The
roots of the Episcopal Church in New Jersey may
be found in the great work of the missionaries sent from England
in the eighteenth century. There were two organizations, whose
headquarters were in London ,
which are responsible for the founding of the Church in Jersey
. The older of these was the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge,
founded in 1699 by Thomas Bray, an English clergyman who financed his venture by
selling his personal effects. The second of the missionary societies was the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, founded in 1701. Both of these
organizations had their headquarters in London
, and the Bishop of London was in charge of the Church in the
Colonies. Despite the great work of both the SPCK and the SPG, and occasional
bursts of interest on the parts of succeeding bishops of London , the Anglican Church enjoyed
only slow growth. There were many reasons for this, but paramount was the fact
that there was no bishop for America
, and Episcopal oversight was in the hands of the
far-distant Bishop of London. Moreover, there were definite Colonial prejudices
against the Church of England.
By the time of the American War of
Independence, the Episcopal Church in New Jersey could boast of a
number of strong parishes, all the result of heroic missionary labor. There was St. Mary’s Church in Burlington.
There were well-established churches in Perth Amboy, Piscataway
and New Brunswick. And there was Trinity Church
in Newark, now the cathedral of the diocese.
These churches were able to survive the very difficult post-Revolution period.
And it was a difficult period! Most of the clergy of the Church had been Tory
sympathizers. They had left the Colonies when the war broke out, and their
parishes had been without sustained ministrations. Then, during and after the
War, there was a natural reaction against things British and therefore the
Church suffered. It took a long while to gather the loose threads together
before the Church could reorganize and begin its work in the new country. A
milestone in this process was the meeting of the Connecticut
clergy in early 1784 when Samuel Seabury was elected the first
bishop in the United States. Seabury went to England, where
he was refused consecration. Finally, he was consecrated in Aberdeen by
the Scottish Non-juring bishops. Later, three other
Americans were consecrated in England ,
and thus the historic line of bishops in succession was brought to the United
States. But this did not assure the prosperity of the Church, and as late as
1830, Chief Justice John Marshall is said to have stated that “the Episcopal
Church is too far gone ever to be revived”.
John Marshall was mistaken. He did
not realize that great forces were already at work in the Episcopal Church that
the dawn was even then breaking upon the day of revival and growth. One of the
great forces was in the person of John Henry Hobart, Bishop of New York. Bishop
Hobart retained the rectorate of Trinity Church , New
York, when he became bishop of the diocese. He also had a home “in
the Short Hills” of New Jersey and to this day the old
road there is called by his name, as well as another, “Bishop’s Lane”. Bishop Hobart was a
dynamic figure who proved to all who knew of him that the Episcopal Church
could be loyal to both God and the Constitution of the new country. The Bishop
of New Jersey was John Croes, the son of a Polish
immigrant. Since the Poles had taken a conspicuous part in the War of
Independence, John Croes was a factor in winning
confidence in the national loyalty of the Church. Moreover, his successor was
the popular and energetic Washington Doane, whose
very name implied loyalty to the new nation. Then, there was the venerable
Bishop of Pennsylvania, William White, who had been Chaplain to the Continental
Congress. All of these men did their work in their times, and the foundations
of the Episcopal Church in the new country are due to them and those whom they
inspired.
Slowly, the older Episcopal parishes in
the cities began to grow. New ones were founded, especially after the Oxford Movement of the 1830’s and its implications struck Church
people in America. Elizabeth, not far from Millburn,
had had an Episcopal Church since Colonial times. As that town grew, other
Episcopal churches were founded. The number of communicants grew, too. And
Episcopalians would frequently move from their home towns and would want parish
churches in their new environments. Thus the Church spread from the older
towns.
The facts relative to the founding
of St. Stephen’s Church in Millburn are well recorded in several extant
chronicles. The Parish Register of our
church tells part of the story, as does a historical sketch published in the
St. Stephen s Outlook in June, 1920. Most important is the record in the
biography of Eugene Augustus Hoffman. Hoffman was graduated from the General
Theological Seminary in New York City in 1851 and was made a Deacon
that year. He began his Ministry at Grace Church, Elizabethport.
While there, his attention was called to the fact that there was no church in Millville , eight miles distant. (Millville was the name of the community until 1857). The
biography of Eugene Augustus Hoffman (who was to become the great Dean of the
General Theological Seminary) recalls that -
Millburn was a town of 600
inhabitants, a mile from Springfield, the scene of many Revolutionary events,
and was at the foot of the Short Hills, where Bishop Hobart had his country
residence and where he had wished to locate the General Theological Seminary.
About 1852, when Mr. Hoffman was missionary at Elizabethport,
he became interested in this little village, and as there was no religious
service of any kind in the place, he determined from time to time to hold
services of the Church there. He was aided in this work by Mr. Israel D.
Condit. The population generally had never, it is believed, seen a Prayer Book
or a surplice. The congregation, beginning with about forty or fifty, soon
increased to a hundred and twenty.
This, in brief, tells the story of
the beginnings of St. Stephen’s Church. Some remarks are in order. Inasmuch as
“the Short Hills” was a summering place for people from Newark and
Elizabeth as well as a farming community, one cannot avoid
thinking that there were some Episcopalians there who wanted to have an
Episcopal church established in the mill village of Springfield.
Moreover, the area of this mill village though yet a part of Springfield
in Union County ,
showed promise of eventual incorporation into a separate municipality. There is
no doubt that the astute Mr. Hoffman saw the importance of establishing a
church there.
From the historical sketch in the
first Parish Register we learn that the first Episcopal services in Millburn
were held on December 17, 1851 in “the public School House”, and that there
were only two Episcopalians in the vicinity at that time. This school house was
located on Millburn Avenue (then called Washington Street) now
occupied by the grounds of the Washington School.
Later, it was necessary to hire the hall of Mr. James which was situated in a
building still standing on the southwest corner of the present Millburn
Avenue and Main Street. It was in the second floor
hall of this building that services were continued for the next two years.
