Early History of First Baptist Church

“Have Faith and Struggle On”

(Church Motto in 1851)

             On a Sabbath afternoon in January of 1851 several believers met to establish a new church in Beverly, New Jersey. The moving forces in the group were John Fenimore, Asa Nichols, and Miller Bancroft.  These and the others gathered were from the near by towns.  The new church was organized with the help and blessing of the Baptist Churches from Burlington, Bordentown, Moorestown, Mt Holly and Phila.  A meeting was held on Feb 10, 1851 to establish articles of faith and for the council of churches to recognize the “Church here”.

             In the evening of Feb 10 the first official sermon was preached by J. Lansing Borrows of Broad St Baptist Church of Phila. The sermon was based on The Acts of the Apostles chapter 2, verse 41. With a shake of hands from Bro. Parmly of Burlington and the charge given by Sam Sproul, the Baptist Church of Beverly was recognized. Members at the start of the church numbered 28 by letter or Baptism.

             There were 18 Articles of Faith detailing the church’s stand on every part of Christian Life and every part of life as a Christian. The articles defined everything from “the fall of man” to the “way to Salvation”.

             The first Pastor was Bro. Widowmer who was an interim until May of 1851. The church ran strictly by committees.   No action was taken without a committee to investigate, make its report and have a vote either by the trustees or the Church body.  In this spirit the place for Baptism was assigned to committee. Sister Mitilda Wilson was a member and the first woman to be a member of a committee. They selected the bank of the Delaware River at Broad Street, with the place to change being the “saloon on the wharf”.

             The first place of worship was a house on the corner of Broad and Warren Streets. The building belonged to John Fenimore and was sold to the church. As the congregation increased it was necessary to remove a wall.  This resulted in a room 22 feet by 50 feet and allowed for 200 to be in attendance.

             In June of 1851 the call to Pastor was extended to Edwin C. Brown whose salary at the time was $400.00, $250.00 of this was supplied by the church members and the remainder by the state.

             There were two meetings on week nights, Tuesday and Friday, and Sunday service.   Also there was a Sabbath school with a superintendent 6 teachers and 40 scholars.

             Some of the interesting side notes found in the minutes were the cost of items bought for the church. They purchased a used stove for “the school” for $5.00 and a ton of coal for $2.25 cents. A pulpit fee of $0.06 was established. As of the meeting of July21, 1851 the treasurer’s report stated monies on hand to be $0.72 and about $2.00 in the poor fund.

 *Compiled June, 2006 by George Dippold from reading early church minutes.

Shown to the right is an exhibit of items and information from 1851 when the church was founded  This exhibit was prepared for our 155th Anniversary celebration in November of 2006,

Below...the church celebrates!