*V- -BX92.H- 
 
 ONITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
\\ 
 
THE OLD PAESONA'GE. 
 
"The Mountain Society:" 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE 
 
 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 
 
 ORANGE, N. J. 
 
 ORGANIZED ABOUT THE YEAR 1719 AS AN INDEPENDENT SOCIETY, AND LONG KNOWN 
 AS THE " CHURCH AT NEWARK MOUNTAINS ;" PRESBYTERIAN SINCE 1748 J 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, TOE 
 NAMES AND LOCALITIES OF HIE FIRST SETTLERS NEAR THE 
 MOUNTAIN, THE CONTROVERSIES AND RIOTS RELATIVE TO 
 PROPRIETARY AND INDIAN LAND TITI.RS. INCIDENTS OF 
 THE REVOLUTION, THE FORMATION OF OTHER 
 CHURCHES, ETC., ETC. ; COMPRISING THE 
 MOST INTERESTING PARTICULARS IN THE 
 CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF 
 ORANGE. 
 
 BY JAMES HOYT 
 
 PASTOR OF THB CHURCH. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY C. M. SAXTON, BARKER & CO., 
 
 No. 25 Park Row. 
 
 1860. 
 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by 
 
 C. M. SAXTON, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for 
 the Southern District of New York. 
 
 Edward O. Jenkins, I rinter, 
 26 Frankfort St., N. T. 
 
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 work 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 
 compensated 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 through the book markets. Its value, 
 however, is not entirely local, nor limited in time. 
 The 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 
 our civil and sacred institutions. 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 He who planted His Church, and with it a purer 
 civilization, 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 in the ark, <fcc., — 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 Ebene- 
 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 
 
PREFACE. ( 
 
 have reached a position which makes it imperative 
 that the task here undertaken 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, elders and others 
 are invited to " cooperate, by collecting and trans- 
 mitting old sermons, pamphlets, newspapers, maga- 
 zines, letters, books, manuscripts, portraits, or any 
 relics of the olden time which throw tight 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 
 from its beginning. The oldest volume is the private 
 
 * Any contributions of the kind may be sent to Samuel Agnew, 
 Esq., 821 Chestnut street Philadelphia. 
 
6 PREFACF 
 
 account-book, in the form of a ledger, and once well 
 bound in parchment, kept by the second pastor, 
 Caleb Smith, and commenced in 1751. In this are 
 found the names of his parishioners, of a number of 
 boys 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 charter 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 graveyard, among monuments so bronzed and 
 moss-grown by the long action of the elements, as 
 almost to defy the hand of Old Mortality. Recourse 
 has been had to historical societies, to ecclesiastical 
 
'^FACE. y 
 
 records, to old account-books and journals, to deeds 
 and wills, to town records, and to the 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 with a historical narrative. The present labor will 
 have its reward, if, in this " walk 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 Newark ; 
 and much personal aid has been received from Dr. 
 Samuel H. Congar, " the indefatigable antiquarian of 
 Newark," and librarian of the Xew 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 Hilly er), much information has been 
 drawn from Sprague's Annals of the American Pul- 
 
10 PREFACE. 
 
 pit. For many facts relating to Jedediah Chapman, 
 the writer is indebted to his grandson, Rev. Robert 
 H. Chapman, D. D., of Asheville, N". C. He is also 
 under obligations to Rev. Dr. Van Rensselaer, of 
 Philadelphia, Rev. Dr. Sprague, of Albany, Rev. Dr. 
 Murray, of Geneva, Rev. Dr. Krebs, of New York, 
 and a number of others, for their courteous responses 
 to his inquiries. 
 
 The brief notices given of other religious societies 
 in Orange are from statements kindly furnished by 
 their present pastors. That of the Bloomfield Church 
 is from the published historical discourses of its late 
 pastor, 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 Newark. 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 congregation to whom he ministers. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EAELY 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 
 Mark — Character of the Hackinsacks— Bears and "Wolves — 
 Houses — Self-Government — End of Proprietary Rule— Horse- 
 neck Purchase 13-45 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 
 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 bv the Mountain Societv — 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. 
 
 REV. DANIEL TAYLOR. 
 
 Graduation at Killingworth — Labors on Long Island — Death of 
 his Wife— Removal to New Jersey — Deeds and Dates— Home- 
 stead and Parm— 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. 
 Taylor's Will— His Death— Officers of the Church - 46-81 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 REV. CALEB SMITH. 
 
 Samuel Harrison's Day-Book — Parsonage House — The Young 
 Minister— The Church Presbyterian — The Minister's Marriage — 
 Parsonage Memories — Wood-Drawing— More Riots— A Queer 
 Wind — Influence on the Provincial Assembly — Indictments 
 and Pines— 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. 
 
 REY. 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— The Patriot Pastor 
 
CONTENTS. 13 
 
 — 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 Bloomfield — 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. 
 
 REV. ASA HILLYEE, D. D. 
 
 A New Century— Light from the Inner Temple — Revival under 
 the Preaching of Mr. Griffin — 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 1807-8 
 — 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. 
 
 REV. 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 — West Bloomfield 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. 
 
 RE V . JAMES HOTT. 
 
 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 — Blessings in Adversity— Revival 
 of 1858— Features of the Revival — Additions to the Churches — 
 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 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A VIEW OP ORANGE. 
 
 Orange in 1834— Climate— Relations to Newark and New York- 
 Extent and Appearance- -Trade and Business — Farms and 
 
CONTENTS, 15 
 
 Homes— Llewellyn Park — Eagle Eock— The Old Mineral Spring 
 —Barrett's Park — The Mountain House— Orange Valley — The 
 Village— Springdale Lake — Second Eiver and the Streams that 
 form it— Eosedale 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 
 
HISTORY 
 
 CHAPTER T. 
 
 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- 
 ners and ideas are soon shaped to the mould into 
 which they have been cast. The causes are ob- 
 vious ; 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 North 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 divinities. 
 
 The present history elates from a point not very 
 ancient — less than two hundred years ago. Its 
 proper beginning lies nearer, in the time of George 
 the First, about two-thirds of a century before our 
 national independence. The European popula- 
 tion of New 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 News-Letter, the first American 
 newspaper, was but fourteen years old, and without 
 a competitor. Philadelphia and New York were 
 provincial villages. 
 
 The first post-office in America, at New 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 
 Londonderry. 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, 
 
ANTECEDENT HISTORY. 15 
 
 for Bibles and other 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 Methodism 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 
 been, in the progress of American civilization and 
 Christianity, as fourteen centuries ? 
 
 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- 
 ganized in 1715. 
 
16 PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT. 
 
 were blended. We snail 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 
 trading station had been established by the Dutch, 
 forty years before. In 1663, a band of Puritans 
 from Long Island obtained permission of the Dutch 
 to plant their institutions 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 Bay. 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 New Jersey was 
 conveyed the same year, by deeds of lease and re- 
 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 Berklejr, the former taking the eastern part. 
 Carteret, by his will, dated December 5, 1678, de- 
 vised to certain trustees therein named a power to 
 
KULES 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 twenty-four Proprietors. 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 
 quantities of acres in the said Concessions expressed, 
 paying 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. 
 
18 NEWARK SETTLED. 
 
 casion, in the name of the 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 opposition. 
 
 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 of 
 seventy -five acres for the importation of each able slave. This in- 
 human appeal to avarice had its motive in the fact that the Duke 
 of York was a patron of the slave trade, and president of the 
 African Company. 
 
 f Bancroft, Hist. U. S., VoL II., p. 318. 
 
OBJECT OF THE SETTLERS. 19 
 
 Haven and the Connecticut colonies, of which one of 
 the 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 with the church. The pioneer company, 
 which comprised about thirty families, came from 
 Milford in the spring of 1666. Their 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 another and vain 
 repetition of an experiment which the Branford 
 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. 
 They 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 office ; nor 
 shall any but such church 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 Eecords. Stearns' Hist., p. 14. 
 
NAMES OF SETTLEES. 
 
 21 
 
 These articles were subscribed by — 
 
 JASPER CRANE, 
 ABRAHAM PIERSON, 
 SAMUEL SWALNE, 
 LAURENCE WARD, 
 THOMAS BLACTHLY, 
 SAMUEL PLUM, 
 JOSIAH WARD, 
 SAMUEL ROSE, 
 THOMAS PIERSON, 
 JOHN WARD, 
 JOHN CATLING, 
 
 RICHARD HARRISON. 
 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. 
 
 HUGH ROBERTS, 
 EPHRAIM PENNINGTON, 
 
 JOHN BROOKS, 
 
 ROBERT LYMENS, 
 
 FRANCIS LINLE, 
 
 DANIEL TICHENOR, 
 
 JOHN BAULDWIN, £ 
 
 JOHN BAULDWIN, JUN., JOSEPH RIGGS, 
 
 JONATHAN TOMPKINS, STEPHEN BOND. 
 
 The names thus 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 " li^e a tree planted 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 by the Gov- 
 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 this 
 rule the colonists expected to find Indian claims 
 pacified, and the way clear for the undisturbed 
 occupancy of such lands as they needed. But 
 when the Milford company arrived and commenced 
 landing their goods, a party of the Hackinsacks 
 appeared, who warned them off, saying the lands 
 
PURCHASE OF LANDS. 23 
 
 were not yet purchased. 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.' 1 * And so, putting their 
 goods back upon the vessel, they were about to 
 return. The governor, 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 Kobert 
 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 Cap teen, a Dutchman, assisted the 
 negotiations as interpreter. This was in 1666. 
 The bill of sale was not made out till July 11, 
 1667. This was signed by Obadiah Bruen, Michael 
 Tompkins, Samuel Kitchell, John Brown, and Ko- 
 bert Denison, on the part of the town ; and by 
 Wapamuck, Harish, Captamin, Sessom, Mamus- 
 tome, Peter, Wamesane, Wekaprokikan, Cacnack- 
 que and Perawae, on the part of the Indians.f 
 
 * Bancroft, Vol. II., 319. 
 
 f Stearns' Hist., p. 11. Was Perro, (whose name is variously- 
 spelled in the old manuscripts as Perro, Parow, Parrow, &a,) the 
 same person with Perawae ? 
 
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 13, 1677- v , extended the limits to the top 
 of the mountain, for " two guns, three coats, and 
 thirteen cans of rum."* 
 
 The second purchase was from " Winacksop and 
 ShenacJctos, 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 now 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. 
 
 5. fimp. 10. dick. 15. bumsack. 20. enock. 
 
CASTING LOTS. 25 
 
 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, Bloomfielcl, 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 
 11 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 Bichard Harrison. 
 
 August 28, 1675. Samuel Swaine had 40 acres 
 at the foot of the mountain, with John Baldwin, 
 
26 ORANGE SETTLERS. 
 
 Sen., on the north, Eobert Lymon and Kichard 
 Harrison on the west, Eichard Harrison on the east, 
 the common on the south. 
 
 Sept. 10, 1675. John Baldwin, Sen., had for bis 
 third division, near the mountain, 40 acres, with 
 Capt. Samuel Swaine and John Catlin north, Ser- 
 geant Eichard 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 the mountain. Eichard Har- 
 rison had fifty acres, with the widow Freeman 
 south, and also 15 acres "upon the branch of Eah- 
 way river," bounded west ,by John Catlin and 
 John Baldwin, Sen., east by a small brook running 
 from the mountain, 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. 
 
 Anthony Oliff (or Olive) had 50 acres, with Sam- 
 uel Harrison south, the mountain west, unsurveyed 
 lands on the north and east. This farm included 
 on its northern border the street now known as 
 
ORANGE SETTLERS. 27 
 
 Willi amsville. 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 Richard Harrison 
 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 ORANGE SETTLERS. 
 
 In March, 1685, Paul, George and Samuel Day, 
 heirs of George Day, had surveyed to them by W. 
 Camp, survej^or, sixty acres, bounded with the 
 mountain west, Matthew Williams south, Wigwam 
 brook east, and the common north ; Matthew "Wil- 
 liams having been admitted a planter, 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~ 
 jphar. 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, 
 in which Elder Joseph Riggs was born, in 1720. 
 