Needless to say, the area called Millville,
or the mill village, was, in 1851, far different from what we know today. The
chronicle published in the St. Stephen’s Outlook in June, 1920 gives a fair
picture of the town as it then was:
Millburn, at various
times in its earlier history, was known as Rum Brook, Riverhead, Vauxhall, and
Croton. But by reason of the mills in the
vicinity it became known as Millville
. . . As late as
1835 there was at Millburn only a blacksmith shop, store, saloon, paper mill and a few houses. The
principal residents in those days were Mrs. Butterworth, Joseph Hand, John Brison, John White, Thomas Lyon, Joseph P. Smith, and
Israel D. Condit, and their families. The manufacture of paper was established
here very early, and the products of the mills were hauled to Elizabeth,
and thence by sloops to New York. Later on, a hat factory was established . . .
County.
For years, the spelling Milburn was preferred, but after the turn of the
twentieth century the general usage became Millburn. The municipality now
called Millburn was that section of Springfield where the mills were located; it was thus referred to
as “the mill village” of Springfield . There were other
names given the village at various times, but in time the name became Mill Burn
- named after the Scottish for the fast-moving stream which gave power to the
mills. In 1857, this became the official name of the community, and the county
line was moved so as to include Mill Burn in Essex
It may be said that St. Stephen’s
Church is the oldest existing corporate body in Millburn. I know of no business
or institution within the town which is older. The White Oak Ridge Chapel had
been organized as a Sunday School association in 1831,
but it is believed that St. Stephen’s Church is the oldest re1igious body in
continual existence.
The first services of the Church, held in the old schoolhouse and in Mr. James’ Hall,
attracted people of varied religious backgrounds. Such names as Condit,
Campbell, Lyon and Allcock are mentioned in the
earliest parish records. These were people well known in Millville in
1851. Israel Dodd Condit seems to have
been the man who rallied the lay leadership of the new church. We may presume
that he was one of the two original Episcopalians mentioned above. He had come
to the Springfield area in 1822,
and four years later married Caroline Eaglesfield.
Her father was one of the early paper and felt
manufacturers here. Israel D. Condit gave the land for St. Stephen’s Church and
St. Stephen’s Cemetery. He was for many years Senior Warden of the parish, and
in addition to his initial generosity all too often he was called upon to pay
the annual expenses of the Church. He died in 1897.
The Campbell
family had come to Millville even
earlier than Mr. Condit and, like him, they were paper manufacturers. The Lyon
and Allcock families lived in Millville
for many years, and were early members and supporters of St.
Stephen’s Church. Because it was the only church in the town, nearly every
family living nearby came to have some connection with St. Stephen’s. In some
cases, the connection has continued to the present time; there are still people
in the parish register who are descendants of the founders.
The oldest possession of St.
Stephen’s Church is a large English Bible, published by Eyre and Spottiswood in 1847. It was given to the parish in its
earliest days by five people, and cost $17.50.
Throughout 1852, the number of
people attending the services in Mr. James’ Hall increased. Obviously, the
worship of the Episcopal Church commended itself to the inhabitants of Millville,
and it became clear that steps should be taken to formally organize a parish in
the town. Accordingly, the following was posted:
NOTICE
is hereby given to the members of the
Protestant Episcopal Church in Millville, and to those who desire to associate
themselves with said Church, that a meeting will be held in Millville, on the
nineteenth day of January, at their usual place of worship, the building of Mr.
James, immediately after evening service (service to commence at 7-1/2 P.M.)
for the purpose of taking measures necessary to incorporate said Church,
agreeably to “an Act to incorporate religious societies worshipping according
to the customs and usages of the Protestant Episcopal Church” passed 17
February, 1829.
Eugene Augustus Hoffman, Minister
Millville,
9 January, 1853
(N. B.
The Bishop of the Diocese is expected to be present on the occasion).
Two days before the advertised
meeting, a group of people met at the home of Israel Condit and formed a slate
of Vestrymen. The two Wardens were to be Israel D. Condit and George W.
Campbell. The Vestrymen were Isaac M. Hand, Hugh Allcock,
Isaac Martin, Amzi Condit, William Marshall, Thomas
C. Bradbury, and Edward Clayton. At the same meeting in Mr. Condit’s house, a
committee was appointed to choose a name for the new parish. On the stated
Sunday evening, January 19th, 1853 , the congregational meeting was held in Mr.
James’ Hall. The Right Reverend George Washington Doane,
Bishop of New Jersey, was accompanied by Mr. Hoffman, the Reverend Charles
Rankin of St. Peter’s Church, Morristown, and five other clergymen. The slate
of Wardens and Vestrymen previously selected was ratified, and Easter Tuesday
was chosen as the time of annual meetings. That day remained the appointed date
for the annual meetings until 1958. We may assume that the name of the parish
was decided upon at this time. In all probability, the name of the first
Christian martyr was chosen because St. Stephen’s Church was the first church
to be organized in Millville, and it was the first parish founded by the young
Mr. Hoffman.
The first Vestry meeting was held
on the 27th of January, 1853,
probably in the home of Israel D. Condit. The gentlemen proceeded immediately
to the pressing business of finding a building site for a church - and they
appointed a committee to secure the necessary funds for such a building. The
treasurer was directed to purchase a Parish Register, using the monies received
in the first Offering: $2.79. We still
have this fine hand-tooled leather book. Several weeks after this first Vestry
meeting, the Vestrymen adopted elaborate By-laws to guide the deliberations and
procedures of future years.
In the Spring
of 1853, Mr. Condit offered the parish a lot of land on Main Street.
The Vestry agreed to build a church on this lot, and they chose as their
architect J. W. Priest. This man was a member of the Ecclesiological Society of
New York, a society composed of high churchmen whose aim was to express Church
doctrine by producing an ecclesiastical architecture reminiscent of the
medieval power of the Church Catholic. We have seen that Bishop Doane, Mr. Hoffman, and Dr. Rankin were active in founding
St. Stephen’s Church. All of these men had been influenced by the Oxford Movement; they were all high churchmen. In its earlier days,
St. Stephen’s was probably considered by some Episcopalians to be a dangerously
ceremonial “High” parish, a parish infected by the current effects of the
Oxford Movement which aimed to enrich the services, and emphasize the historic
teachings, of the Church.
