I’ve been continuing research on what I call “Meeker’s Meeting House,” an overlooked late 18th Presbyterian church in Wantage, New Jersey near the New York border. Recently in this research I found church records (minutes of the Presbytery of New York, and the Presbyterian Church General Assembly) noting preachers being sent to “Wantage” for supply
The Old Faith a New Nation: American Protestants and the Christian Past, by Paul J. Gutacker, Oxford University Press, 2023, 247 pp. Paul Gutacker writes against the stereotype (from Phillip Schaff, etc.) of American Protestants as ignorant or uninterested in history. His thesis is that American Protestants – though usually dedicated to the tenant of
Finding Meeker’s Meeting House, the story of an overlooked Revolutionary War era church near the New York – New Jersey border. By Rev. Douglas J. Douma, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY In the year 1780—or sometime previous—a meeting house was built on the land of Samuel Meeker in northwestern New Jersey near
I really look forward each year to seeing all the “Fathers and Brothers” at the Bible Presbyterian Church General Synod. This year was our 85th General Synod and it took place in Grand Island, NY. The food and the company did not disappoint. My family came along for the week and we especially enjoyed time
Thoughts on the 85th General Synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church Read More »
I recently preached a sermon on “The Pews are Free.” There I mentioned the old (and rather unfortunate) practice of selling or renting pews to fund a church. Now in my recent digging through old documents I found this 1833 Indenture from my neighboring Presbyterian Church (Westtown, NY). I’m told these are fairly common, but
Reformed & Evangelical across Four Centuries, The Presbyterian Story in America by Nathan P. Feldmuth, S. Donald Fortson III, Garth M. Rosell, and Kenneth J. Stewart. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2022, 364 pp. This is a valuable book which holds the interest of the reader, no small feat for a book on Presbyterian history. The
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In a previous post here I noted the existence of a Meeting House that predates all of the churches in my area. Today I went and found it with the help of a local property owner nearby. The Meeting House, built on the land of Samuel Meeker in the late 18th century, is now is
Today’s Unionville, NY had other names in its early years. According to the histories, it was once known as “Tucker’s Store” since an early resident, Henry Tucker, operated a store out of his house here. Then the general area was referred to as “Westown” (with one “t”) or “Westtown” (with two “t’s”) being as it
The Changing Name of the Village of Unionville, NY Read More »
Two newspapers noted a surprise wedding at the Unionville Presbyterian Church in 1878. The first is the Evening Gazette of Port Jervis, NY of August 1st of that year. The second, similar but with a few changes, is the Tri-States Union, also of Port Jervis, NY but from the next day, August 2nd.
In 1979 Covenant Seminary professor J. Barton Payne died from a fall while climbing Mt. Fuji on sabbatical in Japan. In 1996 Denver Seminary professor Bob Alden died of a heart attack shortly after hiking in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. I had learned about each of these cases some years ago, but conflated them
The hiking deaths of two Old Testament professors. Read More »
