Piscataway
1680 – present
In 1689, the Piscataway
Baptist Church of Shelton, Middlesex County, New Jersey was organized as an
independent church. Until that time it had been a branch of the Lower Dublin
Baptist Church (later called Pennepack Baptist Church) under the ministry of
Elias Keach. Very little is known of the church’s early life.
History tells us
that the residents of this area had emigrated from Piscataqua District in the
province of Maine and that they gave the same name to the district settled by
them in the province of New Jersey. In
early writings we find the same name spelled two ways: Piscataway
and Piscataqua.
We learn the
origin and the history of Piscataway Baptist Church from the records of
churches that were started in the area around her. No records exist of this church until 1781.
The records were destroyed over time. It
is believed that there are two reasons for the church having none of their
records. First, British soldiers
destroyed many records during the Revolutionary War while they were in control
of New Brunswick. It is also believed a disgruntled church clerk destroyed the
records.
We have learned
from the history of Pennepack Baptist Church that after her first pastor Elias
Keach resigned, he was very active in starting churches all around New
Jersey. At that time, Pennepek claimed
to be the mother of all New Jersey churches.
In
his book Historical Sketch of the Lower
Dublin (or Pennepek) Baptist Church, published in 1869, Horatio Jones gives
the following account of the formation of the Piscataqua Baptist Church: “These, were such other Baptists as he found
among the new immigrants joined the Pennepek Church, so that, at one time, all
the Baptists of Pennsylvania and New Jersey were regarded as general members of
this church.” We know from other
readings that the church would have general meetings so that all the Baptists
of the area could come to partake of the Lord’s Table and to conduct
business. “As the number of baptized
believers increased in places at a distance from Pennepek, it was considered
best to form separate churches: and,
hence, in New Jersey, the following were constituted, viz: Middletown, in the winter of 1688: Piscataqua
in the spring of 1689; and Cohansey in the spring of 1690.”
The
first pastor of Piscataway Baptist Church was Reverend John Drake. The Baptist History Homepage tells us this
about Reverend John Drake: “Mr. Drake
was ordained as pastor of the church at the time of its organization, and continued
to occupy this relation til his death in 1739, a period of 50 years. Nothing definite is known of Mr. Drake’s
ministry or the condition of the church during his pastorate.”
The following paragraph,
taken from the website of the Shelton Baptist Church (the new name of the
Piscataway Baptist Church): “…the
Shelton Baptist Church is in Edison, New Jersey. It is the second oldest Baptist church in New
Jersey and the tenth oldest in the United States…among its original members was
the Steele family, after whom the Stelton section of Edison, New Jersey is
named. Up until 1875 the church was
known as the First Baptist Church of Piscataway. The land occupied by the church and cemetery
was purchased in April of 1731. The
first church was erected in 1748 and that building was taken down and rebuilt
in 1825. This building was destroyed by
fire on New Years Day; January 1, 1851…The building which took its place was
destroyed in a fire in 1924. The present
building was erected in 1925.”
Pennepack
1688 – present
We
learned in our last chapter that the church at Piscataway was started out of
the Pennepack Baptist Church now known as the Shelton Baptist Church. In his
book America in Crimson Red, Brother
Beller makes the following statement regarding the work done by Pennepack
Baptist Church: “However the Baptist of
America do have a place where they first steadied their ship, got their
bearing, and sailed off to save souls. That place was Philadelphia.”
We now look into
the history of the Pennepack Baptist Church. One of the most known Baptists in
all of England was a man named Benjamin Keach.
Benjamin Keach had a son, Elias Keach who has been described as “a wild
scamp” who came to Pennsylvania in 1688. He came pretending to follow in his
father’s footsteps. Because his father was well known in America, he was able
to draw a crowd. While preaching in the town of Pennepack, he was so overcome
with conviction that he immediately confessed to the crowd that he was not
saved and threw himself on their mercy asking forgiveness. The crowd recommended he go talk to a pastor
who was at a nearby church named Thomas Dungan. Mr. Dungan met with the young
man, led him to Christ and baptized him.
He immediately returned to Pennepack and continued preaching with great
power and boldness. Souls were saved, people were baptized, and a church was
constituted in 1688.
The
Lord greatly used the church at Pennepack to evangelize the area. The Lord not
only added to the church through deep-water baptism but many who came to
Pennsylvania seeking religious freedom were already Baptist who had great zeal
for the Lord. In his book A History of the Baptist Thomas Armitage
records the following accounts of some of these people. He recorded a group
from Wales. “By the good providence of God, there came certain persons out of
Radnorshire, in Wales, over into tills Province of Pennsylvania, and settled in
the township of Dublin, in the county of Philadelphia, namely John Eaton,
George Eaton, and Jane, his wife, Samuel Jones and Sarah Eaton, who had been
baptized upon confession of faith, and received into the communion of the
Church of Christ meeting in the parishes of Llandewi and Nantmel, in
Radnorshire.” There was also a record of
a man who came from Ireland. “John Baker, who had been baptized, and a member
of a congregation of baptized believers in Kilkenny.”
In
their early records we also find a man who came from England, Samuel Vans.
Along with this
group of mature believers and the new converts, the church evangelized and
baptized so many in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that it was said that all
Baptist in these areas were members of the Pennepack Baptist Church except for
the members of Cold Spring Baptist Church. As the groups in these different
areas of the state grew, they were organized into independent churches.
The
Pennepack Baptist Church is still in existence today. At first they took turns
meeting in the homes of their members. In 1707 Samuel Jones gave a plot of land
to the church, and they erected their first house of worship. This was a very simple structure being only twenty-five
feet square. It was enlarged to thirty by forty feet in 1774. The size increase,
along with the addition of pews and a stove, made it much more comfortable for
the members. The present building was built in 1805 and is still standing today.
In 1885 the church moved from their location to a new meetinghouse in the
Village of Bustleton under the name Lower Dublin Baptist Church. In 2006,
because of decline in attendance and funds being low, the decision was made to
move back to the building that was built in 1805 and revert back to the name
Pennepack Baptist Church. From the
inception of the church in 1688 until the present time the church has had forty
pastors and three interim pastors.
