we shall be pardoned for
calling attention to the favor he has bestowed on a
church we venerato ; by those at least who know
our cordial fellowship with others, drawing their
creed and life from the Everlasting Word,

In 1825, Eev- Benjamin Holmes, a missionary
of the Protestant Episcopal Church, residing in
Morristown, made Orange a part of his missionary
circuit. His appointments here were monthly.

192 DEATH OF MRS. HILLYEK.

At tlie end of two years — April 7, 1827 — a church
was organized. The corner-stone of a house of
worship was laid May 12, 1828, and the house
consecrated February 20, 1829. In the following
May, the church had thirteen communicants and
fifty pew-holders. In June, Eev. Wilham K. Whit-
tin gham, now bishop of the Mar\dand diocese, was
settled over it. He remained about a year. The
church is Saint Mark's, now under the rectorship
of the Eey. James A. Williams.

The coincidence may here be noted, that the
First Church exhibited at this time the largest
membership it has ever enrolled. It reported in
1827 more than six hundred communicants. It
had grown to repletion. The population of the
parish was increasing. There was a demand for
more laborers ; the Lord of the harvest sent them.

But a cloud of sorrow was now gathering over
the pastor's home. Many a joy had inspired him
in his fruitful labors. Eichest blessings had de-
scended upon his flock. He had been a minister
of comfort to hundreds of mourning penitents and
to many afiOicted homes. He vras now to feel the
loss of one who had been often a comforter to him.
Mrs. Hillyer, whose health had been long declin-
ing, was removed by death, April 4, 1828. She
died much regretted, the niother of four sons and
three daughters. The ladies of the congregation
caused a suitable headstone to be pat over her

METHODIST CHQKCH, 193

grave — a permaiient memorial of their esteem and
sorrow.

Left to a lonely ministry at the age of sixty-five
years, and having now one of the largest parishes
in the State, Dr. Hilly er was not averse to receiv-
ing, in the year following this bereavement, the
assistance of a colleague. With this arrangement
in view, he entered into an agreement that for
seven years succeeding the first of May, 1829, he
would accept of an annual salary of $920, instead
of the $ljlo5 which he then received. At the
expiration of that term, he was to receive $800
per annum during his natural life.* In the selec-
tion of an associate, the choice of the congregation
fell upon Mr. George Pierson, a native of the parish.
Having finished his education at Princeton, and
preached here with acceptance as a licentiate, he
was ordained as co-pastor June 22, 1829.

Another division of the Christian army set up
soon their banner. It has been thought to be the
peculiar mission of Methodism to do pioneer work,
but it has not restricted itself to this, nor are its
capabilities and adaptations limited to it. It en-
tered the field here at a late day — at once a gleaner

« By a later agreement, made in 1834, he accepted $600 per
annum, and a donation of $1,000. This was after the separation
of the Second Church. Five-sevenths of the whole were to be
paid by this Society ; the arrangement to go into effect from the
Istof April, 1833.

194 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES.

and a cultivator. A society was formed in 1829
by the Eev. (now Dr.) John Kennaday, who had
charge at that time of the Halsey street church,
Kewark. It numbered about fifteen members.
He preached at first in the old Academy, but after*
ward in the Masonic Hall, which was hired and
fitted up for the purpose by two members of the
society. The church was soon attached to the
Belleville circuit. In 1830 and the following year
a plain wooden edifice was built, which has since
given place to a larger and more tasteful structure
of brick and stone.

The process of disintegTation had now fairly
begun. The rock which had received no visible
fracture from the wear and friction and civil agita-
tions of a hundred years, was beginning to part.
Each fragment, as it fell, helped to dislodge anoth-
er. The spirit of religious enterprise was conta-
gious. The old church was to become the mother
of two dausfhters, to be henceforth nursed at her
side.

Two colonies were planted in the spring and
summer of 1831. The earliest was in March, when
a hundred and eighteen members, accompanied
by the junior pastor, were dismissed, to be organ-
ized as the Second Presbyterian Church. Anions:
them were four elders — Adonijah Osmun, John
Nicol, Aaron Peck, and Peter Campbell. Mr.
Osmun had belonged to the eldership in this church

DIVISION OF FUND. 195

sixteen years, and at the end of twentj-eiglit more
has not laid his office down. Mr. Nicol had been
an elder ten years, and still remains with his vener-
able associate in the sister church. Mr. Campbell
has deceased. The organization was effected the
26th of April ; the pastor installed November 15th.
During the same year a house of worship was
built, which has recently been improved and fur-
nished Avith an organ. The church has gone for-
ward under four ministries in a path of steady
prosperity.

In May, twenty-nine members were dismissed,
who on the 13th of June were constituted as a
Presbyterian church at South Orange. Elder
Samuel Freeman was one of the number, a grand-
son of the ^' Deacon Samuel Freeman " who con-
tributed to the old parsonage in 1748. He lived
only four years to assist in building up the new
society. The first minister was Rev. Cyrus Gil-
dersleeve, an uncle of the elder noAV with us who
bears the name. Mr. Gildersleeve preached there
as stated supply till the first of May, 1833. This
church gathered around it the families belonging
to the sonthern part of the parish.

The two new societies considering themselves
entitled to a share of the fund belonging to this
parish, it was agreed that they should " receive
and enjoy two-sevenths each of the fund belonging
to the First Congregation, at the expiration of the

196 BEV. E. F. HATFIELD,

existing contract with Dr. Hilly er." It is not
known what amounts were distributed under this
arrangement, but they are said to have been incon-
siderable.

It is unnecessary to enter into an explanation of
the particular causes which led to these movements.
They were not of a nature to create tinj perma-
nent barriers to a cordial fellowship between the
churches separated. Dr. Hillyer never ceased to
regard with a pastor's affection those who had so
long been members of his flock, nor to be regarded
by them with a reverence almost filial. He looked
upon them all as his children, and to the end of
his life had the freedom of three pulpits, in which
his venerable form was always a welcome presence.

By Mr. Pierson's removal to another charge, the
entire care of the old society again devolved upon
him. It was, however, but for a short period.
During the year 1832, he was assisted six months
by Kev. Edwin F. Hatfield, who was then just
entering upon the ministerial work, and whose
labors here were attended with a signal blessing.
It was a year long to be remembered in the parish,
and indeed throughout the land.* In the general

* "Curing July and August the cholera prevailed in Xew
York, and the town [Orange] was full of people. The big church
also was filled every Sabbath with earnest hearers." Mr. Hatfield
was here from the first of March to September, " preaching four
times weekly in Orange during the whole time, and frequently in

DK. hillyer's resignation. 197

awakening and outpouring of the Holy Spirit, this
congregation was permitted largely to share, though
the results were not equal to those of the revivals
of 1807 and 1817. Sixt}^ and more were added to
the church. The thoughts of the people turned to
Mr. Hatfield as a candidate for the co-pastorate,
but he decided in favor of a w^estern field, and was
soon after settled in St. Louis. His subsequent
ministry has been in the city of New York, where
he still labors with undiminished usefulness. Of
those who were brought into the kingdom under
Dr. Hatfield's preaching here, a considerable num-
ber remain with us, who remember him with great
affection.

At the close of this season of special labor and
rejoicing. Dr. Hilly er laid down the responsibilities
of a charge which he had now held for thirty-one
years. He was dismissed on the 12th of February,
1833, and his successor, who had occupied the pul-
pit from October, was installed the day following.
From that time till his death, he preached occasion-
ally on the Sabbath, attended religious meetings in
the week, and devoted himself to visitation. For
this he had a fondness, to which were attributable
in no small degree the warm personal attachments
he had won. The writer is informed by one of his
family that he used to em])loy five days of the

the towns round about; boarding with the pastor." Letter from
Dr. Hatfield.

198 OLD AND NEW SCHOOL.

week in pastoral labors, reserving Saturday for the
exclusive business of tlie study. His mind was
doubtless occupied tlirougli the week v*'ith the sub-
jects upon which he was to preach. The work of
Saturday was to collect and arrange his thoughts,
and to draw the outlines of his discourses, which
he seldom wrote out in full. Others may question
whether he did not exalt the imstor at the expense
of the preacher^ whether he did not magnify one
part of his oflQ.ce to the diminishing of the other.
"We think it can hardly have been otherwise. We
do not see how such a distribution of his labors
could have given scope for the full development of
his power in the puljDit. But it was an error, if
such, on the side most easily excused. If criticism
was provoked, it was by the same cause disarmed.
The people loved him, and their charity would
have covered more faults than could ordinarily
have been laid to the account of his public dis-
courses. About seven hundred persons were
brought into the communion of the church under
his ministry.

The division of the Greneral Assembly in 1837
left Dr. Hillyer on the side of the ISTew School.
The event was hj him deplored, but it never
affected his fraternal relations with those from
whom he was ecclesiastically separated. He recom-
mended mutual forbearance and charity, and en-
joyed io the end of his life, which was now near at

FRATERNAL COUNSELS. 199

hand, the unabated good-will and warm personal
esteem of promment men in both divisions of the
church. Among his last public efforts was a ser-
mon preached before the Synod of Newark, from
the words of Abraham to Lot : "■ Let there be no
strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and be-
tween my herdmen and thy herdmen ; for we be
brethren. Is not the whole land before thee?" &c.
(Gen. 13 : 8, 9.) He urged that there was ample
room in our vast country for the fullest activity
and expansion of both Assemblies, and, holding
up the noble example of the Hebrew patriarch,
" Let all," said he, " who have interest at the throne
of grace, and all who love the Kedeemer and the
Church which he purchased with His own blood,
unite their prayers and their influence for the spread
of this benevolent, this heavenly principle. Be-
loved brethren, (he added,) permit me as your elder
brother, as one who has borne the heat and burden
of the day, and whose departure is at hand, affec-
tionately to press these remarks upon the Synod
now convened. "We are indeed a little band.
Separated from many whom we love, we occupy a
small part of the vineyard of our common Lord.
But let us not be discouraged. Let none of our
efforts to do good be paralyzed by the circum-
stances into which we have been driven. Bather
let us with increased zeal and diligence cultivate
the field which we are called to occupy, while we

200 THE LAST COMMUNION.

are always ready to cooperate with our bretliren in
every part of tlie land in spreading the Gospel of
the grace of God, and in saving a wretched world
from ruin." In these noble sentiments we hear an
echo of the voice which spoke to the Synod of
1787. Counsels wise and kind from the Orange
pulpit accompanied the formation of the General
Assembly. Counsels wise and kind were heard
from the same quarter when the harmony of sixty
years was broken. The pen of history may with
gratitude record, that the spirit by which they were
dictated has not passed away, but is more and more
pervading and prevalent throughout the Christian
world.

In two or three months after his appearance be-
fore the Synod, Dr. Hillyer was seized with an
illness that was to hasten the departure which he
felt to be at hand. As the winter advanced, his
strength visibly declined. It was hoped that he
would rally with the return of warm weather, but
the hope was not realized. On the 5th of July he
stood up for the last time to address the people.
It was at a communion, when about thirty persons
made a profession of their faith, and sat down to
commemorate a Saviour's death ; the fruit of a re-
vival in whose scenes his weak condition had not
allowed him to have any active participation. The
following Sabbath his hands were lifted in benedic-
tion over the assembly. This was his last minis-

DEATH OF DR. HILLYER. 201

terial act. As the end approacliecl, he welcomed
it ; retaining his consciousness apparently till the
spirit took its flight. '' I am not afraid to die, said
he, on recovering from a fainting fit. "I have not
the wonderful views of Payson in his dying hours,
nor have I lived such a life. But God is a great
deal better to me now than I had any reason to
expect. I had no expectation that one no more
faithful than I have been would be favored with so
much serenity and joy in the closing scene." The
doctrines of grace which he had preached now
yielded to him their richest consolations. He ex-
pired during the evening of the 28th of August,
1840. His funeral was attended by a large con-
course of people, embracing all classes. The rich
and the poor met together. The aged and the
young felt they had lost a friend.

His funeral sermon was preached by Rev. Dr.
Fisher, who also composed the following inscrip-
tion for the tablet seen on the west side of the
pulpit.

202 TABLET IXSCEIPTIOy.

KEY. ASA HILLYER, D. D.,

\Yas born at Sheffield, Massachusetts :

April 6th, 1765.

He graduated at Yale College, 1786.

He was ordained and installed Pastor

OF the Presbyterian Church of Madison,

Xew Jersey, Sept. 29th, 1789.

On the 22d of July, 1801, at his own request

He was dismissed from that congregation, and

on the 16th of Dec, 1801, he was installed

Pastor of the 1st Presbyterian Church in

Orange, New Jersey. He died Aug. 28th, 18-10,

Aged 77 years 4 months and 22 days.

DR. HILLYER was a pleasant and instructive

companion, a devoted Christian, sound in the

FAITH, a laborious AND SUCCESSFUL PaSTOR,

who WATCHED OVER HIS FLOCK WITH PATERNAL

TENDERNESS AND CARE, KIND AND COURTEOUS TO ALL

WITH WHOM HE HAD INTERCOURSE. ThERE WAS ONTS

DISTINGUISHING EXCELLENCY IN HIS CHARACTER,

HE WAS EMPHATICALLY A PeACE-MaKER. He WAS

A FRIEND TO THE CAUSE OF LITERATURE AND SCIENCE,

AND FOR MANY YEARS A TRUSTEE OF THE CoLLEGE

OF Kew Jersey. He was a leading and efficient

member of most of those benevolent societies

which have been instituted to extend the

Redeemer's kingdom throughout the world.