 By warrant of April 27, 1694, there was laid 
 out for John Gardner, in right 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, brother of Sergeant Jasper, and 
 son-in-law of Capt. Robert Treat, was a deacon of 
 the Newark Church. His sons, Azariah 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 tanning." 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, with Robert Dalglesh cast, Jasper 
 Crane south, Harrison's lot west ; the third on the 
 upper Chestnut hill, by the stone -house brook, 
 bounded south by said brook, west by Samuel 
 Freeman and unsurveyed land, north by Thomas 
 Lnddington ; 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 wife, 
 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 1664, 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 
 Richard Harrison, Sen., of Branford. Coming to 
 Newark, 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 children were Joseph, Samuel, James, Daniel, 
 Caleb, Jemima, Mary, Hannah. 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 Lindskys, 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 
 1614. 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 Newark. 
 
32 ORANGE SETTLERS. 
 
 Through Ebenezer, Benjamin, and John, we trace 
 the line down to John M. Lindsley, the oldest liv- 
 ing representative of the name in this locality. 
 Ebenezer died in Orange in 1743, at the age 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 Bloomfleld 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 Eiggs, 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 with " 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 1661-5. 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 adjoining to Watsessing 
 plain [now Bloomneld], 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 3 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 Newark col- 
 ony were John and Deborah Cundit, or Condit. 
 Their son Peter married Mary, daughter of Sam- 
 uel Harrison, Sen., and was the father of Samuel, 
 Peter, John, Nathaniel, Philip, Isaac and Mary. 
 His place of residence is not known, but his son 
 John was probably the John Cundit mentioned in 
 
 * Eecords of Daniel Dod and his descendants, by Rev. Stephen 
 Dodd. The original orthography was Dod. 
 
ORANGE SETTLERS. 35 
 
 1739, in connection with John Ward, to whom the 
 court gave license to keep public-houses at the 
 mountain. The Cundit House, kept at a more re- 
 cent period by Isaac A. Smith, is identified in 
 locality with the " Orange Hotel," now kept by 
 T. A. Eeeve. 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 were Hannah, Phebe, Jemima, 
 Thomas, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Isaac. 
 
 Joseph Peck 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, was father of Mr. John Peck, one 
 of the oldest living inhabitants of PeeJdown, (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. : Goffe, 
 Whalley, and Dixwell, concerned in the condemnation of King 
 Charles T. See the account in Stearns' Hist , p. 35. note. 
 
36 MEN OF MAEK. 
 
 Kitchell, Lamson, Nutman, 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 
 any 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 mark, and 
 John Brooks his B mark, and Eobert Lymens his 
 V mark, and Francis Linle his F mark, and Eobert 
 Denison his E marJc. 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 
 highest stations. They 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. "While the institutions of Penn were 
 spreading and taking form in the bordering prov- 
 ince, and those 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 ; the Newark 
 colonists, intermingling with the peaceful Hackin- 
 sacks, whose rights they treated with justice and 
 respect, were quietly engaged in felling the forest, 
 breaking up the generous soil, building 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 thereof (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. + Washington Irving 
 
 3 
 
38 BEARS AND WOLVES. 
 
 but have always 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 New 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, especially 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 by stratagem or prowess. 
 And many a bounty, as tempting to the poor colo- 
 nist as the excitement of the hunt, had to be 
 offered. Kepeatedly, 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 agreed upon by vote, for the encouragement 
 of those that will kill wolves, that they shall have 
 twenty shillings per head allowed them in a town 
 rate for this year." Four years later, the bounty 
 offered was twelve shillings. This for a full-grown 
 
 * Publication of 25th March. 1T46 
 
BOUNTIES. c9 
 
 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 Eiggs, who 
 had charge of a wolf-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, was taken to a magis- 
 trate, who 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 
 
 e Quoted with references, by Stearns, p. t9. 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. 
 
 nothing can come near them but they give warn- 
 ing with the rattling of their tails, so that people 
 may either kill them or go by them, as they 
 please." What influence these assurances had to 
 bring over the water any of the "kith and kin" of 
 the w r orthy Scot, we know not. There was a con- 
 siderable infusion of Scotch into the Newark 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 ground, and the other nailed to the raising, 
 which they plaster within." At Amboy, 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 by him : " The 
 houses at Amboy are thirty feet long, and sixteen 
 feet wide; ten feet between joint and joint ; a 
 double chimney, made with timber and clay, as 
 
 such measures as might be necessary to exterminate the wolves. 
 General legislation, however, was again resorted to, in March, 
 1*714, and the bounty was extended to panthers and red foxes." 
 In 1730, that on foxes was withdrawn. In 1751, the bounty was 
 11 sixty shillings 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 f 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 "Toted, 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 ; Stearns, p. 30. 
 
42 END OF PROPRIETARY RULE. 
 
 ing on of spiritual concernments," but also for the 
 regulation of u civil and town affairs, according to 
 God and a godly government." It was not simply 
 that they were a community of husbandmen, 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 heart. 
 
 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. Nor 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 governmental 
 functions, broke down at last their gigantic and 
 
HOKSENECK PURCHASE. 43 
 
 odious monopoly of the soil. This was, however, 
 the work of three-quarters of a century. The last 
 and effective sweep of quit-rents and proprietary 
 exactions was made by the 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 
 freight 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, Eobert 
 Young, Daniel Dod, Nathaniel Ward and John 
 Cooper w r ere 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 Morris and 
 John Cooper, were 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 the 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 part shall agree from time to 
 time." As, however, an act of the General Assem- 
 bly of the ]3rovince, passed in 1683, was still in 
 force, forbidding the taking of any deed from the 
 Indians, except in the Proprietors' name ; and as the 
 inhabitants of Newark, down to the date of this new 
 purchase, had maintained an unimpeachable loy- 
 alty to the Provincial government ; especially, as 
 they had but two 3*ears 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 
 
 s;; - 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 Pierson's house. It was 
 promptly renewed within a week, so far as it could be, by another 
 conveyance, to which Daniel Taylor was a witness, signed by the 
 descendants of the sagamores who had signed the first. 
 
ITS LEGALITY. 45 
 
 was made in a way that satisfied at once the 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. Erom 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 
 Vangeesen'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 all 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 
 1103 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 II. 
 
 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 
 passed away. 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 Jersey, 
 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 Presbytery." 
 The statement of Dr. McWhorter, quoted by Dr. 
 
CHANGES IN NEWARK. 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 by 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 tj^pe 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 Ee volution. But in 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 Mountain associated 
 with them," which bears date, January 13, 1719. 
 As the year then began on the 25th of March, 
 January followed 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. 
 
PAKSONAGE LAND. 49 
 
 facts above given, we, incline to the opinion that 
 the Society took organic form sometime during the 
 year 1719. 
 
 Among the 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 years 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. How 
 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 ministry. Their first act 
 as an ecclesiastical body, of which we have any 
 knowdedge, 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 King, defender of the 
 faith," &c, the deed informs ns 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 Newark 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 New Jersey, religious liberty was explicitly 
 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 including, 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 Eobert Treat's testimony, Bill in Chancery, 
 p. 118. 
 
 f 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 which 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 Newark, 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 Newark, 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 congregation, however, were not 
 entirety dependent upon the Bezaleels and Hirams 
 of the old Society. 
 
 Samuel Pierson was a carpenter, and his sons 
 
HANDS THAT HELPED. 53 
 
 Joseph, Samuel, James, Daniel, and Caleb,— all of 
 them now arrived at manhood, for the father was 
 fifty-six years old — must have had some knowl- 
 edge of the trade. He was a good man, who had 
 a care for the spiritual, as well as for the material 
 edifice, as appears from the testimonial placed upon 
 his headstone ten years afterward. We 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 week to week the progress of the 
 'meeting -house 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 HOLY 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. Who 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 down 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. 
 
 f According to a letter written March. 1729, by Rev. Jedediah 
 
THE CONGREGATION. 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 
 OlhT, probably the oldest man in the society, a 
 patriarch in jrears 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 WORSHIP. 
 
 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 precentor, to 
 line out the psalrn which the minister had read, and 
 lead the congregation in the solemn service of song. 
 Some recollections of the meeting-house arrange- 
 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 spirit 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 raging. The men who had worked 
 upon it hkd 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 affected the spirit and 
 true effect of public worship. While the introduction of hymn 
 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 tise 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 RACES. 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. 
 KEY. 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 son, in crossing the Connecticut river at 
 Say brook, on a visit to his friends. This tragic in- 
 cident, however, belongs to the history of Eev. 
 Joseph Webb,* of the Newark church. It is quite 
 likely that before the congregation had obtained a 
 
 * The Boston Gazette and Weekly 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, 
 1856.) Mr. Webb had been about five years dismissed from his 
 Newark charge. 
 
HIS NATIVITY. 59 
 
 minister, Mr. Webb bad occasional appointments 
 here. Tbe people were a part of the flock to 
 which bis predecessors bad ministered. It it also 
 likely tbat during tbe four years of bis residence 
 in Newark, after bis dismission from tbat cbarge 
 in 1736, wben be continued still to preacb in tbe 
 neigbborbood, 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 tbe 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 bis sixteenth year when be graduated at tbe 
 high school, or college, at Killingworth, the embryo 
 Yale. It was not uncommon at tbat period for 
 boys to be put through tbe required course of 
 Greek and Latin at sixteen years. 
 
 Inquiries respecting bis 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 tbe town 
 records of Smithtown, Long Island, that he resided 
 there four years, ending with IT 17, and that Eicb- 
 ard Smith and his four brothers, on the 13th day 
 
 * Not 1684, as given by Thompson ; Hist. Long Island, 2d ed., 
 vol. L, p. 460. 
 
60 LABORS ON LONG ISLAND. 
 
 of February in that year, gave him fifty acres of 
 land on the west side of Nesaquake river, in con- 
 sideration of his ministerial labors. There, too, at 
 the age of twenty-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 New Jersey is not 
 known. It was prior to April 23, 1723, at which 
 time he and Matthew Williams 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 18th 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, Mr. 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 tombstones, we suppose her to 
 
 * On the back of the deed is a deposition, certified Dec. 27, 
 17 G5, 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 lawfully executed. 
 
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 who bore that name, outlived 
 him by at least eighteen years. From this and 
 other circumstances, it may be inferred that she 
 was considerably 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 Tichenor, and now in the possession of Widow 
 Mary Freeman, of South Orange, contains upon a fly-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 was 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 ready 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 highway ; 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, ) 
 
 Thomas + Lamson, [ w ^^«- 
 mark. J 
 
REVIVAL OF 1734. 63- 
 
 were deeded by him to Matthew Williams, Jim., 
 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. Taylor 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 only from the perpetuity 
 and growth of the Ch urch, 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 : " Bill 
 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 Eev. Mr. Wil- 
 
64 REVIVAL IN NEWARK. 
 
 liam Tenuent, 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 of many" 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 youthful Eev. Aaron Burr. It was 
 just before the first visit of White field to this part 
 of the country. Beginning among the } r outh, 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 apparently no suc- 
 
 8 It is stated by Rev. Richard Webster (Hist. Presb. Ch., p. 
 413,) that John 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.' The remark- 
 able revival in his congregation there, in 1734 and '35, is noticed 
 in Edwards's ' Thoughts on Eevivals.' " 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. 
 
NEGRO 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 Raritan 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 CROWN. 
 
 Jersey, other than the 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 November, 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 granted that 
 
CHALMERS' OPINION. 67 
 
 right to the proprietors by the grants of New Jersey, 
 under the great seal of England ?"* 
 
 Yet there were some in Newark, as there had 
 been long before in Eliza bethtown, 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 ceremony. "f 
 
 * 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 
 toward 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 popes, who, as God's vicegerent?, 
 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 
 IV., in 1440, made a munificent donation of Africa to King Al- 
 phonso V., 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 VI., in 1493, the year after its discovery, 
 gave the whole of America to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, 
 (although one of his iufallible 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 Eang's standard in 
 any lands, islands, &c. which they might discover, not previously 
 occupied by christians, and to seize, conquer, and possess, all such 
 
DISAFFECTION. 69 
 
 happened in a few instances that lands were twice 
 sold under 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 same.'" 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." 
 
 TVhat 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 discovery, 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," &c. Phila. 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 
 
 9 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. 
 