The architect, Mr. Priest, drew the
designs for the new church in Millville. The cornerstone was laid by
Bishop Doane on August 23rd, 1853. It is a red
sandstone block, made of the same material as the whole foundation; the
cornerstone is at the base of the church tower and is simply marked “1853”.
Since there was not enough money at hand to go far in building, only the
excavation and foundation were completed in 1853. As a matter of fact, it was
soon apparent to the Vestry that the whole design provided by Mr. Priest could
not be carried out at this time. Therefore, the Vestry decided to build only
the tower, chancel, sacristy and four bays of the church; the remainder could
be done at a later time. On April 4th, 1854 , the Vestry’s Building Committee reported
that a contract had been signed with George Riker; the cost of the church as
built in 1854 was to be $4,000.00.
What was this church which the
people of St. Stephen’s built in 1854? As it stands today it is almost the same
as when used for worship, although it was later lengthened. There is a generous
nave, with pews fashioned of hard oak according to the taste of the earlier
American Gothicists. There are three aisles, a main aisle
and two side alleys. The chancel steps are broad and lead to a theatre which
has clergy stalls on either side. The sanctuary is not deep, but ample for the
needs of a country church. There is a small room off the chancel, formerly the
Vestry, and now used as the Sacristy. For many years, the Vestrymen held their
meetings in this room, which was warmed by a small stove. The base of the tower
was intended for the organ console and pipes; there is a fine carved screen
dividing this space from the nave. There is also a tower room, reached by a
steep flight of steps, but in all probability this has never been used, though
the architect probably intended it to be a meeting room.
The original plastered walls were
smooth and tinted. The window and arch returns had plastered moldings,
terminating in floral motifs. These were not reintroduced after the renovations
of 1928, and therefore the church has lost a measure of the architectural
lightness it originally possessed. The glass in the windows was of the type
then “bought by the yard”. St. Stephen’s Church was built before the Victorian
taste turned to the darker shades, and thus the clerestory windows are fitted
with bright red and blue glass. The East window is of lighter blue and yellow
tones. The nave lancets were filled with peach-colored diamond-shaped panes,
with either red or blue borders; these made the nave dance with light. There is
a West Rose Window, also predominantly red, matching the clerestory windows.
The “five sisters” lancets below it are filled with glass of the grisaille
type, and on a sunny afternoon they throw shafts of white light down the length
of the nave. The windows of the church were planned with care, and those
responsible for them recognized the importance of light in a Gothic type
building. Unfortunately, the nave windows have been lost to us, but succeeding
generations will rejoice in the duty still done by the gay clerestory windows
and those on the east and west ends of the church.
The
piers of the nave, and their arches, are of chamfered oak which, by local
tradition, was cut on the property when the church was built. The wooden
ceiling, high above the pews, was at one time painted light blue, with gold
stars. Though the church is built in a medium, wood, which can never truly
express the Gothic ideal, it captures to an amazing
degree the Gothic spirit of vista and appreciation of component parts. When it
was built, a newspaper of the day carried the following account:
The church is one that needs more
than passing notice. The plan which was furnished by Mr. J. W. Priest was
thoroughly a wooden one, with no mock buttresses to deceive the eye, nor sham
furring out and blocking off of walls to represent stone. Everything is real,
and just what it pretends to be. We wish churchmen who are building churches
would recollect that there is no beauty in imitations; and that if men see in
the House of God lies told in wood or plaster, they will too often think the
whole of religion is but a sham. The church consists of a nave, with a spire on
the north of chancel. Orientation is observed, the chancel standing on the
street. We could not but be struck with the superior beauty of the “coup d’oeil” of the chancel, sacristy, and tower, with the nave
rising behind them, over the effect which would have been produced had the chancel been placed at the west end for the sake of the
street. The building will seat about 300 persons, and is one of the prettiest
modern country churches we have seen. The whole cost including the bell and the
organ was about $9,000, of which a very large proportion was paid by one
individual, who gave the ground.
It has been stated that St.
Stephen’s was a natural descendant of the white New England
meeting houses used by the ancestors of those who built St. Stephen’s. Nothing
would be further from the truth. St. Stephen’s Church was built in direct
contradiction to the religious ideals which inspired the Classic churches of
Wren, Gibbs, and their followers. The founders of St. Stephen’s were high churchmen
in full accord with the Oxford Movement which was
reminding the Church of its historic past. The Gothic mode of building was one
way by which the high churchmen made their point. Moreover, these were the
early years of the whole Romantic Revival, a movement which made an impact upon
art, literature, music and drama. There was a reaction to the orderliness and
austerity which often characterized eighteenth century literature, decoration,
and religion. There was a general longing for a freer expression of the mind
and soul. The developments in the Church, and developments in the life of the
times, went hand-in-hand to produce the church in Millburn .
It is fortunate that through the
years St. Stephen’s Church has been only slightly altered. If any of the
original builders were to return to us they would readily recognize the church
today. Only a few changes have been made. Electric lights have been added. The
Font has been moved slightly. Some windows have been removed. But for the most
part the people of St. Stephen’s (happily!) did not have the means to
“modernize” its church at that time when many another fine parish church was
undergoing drastic and disastrous changes in the later Victorian and Edwardian
eras. Because of this, the church retains lines and feelings which make it more
and more appreciated as a significant example of rural wooden Gothic
architecture at its best. It is perhaps worth mentioning that J. B. Priest
designed another church almost exactly like St. Stephen’s: the
Church of St. Michael in New
York City. But that church was razed many years ago, and according to an
authority on American Gothic architecture our church stands as the only extant
work of its gifted architect.
There is a tradition that the first baptism
in the church took place before the building was completed; the child was
William John, son of John and Mary Hamilton. If the tradition is true, the
stone Font was not used, for this Font was partially provided by funds given at
the consecration of the church, Tuesday,
July 24th, 1855. The first marriage of the parish was that of Helen
Lundy to William Henry Beam, August 27th, 1854; the officiant
was the Reverend Charles F. Hoffman, brother of the founder of St. Stephen’s.
The first marriage in the church building was that of Ann Morrison McAuley to James Lawlor, on November
26th, 1857. The first burial was that of William Pettigrew on October
7th, 1853. All of these were recorded in the Register ordered to be
purchased at the first meeting of the Vestry.
