METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF DRAKESTOWN HISTORY, WASHINGTON TWP., MORRIS, NEW JERSEY

Copyright (c) 2000 by Stewart J. A. Woolever, Jr. (sjaw@citilink.net).

************************************************************************
USGENWEB NOTICE:  These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in
any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material,
must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal
representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb
archivist with proof of this consent.  The submittor has given 
permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently
for free access.
************************************************************************

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF DRAKESTOWN.
The church edifice is located in Washington township, near the northwest
boundary of Mount Olive. We cannot ascertain the exact period when the
itinerant preachers first appeared in this neighborhood, or when the first
society was organized, or the names or number of original members. For many
years the meetings were held in the stone school-house on the main road
leading from Hackettstown to Flanders. The old building is still occupied as
a district school-house.

A list of the ministers appointed by the Philadelphia, New Jersey and New
York annual conferences to preach at this place is as follows:

1811, David Bartine sen. and Manning Force; 1812, David Bartine sen. and
Charles Read; 1813, Sylvester Hill and George Banghart; 1814, James Moore
and Benjamin Collins; 1815, John Finley and Anthony Atwood; 1816-48, William
Ogden, James Long, John K. Shaw, George F. Brown, Abraham Gearhart, Francis
A. Monell, William Wiggins, Warren C. Nelson, Curtis Talley, Edward
Saunders, Joseph G. Chattle, Edmund Hance, Benjamin Kelly, George Winsor,
Abraham Owen, Samuel Jacquett, Crooks S. Vancleve, William M. Burroughs,
Josiah Canfield, T. T. Canfield, Caleb Lippencott, Swaim Thackaray, Robert
Sutcliff; John S. Coit (appointed to the charge in 1854); John B. Heward,
1856, 1857; E. W. Adams, 1858, 1859; G. B. Jackson, 1860; William C. Nelson,
1861, 1862; John L. Hays, 1863, 1864; Richard Thomas, 1865, 1866; H.
Trumbower, 1867; S. P. Lacey, 1868, 1869; Thomas Rawlings, 1870-72; J. H.
Hartpence, 1873; S. K. Doolittle, 1874-76; G. F. Apgar, 1877-79; D. E.
Frambes, 1880, 1881.

The membership at the present time is 90. The Sabbath-school is in a
prosperous condition; Mr. Young is the superintendent. There is an average
attendance of about 50 scholars. The school is kept up through the year.
There are about 250 volumes in the library. In 1855 the church was built, at
a cost of about $2,000. In the course of a few years the steeple and bell
were added, costing about $600. The board of trustees at the time the church
was built consisted of William H. Anderson, Henry V. Anderson, John Bilby,
Sylvanus Lawrence and John Smith jr. The present trustees are William
McLean, Henry Wiley, John S. Wiley, Stewart Ayres, Jacob Wack and Jacob F.
Force.