 Thomas Williams, £ 8-0 
 
 Samuel Wheeler, 17-<> 
 
 Going to X. England 4 days, 1- 4-0 
 Going to N. England 9 days, 2-14-0 
 Going to Horse Neck with 
 
 Mr. Taylor, 5-0 
 
 Going to Horse Neck with 
 
 Dan. Lamson, 5-0 
 
 Cash p'd to Mr. Taylor, 3-6 
 
 " p'd to John Cundict, 14-0 
 
 do. 2-4 
 
 " p'd to John Tompkins, 17-10 
 
 Going to New York, 10-0" 
 
 &c. &c. 
 
 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. 
 
 "Nathaniel Crane, 
 
 £1-10-0 
 
 Sam. Harrison, in cash to 
 
 
 Capt. Wheeler, 
 
 7-0 
 
 Nathaniel Camp, 
 
 7-0 
 
 Samuel Baldwin, 
 
 7-0 
 
 Sam. Harrison p'd Mr. Tay- 
 
 
 lor, 
 
 3-6 
 
 John Cundict p'd Mr. Tay- 
 
 
 lor, 
 
 7-0 
 
 August -0. Garhshom Wil- 
 
 
 liams, 
 
 7-0 
 
 Oct. 7. I received of Amos 
 
 
 Williams, on accompt of 
 
 
 the charg a of the purchase 
 
 
 right, 
 
 7-0 
 
LOSS OF DEED. 71 
 
 expenses of agents sent to Connecticut and to Horse 
 Neck [Caldwell], for the purpose, it is presumed, of 
 obtaining papers 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, 1744-5. 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. Vreelandt 
 [his mark.] The event furnished an occasion, how- 
 ever, which 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 
 Vreelandt, aged 81 years, Cornelius Demaress, 
 Samuel Harrison, John Condit, Deacon Samuel 
 
72 RIOTS. 
 
 Ailing, Samuel Tompkins, Francis Spier, Ilen- 
 drick Francisco, Joseph Piggs, and others, relating 
 to the course of the Proprietors of East Jersey, in 
 obliging them to repurchase their lands after hav- 
 ing enjoyed long and peaceable possession. 1 '* In 
 the same month, Nehemiah Baldwin, Joseph Pier- 
 son, 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 were 
 ignored. It was the famous purchase of fifteen 
 miles square, obtained, as the Proprietors sneer- 
 ingly 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 were Indians, and they had their deeds." The 
 purchasers took a different view of the transaction. 
 They had their vindicator too. There was 
 
 u A Daniel come to judgment : yea, a Daniel." 
 
 Toward the close of the year, there appeared in 
 New York a little pamphlet of forty-eight pages, 
 
 * Rutherford MS8. See Analytical Index, by N. J. Hist. Soc. 
 
VINDICATION. 73 
 
 entitled " A Brief vindication of the Purchassors 
 Against the Proprietors in a Christian Manner." 
 It is supposed to have been written bj Mr. Taylor.* 
 A writer also in the New York Post-Bo j, 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 
 
 * There 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 Tork, 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 the Province, and since they 
 came to it living retired in and behind the moan- 
 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 wished he had sufficient evi- 
 dence of it) to be the composer of all their papers. 
 
 In their publication of Sept. 14, 1747, we find 
 the following spicy allusions to our ancient pastor : 
 
 " The Committee [of the opposition] 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 dan withstand that interest ? Especially 
 as the worthy Committee and clubmen have two 
 supernumerary prompters behind the curtain — 
 Clergymen — w ho 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 worthy Committee, in their several late per- 
 formances in newspapers, petitions, proposals, and 
 answer now before us ; and a worthy partner with 
 the Committee in the fifteen-mile-square purchase 
 aforesaid, lately (as before is said,) for a five-shil- 
 ling York bill and some rnm, 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 Eeverend 
 Pastor, it's said, makes it as clear as the sun, 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 earth, 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 the controversy was 
 now ending. A subject of more solemn concern- 
 ment claimed his thoughts. About three months 
 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 will 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 power 
 
 * That is. cleric, or clergyman. 
 
77 
 
 of God. And as touching such worldly estate 
 wherewith it hath pleased God to bless me in this 
 life, I give, devise and dispose of the same 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. 
 
 u 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 
 desire 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. 
 
 "Item, 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 Rev d Mr. Daniel Tayler, 
 Who was minister of this parrish 
 Years, Dec d Jan? 8 th , A.D., 1U1-8, 
 In the 51th 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 ' 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 75th 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 presumptive 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. 
 
CHURCH 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, 1730, in his 67th 
 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 was 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. 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 REV. CALEB SMITH. 
 
 IF, when Samuel Harrison was writing the 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 more method and grace, and the dictionary 
 would have corrected sundry slips of orthograph}^. 
 This Samuel Harrison was the second of that 
 name in Newark, and a grandson of Sergeant Eich- 
 ard. He exercised the quadruple functions of mag- 
 istrate, farmer, fuller and sawyer. He was, withal, 
 
THE PAKSONAGE. 83 
 
 a loyal rent-payer, as appears from a petition ad- 
 dressed to Governor Belcher in 1747, and signed by 
 Nathaniel Wheeler, Jonathan Pierson, John Con- 
 diet, Nathaniel Camp, Samuel Harrison, Samuel 
 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, 1748 — 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 Farancl, Peter 
 Bosteda, William Crane, Jonathan Ward, Jonathan 
 Sergeant, Samuel Cundict, Joseph Peck, Deacon 
 Samuel Freeman, Bethuel Pierson, Thomas Lam- 
 son, Samuel AVheeler, Eobert Baldwin, and Joseph 
 Jones : — a list of twenty-five names, chiefly repre- 
 senting (we may presume) 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 New 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 Eev. 
 Jonathan Dickinson, of Elizabeth town. He was a 
 son of William and Hannah Smith, of Brookhaven, 
 L. I., 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 Eev. 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 PRESBYTERIAN. 85 
 
 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 New 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 30th of November, 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 rehg- 
 ious elements in New 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 
 5 
 
86 
 
 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, on whose battle-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 new house from time to 
 time to observe the progress of the work, 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 }~oung 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 sixpence a 
 day) for work done on the parsonage. May 3d was 
 employed in "slaking lime." Another day was 
 devoted " to topping up the chimney." 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 steady 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 were 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 yet waved over the par- 
 sonage lands, the invading axe was directed thither. 
 When these were stripped, 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 within doors, where the ' better-half 
 of the parish provided the last and best part of the 
 entertainment. A supper and a scene of right 
 social cheer for old and young was the winding up 
 of the wood frolic. Time and change have set 
 aside this merry custom. The woodlands have 
 vanished or been shorn of their strength, and the 
 blaze of the old broad chimney 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 meetings 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, we give the following : 
 
 March 10, 1746-7. — It was " unanimously 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 use 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 the 
 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 depreciation 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 the 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 
 parish during the whole period of his connection 
 with it, and which 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 compromise. 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 people in disguise came to and broke open the 
 jail, and rescued the two prisoners. By their com- 
 
 
MORE RIOTS. 91 
 
 ing in disguise, (the 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 Newark, to James Alexander, discovers to 
 us 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 this 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 
 stagnated by 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. Eiots 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, Nathaniel Wil- 
 liams, Samuel Parkhurst, John Harrison, Moses 
 Brown, Benjamin Perry, Levi Vincent, Jun., Josiah 
 Lindsley, Bethuel Pierson, Nathaniel Ball, John 
 Baker, Nathan Baldwin, Abel Ward, John Dodd, 
 Timothy Ball, Ely Kent, Jonathan Davis, Jun., 
 Ebenezer Lindsley, Eleazer Lamson, Enos Baldwin, 
 Samuel Ogden, John Brown, Jun., Timothy Meeker, 
 
 * Analyt. Index, pp. 257-8. 
 
 f S. H. Congar — to whom the writer is indehted for extracts 
 from the records. "I say respectable,'' he adds, "for doubtless 
 they were 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, 
 Eobert Young, Paul Day, Joseph Williams, and 
 Elihu Lindsley, were fined five shillings. "Re- 
 cognizance £100 for their good behavior for three 
 years, and stand committed till fine and fees are 
 paid." 
 
 But the Mountain Society showed signs of pros- 
 perity and progress even amid these adverse influ- 
 ences. Mr. Smith had been in the parish but a few 
 years, when the erection of a new and better house 
 of worship was undertaken. The following con- 
 tract refers to the finishing of the house the year 
 after its erection : 
 
 " Articles of agreement entered into this 13th 
 day of March, 1754, between the committee of the 
 Society of Newark Mountains, regularly chosen to 
 manage in the affair of building a new meeting- 
 house in said Society, by name Samuel Harrison, 
 Samuel Freeman, Joseph Harrison, Stephen Dod, 
 David Williams, Samuel Condict, William Crane, 
 and Joseph Riggs on the one party, and Moses 
 Baldwin on the other party ; whereas the said com- 
 mittee have bargained and agreed, with the said 
 Baldwin perfectly to finish the said meeting-house 
 excepting the mason work which now remains to be 
 done to the same ; which articles of agreement are, 
 as to the most considerable particulars, as follows : 
 
94 CONTRACT FOR FINISHING. 
 
 " 1. That said Baldwin shall faithfully and hon- 
 estly finish the said house in the general, after the 
 model of the meeting-house in Newark. 
 
 "2. That said Baldwin shall find all the mate- 
 rials for finishing the said house, such as timbers, 
 boards, sleepers, glass, oil and paint, nails, hinges, 
 locks, latches, bolts, with all other kinds of mate- 
 rials necessary for finishing the said house after the 
 model aforesaid, excepting the materials for the 
 mason work. 
 
 "3. That he shall seal [ceil] the arch, ends above 
 the plate, and under the galleries, with white- wood 
 boards, and paint the same well with a light sky 
 color. 
 
 " 4. That he shall take the desk of the old pulpit 
 and so new model it that it shall be proportionable 
 to the rest of the work, and that the rest of the 
 gum- work be as the house in Newark, and oiled. 
 
 "5. That he shall make six pews, one on each 
 side the pulpit, and two on the right and two on the 
 left fronting the pulpit, with doors and hinges. 
 
 " 6. That he shall make shutters for the lower 
 tier of windows, painted blue and white. 
 
 " 7. That he shall set all the glass, and paint the 
 sashes, and put springs in the same to prevent their 
 falling. 
 
 "8. That he shall make a row of pews in the 
 front gallery next the wall. 
 
 "9. That the said committee shall pay to the said 
 
THE COST. 95 
 
 Baldwin for finishing the said meeting-house as 
 above-mentioned, provided he completes it by the 
 first day of December next, the sum of two hundred 
 and forty pounds current money of this province, 
 the payments to be as follows, viz.: that he shall 
 be paid forty pounds upon demand, one hundred 
 pounds more upon the first day of December next, 
 and the last hundred pounds upon this day twelve 
 months. 
 
 " 10. That the said Baldwin shall employ any of 
 the joiners belonging to this Society for so long 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 work for many in the 
 parish, who had doubtless equal privileges with the 
 
 s The original paper is preserved by S. H. Conerar, 
 
96 HELPERS IN THE WORK. 
 
 joiners. Thus, on the 20th of March, Samuel 
 Jones received credit, 15 shillings, for six loads of 
 rough stone ; David Peck, for four loads, 10 shil- 
 lings ; David "Williams by Davie Taylor, two loads, 
 3 shillings ; while Deacon Freeman had 7 shillings 
 for laying sleepers two days, and Justice Harrison, 
 William Crane, Thomas Williams, Samuel Cundict, 
 Isaac Cundict, John Cundict, Stephen Dod, David 
 Williams, Capt. [Matthew] Williams, Isaac Wil- 
 liams, Joseph Harrison and others, for " taking 
 down the ceiling of the old meeting-house," and for 
 other work, were duly and equally credited at the 
 rate of three shillings sixpence a day. In " Justice 
 Harrison's" old account-book already referred to, 
 we find a series of charges to the meeting-house ac- 
 count from May to July 4th, when, says the record, 
 " we raised the meeting-house galleries." On that 
 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 by those who well remember it and 
 
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 rale, varying from a few shillings 
 to the sum of two pounds and upwards. The ag- 
 gregate per annum was not far from £65, or about 
 $150* The rates were doubtless graduated by the 
 civil tax list. This income was added to the use of 
 the parsonage house and ]ands. There were, how- 
 ever, as the account shows, some tardy rate-payers, 
 who had several years of arrearages to settle for 
 with Mr. Smith's executors, after his decease. 
 