While the church was in process of
erection, services were maintained by the congregation in Mr. James’ Hall. The Reverend Eugene A. Hoffman officiated at
many of these services, but in the Spring of 1853 he
became the rector of the newly-formed Christ Church
in Elizabeth. Thereafter, Mr. Hoffman’s ministry in Millville
was often supplemented by the Reverend Dr. J. D. Berry, or by
services conducted by Mr. Condit who was a licensed layreader.
There were two services every Sunday: Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. In
addition, there was probably a monthly celebration of the Holy Communion.
The church was ready for use in the
summer of 1855. One of the earliest decisions was that the pews would be rented
at the Annual Meeting following. The pews in the main portion of the nave were
to be rented at twelve dollars a year; the pews in the side aisles would be
eight dollars. (It should be remembered that at this time the nave was
considerably less long than it now is; there were no pews to rent westward of
the main door).
One of the mistakes of our
forefathers was the reliance upon only a few people for the bulk of church
support. The richer the man, the more prominent his pew; the more prominent the
pew, the more it cost. There were always a few seats reserved for poorer
people, and for strangers. But for the most part, parochial income was derived
from pew rents. And a precarious income it was! If for any reason several pewholders gave up their pews within a quarterly period
(rents were paid quarterly), then the parish treasurer would indeed be in a
tight position. There was at his time no method of systematic giving, no every
member canvass, no broad base of parish support.
On the
third of August, 1855 , the Vestry met in
the vestry room. This room, now used as a Sacristy, was to be used as the
meeting place of the Vestrymen for many years. This Vestry room was the office
of the parish, insofar as any office was needed in those days. There was a wood
stove in one corner, but however well heated it might have been, this must have
been a tiny room for any business meeting. Perhaps the lack of comfort meant
that business was transacted with dispatch. I can never enter our present
well-appointed Sacristy without thinking that here the Vestry crowded and here
the Vestry did its work. Our board table of today would be a marvel to the
Vestrymen of 1855.
At that Vestry meeting in August,
1855 it was decided that number plates should be purchased for the pews. The men
present must have discussed another and more important matter: finding a rector
for the parish. Since Mr. Hoffman’s time was now taken up with the new Christ
Church in Elizabeth,
the people of St. Stephen’s looked more and more toward Dr. Berry.
In March of 1856, he was called to be the first rector. He declined the call.
In the following November, the Reverend Horace Hall Reid of Christ Church,
Watertown, Connecticut
was called. He had graduated from the General Theological Seminary in 1848, and
was probably well known to Eugene Hoffman who had later graduated from the same
seminary. Mr. Reid (the name is spelled Reed in the records of the General
Seminary) accepted the call at a stipend of $800.00 a year. He began his
ministry in Millville on January 1st,
1857. (That was to be a momentous date for the community because in that year
its name was officially changed to Millburn.) Mr.
Reid took up his residence in the house on Old Short Hills Road now owned by
Mr. and Mrs. C. Lawrence Keller.
One of the earlier developments of
Mr. Reid’s ministry in Millburn was the establishment of
St. Stephen’s Cemetery. The aim of those responsible for founding the cemetery
was to provide a burial site for the people of Millburn
as well as for the members of St. Stephen’s Church. It was only incidental that
some income would thus come to the church although that income from plot sales
proved to be helpful to the church as time went on. The cemetery was located on
eight acres of land given by Israel D. Condit, who distinguished himself once
again as a generous benefactor of St. Stephen’s. The first act of the cemetery
committee was to grant Mr. Condit a large family burial plot.
When St. Stephen’s Church was
founded, in 1851, it was the only Episcopal parish in southern Essex
County. The nearest Episcopal churches were in Elizabeth,
West Orange, and Morristown. Very soon, other Episcopal parishes were
established in nearby towns. Grace Church in Madison
was established in 1854. Calvary
Church, Summit
was organized in 1857, and, in 1859, the Church of the Holy Communion, South
Orange, was founded. This remarkable growth of the Episcopal Church
was partially due to the settlement of many people brought into New Jersey by
the Morris and Essex Railroad.
The early Registers of St. Stephen’s
Church show that its members came from far and wide. We read of people who
lived in Jefferson Village (Maplewood),
Craneville (Union), and South
Orange. Later, Maplewood and Union
would have their own Episcopal churches, but as early as March, 1856, the
services of the Church were being held in South Orange.
The rector of St. Mark’s, West Orange, officiated. Three
years later, in September 1859, Bishop Doane
appointed the rector of St. Stephen’s, Millburn to be missionary
to the congregation in South Orange. We can not be certain that this appointment was welcomed by
Mr. Reid, but the Episcopalians in South Orange were
determined to have their own church and on September
24th, 1859, the Church of the Holy Communion was established. Mr.
Reid was “necessarily absent” from the meeting at which the parish was
organized.
It is clear that Mr. Reid was in
poor health. Certainly the care of his far-flung parish taxed his energies and
strength, and the charge of the new church in South Orange made his work even
more demanding. On July 1st, 1859,
even prior to his appointment as missioner at Orange, Mr. Reid resigned the rectorate of St. Stephen’s. His letter, now in the archives
of the parish, states:
. . . I have come to the
determination to request your acceptance of my resignation of the Rectorship of St. Stephen’s Church to take effect on the
first day of October next . . . I cannot contemplate a separation from those to
whom I am bound by many ties of grateful affection without some degree of
regret, but considerations affecting the health and comfort of my family render
it necessary. Besides, I am persuaded that if at any time I could resign the
responsibility of my incumbency, it is in the present prosperous state of its
affairs.
Mr. Reid went to the health spas of
Europe, hoping to regain his health. But he died in
Switzerland, in 1860. So affectionately was he remembered at St. Stephen’s that
the parish erected a memorial tablet, which remains in the chancel of the
church. The inscription ends with the Prayer Book version of Psalm 107:30: “And
so He bringeth them into the haven where they would
be”.
There can be no doubt that the
affairs of St. Stephen’s Church were, as he had said, prosperous at the time of
Mr. Reid’s departure from the parish. The future was so promising that it was
decided to complete the church building by adding the two western bays. While
the working plans for this and other improvements were under consideration, the
Vestry, in October, 1859, called the Reverend George C. Pennell to be the
second rector of St. Stephen’s. He was called “at a salary of Eight Hundred
Dollars per annum and a Parsonage which is in progress of erection”. It seems
that Mr. Condit was then building a house which he intended to give to the use
of the rector of St. Stephen s.