"Thy kingdom come," was the sincere desire of

HIS heart as WELL AS THE PRAYER OF HIS LIPS.

The Memory of the Just is blessed.

CHAPTER VII.
REV. WILLIAM C. WHITE.

;R. HILLYER'S successor was Rev. William C.
White. He was another son of Massachusetts
— the mother of scholars and clergymen as well as
of States.

Mr. White was born in Sandisfield, Berkshire
County, January 16, 1803. He was of Puritan
stock, being a lineal descendant of Peregrine White,
the first child of the Pilgrim exiles, who was born
on the " Mayflower," after her arrival in Plymouth
harbor, in 1620. His parents, of whom he was the
second son, were Rev. Levi and Mary White, the
latter being the oldest daughter of Rev. John Ser-
geant, for many years a missionary among the
Stockbridge Indians.

He entered Williams College soon after Dr.
Griffin became President of that institution, and
graduated in 1826, in his twenty-fourth year, with
one of the highest honors of his class. About
three years subsequently, he began a course of
theological study at Princeton. In the autumn of

204 SETTLEMENT IN ORANGE.

1830, he was licensed to preach, by the Berkshire
Association, but continued his studies at the semi-
nary another year. His first preaching was at
East Machias, in the State of Maine, where he
labored four months, with a special blessing on his
labors. He was afterward engaged six months in
Tyringham, Mass., leaving the latter place in the
summer of 1832. In October of that year he ac-
cepted an in\T.tation to visit this parish. It was
soon after Mr. Hatfield's temporary labors here had
closed, and while the church v/as rejoicing over the
fruits of a precious revival. The result of the
acquaintance was the presentation of a call, which
he decided upon accepting, in preference to one or
two invitations which he is said to have had from
other fields. On the 13th of the following Febru-
ary, the day after Dr. Hillyer's dismission, he was
ordained and installed by the Presbytery of New-
ark. Dr. Weeks preached. Dr. Hillyer gave the
charge to the pastor, and Dr. Fisher to the people.
The text of the day was 1 Tim. iv. 16 — " Take
heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine ; continue
in them: for in doing this tliou shalt both save
thyself and them that hear thee. " It was worthy
to have been the motto of a ministerial life charac-
teristically studious and single-aimed.

He was now thirty years of age, and had been
married a year and a half. The chosen associate of
his life and ministrv was Clarissa, dausfliter of

VIEW OF THE PARISH. 205

Joseph Dart, of Middle Haddam, Conn., to whom
he was united in August, 1831, soon after the com-
pletion of his preparatory studies.

Since the settlement of his predecessor, the cir-
cumstances of the parish had greatly changed.
The population was less homogeneous. There were
now denominational rivalries. Two ncAV Presby-
terian churches had sprung up, vv^hich had taken
from this about a hundred and fifty members, and
from the congregation a much larger number.
While there remained a larger membership than
Mr. Hillyer had found when he entered the parish,
in 1801, and the society had a larger and better
house of worship, the tendency of events was less
favorable. The church, at the beginning of the
century, was like a tree planted alone by the rivers
of water. Its roots had struck deep ; its branches
were many ; its life was in full vigor; it was ma-
turing its fruits. Now it had cast its fruits around
it, and a number of young and vigorous scions
were growing up at its side. Into these not a little
of its life and strength had passed. Toward these,
as the newer growth, the religious zeal and enter-
prise of the population were powerfully attracted.
No man could now draw around himself the sup-
ports of a large and undivided Christian com-
munity, as Dr. Hillyer had done. The old order
of things was broken up, and a new order begin-
ning. Orange was in a transition state. The field

10

20H DIMINISHED MKMBERSHIF.

had just been mapped out anew by its great Pro-
prietor, for the joint occupancy and generous com-
petition of many cultivators.

The number of communicants reported in 18S1,
was 596. The two colonies that went out imme-
diately after, reduced the number, the next year,
to 439. The statistics of the following year were
not reported, but in 1834; we find a mysterious
descent of the fiofures to 294. What had become
of the 145 member?^ who thus disappeared ? There
had been no new organization in that intervah
The diminution is probabl}^ to be accounted for
in two ways ; first, by a continued and somewhat
rapid absorption into the recently formed churches;
and, secondly, by a purgation of the roll, which
churches of long standing find to be occasionally
necessary. Members removins; to a distance are
not always careful of their church relations. They
go with no " epistles of commendation," and suffer
years to roll by without applying for any. At lasty
many of them being lost to the knowledge of the
church, and having, by their neglect, no further
rights to its communion, their names are dropped
from its roll. If they are still living, and their
location known, it is sometimes the case that a cor-
respondence is opened with them for the purpose of
having their relations transferred, leading to nu-
merous dismissions at about the same time. This
has been done hy the Session since the writer's

CHURCH OFFICERS. 207

connection with the church. To both these causes
it is not unlikely that the diminution above alluded
to was owing. Possibly, too — a thing not uncom-
mon with aged pastors — some oversights were com-
mitted by Dr. Hilly er in the matter of erasing or
marking the names of members dismissed. It is
evident that Mr. White's first report to the Presby-
tery, in 1834, was based upon a census taken of
the actual communicants, found by him after his
settlement.

The changes coincident with a long pastorate had
largely affected the of&cial record of the church. The
Session of 1801 had but a single representative in
that of 1883. Deacon Baldwin, from the eastern part
of the parish ; Deacon Peck, from the same neigh-
borhood ; Deacon Perry, of the Mountain ; Linus
Dodd, from Doddtown ; and Amos Harrison, from
the Yalley, had been successively borne to the
churchyard; the last, only a month before the new
pastor's introduction to the parish. Aaron Munn
and John Lindsley had deceased, and Henry Osborn
was removed to Connecticut Farms. Of the elders
of later appointment, Nathaniel Bruen, Daniel P.
Stryker, the second Joseph Pierson, and Daniel
Condit, had been removed by death ; four others
were in the Second church ; one in that of South
Orange. There remained, of the more ancient, the
elder Joseph Pierson, now in the forty-second year
of his office ; and Moses Condit, in the twenty-

208 TRIALS OF FAITH.

eiglitli year. Both had passed their three score
and ten. The younger men were, Aaron R. Har-
rison, Amos Yincent, Abraham Harrison, Josiah
Frost, Daniel D. Condi t, Ira Canfield and Samuel
L. Pierson. With these, Abiathar Harrison took
his seat on the 4th of March — the first meeting of
the Session after Mr. White's installation — and
Jonathan Squier Williams a year afterward.

Surrounded by these counsellors and helpers, the
newly-settled pastor addressed himself to his work.
There were some circumstances of his position, be-
sides those we have noticed, which were not entirely
favorable. He was in the wake of a great religions
excitement, which was to be followed, in the
churches generally, by a long calm. The church
had just reaped a harvest ; a long husbandry would
be needed to prepare the ground for another like it.
His honored predecessor was still living, the object
of peculiar veneration and of long-cherished attach-
ments ; and for his support provision was still to
be made. When we add to these circumstances the
recent loss of membership by colonization, the com-
petition commenced by other denominations, and
the disposition of the young people, especially, to
flow into the newer conofres^ations, Ave can see em-
barrassments and discouragements in the path of
one whose heart had no place for any jealous re-
sfrets.

Mr. White was settled with a salarv of six hun-

NEW PARSONAGE. 209

dred dollars. The old Darsonasre still brou2;lit a

J. >_J o

a small rent to the Society, as a tenement house, but
was of no service to the pastor. After boarding
three months, he hired a small new cottage in Main
street, on the western slope of the hill^ beyond what
is now Boyd street. The place is at present owned
by Mr, Hooker, by whom the cottage has been re-
moved to Boyd street. He afterward lived two
years in Scotland street, within and near the pres-
ent bend of the railroad ; his rent, the second year^
being paid by the parish. In 1836, measures were
taken to provide another parsonage. Abraham
Harrison offering a lot " near his residence, at two
dollars per foot, fronting on a new street soon to be
opened," a purchase was made of about fifty feet,
to which he added an equal quantity, by way of gift.
The location was in High street, where Mrs. White
now resides. A house was built by subscription
and contract for $1,875. It was entered the next
year, and was to be the pastor's home till his re-
moval to the " house not made with hands."

A work of this kind, promoting the minister's
comfort and freedom from care, has an inspiring
influence on both him and the people. Their
hearts are warmed and expanded by the deed, and
his by the benefit. God, too, is honored, and is not
slow to open the windows of His high habitation,
and to pour out upon His people that blessing
which is faith's reward. If we could doubt that

210 FIRST BAPTIST CHUKCH.

Mr. White now went into his study with a stronger
heart ; that he wrote his sermons with more spirit,
and preached them with more power; that he
prayed with a quickened faith and more earnest
thanksgivings ; that his people prayed and wrought
with him more ardently and hopefully; and that
God fulfilled His promise to those who devise liberal
things ; the doubt is removed by the next year's
history of gathered fruit. The records of the Ses-
sion, which tell of twenty persons admitted to sac-
ramental privileges, are but a record of divine
faithfulness, and of the spiritual economy of pro-
viding comfortably for the spiritual laborer.

Another religious enterprise now sprang up on
the eastern border of the town, and within the
ancient limits of the parish. This was the First
Baptist Church of Orange, which was constituted
the 14th of June, 1837. Its first pastor was Eev.
John Beetham. The position of this church, be-
tween Orange and Eoseville, in a locality not thickly
settled, has not been favorable to a rapid growth.
Its light has, however, continued to shine, leading
many to the knowledge of Christ.

We may notice here an act in the legislation of
the State, which was destined to affect the future
status of the Orange Academy. It was the act
passed in 1838, regulating the boundaries of school
districts, and the mode of administering the com-
mon schools. In the application of the new law,

WEST BLOOMFIELD CHURCH. 211

tlie Academy, falling witliin the seventh district of
the township — known henceforth as the Academy
district — was shorn of its long honors, and brought
down to the level of a common school. Its age, and
the need felt of having a better building for academic
purposes, were circumstances which had their influ-
ence in leading to this change. It had maintained
its classical preeminence more than half a century.

At West Bloomfield, (the Granetown of our his-
tory,) a Presbyterian church was formed in August,
1838. This was an outgrowth from the Bloomfield
Church, which had grown to be one of the largest
and most flourishing churches in the Presbytery of
Newark. Nearly as many persons were dismissed
from the latter as had constituted its first member-
ship, forty years before. This new parish on the
north was the fifth in the circle now formed around
the ancient '^ Mountain Society," of the Presbyte-
rian order, outside of the modern limits of New-
ark.

Among the items recorded at this period by the
trustees, is the appointment of James Matthews
as sexton, with a salary of sixty dollars a year.
In January, 1839, " AYilliam Condit and Smith
Williams were appointed a committee on the sing-
ing in the church;" and, "inasmuch as intimation
had been given to the female part of the choir
during the past yetir that some present should be
made to them, it was resolved that a Psalm and

212 LECTL'KE-itOOM.

Hymn-book, with the select hymns, should be given
to each of them." This book, compiled by Dr.
Samuel Worcester, of Massachusetts, and comprising
"Watts, with a copious addition from other sources,
was to continue tw^enty years longer in the hands
of the choir.

Till the year 1889, the Society was without a
lecture-room. The w'eekly meetings continued to
be held in the old Academy, a place not very con-
venient either in its dimensions or its furnishings.
On Sabbath evenings a third service was held in
the church. It w^as now determined to build a
lecture-room "thirty feet wide, forty-five feet long,
and with posts about tw^elve feet high, agreeably to
the outlines of the plan proposed by a committee
and adopted at a parish meeting, February 25th."
The house was built by subscription, at a cost of
$1,000. The subscribers having been personally
consulted respecting the site, "an overwhelming
majority were in favor of placing the building on
Day street," where it yet remains, ■with some recent
repairs.

This was a new offering made to the Lord. It
was accepted, and made the antecedent of another
display of His favor. In the year 1840, the Spirit
again came dovrn. It was the last summer of Dr.
Hillyer's life, and, though he murmured not, it was
a trial to him that his wasting energies would not
suffer him to take any public part in the work.

GAINS AND LOSSES. 213

His last prayers were blended with it. His last
praises, before he joined the seraphim, were his
thanksgivings over it. His last public address, as
we have before stated, was at the sacramental table,
at which sat, for the first time, near thirty rejoicing
believers. The scene was impressive. It was a
solemn farewell — to the minister who sat by his
side, to the assembly on whom fell his tender bene-
dictions. But, it was a glad farewell. He could say
to a multitude whom he loved, and to many just
converted, " We meet soon in heaven."

During the year 1842 the church received an=
other refreshing. The report of the following
April shows an addition of fifty persons, of whom
thirty-six were admitted by profession. The loss,
however, by death and removal, appears to have
exceeded the gain, the aggregate membership being
five less than the year previous.