 A New York paper of July, 1756, notices a 
 destructive hurricane, from which some of Mr. 
 
 * From an entry made in 1762, it appears that the dollar was 
 then equal in value to eight shiUings eight pence. "Wheat was 6s. 
 to Is. per bushel ; oats, 2s. 6c?. ; Indian corn, 3^ to 4s.; buckwheat, 
 2s. 6c?. to 3s. ; flax, 9c?. per lb. ; tallow, 8c?.; beef (by the quarter) 
 3d. ; pork, 6c?.; butter, 18c?. ; cider, 10s. a barrel ; cider spirits, 3s. 
 6c?. a gallon ; a quart of rum, 15c?. 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. 6d. for a day in the meadows ; Jedi- 
 diah Crane 2s. 6c?. for tobacco. For a clock and case, Aaron Miller 
 received £17 10s. ($40) ; for cleaning watch, 3s. 6c?. ; for grinding 
 5 razors. 3s. dd. 
 
98 A HURRICANE. 
 
 Smith's parishioners suffered. " The gust " — it 
 says — " was felt in Philadelphia — also in a very 
 severe manner in the afternoon at Newark Moun- 
 tain in New Jersey, where the orchards, fences, 
 cornfields, and woodlands, for about a mile and a 
 half in length, are entirely ruined, many large trees 
 being broken down and carried an incredible dis- 
 tance from where they stood. Twenty-five houses 
 and barns were quite blown away, among which 
 were Samuel Pierson's barn and mill-house, Justice 
 Crane's barn and part of his house, Capt. Amos 
 Harrison's house and barn, two widows named 
 Ward, their houses and barns, and a new house be- 
 longing to one Dodd, almost finished." One might 
 fancy the elements sharing the agitation of the 
 times, and getting up a riot on their own account. 
 But we doubt if the effects of this emeute gave as 
 much satisfaction to the mountain farmers as did 
 those of the " north-west wind " which, seven and a 
 half years before, burst the doors of the Newark 
 jail. 
 
 A sadder visitation came the following summer. 
 Death entered for the first time through the doors 
 of the stone parsonage, and claimed for his own, 
 after a year of suffering, the yet young and lovely 
 wife, now the mother of three daughters. On the 
 20th of August, 1757, eight years from his marriage, 
 Mr. Smith was left a widower. This early bereave- 
 ment, which took from him a woman of rare excel- 
 
SANCTIFIED SORROWS. 99 
 
 lence, very deeply affected him. He thus wrote in 
 his diary — which he then began to keep with more 
 regularity, it being chiefly a record of his religious 
 exercises : " This morning, a week ago, a holy God 
 was pleased to make a wide breach upon me, in 
 taking away the wife of my bosom with a stroke of 
 his righteous hand. I have, therefore, thought 
 proper to set apart this day for secret fasting and 
 prayer, besides finishing some part of my prepara- 
 tions for the approaching Lord's day ; and this prac- 
 tice I am resolved, by the help of God's grace, to 
 continue upon the last day of every week, without 
 I am necessarily prevented, for some considerable 
 time, without setting any particular time. And I 
 would now look to God, that he would by his grace 
 so influence my heart, and would so order things 
 by his providence, that I may be enabled to keep 
 this, which I judge in my present circumstances to 
 be a necessary resolution. And it is my earnest 
 prayer to God, he would keep me from a self-right- 
 eous, Pharisaic spirit in regard to this practice, but 
 that I may engage in it warmly and heartily, in the 
 strength of God, for the health of my soul, only as 
 an appointed means. 
 
 " Now, the work I have before me this day is in 
 particular : — (1.) To get my heart affectionately 
 moved and touched with a sense of the loss I sus- 
 tain by the death of so dear and excellent a com- 
 panion, to the end I may be led to suitable grief at 
 
100 SECOND MARRIAGE. 
 
 the cause of this controversy, which God hath, and 
 indeed hath for a long time had with me. There- 
 fore, (2.) One main part of my work this day is to 
 search after and find out my sins, which have found 
 me out by their deserved punishment, and in con- 
 sequence to be abased and deeply humbled under 
 the mighty hand of God for them." Another spec- 
 ification was, to plead importunately with God 
 that his long and heavy afflictions might answer 
 their end upon him. 
 
 This custom of fasting was continued to the end 
 of his life. It is also stated by Mr. White, that 
 11 he was one among a number of ministers in this 
 country and Scotland, who united in a concert of 
 prayer for the spread of the gospel, observing Sat- 
 urday evening of each week, and the first Tuesday 
 of the last week of February, May, August, and 
 November, when there was a public exercise." 
 
 Left with three young children, Mr. Smith found 
 it necessary, after the death of his wife, to employ 
 a housekeeper. The person who served him in this 
 capacity, for a consideration of three shillings a 
 week, was the widow Phebe Richards, who had the 
 care of his household, as his accounts show, from 
 November, 1757, to June, 1759. In the following 
 October he formed a second marriage with Rebecca, 
 daughter of Major Isaac Foote, of Branford, Conn. 
 This lady, with an infant son named Apollos, sur- 
 vived him. 
 
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 
 Virginia, Mr. Smith was again sent as one of a 
 committee to use his personal influence in giving 
 effect to the election. In this mission he was not 
 immediately successful.* 
 
 * His representations appear to have had more weight with 
 Davies than with the presbytery to which the latter belonged. 
 Davies wrote {Sept. 14, 1758) to Cowell, of Trenton: "Though 
 my mind was calm and serene for some time after the decision of 
 the presbytery [against his removal], and I acquiesced in their 
 judgment as the voice of God till Mr. Smith was gone, yet to-day 
 my anxieties are revived, and I am almost as much at a loss as 
 ever what is my duty. .... If matters should turn out so as to 
 
102 STATE OF RELIGION. 
 
 He was one who abounded in the work of the 
 Lord. Few men have more conscientiously appro- 
 priated the injunction : " Meditate upon these 
 things ; give thyself wholly to them ; that thy profit- 
 ing may appear to all." 
 
 In the pulpit he had little action, and was some- 
 what monotonous, yet his enunciation was clear, 
 and his manner affectionate and forcible. Deeply 
 in communion with the word himself, it fell from 
 his lips with solemn weight. 
 
 Yet, he labored with little apparent fruit. For 
 this discouraging result there were special causes. 
 The writer of his memoir observes, that "through 
 the whole of his ministry there was a surprising 
 deadness in the things of religion — a season of gen- 
 eral backsliding and defection through the land, 
 and his people partook of the spreading degeneracy, 
 notwithstanding all his labors and pains; so that 
 there was no remarkable revival of religion during 
 the time of his ministry." The times were too 
 troubled for the success of the gospel of peace. 
 There was strife at home, there were rumors of wars 
 abroad. Amid the general confusion, landlords 
 contending with their tenants, while the English 
 and French were fighting for territory on a larger 
 scale, and the treacherous savage was made more 
 
 constrain me to come to Nassau Hall, I only beg early intelligence 
 of it by Mr. Smith, who intends to revisit Hanover shortly, or by 
 post." 
 
CATECHIZING. 103 
 
 treacherous by the white man's bribes, it is to us no 
 occasion of wonder that this faithful minister of the 
 Lord Jesus should often have felt that he almost 
 "labored in vain, and spent his strength for 
 nought." But the shepherd was needed at such a 
 time, and his ministry was not lost. " He was 
 especially blessed in feeding the lambs, and edify- 
 ing the body of Christ." 
 
 In the religious instruction of the young, Mr. 
 Smith took a peculiar interest. It is said in his 
 memoir that he " was abundant in catechetical ex- 
 ercises. He used sometimes to catechize the chil- 
 dren of the family where he visited ; and often at 
 his lectures, in the different parts of the congrega- 
 tion, he catechized the young ones present before 
 he preached. But he found it very difficult to get 
 the youth that were grown up to attend catechizing 
 on week-days. Therefore he undertook this part of 
 instruction on the afternoon of the Sabbath, when 
 the public exercises were ended. His method 
 throughout the summer season was, to divide the 
 young part of his charge into three classes ; children, 
 young women, and young men. The children, that 
 is, those from six or seven years of age to twelve or 
 thirteen, he used to catechize on one evening, the 
 young women on another, and the young men on a 
 .third ; and at those seasons he generally had from 
 fifty to a hundred of each class. These were sea- 
 sons that he highly prized, not only for instructing 
 
104 CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE. 
 
 the young in the principles of religion, but because 
 he had such special opportunity to address them in 
 particular, upon the great concerns of their souls 
 and eternity. This practice he began soon after his 
 settlement in the ministry, and maintained it to 
 his death, and found great benefit from it. His 
 usual method was, to ask them first a question out 
 of the Assembly's Catechism, which he esteemed a 
 valuable summary of religious principles, and then 
 some questions contained or naturally arising from 
 what he had asked ; concluding all in a practical 
 address, urging and exhorting them to comply with 
 the great things of religion." 
 
 Mr. Smith possessed much influence in the eccle- 
 siastical bodies to which he belonged. He was for 
 many years Stated Clerk of the Presbytery. In 
 debate he was easy, calm, candid. He was espe- 
 cially a peace-maker, and was often happily success- 
 ful in preventing or healing differences. His emi- 
 nent piety, sincerity, and sound judgment combined 
 to secure the confidence of his brethren. To these 
 traits were added great modesty and a natural 
 diffidence, which sometimes made large crosses of 
 little duties. 
 
 Once, on his way to his residence — so he wrote 
 in his journal — he rode part of the distance with a 
 person whom he had long desired to speak to on a 
 point of moral conduct. " Knowing him to be a 
 man of pretty rough disposition," said he, "I was 
 
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 Kev. 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 
 
 the dignified manners of Mr. S. The thing was so 
 evidently a piece of affectation, that a man of his 
 congregation said to him, " Mr. Tennent, you are 
 imitating Mr. Smith." "So I am," he replied, 
 " and I am a fool for it ! How are you V resuming 
 his free and easy style. 
 
 The parish suffered no common loss when this 
 studious, judicious, amiable and devoted man was 
 cut down in the early maturity of his piety and 
 usefulness. In the first part of October, 1762, he 
 was seized with dysentery. For a time, his mind 
 was somewhat clouded, but as his illness continued, 
 his faith took hold of the promises, and his peace 
 and joy were great. His people in the mean time 
 showed their interest in the preservation of his life, 
 by appointing a day of fasting and prayer, with re- 
 ference to his condition. On the morning of the 
 22d, at an early hour, perceiving his end near, he 
 called his family around him, and commending 
 them fervently to God, took an affectionate leave 
 of them. At his request, his little son was brought 
 and placed in his arms. Unable to lift his hand, 
 he desired some one to lay it on the head of the 
 child, for whom he tenderly invoked the divine 
 protection and blessing. His wife, at his desire, 
 sun?* the last four stanzas of the 17th of Watts' 
 
 o 
 
 Psalms : 
 
 "What sinners value, I resign: 
 Lord, 'tis enough that thou art mine ; 
 
 i .WLiLi 
 
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 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 ; 
 Then burst the chains with sweet surprise, 
 And in my Saviour's image rise." 
 
 At about six o'clock the same morning, he ex- 
 pired, at the age of thirty-eight years and ten 
 months.* 
 
 At his funeral, which was attended on the follow- 
 ing Sabbath by a large concourse of people, and by 
 a number of ministers, a discourse was preached 
 from Philip. 1 : 21 ; " For to me to live is Christ, and 
 to die is gain." In the afternoon another minister 
 preached from Ezek. 22 : 30 ; " And I sought for a 
 man among them, that should make up the hedge, 
 
 • Two pupils had the month before entered his school, viz.: 
 John Mitchell, Sept. 6, "to give a dollar per week for board, to 
 make some proper allowance for wood and candles in winter be- 
 sides, and to be schooled after the rate of £5 per annum;" and 
 Caleb Cooper, Sept. 13, who " came to school again, to pay, for 
 board and schooling, twenty pounds per annum." 
 
108 MEMORIALS. 
 
 and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I 
 should not destroy it: but I found none." 
 
