The History of FPC

Caring,

Learning,

Giving

 as a Family

In Christ

Calendar

Comments/Questions about

FPC Today contact

johnbullock7@embarqmail.com

Last Update: 04/02/2008

Sketch by Nancy Sarno

Extracted from "Our Heritage and Hope" by Marie Farley

We Began as a German Reformed Congregation …

While Germany struggled under the political and religious consequences of Luther's reform movement (began in Wittenburg, 1517) the movement itself quickly spilled out of the German borders into neighboring Switzerland.   At the time, Switzerland was not so much a single country as a confederacy of thirteen city-states called cantons. When Luther's ideas began to pour over the border, several of the cantons broke from the Catholic church and became Protestant while other cantons remained firmly Catholic. Of the cantons that adopted Luther's new movement, the most important and powerful was the city-state of Zurich under the leadership of Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531).  Zwingli's theology and morality were based on a single principle: if the Old or New Testament did not say something explicitly and literally, then no Christian should believe or practice it. 

1710    Johannes Peter Fuchs (John Peter Fox) emigrates and settles land in our area.

1746    Michael Schlatter came from St. Gall, Switzerland, commissioned by the Reformed Church of the Netherlands to organize the Germans of Pennsylvania. Preached Calvinist creeds.

1747    On November 18th, Schlatter traveled from Philadelphia and visited a log church known as “Fox Hill Church.” He administered the Lord’s Supper to forty German immigrants who had left their fatherland to obtain greater religious freedom.

1760    James Parker, a large land owner in New Jersey, gives the Fox Hill congregation the property where FPC now stands. A shingle church was built in the Northeastern section of our cemetery.

1768-1782    Four churches are united under the charge of Rev. Frederick Dalliker – Fox Hill (Fairmount), German Valley (Long Valley), Rockaway (Lebanon) and Alexandria.

1782-1809    The first native-born American to enter the ministry of the German Reformed Church in America, Rev. Casper Wack, succeeds Dalliker. Marks the beginning of Germans giving up their own language and nationality.

1809-1813    The congregation did not have a pastor. The Presbyterian enterprise advances.

1813    On October 5th, the congregation is admitted to the Presbytery of New Brunswick. It is named The Presbyterian Church in Parker’s Village, in Fox Hill. Rev. Jacob R. Castner, born in Liberty Corner, is called to the pastorate.

1816    The old shingle church is torn down and replaced by a stone church. This stone church was located where our sanctuary presently stands, though it was smaller. The first ever Sunday School is organized at this time as well.

1817    The church is incorporated on February 5th and given the corporate name “The President and Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church in Parker’s Village, on Fox Hill.”

1818-1825    A seminary student, John C. Van Dervoort, of Bound Brook, is placed in this pastorate due to Presbytery concerns about the congregation being “irregular and unpresbyterian.” He was later ordained and installed. His ministry was marked by his “tender, earnest appeals” to the sinner’s heart. He lived in a house jointly owned by the German Valley (Long Valley) and our congregation.

1825-1834    The congregation did not have a pastor until Rev. Mancius Smedes Hutton (an 1826 graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary) arrived in 1828 to serve German Valley and our congregation. Troubles about infant baptism and whether non-communicants had a right to present their children for the Lord in baptism marked his ministry. Otherwise, though, forty more members were added to our congregation due to his leadership.
On September 5, 1826, a “Public Sale” regarding pews was held. Every pew was assigned a number. A record was kept about how much each member paid for their pew, as well as a note about how much each member paid toward the pastor’s salary. The most expensive pews were nearest the pulpit!

1835-1843    Rev. James Scott, of Glasgow, Scotland, arrives and is unhappy about the denomination’s moving of Fox Hill to the Raritan Presbytery, especially because this presbytery had established a new church in Lower Valley. As such, he led the charge for a change of relation, resulting in a move to the Newton Presbytery in 1841. During this pastorate the total membership grew to eighty-three and Scott discerned it best that German Valley and our congregation have two separate pastors.

1843-1847    Rev. Isaac Snedicker Davison becomes the first pastor of our congregation by itself. His tenure was marked by considerable troubles, including no less than two investigations into the character of church members and five trials for various offenses. When Rev. Davison was installed, our congregation did not own a manse. So one was built in 1843 … and still houses the minister and his family today!

1847-1850    Rev. Charles M. Oakley became our pastor. The plague of investigations continued. From our records we read that “This was a source of evil to the Church beyond comprehension. The people’s attention was turned from the subject of their own individual piety, and they were sent up and down, hunting out all the evil in the neighborhood. From being eager to advance the kingdom of Christ, they became simply rooters in the mire and dirt of scandal.” (Ruston)

1851-1855    With an eighty-one member congregation, Rev. Charles Wood arrives. At this time, it was decided that the old stone church’s dilapidated condition could not be repaired. The decision to build a new one is agreed upon. The fourth sanctuary is dedicated on July 25, 1852.