This decrease continued. In 1850, there were
reported but 223 members. The number had now
fallen to the point from which it rose in 1806 — the
earliest date at which it stands recorded. From
that date there had been a regular ascent, till the
point of culmination was reached, in 1 827 ; then a
descent, for about an equal period. It was like the
rising and falling of the ocean wave; for a time
carried up, and then as inevitably carried down,
by the force and tendency of circumstances.

There were other circumstances, however, which
10*

214: SPIRIT OF BENEVOLENCE.

had continued to operate steadily in a favorable
direction. The spirit of religious benevolence which
had recently developed itself in so many forms, was
making its frequent appeals to the churches, and
stirring their holiest sympathies. The extensive
revivals of 1832 had given it a quickening impulse.
Eloquent and earnest men were traversing the
country as agents of the different societies. And,
in other fields, as well as this, while the spiritual
husbandry was less fruitful in conversions, it was
more fruitful in contributions and offerino-s. God
was working by a new method, and upon a large
scale, to bring into exercise the faith, and love, and
zeal of His peojDle.

We are, unfortunately, not able to determine
with exactness the benevolent statistics of the
parish, until within a period quite recent. For
several years preceding 1833, contributions had
been made to a missionary society in Essex County,
auxiliary to the American Board. The sums con-
tributed cannot be ascertained, nor those given to
other objects in which Dr. Hilly er is known to have
been actively interested. Our researches in this
direction, for the period following Mr. "White's set-
tlement, have been more satisfactory, though their
results cannot be relied upon for perfect accuracy
during his ministry. The statistical tables appended
to this work will exhibit those results, and the
reader will find them indicative of a considerable

REVIVAL OF 1850. 215

enlargement of action in the line of religious benef-
icence. There was an opening of heart, and an
expansion of charity, while the church was dimin-
ished in numbers.

The year 1850 was another year of blessing.
Signs of awakening appeared early in the winter.
The work affected, especially, the younger part of
the congregation, and went f ~>rward chiefly under
the ordinary appliances of the Word, Among
those who rendered some occasional assistance, was
Rev. Charles Bentley, a clergyman of New England.
In the course of the year, thirty-four persons were
received into fellowship as the fruit of the revival.

Another cause was now operating visibly upon
the character and growth of the congregation. By
the construction of the Morris and Essex Railroad,
the village had many years been placed in close re-
lations with Newark and New York. It had not,
however, attracted hitherto the attention which it
since has, from families seeking rural homes in the
neighborhood of those cities. A long-existing prej-
udice against New Jersey had kept from multi-
tudes in the over-crowded metropolis a knowledge
of the inviting features of this region. This igno-
rance could not long continue after the opening of
railway communication that converted Orange into
a suburb of Newark, and that made it one of the
most accessible, as it is one of the most attractive,
of the rural villages that environ New York. The

2 IB A NEW ERA.

sharp eye of enterprise, the anxious eye of the in-
vahd seeking health, the eye of the retiring mer-
chant and man of taste, began, ere long, to be
turned in this direction. At no place, within the
same distance, was there a happier combination of
the characteristics of scenery and climate, desirable
in a country home.

The tide once beginning to flow, was certain to
continue, and to rise. It began with the comple-
tion and successful working of the railroad. The
first immigrants were the means of bringing others.
The old farms around the village, much as they
loved their ancient boundaries, and shrank from the
dissecting knife, began to lose their integrity. The
surveyor's line was stretched upon them. Streets
were run across them. The field became a lawn,
in the midst of which rose the merchant's mansion.
The tapering knoll was crowned with stately ar-
chitecture, and covered with shrubbery and blos-
soms.

During the latter years of Mr. Vf hite's ministry,
the effects of this immigration were appearing in
all the religious societies of the place. New ele-
ments were commingling with the old, producing, as
a matter of course, some friction, some effervescence.
But the time had come. Innovation and trans-
formation were ine^dtable. And many who de-
plored the social changes which their tempting
grounds and theii* railway stock had contributed to

IlEPAIRS AND ALTERATIONS. 217

•

bring about, found a large pecuniary solace for their
dissatisfaction.

With these changes came another in 1851, having
reference to the interior arrangements of the sane-
tuar J. The pulpit, at the soutli end, and the gallery
opposite, were made to change places. The front
of the galleries was lowered, and the entire house
reseated, — the seats introduced, together with the
pulpit, being transferred from the Duane Street
Presbyterian Church, in the city of New York.
The walls were papered ; furnaces were placed
under the house ; and an organ was purchased.
These improvements, exclusive of the last item,
were made at an expense of $5,845. The organ,
made by Henry Pilch er, of Newark, had been in
use, and was purchased for $800. By these new
furnishings the house was improved in appearance,
the comfort of the congregation was promoted, and
an impressive auxiliary supplied to one part of
public devotion. While they were not universally
approved, there was a general concurrence in them
on the part of the pew-holders.

The parish now provided for its current expen-
ditures by annuities received from the pews. The
method, which has not been changed, is the follow-
ing: An estimate of the fiscal wants of the ensuing
year is made by the treasurer, and submitted at
each parish meeting. Upon this, as a basis, the
appropriations of the year are voted. The annul-

218 GRACE CHURCir.

ties are then graduated to the amount required.
Each pew has a valuation, at which it may be pur-
chased or rented. If purchased, the assessment is
simply on its estimated value. If rented, it is seven
per cent, higher. The rule is simple and reason-
able, and its working, in this congregation, has been
highly satisfactory.

The year 1854 witnessed the beginning of a new
religious enter[3rise, by members of the Protestant
Episcopal Church. The movement was entered
upon in connection with the labors of Rev. Joshua
D. Berry, D. D., who became rector of the new
oraranization. The church was formed in March,
and Dr. Berry left the charge in the following
January. In July, 1855, it was assumed by Rev.
James S. Bush, the present rector. On the 12th of
August, the next year, the corner-stone of a house
of worship was laid, which was consecrated in July,
1858.. This edifice (Grrace Church) stands on the
old parsonage lot described in our narrative. It is
a few rods east of the site of the old parsonage
house, which, after having long ceased to be used
by the parish, and having passed from its owner-
ship, was finally demolished in 1854. It had been
standing a hundred and five years.

Sacred as were the associations which once had
clustered round this ancient domicil, they had all
been separated from it, or nearly so, by its later
uses, and nobody thought of expending upon it a

END OF THE OLD PARSONAGE. 219

sigh or a sorrow when its destruction took place.
One, however, who was yet but a stranger in
Orange, obtaining some knowledge of its historj^,
and thinking it a pity that a house of such an-
tiquity should pass away with no attempt to pre-
serve its time-worn features, engaged an artist of
Newark to daguerreotype it. This was Edward
Gardner, editor of the Orange Journal, to whose
seasonable forethought our readers are indebted for
the accompanying view.

The destruction of the edifice was not the de-
struction of its material, and it may interest the
present townsman of Orange, as he steps into the
Willow Hall Market^ or walks over the almost
unnoticed bridge in front of it that separates his
feet from the waters of Paroiv's Brooh^ to know his
personal proximity to some of the enduring relics
of the Old Parsonage, As a " beam out of the
timber " of the First Meeting-House still remains
to tell something of its substance and form, so
more than one "stone out of the wall" of the
second minister's home still endures, a not unfit-
ting symbol of joys and affections which, like itself,
have passed into other relations without ceasing to
exist. The building having been purchased for
removal by Albert Pierson, its "precious stones"
(which, like the piety they once enshrined, were
none " the worse for wear ") were set anew, some
in improvements about his own dwelling, some in

220 MR. white's resignation.

the foundations of Willow Hall, and some in the
bridge over the stream hard b}^ ; while others have
found a still sacred use in the new Cemetery, where
there are " sermons in stones " if anywhere. It is
likely they will long remain there, associated hence-
forth with the solemn eloquence of the dead.

While this antique home was undergoing disso-
lution, another tabernacle, for whose preservation
many prayers were offered, was beginning to give
signs of premature debility. Mr. White's health
was evidently failing for two or three years before
he resigned his charge. He was troubled with
vertigo and other symptoms of bilious derange-
ment. His physical energies declined. It was
manifest to his friends that his strength was becom-
ing unequal to the labors and cares which increased
upon him. Yet he struggled to sustain them lill
the spring of 1855, when he yielded to what he
now felt to be a necessity, and asked the church to
unite with him in a request for his dismission. On
the 18th of April this request was laid before the
Presbytery, and the pastoral relation dissolved.
His ministry had extended through twenty-two
years.

Eelease from labor brought no improvement of
health. He still declined, but was able to keep up
some intercourse with the people. A presentiment
that he had not long to live seemed to inspire him
Avith an unusual t^juderness of feeling. It was

HIS SUCCESSOK. 221

noticed in his family how subdued, patient, trust-
ful and thankful was the spirit manifested in his
conversation and prayers. With the trial of faith
came the sufficient grace. There was no complain-
ing, but a higher reach after the joys of the Com-
forter. He spoke often of the great goodness of
God. His graces were fast ripening under the
beams of that love which makes the showers of
affliction pi^oductive of heavenly fruits.

The pulpit was supplied during the summer and
autumn, about five months, by Eev. Silas Billings,
then residing in Brooklyn. His preaching was
highly acceptable, and he would have stood favor-
ably before the congregation as a candidate for the
charge, but for a bodily infirmity which made him
undesirous of a settlement. In January, 1856, the
writer was invited to the pulpit. Having occupied
it two Sabbaths, he received an expression of the
united desires of the parish that he should settle
among them permanently in the gospel work. The
committee through whom this expression was con-
veyed, were instructed to urge his acceptance of
the call, and as early an entrance upon the duties
of the pastorate as his circumstances would permit.
He was accordingly settled without much delay, on
the 14th of February.

About the beginning of that month Mr. White
left his house for the last time. He was taken in a
carriage to see his friend, Judge Stephen D. Hay,

222 MR. white's death.

who was lying very ill and near his end . The
intendew was to both an affectinsf one. It was
closed with prayer. They parted, but for a speedy
reunion. Mr. White rode home. For several days
he continued feeble, yet without any symptoms
sj)ecially alarming. On the evening of the 7th,
at about nine o'clock, he complained of an unusual
illness and lay down. A cup of cocoa was soon
brought him. He drank a little, and fell back
upon his pillow. His wife spoke to him, but he
made no reply except by signs, laying his hand on
his head. In a few minutes he expired. His age
was fifty-three, but he had the appearance of being
much older. The writer had seen him but once.

This sad and sudden event made a deep impres-
sion on the community. It took place on Thurs-
day evening. His funeral the next Sabbath drew
to the church an immense concourse of people.
The clergy of other denominations were present,
with whom he had ever cultivated the most friendly
relations. Several of the neighboring ministers of
his own order also attended, and took part in the
funeral service. A sermon, from Eev. 14 : 18,
was preached by Rev. John Crowell, of the Second
Church. From the front of that pulpit in which
he had often stood, and around which and upon
the galleries hung the drapery of grief, the good
man and faithful pastor was borne to his rest in the
cemetery.

l^III^JUTE OF THE SESSION. 223

It was a happy circumstance to his family, and
but an act of justice to him, that the parish had
voted to present to him the house and lot which he
had occupied, together with a donation in money
of one thousand dollars. His children were three
sons and a daughter, the last being at the time of
his death about two years old. Mrs. White is still
with us, with her fatherless charge.

The Session of the church placed upon their
records the following minute :

" It having pleased God to remove suddenly
from this life, on the 7th inst., the Eev. William C.
White, late pastor of this church, the Session
unanimously resolve —

"1. That they record the event with feelings of
submission to the Divine will, and of gratitude for
the many blessings conferred upon us by the great
Head of the Church in the useful ministry of his
servant.

"2. That they cherish with much esteem and
affection the memory of their late pastor, who
during twenty-two years, and under increasing
bodily infirmities in the later period of his minis-
try, devoted himself with great assiduity and faith-
fulness to the varied and arduous labors of his
station. With a well-disciplined mind, studious
habits, clear views of divine truth, and a manifest
and tender love for souls, he prosecuted his work
with many evidences of the divine favor, till com-

224 HIS CHARACTER.

pelled to desist by the necessities of failing health
and vigor.

" 3. That they tender to his bereaved family
their Christian sympathies in this sudden and deep
affliction."

The Presbytery in April adopted a minnte of
similar purport, drawn up by Rev. Joseph S. Galla-
gher, for some years pastor of the Second church.
With his brethren in the Presbytery Mr. White's
relations had always been amicable and cordial.
And Avith them, as with others, his accurate judg-
ment and unofficious worth gave him an influence
not always connected with the gifts that make a
brilliant and popular oratory.

He was a man of medium height, rather strongly
built ; kind and affectionate in his familv ; modest
and unseeking in his more public relations. The
number of persons added to the Church during his
ministrv was somewhat over three hundred.

The following is the inscription of a tablet re-
cently erected to his memory, and placed at the
east of the pulpit. It was written by Rev. F. A.
Adams, formerly Principal of the Orange Acade-
my.

