CHAPTER VIII

Churches and Religious Institutions

PREPARED UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF HAMILTON SCHUYLER

(Due to the large size of this chapter it has been divided, in this case by the various religious denominations.)

(The links appear after the following introductory section.)

I.                  Foreword

The editor responsible for the religious section included in this history has sought the cooperation of the men he deemed best qualified to prepare an historical sketch of the respective communions. While he has exercised editorial supervision over the manuscripts solicited by and submitted to him and gone carefully over them with the writers, and in some instances suggested additions and modifications, the history as prepared by the various writers who have generously given their assistance remains substantially as they have written it.

In the case of bodies where none was found who would undertake the task, the editor himself has done the work with such information as he could glean from reliable sources and from interviews with qualified persons.

Appended in some instances to the historical narratives of the various bodies will be found brief biographical sketches of some outstanding figures in the religious life of Trenton during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The principles in accordance with which the selection of the names is made are: (1) the relative length and value of their services in the community; (2) their place in the public esteem; and (3) their prominence in their respective ecclesiastical bodies. Doubtless many more worthy names might have been added but the exigencies of space required the strict limiting of the number.

Under the general denominational title of each main body are listed the names of the several church organizations belonging thereto in the order of their permanent establishment. The space available does not in most instances permit more than a brief reference to each of these, with a mention of the names of those who were responsible for their organization.

The beginnings of institutional religious life in the territory now embraced within the City of Trenton found their natural origin in the commendable desire of the adherents of the various ecclesiastical bodies to establish as soon as practical societies and churches for the benefit of themselves and their co-religionists.

The following is the chronological order and approximate date of the foundation of the main bodies represented in Trenton today, but does not take account of earlier informal services.

After the middle of the nineteenth century and more particularly after the beginning of the twentieth, as the population of the town increased and especially as the high tide of immigration from Europe set in, other bodies came into existence, either as recognized branches of churches and societies already established or as new organizations answering to the racial and religious needs of the foreign people settling here. At present there are about one hundred church organizations belonging to the various ecclesiastical bodies, possessing each its own building for worship. Besides these there are miscellaneous bodies either with or without church buildings.

STATISTICS OF PRESENT CHURCH MEMBERSHIP

The following statistics were furnished by representativesof the bodies here listed:

The unclassified group includes one congregation each of Christian Science, Unitarian and Evangelical, besides one each of four different foreign-speaking peoples.

The Roman Catholics include in their figures all units of family groups affiliated with the church, infants as well as adults.

The Protestant bodies include in their stated membership only those individuals whose names are officially enrolled in the records of the congregation and do not count infants or those who may be reckoned as adherents through attendance at the services or by family association. The addition of this class would probably more than double the number of those who receive ministrations from these bodies.

There are twenty-four congregations of foreign-speaking or bilingual peoples. Of these ten are Roman Catholic with a total estimated membership of 30,635, besides one Greek Catholic of extra-diocesan jurisdiction and thirteen of other faiths. The Lutherans include four, the Baptists two, the Presbyterians two and the Episcopalians one. Other congregations are a Magyar Reformed, a Ukrainian Orthodox, a Greek Orthodox and a Polish National Catholic outside the Roman obedience.

SOME DEFUNCT CONGREGATIONS

From time to time minor religious bodies not connected with any of the existing church institutions were formed, had a precarious life, and finally disappeared. Among such was a Universalist society which was organized in 1843 and continued for ten or twelve years. This society never erected a building but held its services in the City Hall. Another society of Adventists or Second Adventists known as "Messiah Church," being a branch of a congregation in Morrisville, was established in 1863. A small church was erected on Clay Street near Market and dedicated in 1864. This building was sold in 1871 to the Evangelical Lutheran Christ Church and subsequently destroyed by fire. The Messiah Congregation in 1873 built a new church at Front and Montgomery Streets which in turn was sold in 1902, to the Lutheran Church of the Saviour.

Reference is elsewhere made to a Dutch Reformed Congregation which came into existence about 1840 and was dissolved some three years later. This congregation held its services in the building on Front Street which subsequently came into the possession of the Methodists who afterwards sold it to the congregation of St. Francis' Roman Catholic Church by whom it is occupied today.

NOTE: Since these pages were in type, some recent changes in pastorates and in the personnel of church officials may possibty have occurred which it was not practical to rectify in the historical sketches as they appear in this chapter.

II. The Society of Friends - 1684

BY MARC P. DOWDELL

III. The Episcopalians - 1703

BY THE REVEREND HAMILTON SCHUYLER, LITT.D., RECTOR OF TRINITY CHURCH

IV. The Presbyterians - 1712

BY THE REVEREND GEORGE H. INGRAM, STATED CLERK OF THE PRESBYTERY OF NEW BRUNSWICK

V. The Methodists - 1772

BY THE REVEREND CHARLES H. ELDER, FORMERLY PASTOR OF TRINITY M.E. CHURCH

VI. The Baptists - 1805

BY THE REVEREND JUDSON CONKLIN, FORMERLY PASTOR OF CLINTON AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH

VII. The Roman Catholics - 1814

BY JOHN J. CLEARY

VIII. The Lutherans - 1849

IX. The Jews - 1860

BY HARRY J. PODMORE

X. Unclassified

 © 1929, TRENTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY

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