 On a large slab over his grave are the following 
 lines : 
 
 " Beneath this tomb the precious reliques lie 
 Of one too great to live, but not to die : 
 Indued by nature with superior parts 
 To swim in science and to scan the arts, 
 To soar aloft, inflamed with sacred love, 
 To know, admire, and serve the God above ; 
 Gifted to sound the thundering law's alarm, 
 The smiles of virtue, and the gospel's charm : 
 A faithful watchman, studious to discharge 
 The important duties of his weighty charge. 
 To say the whole, and sound the highest fame, 
 He lived a Christian, and he died the same. 
 A man so useful, from his people rent, 
 His babes, the college, and tbe church lament." 
 
 The next year, 1763, there was published a 
 memoir of him at Woodbridge, New Jersey, in a 
 pamphlet of about sixty pages, of which two or 
 three copies are yet in print. Mr. White, some 
 years ago, was at the pains to make a manuscript 
 copy of it, from which our quotations have been 
 drawn. 
 
 In the settlement of Mr. Smith's estate, his widow 
 received in "goods and money given by will," 
 £102 ; for " her third of the land sold by vendue," 
 £37 ; upon which, it being under lease, a charge 
 was made of £13 for " new tenor money." This 
 conveyance included " all her goods she brought " at 
 
REV. AZEL EOF. 109 
 
 her marriage, now valued at £89. Parishioners in 
 arrears for rates had to settle, by note or payment, 
 with the executors, of whom Joseph Riggs was the 
 one on whom the business chiefly devolved.* 
 
 His library was sold at auction. A part of the 
 books were purchased by Mrs. Smith, and a part 
 by Rev. Azel Roe, a young clergyman who studied 
 theology with Mr. S., and who, the next year, 
 (1763) married the widow, and was settled atWood- 
 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. 
 
 t Dr. Roe preached at Woodbridge till his death, in 1815. He 
 was twenty-nine years a trustee of the College of New Jersey ; 
 was a member of the First General Assembly, in 1789, and moder- 
 ator of that body in 1802. His zeal for American freedom was 
 such, that in the war of the Revolution the British and Tories plan- 
 ned his capture, and with McKnight of Shrewsbury, he was carried 
 away a prisoner. In fording a stream, the officer who seized him, 
 and who treated him with great politeness, insisted on carrying 
 him over. He consented, and as he was crossing on the officer's 
 shoulders, he observed— for he was a man of ready wit — " Well, 
 sir. if never before, you can say after this that you were once priest- 
 ridden." The joke so convulsed the officer with laughter, that he 
 came near letting him fall into the stream. — Spragueh Annals. 
 Mrs. Roe, by her second marriage, became the mother of two sons 
 and six daughters. Apollos, the son of Mr. Smith, i: on reaching 
 manhood, went to the South, and was never heard of by his 
 friends." — Webster. 
 
 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 Farms, in 1750, at the ordination and set- 
 tlement of Daniel Thane ; and the funeral sermon 
 of President Burr, 1757. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 REV. JEDEDIAH CHAPMAN. 
 
 AYEAE passed. In December, 1763, a messen- 
 ger from the Mountain Society was on his way 
 to Bethlehem, Connecticut, bearing two letters to 
 Rev. Joseph 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 bis knowledge of the truth ; and don't 
 send us one of your Antinomians or Arminians, 
 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, Phila. 
 
112 LETTERS TO DR. BELLAMY. 
 
 genious and subtle writer. . .The messenger is in 
 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 place, and what sort of man 
 would be like to do good among them. In that 
 country they insist very much on a man's being a 
 good speaker, and they hate the New 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. 
 " Kev'd Sir : — The church at Newark Mountains 
 have represented to us their very unanimous desire 
 to obtain Mr. 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 
 
 church we esteem of great importance, and hope 
 there may be much service done here to the Ee- 
 deemcr'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 his worthy brother and your 
 other brethren to favor 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, Eev'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 1*775, 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 MR. 
 
 For another year and a half 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 Newark 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. We love him much." 
 
 This was Jedediah Chapman, a theological pupil 
 (we suppose) of Bellamy. He was born in East 
 Haddam, Connecticut, September 27, 1741 ; 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 MARRIAGE. 115 
 
 congregation generally were "much satisfied" at 
 seeing in their pulpit again a youthful, energetic, 
 and promising 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, Robert 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, born at Orange, March 2, 177L, gradu- 
 
116 WANT OF SUPPORT. 
 
 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 1796. 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 1815. 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 " sufficient 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 1167, 
 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 seat a letter to 
 Bellamy by a "Mr. Perriam, who was formerly 
 a tutor at Princetown 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 acquaintance 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 November, 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, 1*772) died Joseph 
 Peck, the senior elder and deacon of the church, at the age of 70. 
 
 
SECOND MARRIAGE. 119 
 
 But what can ease, what can heal 
 Pangs which a kinder husband feel, 
 When thus the young, his joy, the just, 
 Consume and moulder into dust ? 
 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* 
 
 8 The date of their marriage is not known to the writer. Their 
 children were Peter Le Conte (born Jan. 8, 1718); 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 SAMtJEL BARRISON 
 
 Just at this time an aged man of the parish, with 
 whose name the reader is familiar, closed the con- 
 flicts of a long 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 sixtj^-four years of age, and when the first 
 pastor of the church, several years his junior, had 
 just been buried, he set his house in order for his 
 own departure by making his will. Yet he lived 
 to 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 
 15th 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 awa}^ 
 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 
 oxen, 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, u 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,'' 
 
DANGERS GATHERING. 121 
 
 given to " Jane Bunel," and another brindle cow 
 devised to Abigail Shores, " with two suits of ap- 
 parel, one for Sabbath-day, 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 commonly death, and not 
 life, 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 Be volution 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 Boe 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 REVOLUTION. 
 
 lie received no harm. Yet he was obliged several 
 times to flee the parish, — seeking a temporary asy- 
 lum behind the mountains, as did many of the 
 families who composed his flock. 
 
 In November, 1776, the American army under 
 Washington, then reduced to three thousand five 
 hundred men, and fast diminishing, was retreating 
 through New 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 New- 
 ark, the place was entered by a British force of six 
 thousand men. 
 
 The whole vicinity was now traversed by for- 
 aging parties 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 
 Bloomfleld. A few of the party, riding in ad- 
 vance, promised protection to such of the inhabi- 
 tants as should remain in their houses. If the 
 people fled, as many did, they afterward returned 
 to find their houses and farmyards thoroughly 
 stripped. Nor were the plunderers over scrupu- 
 lous to discriminate between friends and foes. 
 
 The following incidents are yet remembered. A 
 Mr. James Jones, of Bloomfleld, 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 
 went to Nova Scotia. 
 
 Cornelius Jones, a brother of the man just named, 
 was living near " the Junction," (East 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 the 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 OKANGE, 
 
 present neighborhood of Hikers 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 following day. 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 they 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- 
 
 * This place received its designation from a number of families 
 
 III 
 
TWO YOUNG ADVENTUKEKS. 125 
 
 campment. So passing across the 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 ! 
 oh !" exclaimed the boys, while a mischievous 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 cf 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 ISTew York were given and 
 received. 
 
 who then resided in that vicinity. Many worthy and excellent peo- 
 ple were conscientiously opposed to the straggle 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 MOUNTAIN 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 party, and salute 
 them with a well aimed discharge of their artillery. 
 On one occasion, when Captain Jonathan Conclit 
 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. "Con- 
 sarn it" exclaimed Capt. Jonathan, " how careless 
 the fellows do shute /* The captain and his 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. 
 
 The drafts made upon the Newark militia from 
 time to time took many from their farms in this 
 part of the town. An order, dated Newark, 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 him, 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. 
 
 ( I 
 
DRAFTS AND FINES. 127 
 
 was just expiring ; also to meet, with his subal- 
 terns, " at the 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 V. 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 
 General 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 think the cause was not likely 
 to suffer much by derelictions so dearly paid for. 
 But the adage that " figures 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 officers 
 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. 129 
 
 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 officers. 
 
 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- 
 
130 LIBERTY AND THE CLERGY. 
 
 festlj outstretched to give victory to the cause 
 which 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 in 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 Country" was effectively 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. 131 
 
 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, was 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 office 
 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 
 
132 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 allegiance 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 meaning of the charter. It was 
 a three-fold cord, not easily broken, and which 
 shielded the important trust from all suspicion of 
 disloj^alty to freedom. The charter required these 
 oaths to be taken and subscribed by " each and 
 every of the trustees herein appointed, and their 
 successors ;" agreeably to "an Act for the security 
 of the Government of New 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 by appointing Joseph Riggs pres- 
 ident, and John Range clerk. Mr. Riggs " de- 
 livered in a book, formerly the property of the 
 Rev. Caleb Smith, in order for the trustees to keep 
 their accounts in ;" and the charter was carefully 
 
OKAJSTGE SLOOP. 138 
 
 copied into the same by the Clerk. The President 
 of the Board removed to New York the same 
 autumn, when Jonathan Hedden was elected his 
 successor. 
 
 This charter, which gave the whole appointing 
 power 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 annually, on the sec- 
 ond Thursday in April, by a plurality of voices.* 
 The charter of the parent 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" was 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 January, 
 and in 1856, to the second Monday in April. 
 
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 sixty 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 Matthias 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 Conclit. In the follow- 
 ing January, the same three persons, with Josiah 
 Hornblower, Esq., and Bethuel Pierson, were chosen 
 trustees. A substantial two-story building of brick 
 and 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 annually, 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. 135 
 
 standing, in good condition, on Main street, oppo- 
 site the church. 
 
 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 Nathaniel 
 Crane, John Dodd, Jim., Aaron Mumi and Joseph 
 AVard, shall assist in that office." The custom still 
 continued of reading the lines as the psalm was sung. 
 
 Watts' psalmody was now in use. 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 numbers 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 community. It can scarcely 
 
136 CALDWELL CHURCH. 
 
 be doubted that the congregation here received a 
 refreshing from such a cloud. But as we 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, which 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, which was organized by Mr. 
 Chapman, the pastor of this church, December 3, 
 1784. Forty persons united in its covenant. This 
 movement favors the inference just stated, that the 
 religious interest which was manifesting itself in 
 Newark, was not confined to the banks of the Pas- 
 saic. Eternal things were 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 Rev. James Caldwell, D. D., 
 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 hung for the deed. His wife 
 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 was 
 shot upon the parade ground at Cawnpore. 
 
PARSONAGE LANDS. 137 
 
 The reader is already informed of an endow- 
 ment of two hundred acres of land, granted to the 
 town of Newark, by the original proprietors, for 
 ecclesiastical use. In process of time, as the civil 
 and religious 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. Votes 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, granted 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, the new societies receiving a dividend of the 
 lands, but holding them uuder 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 New York, as its records inform us, 
 met at Orange Dale, in October, 1785. Two years 
 
 * Not in 1786 or 1181, 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. The 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, 1197. 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 the 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 
 Orange. v 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 
 
 e Mr. Chapman published, also, five sermons on baptism. That 
 preached before the Synod, with discourses by his son and grand- 
 
140 MR. 
 
 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 which 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, with 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, was, ere long, to give birth to those 
 great cooperative measures which belong to the 
 church history of the present century.* 
 
 son, is preserved by the Pres. Hist. Society, in a small volume 
 presented by the grandson. 
 
 8 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, 
 1*787, about a week after Mr. C. was chosen to moderate the 
 Synod. The first trustees were, Benjamin Howell, William Ross 
 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. Voted, 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. Voted, 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, Rev. E. Seymour, Pres. ; Eev. J. M. 
 Sherwood, Eev. J. S. Gallagher, Rev. John Ford, Rev. James 
 Hoyt, Zophar B. Dodd, W. S. Baldwin, Charles R. 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 Congregationalisms. 
 7* 
 
142 COLLECTING RATES. 
 
 rent of the 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. Voted, that the widow of 
 "William Matthews have the care of opening 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 with 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 u for her services as treasurer for a num- 
 ber of years." In November it appeared that Mr. 
 Munn had spent six clays in collecting rates, for 
 which he was rewarded in the sum of as many 
 shillings per day, for "him and horse." 
 
 
KINGING BELL. 143 
 
 It appears that some of the then acting board of 
 trustees put an easy construction upon their oath 
 of office; 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 little addition to the weight of official 
 responsibility appears to have wrought the needed 
 reform. At the clay 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 10s; 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 10s. 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 followiug advertisement in Wood's Newark 
 Gazette and New Jersey Advertiser* of June 10, 
 1795, indicates that " building lots" and " boarders" 
 * N. J. Hist, Soc Librarv. 
 
