A couple years ago I researched extensively on “Meeker’s Meeting House” aka Westtown Meeting House which existed in the late 18th century and early 19th century near the border of New York and New Jersey and is the parent church of a few others in the area. The information I found was scarce but sufficient to write about the meeting house and conclude a few things about it in articles I’ve posted under this same category of “Samuel Meeker and the Westtown Meeting House.”
Occasionally I find new pieces of information. One comes from the Unionville Church trustee minutes. It is a copy of a sermon of Rev. Harlow at the installation service of Rev. Joseph Mac Innes. Harlow wrote the book on the History of the Hudson Presbytery (1888), and his interest in that subject is shown also in this sermon as he recounts church history in the area.
He notes the 1805 incorporation of the Westtown Church (which came after the meeting house) but also says that there was previously “15 years of occasional preaching services by neighboring ministers.” It is frustrating to me that he doesn’t give more detail. Perhaps he didn’t know much more. “15 years” brings us back to 1790 and the time that the Westtown/Meekers Meeting House was active. And I have found a few references to local ministers preaching there. More references, however, come from Presbyterian Church general assembly minutes from even earlier, the 1770s and 1780s and ministers visiting from further away; hardly “neighboring churches.” So I’m not sure entirely how to combine the information I have. But I’m glad to find bits of the story here and there.
