First Presbyterian Church (Stillwater, New Jersey)

The Stillwater Presbyterian Church (also known as the First Presbyterian Church of Stillwater) is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA) located in the village of Stillwater in Stillwater Township, Sussex County, New Jersey in the United States. It is one of fifty-nine churches that constitute the Presbytery of Newton.[1] Founded in 1769 as a union church shared by members of the Reformed and Lutheran faiths, the parish, now Presbyterian, boasts a small congregation of roughly 100-120 active parishioners.

History

This congregation was formally organized in 1769 as a union church shared by the Lutheran and German Reformed (Calvinist) faiths.[2] Construction of a stone house of worship was finished in 1771. Stillwater and the surrounding Paulins Kill valley was settled chiefly by Palatine German immigrants in the 18th Century, beginning in 1741 with the arrival of Casper Shafer, John George Wintermute, Johan Peter Bernhardt and their families.[3][4] The first few families likely held prayer services in their homes with their neighbors. Early Stillwater families are mentioned in the records of the Dutch Reformed congregations in the Minisink Valley (along the Delaware River), and likely journeyed over Kittatinny Mountain to attend services in Walpack. As the area's population grew and the village of Stillwater developed, its Christian community was served by clergymen who travelled a circuit of churches in remote, sparsely-inhabited regions. Clergymen were provided as "stated supply" by the Dutch Reformed or Calvinist Synod (or Classis) in New Brunswick, New Jersey or the Lutheran Church (Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[2] The congregation did not have a permanent clergyman until the 1780s.[2]

From 1769-1771, a church building was constructed from local fieldstone in the older section of Stillwater Cemetery. This church, known as the Dutch Meeting House, Reformed Association of Hardwick, and Lutheran Congregation of Hardwick, served the large German population that settled the Paulins Kill valley and the surrounding area in the middle of the eighteenth century. In 1823, with the area's German population either dying off, migrating to territories in the American West or assimilating into English-oriented American culture, the congregation petitioned the Presbytery of Newton to affiliate with the Presbyterian faith.

By the 1830s, the stone church was beginning to become structurally unsound, and the current structure, an frame structure that is an example of Greek Revival architecture, although featuring Gothic Revival (Carpenter Gothic) windows, was erected in 1837-1838 at a cost of $2,000.[5][6] Additions to this structure, largely to support the church's "Sunday school" (children's Christian education) and fellowship activities, were built in 1910, 1959, and 1990.[5]

It is likely the third structure used by this congregation—the first presumed to be a rudimentary log building erected circa 1745-1750 that occupied the site in the Stillwater Cemetery of the fieldstone structure which succeeded it. Local tradition asserts that the fieldstone wall of Stillwater Cemetery was built with stones from the abandoned stone structure when it was dismantled in 1847.[6] A stone with "1771" carved into its face (likely the cornerstone from the former structure) is incorporated into the cemetery gate.

See also

References
  1. Presbytery of Newton. "The Presbytery of Newton Encompasses Churches in Four Counties of New Jersey". Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  2. Chambers, Theodore Frelinghuysen. The Early Germans of New Jersey: Their History, Churches, and Genealogies. (Dover, New Jersey, Dover Printing Company, 1895), 631 ff.
  3. Schaeffer, Casper M.D. (and Johnson, William M.). Memoirs and Reminiscences: Together with Sketches of the Early History of Sussex County, New Jersey. (Hackensack, New Jersey: Privately Printed, 1907), passim.
  4. Wintermute, Jacob Perry. The Wintermute Family History. (Columbus, Ohio: The Champlin Press, 1900).
  5. First Presbyterian Church of Stillwater - Church History (accessed 23 June 2012)
  6. Snell, James P. History of Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey, With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. (Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, 1881) (page number)

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