TABLET INSCRIPTION. 225

REV. WILLIAM C. WHITE,

BORN

In Sandisfield, Mass., Jan. 16, 1803 ;

GrRADUATED

At Williams College in 1826,

At Princeton Theological Seminary in 1831 ;

Ordained and installed

Over the First Church in Orange, Feb. 13, 1833.

In the labors of this charge he spent his entire strength. His
love for the tuorJc drew into it all the powers of his raind^ and
the resources of his growing culture. A rare native sagacity
joined with habitual study gave symmetry and strength to his
discourses. Clothed with humility^ he found his chief joy in
the duties of Teacher^ Pastor^ Counsellor and Friend to his
people. Beyond this sphere he sought neither influence nor
place ; ivitliin it, no rest nor relaxation.

On account of failing health he was

released from his charge April 18, 1855 ;

Died February 7, 1856.

CHAPTER YIII.

FROM 1856 TO 1860.

THE five pastorates througli which we have
followed the line of this history, illustrate the
practicability of what we believe to have been a
primitive idea of the pastoral relation, namely, per-
manency. The first continued at least twenty-five
years. The second was closed by death at the end
of fourteen years. The third was prolonged to
thirty-four years. The fourth to thirty-one. The
fifth to twenty-two. This makes an average length
of a quarter of a century. With respect to the
utility and expediency of such a continuity of
ministerial labor in the same congregation, opinions
differ. Many advantages are gained by it. A
minister long settled is like a tree long planted and
left undisturbed ; he has had time to grow, and to
take root in the hearts of his people. He is under
the necessity of continuous study. He acquires a
large local influence. He is more identified with
the people, and is more secure against personal reac-

THE writer's settlement. 227

tions in tlie faithful discharge of his duties. Wheth-
er the disadvantages are equal, or greater, we shall
not here discuss. The theory is one which enters
into the constitution of the Presbyterian Church,
though not now as closely followed as it once was.

It was our intention to drop the pen with the
office which it has now performed. The task is
discharged for which it was chiefly taken ; that
of exploring a past believed to contain enough of
memorable names and deeds to deserve such a
labor. Bnt the four years which have now nearly
gone since the closing event of the last chapter,
have too powerfully impressed their changes on the
social and religious aspects of the town^ to be left
without some notice. Human enterprise has in
that period accomplished much, and God has done
still more. We shall therefore follow the thread of
events a little farther, and notice briefly such exist-
ing features of our town as will be likely to interest
the readers of another generation.

It has been stated that the writer became pastor
of the First Church, February 14, 1856. It was
just a week after the death of his predecessor, and
but four days after the gathering of the mournful
assembly for the burial service. The happier emo-
tions excited by the occasion were not a little soft-
ened by the sadder ones which had so recently
prevailed. To add to the solemnities which death
threw around the event, the demise of Judge

228 CHURCH OFFICERS.

Stephen D. Day took place simultaneously with it,
at the distance only of the street's width. He had
been an influential and highly respected member of
the church and the community.

The following clergymen took part in the instal-
lation service. Eev. John Crowell, of the Second
church, Orange, presided and put the constitutional
questions. Eev. James M. Sherwood, of Bloom-
field, preached a sermon from Matt. 13 : 33. Eev.
Daniel W. Poor and Eev. James P. Wilson, D. D.,
of Kew^ark, delivered the respective charges to the
pastor and the peoj)le. Eev. Eobert W. Landis, of
Paterson, who was moderator of the Presbytery,
offered prayer.

The elders of the church at this time were Josiah
Frost, Ira Canfield, Jonathan S. Williams, Smith
Williams, Cyrus Gildersleeve, and Charles E. Day.
The deacons were Josiah Frost and Moses B. Can-
field. By reason of his age and infirmities, espe-
cially hardness of hearing, Mr. Frost had ceased to
take any active part in the affairs of the parish.
Of his earlier contemporaries in of&ce, Amos Vin-
cent, (who resigned of&ce in 1840,) Abraham Har-
rison, and Daniel D. Condit, had deceased. Samuel
L. Pierson and Abiathar Harrison had left the place.
Deacon Abraham Harrison had been a man of dis-
tinguished usefulness in the church, having iti early
life studied for the ministry and received license to
preach.

VIEW OF THE PARISH. 229

To tlie elders just named tliere were added in
the following May, James Greacen, John Boynton,
Ira Harrison and Dr. Stephen Wickes ; of whom
the first two had held the same office in Brooklyn,
the last in Troy, N. Y. Erastus A. Graves and
Cyrus S. Minor were at the same time added to the
number of deacons. The two offices, which had
so long been held together, were now separated,
except in the person of the senior officer, Mr. Frost.

The church had a membership of about two
hundred and fifty, including those who had re-
moved from the parish without a change of their
church relations. The attendance upon the Sab-
bath services was from five to six hundred. About
a hundred and seventy-five families were comprised
in the parish, though not all of them regular at-
tendants upon jDublic worship. Of those who held
seats in the sanctuary, a few were members of
another denomination, or by habit and preference
connected with it, who were waiting for a church
of their own order to be organized in this part of
the town. There was a prosperous Sabbath-school,
with about a hundred and fifty pupils, under the
superintendence of Mr. Charles M. Saxton. The
course of religious services comprised a morning
and afternoon preaching service on the Lord's day,
one session of the Sabbath-school, a Sunday even-
ing prayer-meeting, a Tuesday evening lecture, and
a prayer-meeting sustained by Sunday-school teach-
11

230 VALLEY MISSION SCHOOL.

ers and others, wliicli was held on Friday evening
at private residences. The hist has been since
transferred to the lecture-room, and made a congre-
gational service. At various outposts of the parish,
the pastor had regular preaching appointments.

There was also a missionary Sabbath-school in
the neighborhood now known as Orange Yalley,
between ISTorth and South Orange. This was
originated in 1854 by Mr. James Greacen, then a
new resident of the town. Having located his
home in that vicinity, his heart was moved to
■undertake the work, and he devoted himself to it
with untiring zeal to the end of his life. The
school was assembled in the afternoon of the Sab-
bath, after the second service at the church. It
was gTadually strengthened by the confidence which
its success inspired. Teachers came in because
they were needed, and these again drew in more
children. Mr. Greacen, also, for a year and a half,
kept up at the same place a Sunday evening relig-
ious service, which was sometimes conducted by
himself alone, and which seldom failed to draw
together as many people as could be comfortably
seated in the school-room.. This he at last, with
much reluctance, discontinued, from a conviction
that his engageruents and labors were too much for
his strength.

"The writer, during the autumn that followed his

NOETH ORANGE BAPTIST CHURCH. 231

settlement, had a visitation of sickness wlaicli inter-
rupted his work a little more than two months.
It was a very sudden and violent attack of bilious
fever, supposed to have been the result of a condi-
tion of health which he brought with him to the
parish. He had the year before been travelling in
the West, where he contracted the ague and fever,
from the effects of which he had not entirely re-
covered. The present illness seized him in the
pulpit, in the midst of a sermon, compelling a sus-
pension of the service. It was the most critical
sickness of his life. Though brought near the
grave, he was by the goodness of God permitted to
return to his labors, and to enjoy more vigorous
health than before.

We have already noticed the formation of a
Baptist church at East Orange. Its distance from
the families residing nearer the mountain led to a
new movement by that denomination in 1857.
The IN'orth Orange Baptist Church was constituted
November 4th, with twenty-seven members, and
on the following day was publicly recognized by a
Council, who at the same time ordained to the min-
istry Mr. Jerome B. Morse, the pastor elect. The
moment was auspicious for such an enterprise. A
powerful revival was just beginning in the place.
The church shared the copious baptism, and now
numbers above one hundred communicants. It
worships in Waverly Hall.

282 DEATH OF MR. GREACEN.

While the Council was convened for the ordina-
tion service just mentioned, a devoted elder of this
church was removed bj death. It was the founder
of the mission Sabbath-school — a man of pure
mind and earnest purpose, a Christian whose aim
was single, a church officer able and faithful. He
threw into the cause of his Redeemer all the ener-
gies of his mind and body. On a Sabbath during
his sickness, feeling unable to meet his Sunday-
school, he sat up and wrote to the children a short
letter. The sun shone in brightly at his wdndow,
and his feelings caught a sympathetic glow. He
w^rote of the beautiful sunlight, and of the brighter
light that filled his soul from the Sun of Righteous-
ness. Heaven was coming near. In a few days
his body was laid in the vault of the cemetery, to
which it was followed by a long procession. He
died at the age of forty-two. The oldest child and
only daughter of the pastor was laid beside him
six weeks afterward, in her tenth year.

God was smiting the shepherd and taking the
sheep. But He smote with the rod of His faithful-
ness.

These events were in the midst of a financial
crisis which was spreading anxiety and gloom over
the whole country. But a new and marvellous
religious movement was also beginning. The un-
certainties on which even colossal fortunes were
seen to stand, were leading men, and especially

REVIVAL OF 1858. 233

Christian men, to think more of the true riches.
There was everywhere a quickening of the relig-
ious life. The churches of Orange felt it.

The first manifestations of the revival were in
the SecoDd congregation, and in that its greatest
power was witnessed. In the First church, the
death of Elder Greacen, followed by a death in the
pastor's family, made a visible impression. The
week before the latter occurred, the annual visita-
tion of the church by a deputation of the Presby-
tery took place. The visitors were Eev. Kobert
Aikman, of Elizabeth, and Kev. Dr. Kowland, of
the Park church, Newark. A good attendance
was secured, and the religious feeling was percepti-
bly deepened. In January, a daily morning prayer-
meeting was commenced, which was held in the
lecture-room. This was continued till June. It
was a five-month series of those happy scenes

" where spirits blend,

"Where friend holds fellowship with friend."

Christians came together •' with one accord." All
classes were represented. The New York mer-
chant was present, to leave a prayer and a blessing
behind, ere he stepped upon the train. The Orange
merchant, lawyer, physician, tradesman and farmer
were there, with wives and daughters, agreed as
touching the things they came to ask. A similar
meeting, which was earlier established, and which

234 DAILY PRAYER-MEETINGS.

continued more than a year, was held every morn-
ing in the lecture-room of the Second church.
The other denominations had also their special
services ; while in March, a union noonday prayer-
meeting was instituted at Willow Hall, which was
kept up two months or more, and in all the meet-
ings there were frequent and pleasant interchanges
by members of the different churches. Pastors
and private Christians were mutually stimulated to
zeal and love by this intercourse. And He who
gives and rewards each grace, made their zeal and
love, their prayers and appeals, mighty in the sal-
vation of others.

The distinguishing features of this revival were
the same here as elsewhere. It exhibited, in a pe-
culiar manner, the signs of a divine work. In no
previous awakening were human agencies less con-
spicuous, and the immediate power of God more
manifest. The Holy Spirit came not down, indeed,
in tongues of fire. His influences were rather like
those of the sun, invisible, diffusive, still, yet work-
ing in the deepest life of the church.

These influences were remarkably connected with
prayer as a means. There was a general and extra-
ordinary spirit of prayerfulness among Christians
of the different denominations. A new and mys-
terious attraction drew people to the prayer-meet-
ings. Those who never before attended were now
seen, and those who came but seldom were now

DISCOVERED GIFTS. 235

regular attendants. Men wlio liacl never prayed
in public would rise and offer prayer with great
readiness and fervor. • And even while they were
calling upon God, were answers given in the con-
version of souls.

With this increase of prayerfulness there was a
wonderful increase of zeal and activity among
private Christians. This was throughout the coun-
try a prominent characteristic of the work. It may
be doubted whether, since the days of the Apostles,
there has been so large a development of the lay
talent of the churches. Long-buried gifts were ex-
humed. The lame bes:an to walk and the dumb
to speak. The praying force of the First church
was doubled. Men began to appreciate their long-
neglected privileges. Christians of both sexes
were stirred up to extraordinary efforts for bring-
ing to Christ the unconverted around them. And
it was most interesting to see how a few words,
kindly spoken by a friend, were often the power of
God to the salvation of those whom the Word
preached had never visibly affected. The days
had come, of which it was said, " I will pour out of
my Spirit upon all flesh : and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy." And while individual
Christians were thus " speaking the truth in love,
and growing up into Him in all things, which is the
head, even Christ : the whole body, fitly joined to-
gether and compacted by that which every joint sup-

236 A FALSE IMPRESSION.

plied, according to the effectual working in the
measure of every part, made increase of the body
unto the edifying of itself in love."

The unusual attention that was drawn to the
prayer-meetings, and the manifest success that fol-
lowed the faithful endeavors of private Christians,
created impressions in some minds to the disparage-
ment of the ministry. While the secular papers
were giving daily reports of the progress and inci-
dents of the revival, it was more than once hinted
by them that this was a work wdiich lay outside of
the sphere of ministerial labor. The great Head
of the church, it was intimated, was not in this case
saving men and carrying His kingdom forward hy
the foolishness of jpreacMng^ but setting that aside for
another agency, or, at least, subordinating it to the
latter. ISTothing could be farther from the truth.
The idea arose, evidenth^, from the fact, that the
revival was not promoted by the labors of men
known as revival preachers^ but went on in connec-
tion with the ordinary or extraordinary labors of
the pastors. It was a harvest for which they had
long been preparing the ground, and there was
no class of laborers more active in gathering it.
^linisters were everywhere leaders in the work.
Each had his hands so full of it that they could
scarcely assist one another. They added to their
preaching appointments. They conducted prayer-
meetings. They had meetings for inquirers. They

UNION OF CHRISTIANS. 237

spent mucli time with those who came to converse
with them privately, and much in their labors from
house to house. Never were the spiritual husband-
men more busy, and never were their labors more
blessed. It was the admirable union and harmony
of the instruments employed — ministers and lay-
men, male and female, in the pulpit, the prayer-
meeting, the Sabbath-school, and elsewhere — that
made the agency of the ministry less conspicuous.