144: 
 
 BUILDING LOTS. 
 
 
 were beginning to figure in the business nomencla- 
 ture of the village. 
 
 11 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. They 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 Cone. 
 
 N. B. Scythe-makers, nailers and silversmiths 
 will find it tend greatly 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. 
 a The Academy at Orange Dale 
 Opened on Tuesday the 17th inst., under the im- 
 mediate instruction of Mr. 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. PresH." 
 
 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 1766 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 parish three years before 
 this, that "the public exhibitions of the Academy 
 school may be held in the meeting-house." 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 num- 
 ber of persons brought into its communion does 
 not indicate, however, 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 Newark 
 and Orange, quite a settlement was at this period 
 formed in what is now the township of Bloomfield. 
 The place was then called by the Indian name Wat- 
 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 teach the Catechism ; then invite others in to 
 ese how well it has been done 
 
BLOOMFIELD CHURCH. 147 
 
 May, 1794, the 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 however delayed. In 
 1796 the congregation by a vote assumed the name 
 of Bloom field ; 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 
 
 themselves uncomfortably around him. The prom- 
 ise of his people that he should be freed from 
 worldly cares, failed, by the fa alt 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 appointed 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 alteady 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 $357, he had a house, 
 which was kept in repair by the parish, a parson- 
 age 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 Newark Society, from which the Orange claim- 
 ants had been 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 by the trustees, 
 
MISSIONARY APPOINTMENT. 149 
 
 was : That those who 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 when 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 expected to serve 
 statedly some 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 by 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. 
 
 the same time, and in conformity with the appoint- 
 ment, his ministerial services were solicited by the 
 people of Geneva and its neighborhood. The 
 result was, that on the 13 th of August his pastoral 
 relation to this church was dissolved — a relation 
 which had existed thirty-four years. 
 
 In the final settlement of his 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 repairs. 
 
 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 j ust mentioned. Of 
 the extensive orchards that fed them, only the 
 remnants now remain. 
 
 writing to Rev. Dr. Cooper in 1773, and recommending the estab- 
 lishment 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. 
 
KEMINISCENCES 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 scruple 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, whose 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 tuas 
 yellow com I planted" 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 north-wester should present a bold 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 New 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 obliged to put on the cocked hat, as they 
 considered the round hat too 'buckish' for a clergyman." — Life of 
 Dr. Alexander, p. 251— In Orange the round hat came with Mr. 
 Hillyer— the innovation of a new century. 
 
HIS DEATH. 153 
 
 churches in that region, those of Geneva, Komulns, 
 Ovid, Kushville, 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 
 warmly 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 VI. 
 
 REY. ASA HILLYER, D.D. 
 
 THE preceding portion of our narrative is rather 
 a parish 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 
 11 walk about 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. Chapman 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 hopefully 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. Hilly er, 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, on 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 which all this was 
 brought about was 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 principles 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. 7 '* 
 
 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 further 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 his board bill. This latter, for twenty-nine 
 weeks and two days, amounted to £144 3s. 7c7., or 
 $385. It included, however, 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 wages 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 12s.) ; candles 
 for the 29 weeks (£2 10s.). It will be seen that 
 some of these charges grew 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 Rev* Asa Hillyer, 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 16, 1763. He was the son 
 of a physician, who became a surgeon in the Revolu- 
 8 
 
158 REV. ASA HILLTER. 
 
 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 night 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 } 7 oung Hilly er 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 Madison, N. J., by the 
 Presbytery of New York, took place July 28 r 
 1790. The next year he was married to Miss Jane 
 Eiker, 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 through 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 
 office 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 
 irrjure him, but contributed to make him what he was. I will now 
 be honest with myself 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 twelve years with great 
 acceptance at Madison — then known by the name 
 of Bottle Hill — Mr. Hillyer 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 that 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 they are called to separate."* Although 
 the call from this church was not unanimous, Mr. 
 Hillyer entered the field hopefully, believing that 
 a general concurrence would not long be withheld. 
 He did not miscalculate the power of love. The 
 field was soon his own, long to be held by the 
 power that won it. 
 
 The call, drawn up in the usual form, was as 
 follows: "The Congregation of Orange Dale, be- 
 ing on sufficient grounds well satisfied of the minis- 
 
 her 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 Eev. James Wood, 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 Kev. 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 Eev. Bethuel Dodd, Moderator. 
 
162 THE SETTLEMENT. 
 
 The installation took place December 16 * 
 Mr. Hillyer was now in his full strength, being 
 in his 39th year — 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 Griffin, 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 with our history at this point, and 
 between whom and Mr. Hillyer 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 Virginia, 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 minister ; 
 James Richards, of Morristown, preached; Aaron Condit "made 
 the address to the people." 
 
ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER. 163 
 
 Brick Church. " The next day was partly spent 
 at Newark, with the venerable Dr. McWhorter, 
 after which he proceeded to Elizabethtown, and 
 visited the Eev. Henry Kollock, at the house 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 New 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. Hillyer, 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 Eevolu- 
 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 Ljdia, 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 CHURCH 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 years 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 congregation was 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 were left of those who, thirty -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 Joseph, 
 his son, had succeeded to the " double honor " of 
 which he had been counted worthy. Noah 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 officers 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 Munn, 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 was Josiah Frost, who was employed 
 in 1800 to ring the bell " on Sabbath and lecture 
 days " for £3 14s. ; 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 fruitfulness. 
 8* 
 
166 LOTS ON THE COMMON. 
 
 The growth 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 $3,546, secured by bond 
 and mortgage. The strip of ground already used 
 for a Common, lying 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 public convenience 
 and for the adornment of the village. The mar- 
 tial parade drew hither annually its display of 
 arms, and a crowd of citizen s, 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 favor 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, when 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, aud 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 with 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 tasting and prayer, and 
 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, and 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 and 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 and 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 an 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 gathered in at Bloomfield. 
 
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 ye will 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 tliat the Father 
 giveth me shall come to me. The 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 Elizabethtown. 
 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-MEETING. 
 
 their minister knew nothing of the ball until they mentioned 
 it afterwards, with abhorrence. They 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. 
 
 "Within 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 the 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 church received much strength from this re- 
 markable work, one hundred and forty-five persons 
 being added to its communion in the course of the 
 next year. So large an ingathering belongs to no 
 other year 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 now bears. 
 The new township was consecrated by a glorious 
 baptism ! 
 
 About the close of the year 1808, Nathaniel 
 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 Newark, 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 
 Church in Orange. 
 
HONORABLE TRUSTS. 173 
 
 It was during this year Mr. Hillyer was made a 
 trustee of the 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 important enterprise within the parish, which is 
 said to have originated with him. This was 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 i^vor 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 by 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. We 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 the 15th 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, unob- 
 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 
 
176 THE OLD BELL. 
 
 each side, six at the rear end, and three in front, 
 exclusive of lights above the doors. Galleries at 
 the sides and end rose above the pulpit in sublimity 
 of position, if they 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 was 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 was 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 uneasiness 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 sweetly 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 the steeple) went up 
 during the summer and autumn of 1813. The date 
 of its dedication we 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 large, convenient and beautiful build- 
 
178 MR. 
 
 ing has been thus far completed — that in all the 
 dangers to which a numerous body of useful 
 mechanics and laborers have been exposed, 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 Kedeemer." 
 
 "Words 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 brought home to his congregation : 
 
 " 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 improvement. Let me beseech you, my 
 
 * This was true ; yet one of the workmen (David S. Roff) 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. 
 The 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 himself by stepping aside. 
 
EARNEST WORDS. 179 
 
 brethren, to look around with suitable emotions of 
 gratitude and praise upon this spacious and con- 
 venient temple of the Lord, whose 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. ISTo excuse 
 can be ordinarily made for Jus 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 you 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 his flock were thus admon- 
 ished : 
 

 
 180 BUILDING OF STEEPLE. 
 
 " Kemember, this house was in a peculiar sense 
 built for you. Your fathers can enjoy it but a 
 little while. Oh, be entreated early to form the habit 
 of constant and devout attention to the means of 
 grace administered here ! Let it not be said of 
 you, my young friends, as is the case with too 
 many others, that you prefer amusement, idleness, 
 or parties of pleasure to the public worship of your 
 God and Kedeemer." 
 
 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 was added in the follow- 
 ing year by a contract with Mr. Dodd, the architect, 
 for $2,75^). 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- 
 chasing 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 mortgage. 
 
 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 the new church building. 
 We learn that some difficulty was experienced in 
 the 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 now 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 PROVISION FOR SLAVES. 
 
 on the pews set apart for their slaves." This was 
 five years before the emancipation act, and ten 
 years before it began to take 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 by a conviction in Mrs. Hill- 
 yer's mind that her health, which was delicate, was 
 injuriously affected 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 horn 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 10,85*7. In 1850, there were 236 slaves; 
 23,810 free colored. 
 
REVIVAL OF 1817. 183 
 
 abode there. His people had proved Him with 
 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 illustra- 
 
184 MEN OF PRAYER. 
 
 tion of the proverb that u 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, though 
 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 
 official 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 whose 
 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 they 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, lie looked upon the heavens, 
 and thought how these declared their Maker's glory, 
 while he, His rational creature, had done nothing 
 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 
 
 e 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 Vice- 
 President. The society does not appear from its 
 books to have been a highly efficient 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 Dodd, and all 
 the land owned by the 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 Society; 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 full ripeness of his 
 mind and ministry, he received from Alleghany 
 college the degree of Doctor of Divinity. 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, N. Y., who had then just 
 completed his theological studies at Princeton.* 
 
 * The young man alluded to was James "Wood, now Eev. Dr. 
 Wood, President of Hanover 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 the particular aspects of the 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 
 acting 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 parochial 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 be and remain a 
 place for an academy, which shall be for the itse of a public school. 
 I'urthermore, it is the true intent and meaning of these presents,'' 
 

 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 purpose of a good public and 
 moral school of learning, 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 decay 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 this 
 was inadvertently given by Mr. Condit in his own right, and not 
 as a trustee ; a defect subsequently remedied by the Legislature. 
 
191 
 
 tion. Yet it held the ground, 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 venerate ; 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. IIILLYER. 
 
 At the 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. William E. Whit- 
 tingham, now bishop of the Maryland diocese, was 
 settled over it. He remained about a year. The 
 church is Saint Mark's, now under the rectorship 
 of the Eev. 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 afflicted homes. He was 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 mother of four sons and 
 three daughters. The ladies of the congregation 
 caused a suitable headstone to be put over her 
 
METHODIST CHURCH. 193 
 
 grave — a permanent 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. Hillyer 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 $1,155 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 
 1st of April, 1833- 
 
194 PKESBYTERIAN 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, 
 Newark. 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 disintegration 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 daughters, 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. Among 
 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 twenty-eight 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 with 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 Eev. Cyrus Gil- 
 dersleeve, an uncle of the elder now with us who 
 bears the name. Mr. Gildersleeve preached there 
 as stated supply till the first of May, 1883. This 
 church gathered around it the families belonging 
 to the southern 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 REV. E. F. HATFIELD. 
 
 existing contract with Dr. Hillyer." 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 any perma- 
 nent barriers to a cordial fellowship between the 
 churches separated. Dr. Hillyer never ceased to 
 regard with a pastor's affection those w r ho 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. 
 Daring the year 1832, he was assisted six months 
 by Eev. 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 
 
 * " During July and August the cholera prevailed in New- 
 York, and the town [Orange] was full of people. The big church 
 also was filled every Sabbath w T ith earnest hearers." Mr. Hatfield 
 was here from the first of March to September, i: preaching four 
 times weekly in OraDge during the whole time, and frequently in 
 
 
dr. 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. Sixty 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 western 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. Hillyer 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 employ five days of the 
 
 the towns round about; boarding with the pastor." Letter from 
 Dr. Hatfield. 
 
198 OLD AND XEW SCHOOL. 
 
 week in pastoral labors, reserving Saturday for the 
 exclusive business of the study. His mind was 
 doubtless occupied through the week with 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 pastor at the expense 
 of the preacher, whether he did not magnify one 
 part of his office 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 pulpit. 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 General Assembly in 1837 
 left Dr. Hillyer on the side of the New School. 
 The event was by 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 to the end of his life, which was now near at 
 
FRATERNAL COUNSELS. 199 
 
 hand, the unabated good-will and warm personal 
 esteem of prominent 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 Eedeemer 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. Eather 
 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 brethren in 
 every part of the 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 oth 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 approached, 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 Kev. Dr. 
 Fisher, who also composed the following inscrip- 
 tion for the tablet seen on the west side of the 
 pulpit. 
 
