Presbyterian

We have from Mahlon Smith, now living in Flemington, at an advanced age, a description of the first Presbyterian Church in the town. It was erected about the year 1794. Prior to this, people from this section went to Reaville. Jasper Smith, Esq., though a lawyer, preached occasionally. Rev. Thomas Grant was the first settled preacher. The church was a stone building and stood in the graveyard, a few feet in the rear of the present one. The surrounding farmers turned out with their teams to haul the stone for its erection, and the money was raised by subscription. Samuel Hill fell and broke his leg while working on the building. The interior was not finished for several years.

The pews of the first Presbyterian church in Flemington were slabs from the saw-mill, the flat side turned up, and holes bored and legs inserted. The ceiling consisted of thin boards painted blue and bespangled with stars of white paint, which, no doubt, closely resembled the sky. The pulpit consisted of an octagonal box, perched upon a pole six feet above the level of the floor, and had a sounding board, in shape, over head. The whole arrangement looked not unlike the picture of a dove-cote in one of our old fashioned spelling books. Ten plate stoves first performed the office of heaters, but they were removed, and charcoal pits substituted. Here the country people would stand shivering, on a cold morning, vainly trying to get warm. Those who rode far would bring little tin foot-stoves, and after service would replenish them at the charcoal fire, to the great annoyance of Thomas Gearhart, the sexton. On many occasions he 'got mad,' and--we have no right to judge the warm wishes which he entertained for their future.

Some of the first attendants at the church were Esquire Reading, J. Hill, 'Long John Trimmer,' Cornelius Williamson, Esq., Jonathan Hill, Paul Kuhl, Christopher Cool and others.

The men went to meeting, in summer, in their shirt sleeves, and wore tow trowsers spun from their own flax. The women wore sun bonnets and calico dresses, yet they proved to be just as good Christians as some who now in richly cushioned pews, with head-rests, under arches bedizened with paint, in all the colors of the rainbow, and the whole interior of the temple presenting that garishness well befitting a Chinese theatre, but not precisely the thing wherein to do homage, 'with humble and contrite heart,' to one who was born in a manger.

'The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learn'd
To hew the shaft, and lay the arctritrave,
Amid the cool and silence he knelt down,
And offer'd to the Mightiest thanks.'

Maholn Smith was admitted to full membership in that church about fifty-six years ago. At that time he was the only male member. He assisted Domine Clark to form the first Sabbath school. 'Remember thy creator in the days of thy youth, and he will not forget thee in age.'

How abundantly have their labors been blessed; thousands of children, from this small beginning, have been gathered into the Sabbath school within a radius of five miles from here, and it has now become one of the most powerful institutions for good in the country.

From pp. 73-4 of "Traditions of Hunterdon," by John W. Lequear, originally published 1869-70.