A most delightful characteristic of the work was
seen in the flowing together of the people of God
without regard to their denominational peculiari-
ties. The old walls of sectarian prejudice and
jealousy seemed broken down. Christians came
together, with one heart, to pray for the outpouring
of God's Spirit, and to praise Him for His mighty
acts. The watchmen saw eye to eye. They were
agreed as touching the things they asked. They
united in song without the least apparent concern
as to what collection the hymn belonged. It was
often observed, that none could tell a man's church
connections by the prayers he offered. The citizens
of Zion spoke one dialect, and poured out their
desires before God in a common strain of suppli-
cation.

Another observable feature was the quietude
with which the religious meetings were conducted.
There was none of the extravagance to which great
excitements sometimes lead. The praying assem-

238 THE SECULAR PRESS.

blies were solemnly joyful. Sobriety and good
order blended with the liveliest zeal. The religious
feeling, like a deej) river, was profoundly calm,
while the current flowed on with majestic strength.

These several facts may account for another.
The work encountered little of opposition or ridi-
cule from the world. It was contemplated and
spoken of with great respect by those who took no
personal interest in it; excepting, of course, the
zealous advocates of religious theories antagonistic
to it. While it was ridiculed by the ultra- ecclesi-
astical and the ultra-liberal religious journals, it was
treated by the more respectable secular papers as a
grand religious movement, and a true development
of the Christian life. They noted its progress.
They reported its incidents ; and men of the world
generally appeared to regard, with respectful awe,
a work of which the majesty and might, the depth
and the extent, were such as proved it to be the
work of God.

The subjects of the revival were found among
all classes, vet it was easily discernible that God
was working according to the established laws of
His grace, in the conversion of those, especially,
who belonged to pious fomilies, or were under cor-
rect religious instruction. The Sabbath -schools of
the evangelical churches were particularly a field
which the Lord blessed. Even children gave de-
lightful evidence of having an intelligent experi-

SUBJECTS OF THE REVIVAL. 239

ence of the things of God. It was now seen that
truth which had L^oin upon the mind, apparently
without life, had not been put there in vain. The
seed had received an invisible watering. It had
felt the quickening warmth of the Sun of Eight-
eousness. In some cases, fathers and mothers, long
in heaven, saw their prayers answered and their
last earthly desire fallilled, in the conversion of
their children. And it required no very close at-
tention to discover the fruits of an abundant seed-
sowing by the Christian press. The stirring thoughts
and earnest appeals of men who, being dead, yet
speak, were now awakening a simultaneous response
in many hearts, under the gracious operation of
the Spirit of Life. Of the class of people who are
little reached, or not at all, by the direct influences
of the sanctuary and the religious press, compara-
tively few were reached by the revival. We speak
now of this place particularly, though we believe
the statement would hold generally true. The
union prayer-meeting, established in one of our
public halls, was designed especially to draw in a
class who would never attend a prayer-meeting
elsewhere, and who habitually neglected the house
of God. For a time the object was, in a measure,
realized. The novelty of such a noonday gather-
ing attracted a good many to it. But their curi-
osity was soon satisfied. The Gospel had had too
little connection with their thoughts and habits of

240 LAW AND GOSPEL.

life to admit of a long-continued interest in the
exercises of a praj^er-meeting, or of any deep im-
pression from the services they witnessed. There
were some, however, of this class, who were reached
and rescued by the infinite mercy of God, and
whose feet were turned to a way they had long de-
spised.

The happy flow of Christian love in the prayer-
meetings was the occasion of an impression — a
quite general one — which we believe to have been
erroneous. It has been supposed that the penalties
affixed to moral law have had little force in this
awakening, and have been little appealed to in the
way of motive to bring sinners to repentance. It
has been said, and with apparent satisfaction, that
ministers have ceased to operate upon the fears of
men, having learned the more excellent way of at-
tracting them heavenward by the power of love.
The statement has more the appearance than the
reality of truth. For behind the prayer-meeting,
which has stood foremost in the public view, have
stood pulpits in which ministers have not shunned
to declare the whole counsel of God. Thev never
ceased to hold up the law in its proper relations to
the cross of Christ — that law bv which comes the
knowledge of sin, and which the Redeemer came,
not to destroy, but to fulfil. Xor can it be that
that divine Agent, whose first work as the Com-
forter is to convince men of sin. of righteousness,

NEW METHODIST CHURCH. 241

and of judgment to come, would have sanctioned
a policy at variance with His own, by the bestowal
of such blessings as the church has received.

This revival added to the different churches of
Orange between three and four hundred communi-
cants, — the First church receiving about fifty. Its
results were greater in the township, but less in this
congregation, than those of the two revivals noticed
in the earlier part of Dr. Hilly er's ministry. (

The Methodist congregation, which was consider-
ably strengthened by the revival, undertook at this
time the building of a new house of worship. For
the auspicious circumstances which gave rise to
this undertaking, mucli credit might be accorded to
the pastors who had successively served the con-
gregation. The minister who had just left the
charge (Rev. James M. Freeman) had been espe-
cially laborious. For three months and more,
during the revival, he had conducted a religious
service every evening in the week but Saturday,
the service consisting of a short discourse, followed
by a season of prayer and conversation with in-
quirers. The building enterprise fell into the
bands of Rev. Lewis R. Dunn. On the 15th of
September, 1858, the corner-stone was laid for a
neat Gothic edifice of brick, which was placed on
the old site in Main street, the former house being
removed to the rear, to be used for Sunday-school
and other purposes. The building was completed

242 ORANGE GAS-WORKS.

the next summer, and, on the 28th of Jiily, was
consecrated with appropriate services. This con-
gregation, which has been steadily prosperous since
it was known to the writer, has now before it the
fairest promise of continued j^rosperitj.

At the last parish meeting of the First church,
an appropriation was voted for the purjDOse of hav-
ing the church and lecture-room lighted with gas,
then about to be supplied to the village. The
business has since been executed ; the Orange gas-
works are in operation, and the time is evidently
near when our citizens generally will enjoy, in
their houses, the benefit of this agreeable illumina-
tor. The gas-works, located in the valley near the
west end of White street, were erected by Messrs.
Hoy k Kennedy, of Trenton.

The mission Sunday-school, which was founded
by Mr. Greacen, in Orange Valley (at first called
Freemantown), was, after his death, placed under
the superintendence of Mr. Abraham Baldwin, by
the unanimous desire of the teachers engaged in it.
Mr. Baldwin had for some time been connected with
it, and he has since devoted himself to its interests
with peculiar earnestness. The enterprise, vigor-
ously carried forward by him and his fellow-
laborers, has been a remarkable success, the school
having now a roll of a hundred and seventy -five
pupils. It shared the influences of the late revival
in copious measure. Meetings for prayer were

MISSION CHAPEL. 243

held in the school-room several times a week, and
for some time daily. Preaching services were also
held, and the families in that neighborhood were
visited by the superintendent and others, the pas-
tor participating so far as was compatible with the
multiplicity of his engagements. About that time,
the stated services of the Rev. Dr. Hay were en-
gaged for the Sabbath afternoon, and a small but
regular and promising congregation has been gath-
ered under his labors there, which are still con-
tinued. The Sabbath-school and congregation hav-
ing become too large for a school-room, it was
resolved, during the last summer, to provide for
their use a chapel. The means required ($3,500)
were promptly subscribed, and the work was im-
mediately begun. A site for the edifice was select-
ed, the ground being donated by Mr. Ira Tompkins.
The stone was soon on its way from the quarry.
On the 12th of September, the corner-stone was
laid by Dr. Hay, with suitable ceremonies, in pi'es-
ence of a numerous assemblage of the surrounding
residents. The building fronts upon a new street,
soon to be opened, on a line between the Orange
Yalley railroad-station and the mountain. This
enterprise, which is yet of a missionary character,
will ere long add another to the growing list of
Orange churches.

The Sunday-school formed in 1816, for tlie ben-
efit of the colored population, — it being previous to

244 AFRICAN" SUNDAY-SCHOOL.

tlieii* emancipation, — was, in process of time, dis-
continued. For many years, while they were wast-
ing in numbers, no special provision was made for
their religious instruction. They have continued to
be sparsely mingled with the general population of
the town, and with the membership of its churches.
In the summer of 1857, one of the youngest of the
female members of this church, having just conse-
crated herself to the service of the Meek and Lowly,
undertook the instruction of a colored class at the
close of the afternoon service of the Sabbath. The
class increased till others joined her. As it con-
tinued to gi'ow in numbers and interest, the need
was felt of a gentleman to superintend the exer-
cises. This service was kindly undertaken by Mr.
Jarvis M. Fairchild, who has continued to perform
it, except when absent from the place for the re-
covery of his health. The labors bestowed upon
this hitherto neglected class are a praise-worthy
exhibition of the spirit of Christian love.

"We have now reached the end of a history which,
from the first settlements in Newark, has been
brought down through a period of nearly two hun-
dred years. As we have followed it, our thoughts
have blended with the life of six generations. We
have seen, indeed, but little of their inner life, and
we have taken but a cursory view of what ^va3
outward and historicid ; but we have seen enough

CLOSING THOUGHTS. 245

to beget a feeling of sympatliy with tliese men of
the past, who once walked upon the same soil,
looked upon the same landscape, worshipped the
same God, and lived for the same high purpose
with ourselves. They have transmitted to us a
goodly heritage. Their language is ours ; their
faith is ours ; the fruits of their toil and suffering
are ours. "Well may we cherish their memories !

How much do we owe to the enterprise, how
much to the patience and piety, of these men of
other days ! As we walk into the old graveyard,
and brush the grey moss from their tomb-stones,
we may read upon each, or almost each, the name
of a benefactor. They lived for the future. They
cleared the soil, built the sanctuary, founded Chris-
tian institutions, and labored together in the gos-
pel work, not less for us than for themselves.
They had posterity in their thoughts, and the
prayer went often up from their hearths and their
altars, that the institutions which they planted
might live, and the blessings which they enjoyed
might be perpetuated through many generations.

Nor to them only is this debt of gratitude due.
There was a power above them, a wisdom higher
and a purpose mightier than theirs. He who
liveth for ever and ever wrought in them and
by them for the carrying out of His own plans,
for the perpetuity and increase of that " Church
of the living God " to which all human liistories

246 PLANS OF PROVIDENCE.

belong. It is His divine counsels that bind the
centuries together. His providence unites in one
grand system all that is past with all that is pres-
ent and to come. " He only hath immortality,"
and but for Him they and their works would have
jDcrished together. Yet their works have followed
them. The Church which thev founded still rests
upon the rock on which they laid its foundations.
The gospel which, they loved, and for whose de-
fence they were set, is still proclaimed, and be-
lieved, and made the power of God unto salvation.
Others have entered into their labors, while they
have entered into their rest. And this Providence
is still over the world, over the Church, over the
present generation. And it will save all that is
worth saving in their works. It carries a fan in its
hand. It separates the chaff from the wheat, burn-
ing the one, while it garners the other. Of its net-
gatherings of all kinds, both good and bad, the
good only is permanently preserved ; the bad is,
sooner or later, cast away. There is, somehow
or other, under Providence, a peculiar vitality in
truth and virtue — in that which is like God. The
memory of the just is blessed, while the wicked
perish and are forgotten. The institutions of the
Church abide, while the world passeth away, and
the lust thereof He who sits upon the throne,
judging right, will eternally guard the great inter-
ests of His spiritual kingdom. With Him the

SOCIAL PKOGKESS. 247

Church is safe. In Him all institutions of His es-
tablishing have a strength, a power, a life, that de-
fies decay.

These truths have their illustration in the history
here given. The great land-monopoly, which so
long embarrassed the Kew Jersey settlements, and
interfered with their prosperity, has come to end.
The evils inseparable from the old colonial govern-
ment, administered by a power too remote to feel
a due sympathy with its subjects, have ceased to
exist. An unfortunate people, long held in unprof-
itable and dangerous bondage, have been emanci-
pated, and in a measure elevated. Many walls,
built up and guarded by ecclesiastical bigotry and
prejudice, have crumbled down. There is a far
better understanding of the rights of property, the
rights of labor, and the rights of conscience, than
there was a hundred, or even fifty years ago. The
knife of Providence has been gradually pruning
the institutions whose planting and growth this
history records. Much that was evil, and produc-
tive of evil, has been removed. What was conso-
nant with the genius of Christianity, and with the
best interests of the future, has been preserved.