The future looked bright, and
therefore the Vestry proceeded with its plans to enlarge and embellish the
church. The two western bays were added in 1859-60. Designs were ordered for the font cover, the
Reid tablet, the alms box, some tables and the bishop’s chair. A Newark
architect, C. Harrison Condit, was entrusted with these designs.
(This Condit was only remotely related to the lay founder of St. Stephen’s,
Israel Dodd Condit). The Vestry at this time also resolved “that one member
attend on Sundays Thirty minutes before service to seat strangers” in the
enlarged church.
The War between
the States was imminent, but optimism prevailed at St. Stephen’s. In
recognition of Mr. Pennell’s institution as rector of the parish, a chased
silver Communion Service was purchased from the New York
silversmith, Cooper of Amity Street. At the same time, the
congregation honored Mr. Condit by presenting to the church an alms bason and paten as a thankoffering
for his having assumed the cost of completing the church. The Vestry further
moved towards building a Rectory, and in September, 1860, plans for a house
were accepted. The architect was C. Harrison Condit.
In 1860, the organist was paid
$300.00 a year. We do not know anything about the first organ in St. Stephen’s;
it was probably one of those fine-tuned instruments which are now sought-after,
but which in the late Victorian period were replaced by heavier but less worthy
pipe organs. The sexton was paid $120.00 a year, and the organ blower received
$20.00. Thirty-nine pews were rented in 1860, and ten were declared “forever
free” and reserved for strangers. Also, in 1860 St. Stephen’s contributed
$17.00 to the “Kansas Sufferers”. The proposed budget that year showed that the
Vestry expected to receive $1,046.00 from pew rents, and an additional $400.00
from weekly Offerings.
This optimism was short-lived.
Trouble soon descended upon the parish. By April of 1861, the rector’s salary
was six months in arrears. The bills from the architect had not been paid. A
number of expensive forms for the church and cemetery had been printed, and the
printer was also unpaid. Letters went back and forth between the creditors and
the Clerk of the Vestry. Finally, the printer brought suit against the church
and, a week later, the rector resigned. It seems that the parish owed Mr.
Pennell $1,300.00 at this time, and the Vestry gave him a demand note for that
amount.
In the light of these pressing
difficulties, a lighter irrelevant note in the Minutes of the Vestry is
amusing: “The Chairman suggests that the present mode of ringing the bell has a
tendency to confuse”.
The third rector of St. Stephen’s
was the Reverend William Colvin Brown who came to Millburn
from Zion Church,
Newport, Rhode Island. We have very little
information about this gentleman. During his time in Millburn,
his predecessor threatened suit against the Rector, Wardens and Vestrymen of
St. Stephen’s for payment of the salary still owing
him. Apparently Mr. Pennell’s threat was effective, for the money seems to have
been paid to him.
There is no record of an Annual
Meeting in 1862, but regular parish meetings were held thereafter. On
April18th, 1865, the Vestry “Resolved that the Church be draped with mourning
in token of respect for our lamented President”.
Mr. Brown resigned November
10th, 1865 , but the parish was without a
rector for only a very brief time. In January 1866, the Reverend Dr. Henry Palethorpe Hay was called to be the fourth rector. Dr. Hay
had studied with the class of 1862 at the General Theological Seminary. At the
time of his call to St. Stephen’s, he was rector of Christ
Church, Riverton, New
Jersey. His rectorate in Millburn
is probably one of the shortest in the history of the American
Church; only seven months after his call the following was minuted
in the Vestry books:
At a meeting of the Vestry in the
Vestry room on Monday evening . . . Resolved that the Rectorship
of this Church be declared vacant . . . Resolved that a Copy of this resolution
signed by all the members present be presented to the Reverend Dr. Hay.
Again, money problems had caused
sensitive feelings. The next Vestry meeting found the rector present, and the
Vestry decided then to raise additional funds for the parish. But within a few
weeks Dr. Hay had left Millburn and once again the
parish was without a rector. Within ten years there had been four rectors at
St. Stephen’s.
The Vestry called the Reverend John
H. Hobart, Jr., who then lived in his father’s old place in Short Hills. Mr.
Hobart declined the offer. In January, 1867, the Reverend Brockholst
Morgan, a deacon, accepted the call to be rector. Mr. Morgan had graduated from
the General Theological Seminary in 1865, and had been ordained by Bishop
Potter of New York that same year. Just
prior to coming to Millburn, he was an assistant at St.
George’s Church, New York.
It was thought that if a Rectory could
be built for the rectors of St. Stephen’s, some of the greater problems of the
parish would be solved. There would be an adequate house for the rector and his
family, and there would also be a place for meetings. The plans of Harrison
Condit had been approved as early as 1860, but the War and the insolvency of
the parish prevented its building. When Brockholst
Morgan came to the rectorate, this project was again
taken in hand. The people of St. Stephen’s felt justified in considering this
because there were signs of growth in the parish. Land was available next to
the church, on the corner of Main Street and Rector (then Orchard)
Street. In order to strengthen the financial position of the parish before the
Rectory was built, the Vestry resolved to try the envelope system of offerings
“as adopted in the Churches of Newark”. This was in 1868, but it would be a
long time before this was a means of substantial parish support. Pew rents
remained the major source of income, and with more pews rented the Vestry
undertook to advance the rector’s salary to $1,500.00. And they proceeded with
building the Rectory.
Inasmuch as St. Stephen’s Rectory
has become a landmark in Millburn, it is worthwhile to
pause and consider this house which was built in 1868. There were two other
local houses which were built at the same time as the Rectory. The first, the
Richard Whittingham house, on the site of the present Acme Market, was also
designed by C. Harrison Condit; it was razed in 1957. The other house was that
of the Campbell family; it is now the “Chanticler”
restaurant and has been extensively altered.
The original designs for the Rectory
called for a basement kitchen, but this was impracticable because the Rahway
River, across the street often overflowed. The
church records mention several occasions when the silt and mud had to be
cleared away from the pews and organ after flood time. Because the kitchen
could not be in the basement, the back wing was added to the original plans.