1855-1859    Rev. Nathaniel Baker Klink arrives. Klink was a skilled preacher as well as a skilled farmer, raising grain on the manse property. A quite revival takes place despite the ongoing investigations, trials and excommunications. Eventually, the mania turned against Klink, leading to his resignation.

1859-1861    The congregation did not have a pastor.

1861-1873    After the arrival of Rev. John R. Willox, of Scotland, the congregation resolved in 1869 to change it’s name from “The First Presbyterian Church of Fox Hill” to “The First Presbyterian Church of Fairmount.” A second, very successful fair was held in 1870, raising enough money to repair the church and the manse. Rev. Willox died at the age of 63 during his tenure with FPC of Fairmount.

1873-1874    Rev. Frank P. Thompkins came and went.

1875-1877 Most all of our historical record comes from a sermon preached on August 6, 1876 by then pastor Rev. William Otis Ruston. In October 1875, a plan was put in place to use offering envelopes. In December 1875, a new hymnal was introduced. In March 1876, a rotary plan of eldership was adopted, increasing the total number of elders to six serving for six years.

1877-1880    The first Rev. Davis (Titus Elwood) was installed. Before he resigned in 1880 due to ill health, one male member of the congregation was excommunicated for open profanity, blasphemy, slander and neglect of church duties.

1880-1884    Born in Norristown, PA, Rev. Edwin Wack Long served here for four years until his resignation.

1884-1887    The congregation did not have a pastor.

1887-1891    Rev. John Rutherford is installed and serves briefly.

1891-1898    The church is served by two non-ordained Stated Supply … Tillman S. Rush and Charles W. Wood.

1898-1916    Rev. Baker Smith serves our church while enduring the death of his first wife and four of five children due to consumption. His long pastorate is remembered as one in which all things worked together for harmony, peace and good will. During July and August of 1902, the church closed for remodeling. A portico, bell tower, new gallery, and memorial windows were added. The pews we sit on today were added in 1909.

1917-1918    Rev. Russell James Clinchy arrives but then requests a leave of absence to enter the YMCA war service in the camps. His young wife, Mary Roberta Stover, dies on October 13th from the influenza epidemic. She is buried in Fairmount Cemetery.

1919-1923    Rev. Russell Clinchy is succeeded by his brother, Rev. Everett Ross Clinchy. Rev. Clinchy’s energy and effort led to the building of a Community House in 1921.

1924-1943    At a salary of $1,200 plus use of the manse, Fairmount is served by Rev. Frank E. Dupue. In 1933, for financial reasons stemming from the Great Depression, the Presbytery requested that Fairmount become “yoked” with Long Valley PC under Rev. Dupue. The congregation agreed, but soon after determined this was not necessary. On Easter morning, March 24, 1940, the original Community House was destroyed by fire. Soon after, a new Community House was built.

1944-1949    The decision not to unite proved fiscally unwise and we were yoked with Lower Valley PC under the leadership of Rev. Edwin Hascall Brown. He opted to live in the Long Valley manse. During WWII, several congregation members worked at a bomb plant about one mile from the church (now on Parker Road near the Fire House). During this time, the sanctuary was extensively refurbished – new paint, new carpet, the church bell was made more operable, a Moeller pipe organ installed, and new light fixtures. The Youth Group flourished because it combined the youth of both churches.

1950-1952    Installed at the Lower Valley sanctuary and residing in the Lower Valley manse, Rev. Robert L. Agnew served the yoked parish.

1953-1957    The yoked parishes call a piano prodigy as their pastor, Rev. Leonard Henry Evans.

1957-1959    Called and installed, Rev. Roger D. Sidener continued on for one more year at Lower Valley after our Session voted to break from the yoke on January 19, 1959.

1959-1966    On June 24, 1959, Rev. John Mason Cooney was called to serve our church family. The Fairmount Cemetery became a separate corporation from FPC. A series of discussions, “Religion and Public Affairs” gained local prominence.

1966-1971    On November 5, 1967, our church celebrated its 220th anniversary. Rev. Frank Harper Poole served as pastor through these years. A new educational wing was added to the Community House. It was dedicated on September 25, 1966.

1972-1973    The 225th anniversary celebration was held during the brief tenure of Rev. Roger Allen Verse.

1973-2002    On October 6, 1974, an old-fashioned Homecoming Picnic was held on the Community House lawn to welcome Rev. William (Bill) L. Davis and his wife, Doris. He was installed on October 13, 1974. A long list of blessings pertaining to his considerable tenure (and everything else about our history) can be found in the book written by Marie Farley for our 250th Anniversary entitled Our Heritage & Hope.

2004-Present    Following an interim-ministry period, FPC called New Jersey native Rev. Richard Kenworthy Gelson to service beginning August 1, 2004. He and his wife, Jenny, along with their two young daughters, Anna and Rebecca, are greatly enjoying ministry in this time and place.