Such a character we claim, in no exclusive and
uncharitable spirit, for the Church around which
the materials of this narrative have been gathered.
"VYo are not given to ecclesiolatry. We have no
reverence to spare for ancient temples of the truth

248 WHAT WE CLAIM.

from wliicli the truth has fled. Our devotions are
little drawn toward the once Christian sanctuary on
whose dome the crescent has taken the place of the
cross. We are well aware that error often en-
shrines itself in sacred places, to the expulsion of
the truth; that it assumes venerated names, and
appears in the holiest livery ; and that it finds suf-
ficient aliment in the nature of man to give it, if
God permit, a long vitality. But we believe — and
the most of our readers, if not every one, will, we
think, accord to us thus much — that our venerable
Church has stood as the representative and guardian
of a faith essentially true ; that the candlestick upon
its altar has been held by men honored and blessed
of God ; that it has been a fortress of freedom, a
defence of the gospel, a blessing to generations liv-
ing and dead. This belief is entertained with no
feeling of jealousy or disrespect toward the many
lights that are" now shining around it. May they
evermore burn, fed by the olive of peace, and
blending their many-colored radiance to illuminate
and beautify the one living temple of the Holy
Spirit !

The follo^ving churches now exist within the
parochial limits occupied by this Society alone, in
1825:

1. The First Presbyterian Church, standing in

EXISTING CHURCHES. 249

Main street, near tlie Kortli Orange depot. The
Churcli was organized, in or abont the year 1719,
as an Independent Church ; became Presbyterian
in 1748 ; was incorporated in 1783, as the Second
Presbyterian Church in Newark ; received its
present title in 1811. The average length of five
consecutive pastorates, now ended, has been about
twenty-seven years. Present membership, 326.
Families of the parish, about 175. Pupils in the
Sabbath-school, 135 ; Orange Yalley school, 175 ;
school for colored persons, 15 to 20.

2. St. Mark's Episcopal Church, organized in
1827, at the junction of Main and Valley streets.
Its house of worship was completed and conse-
crated in 1829. Present rector, Eev. James A.
Williams. Communicants, 161. Families and
pew-holders, 88.

3. Methodist Episcopal Church of North Orange,
formed in 1829 ; situated in Main street, near Cen-
ter. Its first house of worship was built in 1831 ;
its second in 1859. Present membership, includ-
ing probationers, 260. Minister in charge, Eev.
Lewis E. Dunn. Sabbath-school attendance, from
150 to 200.

4. Second Presbyterian Church, corner of Main
and Prospect streets. Organized in 1831. Mem-
bers in communion, 417. Families, 185. Children

250 EXISTING CHURCHES.

in t\YO Sabbath-scliools, 200 ; mission-scliool, 50.
Pastor, Rev. John Crowell.

5. South Orange Presbyterian Church, organ-
ized in 1831. Communicants, 157. Families, about
100. Sabbath-school, 103. Pastor, Rev. Daniel
G. Sprague.

6. Baptist Church at East Orange, constituted
in 1837. The present pastor is Rev. William D.
Hedden. Communicants, 67. Sabbath-school, 50.

7. Methodist Episcopal Church, South Orange.
Formed in 1850. Persons in full membership, 20.
The Society has a small house of worship, in which
religious services are statedly held on the Sabbath,
conducted by a local preacher. ^ •

8. St. John's Roman Catholic Church, built in
1851. It is now in charge of Rev. John Murray.
Communicants, about 750. Children receiving in-
struction, 100. The church is situated on White
street, near Boyd.

9. Grace Episcopal Church, in Main, between
Park and Hilly er streets. Organized in 1854.
House of worship consecrated in 1858. Members
in communion, 126. Families, 86. Sabbath-
school, 64 to 70. Parishioners of both sexes, 380,

EXISTING CHURCHES. 251

10. Baptist Cliurcli of Xortli Orange, constituted
in 1857. Communicants, 100; Sabbath -school,
150. The congregation meets for worship in
Waverly Hall. Mr. Morse, finding his health im-
paired, closed his ministry with this church Octo-
ber 2, 1859. He has been succeeded by Rev.
George Webster.

11. A " New Church," or Swedenborgian Soci-
ety, has held separate Avorship for the last two
years under the ministrations of Eev. Benjamin F.
Barrett. Its meetings, until last spring, were at
Mr. Barrett's residence, on Main street. They are
now held at Library Hall.

12. A Protestant Episcopal Society was formed,
in October, 1859, at South Orange. This new So-
ciety is yet without a minister and a house of wor-
ship. Its religious services are held in the Meth-
odist Church.

13. The Orange Valley congregation is not yet
organized as a Church, but is erecting a house of
worship. It comprises many families connected
with the First Church, and has a flourishing
Sabbath-school. Preaching by Rev. Philip 0.
Hay, D. D.

14. A small congregation of German Protes-
tants, mostly Lutheran, was gathered four or five

252 UNION SCHOOLS.

years ago, meeting at first iu the lecture-room of
tlie First Church, and afterward in Washington
Hall. It has now a regular service on the Sab-
bath at Bodwell's Hall, under the ministry of Eev.
Gottfried Schmidt.

In the Franklin school-house (Doddtown) a
Union Sabbath-school is sustained, and also a
weekly preaching service, at which the clergy of
the different denominations of&ciate in tarn. A
similar service has for a year or two been held
at the school-house on Yalley street, near Williams-
ville.

The Mission Sunday-school, established during
the past year in Bodwell's Hall, w^here a weekly
prayer-meeting is also held, is doing a useful work.
It originated with members of the Second Church.

I

CHAPTER IX.
A VIEW OF ORANGE.

N 1834j Orange was described as a straggling vil-

lage and post-town, extending about three miles
along the turnjDike from Newark toward Dover; con-
taining two Presbyterian churches, one Episcopal,
and one Methodist ; two taverns, ten stores, two saw-
mills and a bark-mill, and from 200 to 230 dwell-
ings, many of them very neat and commodious. A
large trade was carried on in the manufacture of
leather, shoes and hats.* The population of the
township in 1830 was 3,887. In 1850 it was 4,385.
At this time it is supposed to be from eight to ten
thousand. For the last ten years the immigration
east of the mountain has been rapid, and every
year increasing. Men of business in the large cities
near, and persons seeking health, have found here
the conditions of climate, scenery and situation de-
sirable for a rural home. And since the tide
began to set in this direction, it has had no check,

<i Gordon's Hist. New Jei-sey.

254 CLIMATE AND POSITION.

Orange has a geographical position whicli imparts
to its climate some favorable peculiarities. While
it is approached by the sea on the south-east, it is
very seldom that winds come from that quarter, so
that invalids for whom a sea atmosphere is too
severe, find here a shelter from its influence ^\dthin
a few miles from the coast. The south winds are
always bland, and those from the north-east, coming
from the New England coast, have left the ocean
at too great a distance to be sensibly affected by it.
Hence persons suffering from pulmonary com-
plaints often experience much benefit from a resi-
dence here.^

The distance from Newark is from three to five
miles ; from New York about twelve. \Yith both
places there is constant communication by the
Morris and Essex railroad, and with the former, by
lines of stao:es that are runnincr nearlv every hour
of the day. From South to East Orange, within a
distance of five miles, there are six railway stations,
showing at once a large amount of travel, and the
breadth of territory which the influx of population
is filling up. The future Orange is projected upon
a scale of extraordinary compass. And its outlines
have been drawn, not on paper by the hand of
speculation, but on the soil by actual settlement.

* See an article by Dr. Stephen Wickes, on the Medical Topog-
raphy of Orange, in " Transactions of the N. J. State Medical So-
ciety for 1859."

MOUNTAIN AND PLAIN. 255

Let a stranger take his position on Eagle Rock, or
any point along the ridge of the mountain, and turn
his eye in the direction of Newark. He will see an
extended landscape beautified already by charming
residences, while the sight of newly-opened streets,
and foundations, frames and unfinished houses, will
suggest to him that he sees yet but the fair outline
of a picture which time is rapidly executing. If he
now change his position to a point within the land-
scape over which he has looked, and turn the eye
backward to the mountain, he will see the straight
line of an elevated horizon drawn on the western
sky — a horizon so even and uniform as scarcely to
be broken by a projecting tree-top or rocky spur —
and from that a green slope descending to the east,
upon which the homes of wealth and taste look
smilingly out from their sylvan surroundings.
The view in either direction is exceedingly pictur-
esque. It is a question not yet settled between the
inhabitants of the hill-side and their less elevated
neighbors, which of the two is the more attractive
and pleasing to the eye, — the mountain, or the plain.
The former class have the advantage of a more ex-
tended view, embracing West Bloomfield, Orange,
Newark and its bay, Staten Island, and the roofs
and steeples of New York.

The business of the place is mechanical, mercan-
tile and manufacturing. The stores which line
Main street carry on a large retail trade, whil*^ the

256 LLEWELLYN PARK.

hat and shoe shops, some of them employing several
hundred hands, furnish a large supply for northern
and southern markets.* The farms are disappear-
ing, or becoming of little value for agricultural ]Dur-
poses. Year by year the old boundaries vanish,
the field is converted into a garden, and the meadow
to a lawn.

In no part of Orange is this transformation more
conspicuous than in the grounds surrounding
Llewellyn Park. The project of these grounds
originated with our townsman, Llewellyn S. Has-
kell, whose trans-atl antic prenomen is fitly associat-
ed with the foreign blooms and shrubbery that he
has caused to mingle with the native growth of the
hill-side. The park embraces fifty acres on the
eastern slope of the mountain, around which are
three hundred acres or more which that gentleman
has purchased, to be occupied as rural residences
under the rules of an association. The front en-
trance to the grounds is on Yalley street, about a
mile from the North Orange depot. The inclosure
'' contains hills, dales and glens ; springs, streams
and ponds ; magnificent forest trees, innumerable
ornamental trees, bushes, vines and flowers ; kiosks,

~" "Although this village contains so small a population, there i.s
upwards of $200,000 of capital employed in manufactures. There
are ten schools and five hundred scholars, more or less receiving a
free education, or at the expense of the State." — Specimen number
of the Orange Journal. January 7, 1854.

PURCHASEKS AND PRICES. 257

stone bridges and rustic seats ;"* winding foot-paths,
avenues and carriage roads ; all together forming a
landscape in which art and nature seem as rivals,
and yet in harmonious alliance. The limits of our
chapter forbid a detailed description. It belongs to
the present historian of Orange to notice the begin-
nings of this successful and much admired enter-
prise. To the future the Park will be its own lim-
ner. The grounds have already found purchasers,
and six or eight beautiful dwellings, erected within
the year past, furnish types of the model homes
which are soon to be their happiest ornament. "We
have fancied, in travelling over these delightful
grounds, which overlook the homes of Newark and
New York, that it was from some such spot, with
" the resounding shore " perhaps a little nearer, the
author of The Minstrel made his appeal to the lover
of city life :

" how canst thou renounce the boundless store
Of charms which Nature to her votary yields ;

* See a full description of the Park in the Orange Journal of
June 6, ISSt, by the editor. The present value of the lands, which
Mr. Haskell obtained at prices ranging from $150 to $500 per acre,
and which are purchased of him in building lots at the rate of S 1000
to $1200 per acre, would have startled the old Indian proprietors,
who, as we have seen, signed their quit-claim to the whole moun-
tain side for "two guns, three coats, and thirteen cans of rum."
Desirable sites in the village are rated as high as $3000 per acre.
Along Tremont Avenue, half-way to South Orange, $800 have been
paid.° To the men of twenty years ago these prices would have
seemed fabulous, but the demand creates them.

258 EAGLE ROCK.

The warbling woodland, the resounding shore,
The pomp of groves, and garniture of fields ;

All that the genial ray of morning gilds.
And all that echoes to the song of even ;

All that the mountain's sheltering bosom shields,

And all the dread magnificence of heaven —

how canst thou renounce and hope to be forgiven ?"

On the soutlieni border of this tract, and now
connected with it, are the grounds upon which
a number of fine residences have been built by
Daniel C. Otis. The entrance to them is from the
turnpike road that forms their boundary on the
south.

Just north of the Park is Eagle Roch, a point of
the mountain vrhich is much visited, and from which,
in a clear afternoon, there is a very rich and exten-
sive view, embracing ]N'ew York, Staten Island and
the waters that divide it from Xewark, the roofs and
steeples of the latter city in a south-easterly direc-
tion, West Bloomfield to the north-west, and Orange
spreading widely over the plain to the south-east.
And here we may introduce a few lines from an
anonymous poet, who is presumed to have drawn
his inspiration from the spot. Orange being the sub-
ject of his description.

" From bills that bide the western sky.
And throw their shadows o'er the lea,
I downward turn the enamored eye.
And see thee stretching toward the sea.