This provided for two small bedrooms above.
The public rooms of the Rectory were
built in the spacious manner of the day. The study bookcases had traceried doors whose design was repeated in the verge
boards of the dormers and gables on the roof. There was a separate door outside
provided for the study, and steps from both ends of the side porch gave easy
access to this door. The floors throughout the house were wide pine floors,
unfinished. This called for the wall-to-wall Brussells
or ingrain carpeting; at a later time, straw matting was installed on the
second floor. All of the principal rooms had fireplaces. Coal fires kept the
house more or less warm. Recently, I was shown a glass vase whose owner told me
that it was once in the Rectory. When I remarked upon a large crack in the
vase, I was told that that happened when the water in the vase froze; so cold
was the Rectory. Matters have improved somewhat since then! In the 1890’s the
fireplaces were removed and the flues used for hot air pipes from a new
furnace. This system was probably never very successful in heating the Rectory,
and in 1934 a steam heating plant was installed.
Some of the Rectory rooms did not
have fireplaces, and there wood stoves were used. All of the attic rooms were
heated in this way, and there was once a chimney in the front end of the long
roof which allowed use of a stove in the upper hall.
Fortunately, the Rectory has not
lost its character and charm with the passage of years. There are new floors in
the first floor, and woodwork once stained dark is now white. The mantlepieces have been removed from the upstairs bedrooms
and, unfortunately, the window blinds and original slate roof, with its
ecclesiastical designs, have gone. The house now enjoys all the conveniences of
the twentieth century, but at the same time it retains much of the atmosphere
of the past. It is a beloved landmark in Millburn.
In all probability, Brockholst Morgan did not live in the Rectory. In July of
1869, the year of its completion, he resigned the rectorate
to become rector of St. Marks Church, Chicago. Within a month, the Vestry
extended a call to the Reverend William Bryce Morrow. Mr. Morrow was born in England
and graduated from the General Theological Seminary in
1863. He was ordained by Bishop Potter of New York
in that year and was for two years associated with Calvary
Church in New
York City . He was subsequently
rector of the Church of the Messiah, Greenbush, New York,
and St. John’s Church
in Wheeling ,
West Virginia. Following his rectorship
at St. Stephen’s, Mr. Morrow held charges at Easton, Pennsylvania;
Peoria, Illinois; Sayre,
Pennsylvania; and, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
At the same time that the Vestry
called Mr. Morrow to the rectorate, 1869, Miss Mary
Amelia Park was asked to assume the duties of parish choir leader and organist.
Miss Park
remained in that capacity until 1925. It was also at this time that
the Vestry decreed that anyone in the parish might build a horseshed
behind the church. A number of these sheds were built, and they remained a
familiar sight in Millburn until after the First World
War.
Another familiar sight in Millburn
at this time was “Elegant” Oakey Hall. Mr. Hall, who
had assisted “Boss” Tweed in the corrupt administration
of New York City, lived with his
family in semi-retirement after the “Tweed Ring” was thrown out of office. The
Halls were members of St. Stephen’s, but the Elegant Oakey’s
public prominence does not seem to have extended itself to much participation
in local church matters.
The fact that Miss
Park had been engaged as organist in
1869 calls to mind the musical provisions in the church at that time.
The architect had not provided for a chancel choir, and the organ pipes and
console were hidden behind the carved screen in the base of the tower. In 1869,
space was made near the organ screen, in the north aisle, for a small choir.
The choir was possibly a quartet at first, but in time it grew larger. The interest
in music must have been strong at this time, for in 1870 a Johnson organ was
purchased. It remained in service for many years.
From these improvements, we might
well deduce that Mr. Morrow was maintaining the high church traditions under which
St. Stephen’s had been founded. There were two other experiments which further
indicate this: an attempt at abolishing pew rents, and the foundation of St.
Stephen’s School.
The free church
plan was adopted in 1872. It immediately
produced a deficit! In 1873, pews were again rented. This method of finding
parish income was continued until its slow disappearance in the twentieth
century. In the meantime, annual subscriptions and the envelope system had
augmented the funds which came from pew rents. The free
church idea was, generally speaking, a high church ideal and in all
probability Mr. Morrow stood strongly in favor of it.
The establishment of St. Stephen’s
School was a much more ambitious project. The school was well described in the
centennial booklet of 1951, but since it is an integral part of the St.
Stephen’s story, further mention of it should be made here.
The idea of the parish school was
“in the air” in the middle years of the nineteenth century. Municipal education
was frequently very poor. Academies were common in the towns throughout America . Such leaders as
Bishop Doane had encouraged the churches to provide
for the better teaching of children, and the Diocese of New Jersey (which
encompassed Millburn until the “Diocese of North Jersey” was set apart in 1874)
had, during the 1850’s and 60’s advocated parish schools. Bishop Doane had died in 1859, but his successor, William H. Odenheimer, took up the cudgels for parochial education.
There were four outstanding events
at St. Stephen’s in the nineteenth century: the founding of the parish and the
building of the church, the setting apart of the
cemetery, the establishment of St. Stephen’s School, and the building of the
first Parish House. In the first three of these, Israel Dodd Condit took a
leading part. When the school was suggested, in 1870, Mr. Condit offered a
house for its use. This was “The Mountain House” on Church
Street , so named because
it stood on a slight rise of ground. He also offered to canvass for students
and twenty children were immediately found. In March, 1870, the school was
formally opened. The Trustees were Mr. Condit, Lawrence Benedict, Edward S.
Renwick, George W. Campbell, Jr., A. H. Dyett, and
Dr. E. T. Whittingham. The rector of the parish, Mr. Morrow, was Warden of the
school.
It so happened that at this time the
rector of St. Matthew’s Church in Newark, the
Reverend Dr. Julius David Rosé, moved to Summit.
He established a school on Prospect Street there, known as St.
John’s Hall. This school soon closed, and thus Dr. Rosé was available to be
headmaster of the new St. Stephen’s School. Dr. Rosé maintained the school for
some years, but in time the Town of Millburn improved its municipal
education, the fortunes of St. Stephen’s Church declined, and therefore the
School was discontinued.