202 
 
 TABLET INSCRIPTION. 
 
 RET. ASA HILLYER, D. D., 
 Was 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, 
 
 New 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, 1840, 
 
 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 ONE 
 
 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 New 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. 
 
CHAPTEE VII. 
 REV. WILLIAM C. WHITE. 
 
 DR. 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 invitation to visit this parish. It was 
 soon after Mr. Hatfield's temporary labors here had 
 closed, and while the church was 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. Hilly er'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 thou shalt both save 
 thyself and them that hear thee." It was w r orthy 
 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 ministry was Clarissa, daughter of 
 
VIEW OF THE PARISH. 229 
 
 To the elders just named there 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, 1ST. 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 public 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, which was held on Friday evening 
 at private residences. The last 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 Valley, 
 between North 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 gradually 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 engagements and labors were too much for 
 his strength. 
 
 The writer, during the autumn that followed his 
 

 NORTH ORANGE BAPTIST CHURCH. 231 
 
 settlement, had a visitation of sickness which 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 North 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. 
 

 232 DEATH OF MR. GREACEN. 
 
 ~\Yhile the Council was convened for the ordina- 
 tion service just mentioned, a devoted elder of this 
 church was removed by 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 Eedeemer 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 window, 
 and his feelings caught a sympathetic glow. He 
 w r rote of the beautiful sunlight, and of the brighter 
 light that filled his soul from the Sun of Eighteous- 
 ness. Heaven was coming near. In a few days 
 his body was laid in the vault of the cemetery, to 
 which it w r as 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. 
 
 Grod 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 Second 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 Eev. Dr. Eowland, 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 who had 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 be^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 which 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 by 
 the foolishness of preaching, but setting that aside for 
 another agency, or, at least, subordinating it to the 
 latter. Nothing could be farther from the truth. 
 The idea arose, evidently, 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. 
 Ministers 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- 
 meeting?. They had meetings for inquirers. They 
 
UNION OF CHEISTIANS. 237 
 
 spent much 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- 
 
 11* 
 

 
 
 238 THE SECULAR PRESS. 
 
 blies were solemnly joyful. Sobriety and good 
 order blended with the liveliest zeal . The religious 
 feeling, like a deep 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, yet 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 families, 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 lain 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 fulfilled, 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 
 
2-10 
 
 LAW AND GOSPEL. 
 
 
 
 life to admit of a long-continued interest in the 
 exercises of a prayer-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. They never 
 ceased to hold up the law in its proper relations to 
 the cross of Christ — that law by which comes the 
 knowledge of sin, and which the Eedeemer came, 
 not to destroy, but -to fulfil. Nor 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 j udgment 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, w r hich 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, much credit might be accorded to 
 the pastors who had successively served the con- 
 gregation. The minister w r ho had just left the 
 charge (Eev. 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 
 hands of Eev. Lewis K. 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 July, 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 prosperity. 
 
 At the last parish meeting of the First church, 
 an appropriation was voted for the purpose 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 & 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 Eev. 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 pres- 
 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 the ben- 
 efit of the colored population, — it being previous to 
 
244 AFRICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 
 
 their 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 grow 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 j^ears. As we have followed it, our thoughts 
 have blended w r ith 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 was 
 outward and historical ; but we have seen enough 
 
 
CLOSING THOUGHTS. 245 
 
 to beget a feeling of sympathy with, these 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 oiirs. 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 Grod" to which all human histories 
 

 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 
 perished together. Yet their works have followed 
 them. The Church, which they 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 PROGRESS. 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 lahd-monopoly. which so 
 long embarrassed the New 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. 
 "We are not given to ecclesiolatry. We have no 
 reverence to spare for ancient temples of the truth 
 
248 WHAT WE CLAIM. 
 
 from which 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 following 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 the North Orange depot. The 
 Church was organized, in or about 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 K. 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 two Sabbath-schools, 200; mission-school, 50. 
 Pastor, Eev. John Crowell. 
 
 5. South Orange Presbyterian Church, organ- 
 ized in 1831. Communicants, 157. Families, about 
 100. Sabbath-school, 103. Pastor, Eev. Daniel 
 G. Sprague. 
 
 6. Baptist Church at East Orange, constituted 
 in 1837. The present pastor is Eev. 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 Eoman Catholic Church, built in 
 1851. It is now in charge of Eev. 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 Church of North 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 Eev. 
 George Webster. 
 
 11. A "New Church," or Swedenborgian Soci- 
 ety, has held separate worship 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 Eev. Philip C. 
 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 in the lecture -room of 
 the 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 Kev. 
 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 officiate in turn. A 
 similar service has for a year or two been held 
 at the school-house on Valley street, near Williaras- 
 ville. 
 
 The Mission Sunday-school, established during 
 the past year in Bodwell's Hall, where a weekly 
 prayer-meeting is also held, is doing a useful work. 
 It originated with members of the Second Church. 
 
VIEW OF THE PAKISH. 229 
 
 To the elders just named there 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 w r as 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 public 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 daj 7 , 
 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, which was held on Friday evening 
 at private residences. The last 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 North 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 gradually 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 engagements and labors were too much for 
 his strength. 
 
 The writer, during the autumn that followed his 
 
NORTH ORANGE BAPTIST CHURCH. 231 
 
 settlement, had a visitation of sickness which 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 North 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. 
 

 
 232 DEATH OF MR. GREACEN. 
 
 While the Council was convened for the ordina- 
 tion service just mentioned, a devoted eider of this 
 church was removed by 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 window, 
 and his feelings caught a sympathetic glow. He 
 wrote 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 Second 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 Kev. Robert 
 Aikman, of Elizabeth, and Rev. Dr. Rowland, 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 who had 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. 
 
 TTith 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 began 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 
 w r ere 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- 
 
286 . A FALSE IMPHESSION. 
 
 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 which 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 by 
 the foolishness of preaching, but setting that aside for 
 another agency, or, at least, subordinating it to the 
 latter. Nothing could be farther from the truth. 
 The idea arose, evidently, 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. 
 Ministers 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- 
 meetingF. They had meetings for inquirers. They 
 
UNION OF CHKISTIANS. 237 
 
 spent much 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- 
 
 IX* 
 
238 THE SECULAR PRESS. 
 
 blies were solemnly joyful. Sobriety and good 
 order blended with the liveliest zeal . The religious 
 feeling, like a deep 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, yet 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 families, 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 lain 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 Right- 
 eousness. In some cases, fathers and mothers, long 
 in heaven, saw their prayers answered and their 
 last earthly desire fulfilled, 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 a'lmit of a long-continued interest in the 
 exercises of a prayer-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. They never 
 ceased to hold up the law in its proper relations to 
 the cross of Christ — that law by which comes the 
 knowledge of sin, and which the Eedeemer came, 
 not to destroy, but to fulfil. Nor 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. Hillyer'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, much, credit might be accorded to 
 trie 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 
 hands of Rev. Lewis R. Dunn. On the loth 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 July, 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 prosperity. 
 
 At the last parish meeting of the First church, 
 an appropriation was voted for the purpose 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 & Kennedy, of Trenton. 
 
 The mission Sunday-school, which was founded 
 by Mr. Greacen, in Orange Yalley (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 Kev. 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 pres- 
 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 
 Valley 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 the ben- 
 efit of the colored population, — it being previous to 
 

 24A AFRICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 
 
 their 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 grow 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 was 
 outward and historical : but we have seen enough 
 
CLOSING THOUGHTS. 245 
 
 to beget a feeling of sympathy with, these 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 w r hich 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 histories 
 
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 
 perished together. Yet their works have followed 
 them. The Church which they 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 New 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. 
 We are not given to ecclesiolatry. We have no 
 reverence to spare for ancient temples of the truth 
 
248 WHAT WE CLAIM. 
 
 from which 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 following 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 the North Orange depot. The 
 Church was organized, in or about 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 Yalley streets. 
 Its house of worship was completed and conse- 
 crated in 1829. Present rector, Rev. 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 R. 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 two Sabbath-schools, 200 ; mission- school, 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 
 GL 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 Hillyer 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 Church of North 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 Eev. 
 George Webster. 
 
 11. A "New Church," or Swedenborgian Soci- 
 ety, has held separate worship 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 Eev. Philip C. 
 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 in the lecture-room of 
 the 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 officiate in turn. A 
 similar service has for a year or two been held 
 at the school-house on Valley street, near Williams- 
 ville. 
 
 The Mission Sunday-school, established during 
 the past year in Bodwell's Hall, where a weekly 
 prayer-meeting is also held, is doing a useful work. 
 It originated with members of the Second Church. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 A VIEW OF ORANGE. 
 
 IIS" 1834, Orange was described as a straggling vil- 
 lage and post-town, extending about three miles 
 along the turnpike 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. 
 
 ~ Gordon's Hist. New Jersey. 
 
 12 
 
254 CLIMATE AND POSITION. 
 
 Orange has a geographical position which 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 within 
 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. With both 
 places there is constant communication by the 
 Morris and Essex railroad, and with the former, by 
 lines of stages that are running nearly 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, 
 
 s 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 Kock, 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, while the 
 
256 LLKWELLYN 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 pur- 
 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-atlantic 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 Valley street, about a 
 mile from the North Orange depot. The inclosure 
 11 contains hills, dales and glens ; springs, streams 
 and ponds ; magnificent forest trees, innumerable 
 ornamental trees, bushes, vines and flowers ; kiosks, 
 
 s "Although this village contains so small a population, there is 
 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. 
 
PUECHASEES AND PEICES. 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 Xature to her votary yields ; 
 
 * See a full description of the Park in the Orange Journal of 
 June 6, 1851, by the editor. The present value of the lands, which 
 Sir. Haskell obtained at prices ranging from $150 to $500 per acre, 
 and which are purchased of him in building lots at the rate of $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 southern 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 Bock, a point of 
 the mountain which is much visited, and from which, 
 in a clear afternoon, there is a very rich and exten- 
 sive view, embracing New York, Staten Island and 
 the waters that divide it from Newark, 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 hills that hide 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 MINEKAL SPEING. 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 
 Httle 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 Orauge Journal 1859, 
 
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 Park, 
 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, 
 Let ween this and the Mountain House, are the 
 elegant country 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 Freemantoicn and 
 
 
STREETS AND STREAMS. 261 
 
 StetsonvilU. 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 Irish, 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. Its waters 
 are received by the Second river, which has its 
 proper beginning in a pond just above, into which 
 are emptied the Neshuine from the 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, receiving on its 
 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 
 Bloomfleld, where it spreads out into a shallow 
 basin forming Watsessing lake. 
 
 Kosedale 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 Washington 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 burying-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 day, however, satisfied 
 the mass of the congregation ; and they would at 
 this time have had some little yard, — two or three 
 acres of flat ground near the church, where none 
 would resort except from hard necessity or the 
 
ROSEDALE CEMETERY. 268 
 
 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- 
 
 " Perhaps one-third of the whole tract has been 
 already sold, or is in a state of readiness to be sold. 
 The present price of lots is twenty dollars for an 
 
264 THE ORANGE JOURNAL. 
 
 area of 320 square feet. No 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 Bloomneld toward the Passaic, and to the 
 south through Clinton to the Kahway. 
 
 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 paper 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, 265 
 
 up. Yet its successive numbers find their 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, we 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. Having 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 building 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 
 long ministered to those of the intellect. May 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 
 may 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 
 conducting 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 Eev. 
 Joshua B. Berry, D. D. It was discontinued 
 about two years since, and the building is now 
 occupied as a private residence. 
 
 The classical school of Eev. 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 
 boys. A similar institution in the vicinity of the 
 
schools, 267 
 
 Second Church, 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 
 Robinson, 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 the 
 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, w r e 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 not, in 
 free communities, the only educators of the people, 
 
268 ORANGE LYCEUM. 
 
 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 day. JSTot 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 the 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 Lyceum at first held its 
 meetings. 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 
 Lyceum obtained a charter in 1842. A number 
 of the intelligent business men of Orange owe 
 much to the intellectual stimulus it furnished. 
 
LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 269 
 
 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< t 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 the judgment 
 of many, the exigencies of the village call for the 
 corporate powers of a borough. It can hardly be 
 expected that local interests, which are everv 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 man} r 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 now 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 
 
 i 
 
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 buildings 
 supposed to be especially in danger. These evils 
 will doubtless continue, without much abatement, 
 till they are met by the correctives of local muni- 
 cipal law. 
 
272 FKELIMINARY ACTION. 
 
 How soon such, a remedy will be applied, we are 
 unable to rjredict. It appears, from the following 
 notice in the Orange Journal, of Nov. 19, 1859, 
 (issued since the above was written,) that the sub- 
 ject is already engaging the thoughts of some of 
 our leading men : 
 
 " A meeting of the citizens of Orange 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 
 appointed, who, with the Township Committee, 
 shall determine upon 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. : 
 grading of streets, a police and fire department, 
 license for the sale of liquors, division of election- 
 
COMMITTEES. 273 
 
 districts, &c, were then taken up separately, and 
 after considerable discussion, which was partici- 
 pated in by Messrs. Dr. Pierson, 1ST. Lindsley, 
 Albert Pierson, J. L. Blake, E. Johnson, E. Gard- 
 ner, F. P. Sanford, John Bonnell, Simeon Harri- 
 son, the Chairman, and D. N". Eopes, 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 
 
 Ctat of Jlastore. 
 
 SETTLED. DISMISSED. DIED. AGE. 
 
 Daniel Taylor, Jan. 8, 1747-8 56 
 
 Caleb Smith, Nov. 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 
 G-eo. Pierson, June 22, 1829. Apr. 27, 1831. 
 
 W. C. White, Feb. 13, 1833. Apr. 18, 1855. Feb. 7, 1856. 53 
 James Hoyt, Feb. 14, 1856. 
 
 £tst of Ruling <£lltxs. 
 
 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 by Ira Harrison that his ances- 
 tor, Lewis Crane, who died in 1777, aged 59, held 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 275 
 
 the office. The evidence is wholly traditional. 
 Henry 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, 
 
 1766 
 
 1783 
 
 1799 
 
 79 
 
 Bethuel Pierson, 
 
 1768 
 
 
 May 16, 1791 
 
 70 
 
 Amos Baldwin, 
 
 1775 
 
 
 Feb. 23, 1805 
 
 85 
 
 !N"oah Crane, 
 
 1776 
 
 
 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 
 
 " 11, 1832 
 
 81 
 
 Aaron Munn, 
 
 1795 
 
 1805 
 
 Jan. 28, 1829 
 
 63 
 
 Zen as Freeman, 
 
 1798 
 
 
 Sept. 3, 1800 
 
 40 
 
 Linus Dodd, 
 
 1798 
 
 
 Aug. 3, 1825 
 
 m 
 
 Amos Harrison, 
 
 1799 
 
 
 Sept. 2, 1832 
 
 77 
 
 Henry Osborn, 
 
 1801 
 
 1811 
 
 Nov. 1835 
 
 72 
 
 Moses Condit, 
 
 1805 
 
 
 June 8, 1838 
 
 78 
 
 John Lindsley, 
 
 1805 
 
 
 Dec. 19, 1819 
 
 67 
 
 Nathaniel Bruen, 
 
 1809 
 
 1814 
 
 June 28, 1829 
 
 60 
 
 Daniel P. Stryker 
 
 1814 
 
 
 Feb. 9, 1816 
 
 33 
 
 Adonijah Osmun, 
 
 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 
 
 
 
276 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Peter Campbell, 
 
 1820 
 
 1831 
 
 Dec. 
 
 23, 
 
 1852 
 
 66 
 
 Samuel Freeman, 
 
 1820 
 
 1831 
 
 u 
 
 31, 
 
 1835 
 
 56 
 
 Aaron R. Harrison, 
 
 1822 
 
 1833 
 
 July, 
 
 
 1857 
 
 73 
 
 Aaron Peck, 
 
 1825 
 
 1831 
 
 
 
 
 
 Amos Vincent, 
 
 1826 *1840 
 
 June 
 
 24, 
 
 1853 
 
 74 
 
 Abraham Harrison, 
 
 1826 
 
 
 Dec. 
 
 1, 
 
 1851 
 
 73 
 
 Josiah Frost, 
 
 1831 
 
 
 Sept 
 
 16, 
 
 1859 
 
 84 
 
 Daniel D. Condit, 
 
 1831 
 
 
 Oct. 
 
 17, 
 
 1839 
 
 56 
 
 Ira Canfield, 
 
 1831 
 
 1858 
 
 
 
 
 
 Samuel L. Pierson, 
 
 1831 
 
 1840 
 
 
 
 
 
 Abiathar Harrison, 
 
 1833 
 
 1855 
 
 
 
 
 
 Jonathan S. Williams 
 
 , 1834 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Smith Williams, 
 
 1839 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cyrus Gildersleeve, 
 
 18-46 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Charles R. Day, 
 
 1851 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 James Greacen, 
 
 1856 
 
 
 Nov. 
 
 5, 
 
 1857 
 
 42 
 
 John Boynton, 
 
 1856 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Steph. Wickes, M. D. 
 
 ,1856 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ira Harrison, 
 
 1856 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 £ist of Dracons. 
 
 i We insert the name of Samuel Pierson (written 
 Pair son 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 
 11 Deacon Thomson," as his account book shows, 
 p. 110. And there is extant a copy 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 rind, 
 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. 
 
 Samuel Pierson, 
 
 WA8 IN 
 OFFICE, 
 
 Mar. 
 
 DIED. 
 
 19, 1730 
 
 AGE. 
 
 66 
 
 Samuel Freeman, 
 
 1748 
 
 Oct. 
 
 21, 1782 
 
 66 
 
 Thomson, 
 
 1762 
 
 
 
 
 — ■ Smith, 
 
 1769 
 
 
 
 
 Joseph Peck, 
 Bethut-1 Pierson, 
 Amos Baldwin, 
 
 1783 
 
 July 
 May 
 Feb. 
 
 12, 1772 
 16, 1791 
 23, 1805 
 
 70 
 70 
 
 85 
 
 Noah Crane,(?) 
 
 
 June 
 
 8, 1800 
 
 81 
 
 Isaac Docld, 
 
 
 Aug. 
 
 19, 1804 
 
 76 
 
 John Peck, 
 
 
 Dec. 
 
 28, 1811 
 
 79 
 
 Joseph Pierson, 
 John Perry, 
 
 1798 
 
 Oct. 
 Oct. 
 
 9, 1835 
 1, 1821 
 
 76 
 
 75 
 
 Amos Harrison, 
 
 
 Sept. 
 
 2, 1832 
 
 77 
 
 Samuel Freeman, 
 
 J 820 
 
 Dec. 
 
 31, 1835 
 
 56 
 
 Abraham Harrison, 
 
 1803 
 
 .i 
 
 1, 1851 
 
 73 
 
 Amos Vincent, 
 
 1803 
 
 June 
 
 24, 1853 
 
 74 
 
 Josiah Frost, 
 
 1835 
 
 Sept. 
 
 10, 1859 
 
 84 
 
 Moses B. Canfield, 
 
 1851 
 
 
 
 
 Erastus A. Grave-, 
 
 1856 
 
 
 
 
 Cyrus S. Minor, 
 13 
 
 1856 
 
 
 
 
278 APPENDIX. 
 
 Statistics. 
 
 The figures given here have been gathered from 
 the following sources: From 1803 to 1805, from 
 the Sessional Kecords ; from 1806 to 1822, from 
 the Eecords of the Synod of New York; for 1823 
 and 1824, from those of the Synod of New Jersey ; 
 from 1825 to the present time, from the statistics of 
 the General Assembly. When these were not pub- 
 lished, or were found incomplete, the omissions have 
 been supplied, so far as they could be, from 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 
 generally made in April, and cover the year pre- 
 ceding. 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 279 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 In 
 
 O 
 
 
 t-H 
 
 49 
 
 a 
 
 
 ^3 
 
 42 n 
 
 S3 
 
 3A 
 
 
 a 
 
 .2 
 
 ■a 
 
 a 
 .2 
 
 u 
 
 S3 
 
 6? 
 
 & 
 
 1 
 
 P4 
 
 1803 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1804 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1805 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1806 
 
 9 
 
 223 6 
 
 38 
 
 $10 00 
 
 
 $23 00 
 
 $7 50 
 
 180? 
 
 8 
 
 228 2 
 
 26 
 
 1100 
 
 
 16 18 
 
 5 56 
 
 1808 
 1809 
 
 130 
 23 
 
 355 
 375 
 
 49 
 
 8 
 
 57 
 62 
 
 8 00 
 7 73 
 
 $8 00 
 7 73 
 
 
 
 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 
 
 10 19 
 
 9 25 
 
 10 20 
 
 17 00 
 
 t>» 
 
 1815 
 
 45 
 
 419 
 
 12 
 
 35 
 
 10 00 
 
 
 pS ® 
 
 1816 
 
 9 
 
 374 
 
 3 
 
 40 
 
 7 27 
 
 7 25 
 
 14 10 
 
 So 
 WaQ 
 
 1817 
 
 119 
 
 518 
 
 35 
 
 24 
 
 12 00 
 
 12 00 
 
 18 25 
 
 1818 
 
 9 
 
 520 
 
 4 
 
 64 
 
 7 83 
 
 13 67 
 
 20 00 
 
 2100 
 
 1819 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 8 13 
 
 813 
 
 
 40 00 
 
 1820 
 
 8 
 
 511 
 
 3 
 
 32 
 
 6 00 
 
 2 37 
 
 
 36 00 
 
 1821 
 
 17 
 
 524 
 
 3 
 
 31 
 
 5 00 
 
 5 00 
 
 26 50 
 
 6 00 
 
 1822 
 
 6 
 
 522 
 
 2 
 
 20 
 
 5 00 
 
 5 00 
 
 
 19 00 
 
 1823 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 4 78 
 
 4 78 
 
 14 50 
 
 31 25 
 
 1824 
 
 7 
 
 518 
 
 1 
 
 23 
 
 6 0o 
 
 6 03 
 
 9 68 43 00 
 
 1825 
 
 
 518 
 
 4 
 
 63 
 
 1172 
 
 1172 
 
 24 43 14 00 
 
 1826 
 
 90 
 
 596 
 
 26 
 
 63 
 
 5 68 
 
 5 68 
 
 11 10 
 
 6 00 
 
 1827 
 
 18 
 
 604 
 
 2 
 
 43 
 
 10 00 
 
 4 62 
 
 17 00 
 
 3 00 
 
 1828 
 
 5 
 
 588 
 
 1 
 
 31 
 
 8 00 
 
 5 75 
 
 10 00 
 
 3140 
 
 
 390 
 
 
 168 
 
 789 
 
 184 85 
 
 159 17 
 
 312 94 
 
 250 65 
 
280 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 
 o 
 
 c-2 
 
 
 
 
 t^ 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 
 3 2 
 
 'O'S 
 
 o § 
 
 TStCJ 
 
 E 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 oo O 
 
 a 5 
 
 O eS 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 'B oT 
 
 «2 £< 
 
 M 
 
 ■a § 
 
 H 
 
 •<H 
 
 •<o 
 
 * 
 
 <JM 
 
 £ * 
 
 < 
 
 S 
 
 H 
 
 1829 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 598 
 
 1 
 
 38 
 
 
 e 
 
 $9 59 
 
 1830 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 597 
 
 1 
 
 56 
 
 §5 00 
 
 35 54 
 
 
 1831 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 596 
 
 
 46 
 
 7 00 
 
 - i 7 37 
 
 1832 
 
 63 
 
 
 439 
 
 
 46 
 
 5 06 
 
 e 
 
 5 54 
 
 1833 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 25 
 
 8 
 
 
 1831 
 
 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 
 
 6 
 
 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 
 
 300 001 
 
 1841 
 
 30 
 
 4 
 
 280 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 400 00 
 
 1842 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 275 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 
 375 00 
 
 
 1843 
 
 36 
 
 14 
 
 270 
 
 14 
 
 50 
 
 
 1200 00 
 
 45 00 
 
 
 201 
 
 65 | 
 
 
 29 
 
 375 
 
 54 41 
 
 
 
 * 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 exist, not being 
 found. 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 281 
 
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