THE MINEEAL SPIUNG. . 259

On slope and knoll and spreading vale,
On lawns that kiss the summer gale,
In rustic ease or princely guise
I see thy homes of beauty rise.
I see the throng at close of day

Escaping from the city's din,
By stage or train, as best they may,

And disappear those homes within :
By stage or train, they little care,

Who once have snuffed our mountain air."*

Within a hundred rods of Saint Mark's church,
at the base of the mountain, the visitor is per-
mitted a free ingress to the grounds which enclose
the once celebrated Mineral Spring of Orange. He
here finds himself in the presence of two con-
spicuous mansions, owned and occupied by Messrs.
Heckscher and Pillot. He will hardly resist the
temptation to enter the premises, to which the pub-
lic are generously admitted, nor will the beauties
impressed upon his memory be soon obliterated.
The chalybeate fountain shows no particular traces
of its ancient ambition to attract the stranger. A
little arbor, however, still marks the spot where the
multitudes once sat, as around Bethesda, in the
hope of healing. Around are groves and running
waters, cascades and artificial ponds, fences of
rustic work, elaborately plain, the foot-bridge that
lightly spans the chasm, and the solid staircase
hewn from the rock. Within the more private

* Carrier's Address of the Orange Jouninl, 1 859.

260 THE MOUNTAIN HOUSE.

grounds, where lawn and garden spread out to the
eye a rich diversity of colors, forms and fruits, we
shall not at present enter. The place has for the
visitor a double interest, from the beauties it now
exhibits and from its historic associations.

Pursuing the slope of the mountain southward,
the eye passes over a tract known as Barretts Parh.,
owned by our townsman. Rev. B. F. Barrett, in
which are seen the beginnings of another enter-
prise of settlement. A road is now opened through
it, passing up the ravine and terminating on a ter-
race of the hill which furnishes some attractive
situations for the future settler. Still southward,
between this and the Mountain House, are the
elecfant countrv seats of Dr. Lowell Mason and
sons, the latter (Daniel and Lowell) constituting
the firm of Mason Brothers, book publishers of
New York. Passing others, the eye rests upon the
Mountain House, built for a Water-Cure, but now
used for a summer hotel. This fine establishment,
with its forest of shade and its many alluring re-
treats, is near the southern line of the township, in
the vicinity of South Orange. Returning along
the valley, we pass through the thickening settle-
ment that is filling up the interval between North
and South Orange, and in which the walls of a
stone sanctuary have just been raised. This in-
cipient village has till recently borne the names
('from families residing in it) of Freemantown and

STREETS AND STREAMS. 261

Stetsonville. The name more lately adopted, and
marked in the list of railway stations, is Orange
Valley, The recent opening of Tremont avenue
connects it eastwardly with Centre street, and by
a more direct transit with Newark. Along this
avenue, as it runs up the slope east of the val-
ley, a number of mansions already appear.

In the eastern section of the village, on Harrison,
Main, Prospect, and other streets, the progress of
settlement, and of wealth and taste in the erection
of buildings, is equally visible. The same is true
of Day, High, Boyd, Scotland, and Centre streets.
There are indeed few localities in or about the
village to which the statement will not apply. In
Dublin street and its neighborhood, where there is a
centralized population of Irisli, tenements are built
to suit the local demand.

Half a mile north-east of the village, in the
direction of Bloomfield, is Springdale Lake. This
artificial reservoir, owned by Matthias Soverel, is
fed by a liberal spring near its southern margin,
and furnishes a copious supply of ice. lis waters
are received by the Second river, which has its
proper beginning in a pond just above, into which
are emptied the Neshuine fi'om tbe north. Wigwam
brook from the west, and Parow's brook from the
south. The first of these streams crosses the Dodd-
town road a little east of the cemetery ; the second
comes down by Williamsville, reccivin^^ on iis
12*

262 ROSEDALE CEMETERY.

way a southern tributary whose sources lie in and
around Llewellyn Park ; the third is the stream
already familiar to the reader, which crosses Main
street by the Willow Hall Market. The stream
formed by the three runs north-eastwardly into
Bloomiield, where it spreads out into a shallow
basin forming Watsessing lake.

Eosedale Cemetery lies to the north of Orange,
a little less than a mile distant from Main street.
It is approached from the south and south-east by
Day and Washing-ton streets. We take the follow-
ing account of it from an article published in the
specimen number of the Orange Journal^ January
7, 1854.

" The enterprise originated with a few gentlemen
connected with the Second Presbyterian Church,
all of whom are yet among its acting directors.
Not long after the organization of this church, it
was deemed expedient to provide some suitable
place for a buryiDg-ground, for the old yard was
deemed too strait for the accommodation of our grow-
ing population, and some difficulties were presented
from the claims of the First Church, within whose
bounds the old burying- ground lay. The prevailing
ideas and fashions of the daj^, however, satisfied
tlie mass C)f the congregation ; and they would at
this time have had some little yard, — two or three
acres of flat ground near tlie church, where none
would resort excv:pt from hard necessity or the

KOSEDALE CEMETERY. 263

urgencies of recent bereavement, — but for the efforts
of three or four individuals. These gentlemen, with
prudent forethought and commendable public spirit,
determined to anticipate the wants of a rapidly
growing community and the demands of a pro-
gressive age, and, after having failed to secure the
approval of their plan by the congregation, pro-
ceeded to carry it forward on their own responsi-
bility.

" They purchased at once on the most favorable
terms a tract of ten acres, and obtained an act of
the New Jersey Legislature incorporating them with
ample powers and adequate securities against the
encroachments of business enterprise. This act of
incorporation was passed Nov. 13, 1840, and was
among the first in our State for chartering ceme-
teries. In the year 1843 another purchase was
made, more than doubling the size of the Ceme-
tery, and recently another, giving completeness to
the site, as it embraces the whole of the continuous
ground adapted to burying purposes, and offers a
desirable opportunity for improving the avenues.
The company now own about twenty acres, en-
closed and laid out with judgment and taste, as the
nature of the ground and convenience have sug-
gested.

"Perhaps one-third of the whole tract has been
already sold, or is in a state of readiness to be Fold.
The present ])rice of lots is twenty dollars for an

264 THE ORANGE JOURNAL.

area of 820 square feet. ISTo discrimination is made
between citizens and strangers, all becoming mem-
bers of the company by ownership of a lot, and all
being entitled to the same privileges. The com-
pany have never made, nor do they expect to make
dividends, all their means being intended to be
used in improving and ornamenting the Cemetery."

Such, in outline, are the topographical features
of Orange. We may add that it occupies a moder-
ate elevation with respect to the towns north and
south of it, sending its waters to the north-east
through Bloomfield toward the Passaic, and to the
south through Clinton to the Eahway.

Among the institutions of Orange is a printing-
press, which enjoys a liberal and increasing patron-
age in local advertising and job-work, and from
which is issued weekly the Orange Journal^ edited
and published by Edward Gardner. A specimen
number of this pajDer made its modest appearance
before the public in January, 1854. The paper
however was not regularly issued till the first of
the following July, when the present editor assumed
the charge of it. Its first volume dates from that
time. With the beginning of 1856, it manifested
progress by appearing in an enlarged and improved
form, its six columns being expanded into seven,
and also lengthened. Its sphere is of necessity
limited by the proximity of the Newark and New
York press, which pour their daily issues out upon

THE OLD ACADEMY. 2G5

US. Yet its successive numbers find tlieir way in
the track of the ex-resident to nearly all the States
of the Union, not excepting the Pacific coast. The
ordinary circulation is from five to six hundred
copies. Special occasions bring out larger editions.
In noticing the schools of the village, Ave take
the Old Academy as a starting-point. This insti-
tution, born fifteen years before the century, and
long distinguished by classical honors, had virtually
descended from its preeminence even before the
school act of 1838. From about that time (as we
have noticed) it became the school of the Academy
district. Plaving been continued many years as a
common school, the building (then sixty years old)
being inconvenient, and the ground too small to
afford a yard for the recreation of the pupils, it was
resolved by the district to sell the property and
transfer the school to a better location. As the title
was found defective, authority for the sale had to
be sought of the Legislature, which was granted by
a special act, in April, 1845. A sale was then
made to John M. Lindsley, and a site purchased in
Day street, on which another buikling was erected.
The latter is yet occupied as a public school.
The old house, still tenacious of existence, con-
tinued to prolong its usefulness in the humble
capacity of a shoe store. It is now used as a flour
and feed store, ministering to bodily wants as it
lono- ministered to those of the int'^lloct. Mav its

266 FEMALE SEMINARY.

ancient walls long stand, and receive the grateful
respect of man and beast ! Man is, however, less
merciful than time ; and even this enduring monu-
ment of the learning of a past age must yield in
its turn to the inevitable changes which commerce
is working in places historically sacred.

Among the private schools of a recent date, we
mav mention that established in the fall of 1847
by Eev. F. A. Adams, in the immediate vicinity
of the Second Church. This was continued by
Mr. Adams about five years, when a company of
stockholders founded the Orange Female Semi-
nary, of which he became the Principal. He re-
signed the charge in 1856, and went to Newark,
but returned in 1858 to Orange, where he is now
conductmg a private academy for boys, in Bod-
well's Hall. His successors in the Seminary were
the Misses Stebbins, who have been succeeded by
Mrs. C. C. G-. Abbott.

An academy for both sexes was established, and
continued several years, in High street, by Rev.
Joshua D. Berry, D. D. It was discontinued
about two years since, and the building is now
occupied as a private residence.

The classical school of Rev. S. S. Stocking, in the
the neighborhood of St. Mark's Church, has been
some years in operation, and continues to be well
supported. This is a boarding and day school for
bo3^s. A similar institution in the vicinity of the

SCHOOLS. 267

Second Churcli, on Main street, is conducted by
Eev. Philip C. Hay, D. D. There are two or three
private female schools, of which that of the Misses
Eobinson, in Main street, near the First Church,
has priority of age. Parochial schools are con-
nected with St. Mark's Church (Episcopal) and St.
John's Church (Roman Catholic). The interests
of popular education are, however, associated
mostly with the public schools of the village and
township. Into these the children of the people
flow ; and while the want of a large, well-endowed
and permanent institution of high order is felt by
many of our citizens, it must afford to every
one a sincere satisfaction that the schools of the
State have been made what they are, and that the
people patronize them. Immense improvements
have been made in the last twenty years in tlic
arrangement and comfort of school-houses, in the
qualifications of teachers, and in the methods of
instruction. Considering how many of the best
intellects of the land are now devoted to the sub-
ject, we may confidently look for still farther pro-
gress. Such are the benefits descending upon us,
and the generations to come after us, from those
men of wise forecast and self devoting toil, who
nourished the germs of our now-fruitful institu-
tions.

But the school-room and the press are nut, in
free communities, the only educators (-f the p«'oplc.

268 ORAXGE LYCEl'M.

Where a degree of intellectual activity is by these
awakened, and has freedom to operate, the desire
of improvement will commonly show itself in some
form of literary association. The first movement
of the kind in Orange was the establishment of the
old Orange Library, of which the late Giles Man-
deville had the care for many years. It comprised
a small collection of books which belonged to the
stockholders, and from which the people of the
town were permitted to draw for a trifling sum.
This library was useful in its da}'. Xot a few of
the men of a generation now gone had their read-
ing taste improved, and their stock of ideas en-
larged by it.

In 1832 was formed tlie Orange Lyceum^ "for
mutual improvement in knowledge and literature."
It met weekly, its exercises consisting of "lectures,
debates, recitations in some useful branch of science,
letter-writing and composition, public reading and
declamation." A collection of books was soon
commenced, which were kept at Albert Pierson's
school-room, where the Lvceum at first held its
meetino-s. Mr. Pierson was its first President. He
was then conducting a classical school. The meet-
ings were subsequently held in the lecture-room of
the First Church, and finally at Willow Hall. The
Lvceum obtained a charter in 1842. A number
of the intellis^ent business men of Oransre owe
much to the intellectual stimulus it furnished.

LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 260

The public, however, ceasing to take interest in
it, a new association was started in 1858. This,
the present Library Association, has thus far been
highly successful. Of the two rooms which it
occupies in Bailey & Everitt's new building, one is
a large and pleasantly furnished reading-room, and
the other contains a library of about 1,500 volumes.
These rooms, under the care of Charles Warbur-
ton Brown, the librarian, are open every evening,
except the Sabbath, and on Saturday afternoons.
Through this Association, two annual courses of
popular lectures have been given, which have re-
ceived a liberal patronage. The large receipts
from these lectures have put the Association in a
condition to increase further its library, and to
strengthen its foundations as one of the permanent
and most useful institutions of Orange.

Such are the more noticeable features of our
thriving village. F(,>r the truth of history, and in
the hope of calling attention to them, we must
speak of certain others, equally noticeable, and in-
indicative of wants which its rapid growth is
creating.

The first need is a municipal organization of the
village, or, in lieu of this, some change in the civil
administration of the township. In tho judgment
of many, the exigencies of the village call for tlio
corporate powers of a borough. It can hardly he
expected that local interests, which are every year

270 IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED.

assuming a greater magnitude, should be suitably
regarded by the township authorities and a large
proportion of their constituents. Many improve-
ments are needed, which are not to be looked for
at the hands of a town-meeting. The want of bet-
ter side- walks has furnished a subject for much
reasonable complaint on the part of both residents
and strangers ; and the very imperiousness of this
want has, during the last year, induced many of
our merchants and others to flag the walks that
line their premises. In considerable portions of
Main street, and in some of those that intersect it,
the footman noAv finds the comfort of a plank, or
of something broader and better, beneath his feet,
and the continuity and connection of these com-
forts are increasing. During the last summer, for
the first time, two water-carts were seen passing
up and down our principal thoroughfares, set in
motion by private contributions, clarifying the
dusty air, and relieving the housemaids of no little
toil, by their showery discharges. Yet, a more
liberal and permanent provision for sprinkling the
streets is needed. Street-lamps are a further de-
sideratum. This will doubtless be supplied ere
long, now that the means are furnished by the
Orange gas-works.