St. Stephen’s School never fully
achieved its purpose of educating the children of families of modest income.
Those children went to the public schools, or were apprenticed at an early age
to a trade. Since St. Stephen’s School was the only private school in the area,
it was patronized by the wealthier families, and thus it failed of its initial
aim.
Dr. Rosé continued a familiar figure
at St. Stephen’s for some years, however. He occasionally took services in the
church, and during Dr. Clover’s time as rector he was locum tenens for a year.
It was during that winter that the vase, mentioned above, froze in the Rectory.
During Mr. Morrow’s rectorship, the present altar of St. Stephen’s Church was
set in place. There is a small note in the parish register which states that
the treasurer was authorized to pay for moving the altar, reredos
and paneling from Grace Church in Newark. Grace Church, and its
furnishings, had been built in 1847 – 48 under the direction of the noted
architect, Richard Upjohn. Originally, the altar had sacred monograms painted
on it, but when Mr. Condit at St. Stephen’s had the altar and reredos “grained”, these were lost. We do not know anything of the original altar
in St. Stephen’s Church. We still use this altar taken from Grace Church, and
it is probably the oldest altar in continuous use in the Diocese of Newark.
William Bryce Morrow resigned the rectorship of St. Stephen’s in 1874 and moved to Trinity
Church, Easton, Pennsylvania.
Almost immediately, a new rector of St. Stephen’s was chosen: the Reverend Dr.
Lewis P. Clover. Dr. Clover was then rector of the Church of the Messiah,
Greenbush, New York,
and it may be that Mr. Morrow had suggested Dr. Clover for St. Stephen’s
because Dr. Clover had succeeded him in the Greenbush parish.
Dr. Clover, a member of an old New
York family engaged in lithography, had been born in 1819, and was
ordained in 1850. He held rectorates in Virginia, Illinois,
Massachusetts and New York prior to his coming to Millburn.
The University of Kentucky honored
him with degree of Doctor of Divinity. When Dr. Clover came to Millburn,
it was a village of less than 2,000 people. There was yet a rural atmosphere
about the community. In a short time, however, two new regions in the township
would be opened for building sites: “Wyoming”
and “Short Hills”. The Wyoming tract was Company, a group which had
purchased the land from Thomas R. Reeve and Edward Hand, a member of St.
Stephen’s. A local legend has it that the name Wyoming was given the
area by a prospective buyer who said the lookout was similar to one she had
known in the State of Wyoming. The first houses built in the Wyoming
tract were box-like Victorian houses with square towers; several remain to this
day. Some time later, Wheeler Dow designed a number
of the larger houses there; he also designed the first stained glass window for
St. Stephen’s Church. Dow is still remembered as a minor luminary of America ’s architectural development.
At
the same time that the Wyoming development was
proceeding, Stewart Hartshorn, the spring-shade manufacturer, moved to Springfield.
He hoped to develop a residential community in that part of Springfield
where the Troy apartments are now located.
Because there was no railroad convenient he turned his attention to the Short
Hills area which Bishop Hobart had discovered so many years earlier. Mr.
Hartshorn purchased whatever farms and woodlands he could in Short Hills, laid
out roads there according to the contour of the hills, and built for himself a large house adjoining the Brison
farm. (The Brison farm house later
became the Millburn Inn, and was razed in 1961.) Stewart Hartshorn preserved the old name,
Short Hills, and eventually set about building houses - most of them faced with
stone from his quarries in Springfield - which he would
rent at nominal prices to those people whom he thought would most contribute to
the character of the settlement he was creating. Other people bought home sites
and built substantial houses in Short Hills. Very soon Short Hills became known
as a place of large houses set in an atmosphere of well-kept natural beauty.
There was a hotel, a railroad station and Post Office. The “Music Hall” (once
called “The Casino”) was designed by McKim, Meade,
& White in 1882.
Both the Wyoming and
Short Hills settlements accelerated the growth of Millburn Township.
But St. Stephen’s Church does not seem to have made notable advances in this
period. Perhaps one reason is that other
churches had been established in Millburn. The Baptist
Church had been formed in 1858. In the late 1870’s, the Wyoming Presbyterian
Church was established, meeting for some years in the railroad station which
then served the Wyoming neighborhood.
The improvements at St. Stephen’s in
this period were of a mundane sort: new gas fixtures were added to the church
in 1876 (costing $173.00). Two years later, there was a new furnace. And in
1880 a Brussells carpet was laid in the chancel, and
grass mats for the nave aisles; the total cost of this was $88.03. In the same
year, a burglar alarm was installed in the Rectory, and the parish received its
first legacy, $250.00 from William Brown. In 1881, the Vestry resolved to allow
the rector $50.00 a year for the keep of his horse.
These changes were only some of the
lighter concerns of the Vestry. In addition, there was the ever-recurring
problem of the annual deficits. The source of the trouble was the Victorian
mode of raising money through pew rents and subscriptions. It was a problem
which remained constant for many years, and will recur in this story. The pews
were rented on a yearly basis, and quarterly statements were mailed to those
who had taken pews. Plate offerings were usually devoted to special causes.
There was no method of gaining the proportional support of the whole parish.
The result of such hand-to-mouth
financing was that a substantial deficit was produced every year. Then, the
Vestrymen would either divide the deficit among themselves,
or ask wealthy members of the parish to assume the burden of the debt. The
deficit for 1872 was $1,094.05 - a very large amount in those days. The amount
for 1875 was even larger: $1,456.47. Mr. Morrow had encouraged the parish to
attempt a more realistic method of church support: the annual subscription on a broad basis.
That attempt had failed, and Mr. Morrow had resigned. It is apparent that his
successor, Dr. Clover, was unable to offer any other solution, and therefore
the deficits re-appeared annually. It is
also quite clear that St. Stephen’s was not attracting the new people moving
into the Township. In 1879, only twenty pews were rented. The census for 1880
showed 1,741 people living in the town.
The situation was a disheartening
one, but there was a more ominous factor: the people in Short Hills were
talking of beginning another Episcopal church. Mr. Hartshorn had intended a
Short Hills community with all facilities. He had provided for a railroad
station, a music hall, and soon he would give land for a private school. He was
ready to give land for a church, too, and since many of the families in “the
Park” (as it was often called) were Episcopalian, it is natural that they would
want that church to be of their faith. Moreover, a deadly sense of
dissatisfaction and despair seems to have set in at St. Stephen’s.
In the Spring
of 1882, a number of parishioners of St. Stephen’s, together with others who
had never attended the church, petitioned the Bishop and Standing Committee of
the Diocese of Newark for permission to organize an Episcopal Church in Short
Hills. This petition was at once opposed by the Rector, Warden, and Vestrymen
of St. Stephen’s s in a letter which complained that the Bishop and Standing
Committee had -
. . . appointed a meeting for certain
disaffected members of the church at Millburn, and received an application from
them, taking steps toward the organization of a new parish at Short Hills,
without giving the Wardens and Vestrymen of the church at Millburn any official
notice of what was in contemplation that they might be properly represented and
informed of the proceeding.
Dr. Clover felt that the bishop
should prevent the beginnings of that church which soon was named Christ
Church in Short Hills. Dr. Clover
wrote his feelings in that section of the parish register which was then
devoted to historical jottings, as follows:
At the annual meeting of the
congregation on the night of Easter Tuesday, April 11th, 1882, for the election
of Wardens and Vestrymen for the ensuing year, after an uninterruptedly harmonious
relation the Rector presented his resignation which was not acted upon for more
than a month after. In evidence of the pleasant and harmonious relations always
existing between the Rector and people during his incumbency an extract from
his letter of resignation is herewith appended: ‘While this is my irrevocable
purpose, I would be doing injustice to myself, as well as to you, and to
members of the Church at large, if I did not add, that I am urged to this
determination by no lack of appreciation of the uniform kindness and
consideration with which I have been treated from the time I first became your
Rector down to the present period. It is highly creditable to the Christian
spirit of the members of this church, and to the community at large, as it will
always be a source of gratifying reflection to me, that during the entire
period of my Rectorship, nearly eight years, no
unkind word ever passed between myself and any member of the church or of the
community.’ Nor may it be improper for
me to add an extract from a letter of the same date as that of my resignation,
April 11th, 1882, addressed to me by Mr. E. S. Renwick who during my brief Rectorship contributed upwards of $20,000 for the support
of the Church and school in Millburn, over and above his own individual
obligations to the same: “For many reasons I regret your departure and I
gravely doubt whether the Vestry will be able to secure the services of so
thorough a gentleman, or so finished a reader”. This last is added from no
spirit of egotism on my part, but as an indication of the state of feeling in
the parish, at the time of my resignation, and as an encouragement to my
Successor.
Thus it was with heavy heart that
Dr. Clover prepared to leave Millburn. It had been a
particularly cruel year for him, for his daughter, Bertha, had died in the
Rectory on the previous New Year’s Day, after a long illness. Dr. Clover was
sixty-one when he left St. Stephen’s, but his ministry continued. He went on to
serve parishes in Port Jervis, New Hackensack, and Clifton Springs in New York.
He retired in 1890, and died in 1896.
However much the diocesan
authorities were opposed by Dr. Clover and the Vestrymen of St. Stephen’s, it
was certain that they were correct in believing that Short Hills could support
a separate parish. But it was not equally certain that Millburn
could continue to support St. Stephen’s! One by one, the rented pews became
vacant, and in the parish archives there are such letters as these:
. . . Pew #46 was vacated by me
sometime last summer in a conversation had with Mr. Condit.
. . . I have not been a pewholder in St. Stephen’s Church for the past seven
months, having notified your treasurer.
These notes received by the
treasurer meant that there would be even less income for St. Stephen’s Church.
Time has justified the decision of
the Bishop and Standing Committee in 1882 to allow the formation of Christ
Church. The Church at large is much stronger
because of the two Episcopal parishes in Millburn Township.
But the years following 1882 were very lean ones for St. Stephen’s. Millburn
was still a village, with an increasing foreign and non-Episcopal population.
The local mills were in decline, and the character of the town was definitely changing.
If it was difficult for St. Stephen’s to pay its bills before the division of
the parish, it was even harder to do so afterward.
The Vestrymen were so pessimistic
about the future of the parish that they doubted the wisdom of calling a new
rector. Instead, they asked the Reverend Theodore Holcombe to be the
priest-in-charge of the parish; Mr. Holcombe was promised $1,200.00 a year, and
$1,400.00, “if revenues permit”. In an
effort to encourage the Vestrymen, Edward S. Renwick contributed $1,000.00
toward reducing the mortgage on the Rectory. It was determined to put the
Rectory in good repair for Mr. Holcombe and his family, and a committee
comprised of Israel D. Condit, Sylvanus Lyon and
Walter Stabler reported in December, 1882 that -
The Parlor, Library, and Dining Room
have been handsomely papered. Other improvements made by your committee have
been the oiling of some of the woodwork, kalsomining the kitchen and ceilings
of other of the rooms, repairing the floor of the kitchen, repairing all doors
and windows where needed. A handsome carpet has been purchased and put down in
the Parlor and Library, curtains for all the windows (the rollers for which
were donated by Mr. Stewart Hartshorn), three of the rooms in second story
nicely papered. A large cooking stove has been purchased for use in the
kitchen, and a stove for use in the library. The expenditures have been
somewhat beyond the monies at our disposal . . .
In order to pay for these repairs,
an “entertainment” was held at the Rectory on October 5th, 1882, and a concert
at the new Short Hills Music
Hall in November. The total cost of the work done
in the Rectory was $238.48, and proceeds from the entertainments paid for the
work.
And
so the Rectory stood vacant, waiting for its next occupant. The first era in
the history of St. Stephen’s Church had closed. The nation had made momentous
strides since, in 1851, those first services were held in Mr. James’ Hall. The
world was moving rapidly, and the change would be accelerated in the next
decades. New challenges would soon be thrust upon St. Stephen’s Church, and new
opportunities were to open for its service to God and the community.
Illustration (ii): Exterior of St. Stephen’s Church, Millburn
- pre-1860
Chapter Two: 1882
- 1899
Bishop of the Diocese
Thomas
Alfred Starkey
Rectors of St. Stephen’s Church