A fire-company was formed nearly two years
ago, and an engine obtained, but the alarming in-
crease of incendiarism, and the want of sufficient

WANT OF POLICE. 271

and convenient supplies of water, produced a reac-
tion against the movement. The engine was not
paid for, and has recently been removed from the
place. That a fire department, however, will be
organized at no distant day, admits of little doubt.
The need of this would be less if the village
were protected by an efficient 'police. In streets
unilluminated, and untraversed by any kind of
nightguard, the incendiary and the burglar find
circumstances not a little favorable to their crimi-
nal designs. Successful burglaries have of late
been alarmingly frequent, and in no case within
the writer's knowledge has either the criminal or
his plunder been discovered. Impunity has given
encouragement to these bold attempts, in which
stores, private dwellings, and even sleeping-rooms,
have been robbed of their contents while the own-
ers slept. There is also much open dissipation and
street-drunkenness, on which a check would be
laid by the vigilance of a well- organized police.
About a year ago, the exposure of property to
fires (which seemed to be kindled more in sport
than malice, as they occurred chiefly in barns,
stables, shops, and other out-buildings,) led many
citizens to station a private watch around buiklings
supposed to be especially in danger. Tliose evils
will doubtless continue, without much abatement,
till they are met by the correctives of local muni-
cipal law.

272 PRELIMIXARY ACTION.

How soon STicli a remedy will be applied, we are
unable to predict. It appears, from the following
notice in the Orange Journal, of Xov. 19, 1859,
(issued since the above was written,) that the sub-
ject is already engaging the thoughts of some of
our leadino- men :

" A meetinoc of the citizens of Oranore was held
at Willow Hall, on Thursday evening, Nov. 17th,
pursuant to a call of the Township Committee, to
consider the propriety of applying to the Legisla-
ture for some change in the laws regulating the
Township Government. The meeting was called
to order by Mr. Nelson Lindsley. Dr. Babbit was
appointed Chairman, and E. D. Pierson, Secretary.
The Secretary read the call of the meeting, when
Dr. Pierson moved, in order to test the feelings of
the citizens, ' That it is expedient to take measures
for the better government of the town,' which mo-
tion was carried unanimously. It was then moved
and carried that a committee of five persons be
aj^pointed, who, with the Townsliip Committee,
shall determine apon some plan to carry out the
wishes of this meeting, as expressed by the first
resolution, and report the same to a subsequent
meeting.

" The several matters mentioned in the call, viz. :
gTading of streets, a police and fire department,
license for the sale of liquors, division of election-

OOMMITTEKS. 27'^

districts, &c., were then taken up separately, and
after considerable discussion, wliicli was partici-
pated in by Messrs. Dr. Pierson, N. Lindsley,
Albert Pierson, J. L. Blake, P. Johnson, E. Gard-
ner, F. P. Sanford, John Bonnell, Simeon Ilarri-
son, the Chairman, and D. N. Ropes, were each
referred to the committee.

" The Chairman then announced the following
gentlemen as the committee to act with the Town-
ship Committee to draft a plan as aforesaid : ^Messrs.
William Pierson, Simeon Harrison, Napoleon Stet-
son, Isaac J. Everitt, and Jesse Williams. It was
moved and carried that the Chairman be added to
the committee.

'' Considerable discussion was then had on the
subjects of taxation and common schools, after
which the meeting adjourned, to meet at the call
of the committee."

APPENDIX.

Cist of pastors.

SETTLED. DISMISSED, DIED. AGE.

Daniel Taylor, Jan. 8, 1747-8 56

Caleb Smith, Xov. 30, 1748. Oct: 22, 1762 38

Jed. Chapman, July 22, 1766. Aug. 13, 1800. May 22, 1813 72

A. Hillyer, D.D., Dec. 16, 1801. Feb. 12, 1833. Aug. 28, 1840 77
Geo. Pierson, June 22, 1829. Apr. 37, 1831.

W. C. White, Feb. 13, 1833. Apr. 18, 1855. Feb. 7, 1856. 53
James Hort, Feb. 14, 1856.

Cist of Ruling dkrs.

The Church has no records from which the names
of its elders can be known prior to 1801. The
first three in the following list were obtained from
the records of the Synod ; the next eleven from
those of the Presbytery ; some of them being also
found in the oldest minutes of the Session. There
must have been other elders before or contemporary
with Joseph Peck, but their names cannot be re-
covered. It is said b}^ Ira Harrison that his ances-
tor, Lewis Crane, who died in 1777, aged 59, held

APPENDIX.

275

the office. The evidence is wholly traditional.
Ilenrj Osborn was one of the elders who signed
the call to Mr. Hillyer in 1801. From that time
the list is complete. David Munn was chosen to
the office in 1809, but declined to serve.

WAS IN
OFFICE.

LEFT THE
PAEISH.

DIED,

AGE.

Joseph Peck,

1757

July

12, 1772

70

Joseph Riggs,

17G6

1783

1799

79

Bethuel Pierson,

17G8

May

16, 1791

70

Amos Baldwin,

1775

Feb.

23, 1805

85

Noah Crane,

177G

June

8, 1800

81

John Peck,

1784

Dec.

28, 1811

79

Joseph Pierson,

1791

Oct.

9, 1835

76

Isaac Dodd,

1793

1798

Aug.

19, 1804

76

John Perry,

1793

Oct.

1, 1821

75

Joseph Crane,

1794

1798

(C

11, 1832

81

Aaron Mmm,

1795

1805

Jan.

28, 1829

63

Zen as Freeman,

1798

Sept.

3, 1800

40

Linus Dodd,

1798

Aug.

3, 1825

66

Amos Harrison,

1799

Sept.

2, 1832

77

Henry Osborn,

1801

1811

Nov.

1835

72

Moses Condit,

1805

June

8, 1838

78

Jolni Lindsley,

1805

Dec.

19, 1819

67

Natlumiel Bruen,

1809

1814

June

28, 1829

60

Daniel P. Stryker,

1814

Feb.

9, 1816

33

Adonijah Osniun,

1814

1831

Joseph Pierson,

1814

Oct.

5, 1819

45

Daniel Condit,

1814

May

11, 1820

38

Zadok Brown,

1817(?)1818

1853

John Nicol,

1820

1831

APPENDIX.

a:

1820

1831

Dec. 23,

1852

66 I

1820

1831

" 31,

1835

56

1822

1833

Ju]y,

1857

73

1825

1831

1826

*1840

June 24,

1853

74

1826

Dec. 1,

1851

73 (

1831

Sept. 16,

1859

84

1831

Oct. IT,

1839

56

1831

1858

1831

1840

y

1833

1855

276

Peter Campbell,

Samuel Freeman,

Aaron R. Harrison,

Aaron Peck,

Amos Vincent,

Abraham Harrison,

Josiah Frost,

Daniel D. Condit,

Ira Canfield,

Samuel L. Pierson,

Abiathar Harrison,

Jonathan S.Williams, 1834

Smith Williams, 1839

Cyrus Gildersleeve, 1846

Charles R. Day, l!!?51

James Greacen, 1856 Nov. 5, 1857 42

John Bojnton, 1856

Steph. Wickes, M. D., 1856

Ira Harrison, 1856

i'ist of Dcacona.

We insert the name of Samuel Pierson (written
Pairson on his headstone) for reasons which have
been given. There can be little doubt that he -was
one of the first officers of the church. The second
pastor, Rev. Caleb Smith, had an account with
'' Deacon Thomson," as his account -book shows,
p. 110. And there is extant a copj of the New

* Ceased to act.

APPENDIX.

277

\

York Pocket Almanac for the year 1757, which
has been preserved in the parish, in which we find,
among a number of business entries, that the owner
of it in 1769 " paid Deacon Smith too dollars."
Samuel Harrison's account with the parsonage in
1748 mentions Deacon Samuel Freeman. The dea-
cons of later date (and perhaps some of these) have
all of them been elders also, except the three now
in office.

WAS IN
OFFICE.

DII

CD.

AGB.

S'aniiiel Piorson,

Mar.

19

,1730

66

Samuel Freeman,

1748

Oct.

21,

1782

66

Thomson^

1762

Slit'^t^i-li

1769

Joseph Pock,

July

12,

1772

70

Bethut4 Pierson,

May

16,

1791

70

Amos Baldwin,

1783

Feb.

Z6,

1805

85

Noali Crane, (?)

June

8,

1800

81

Isaac Dodcl,

Aug.

19.

1801

76

Jolni Peck,

Dec.

28,

1811

79

Joseph Pierson,

1798

Oct.

9.

1835

76

Jolin Perry,

Oct.

1,

1821

75

Amos Harrison,

Sept.

o

/^t

1832

77

Samuel Freeman,

1820

Dec.

31.

1835

56

Abraham Harrison,

1833

u

1

1.

1851

73

Amos Vincent,

1833

June

24.

1853

74

Josiali Frost,

1835

Sept.

16.

1859

S4

Moses \^. Cautield,

1851

Erastus A. (ira^^'s,

1 85(i

Cyrus S. Minor,
13

1 S5()

278 APPENDIX.

Statistics.

The figures given here have been gathered from
the following sources: From 1803 to 1805, from
the Sessional Records ; from 1806 to 1822, from
the Records of the Synod of jSTew York ; for 1823
and 1824, from those of the Synod of N'ew Jersey ;
from 1825 to the present time, from the statistics of
the General Assembly. When these v/ere not pub-
lished, or were found incomplete, the omissions have
been supplied, so fltr as they could be, fr'om other
sources. In the columns of benevolence, especially
in the first two tables, the figures are quite defect-
ive. The tables are conformed to the changes
■which have been made from time to time in the
form of statistical reports. These reports were
generall}' made in April, and cover the year pre-
ceding.

/

APPENDIX,

279

ISTo. 1.

•6

(0

27

a>

a

Adults
Baptized.

Infants
Baptized.

Funds of
xVssembly.

CO

CI

.2

'rO
CO

d

o

Presbytery.

1803

'

1804

9

1805

4

1806

9

223

6

38

$10 00

$23 00

$7 50

1807

8

228

9

26

11 oc

16 18

5 56

1808
1809

130
23

^i^f^

49
8

57

62

8 00
7 73

$8 00
7 73

375

16 18

13 06

1810

4

377

30

10 62

10 62

22 45

1811

3

377

1

34

5 44

5 44

17 47

1812

10

383

2

21

7 93

7 93

18 10

1813

6

377

19

7 25

7 25

17 00

1814

15

379

4

33

JO 19

10 20

17 00

t>.

1815

45

419

12

35

9 25

10 00

^"5

1816

9

374

3

40

7 27

7 25

14 10

So
Meg

1817

119

518

35

24

12 00

12 00

18 25

1818

9

520

4

64

7 83

13 67

20 0i3

21 00

1819

4

8 13

8 13

40 00

1820

8

511

3

32

6 00

2 37

36 00

1821

17

524

3

31

5 00

6 00

26 50

6 00

1822

G

522

•T

20

5 00

5 00

19 00

1823

5

4 78

4 78

14 50

31 25

1824

7

518

1

23

6 03

G 03

9 68

43 00

1825

518

4

03

1172

11 72

24 43

14 00

1826

90

596

2(J

03

5 68

6 68

11 10

6 00

1827

18

604

2

43

10 00

4 62

17 00

3 00

1828

5

588

1
168

31

1

789

8 00

5 75

10 00

31 ^0

i

590

j

184 85

159 17

312 94

250 65

280

Al PENDIX.

Ko. 2,

Toar.

Added on
^ Examination.

11

<o

.a
S

1

00 o

38

Assembly.

a

Education.

1S29

6

59R

o

S9 59

18.30

8

3

597

1

56

^5 00

$5 54

1831

12

2

596

46

7 00

s-

7 37

1832

63

439

46

5 06

«-

5 54

1833

1

4 25

«

1834

4

6

294

1

26

4 64

262 48

22 2G

1835

2

3

281

14

4 00

134 00

16 00

1836

255

16 15

1837

1

G

250

1

20

4 42

350 00

50 00

1838

8

4

254

4

22

114 00

73 90

1839

22

10

280

6

25

14 34

345 00

340 00

1840

1

3

274

12

5 75

300 00

1841

30

4

280

8

400 00

1842

6

4

275

1

12

375 00

1843

36

201

14

65

270

14

29

50
375

1200 00

45 00

54 41

i

i

* Contributions in aid of foreign missions, from 1S29 to 1S33, were made to
the Essex County Society, auxiliary to the American Board. The sums are
not known ; the accounts of the society, which has ceased to exi8t» not being
found.

APPENDIX.

281

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* Incomplete.

t For Western Colleges.

$For Am Tract Society,