Stillwater Presbyterian Church (Stillwater, New Jersey)

The Stillwater Presbyterian Church (also known as the "First Presbyterian Church of Stillwater") is a house of worship affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) located in the village of Stillwater in Stillwater Township, in the County of Sussex, New Jersey (USA). Organized in 1769 as union church between the Lutheran and German Reformed (Calvinist) faiths, this church, known as the "Lutheran Congregation of Hardwick", served the early Palatine Germans who settled the Paulins Kill valley and the surrounding area in the middle of the eighteenth century. In 1823, with the area's German population either dying off, migrating to territories in the American West or assimilating into English-oriented American culture, the congregation had affiliated with the Presbyterian faith.

The current structure, an example of Greek Revival architecture, was erected in 1837, replacing a fieldstone church building (built circa 1769–1771) located in the Stillwater Cemetery, one half mile south of the village. It is likely the third structure used by this congregation, the first presumed to be a rudimentary log building erected circa 1745–1750 that occupied the site in the Stillwater Cemetery of the fieldstone structure which succeeded it.

History

ee also

* Harmony Hill Methodist Church (Stillwater, New Jersey)
* History of New Jersey
* Paulins Kill
* Stillwater Cemetery (Stillwater, New Jersey)
* Stillwater Township, New Jersey
* Sussex County, New Jersey

Background information and other resources

Citations

Books and printed materials

* Armstrong, William C. "Pioneer Families of Northwestern New Jersey". (Lambertville, New Jersey: Hunterdon House, 1979). NO ISBN (Privately published).
* Chambers, Theodore Frelinghuysen. "The Early Germans of New Jersey: Their History, Churches, and Genealogies". (Dover, New Jersey, Dover Printing Company, 1895). NO ISBN (pre-1964).
* Schaeffer, Casper M.D. (and Johnson, William M.). "Memoirs and Reminiscences: Together with Sketches of the Early History of Sussex County, New Jersey". (Hackensack, New Jersey: Privately Printed, 1907). NO ISBN (pre-1964).
* Snell, James P. "History of Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey, With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers". (Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, 1881). NO ISBN (pre-1964).
* Stickney, Charles E. "Old Sussex County families of the Minisink Region". from articles in the "Wantage Recorder" (compiled by Virginia Alleman Brown) (Washington, New Jersey: Genealogical Researchers, 1988). NO. ISBN (Privately printed).

External links

* [http://www.newtonpresbytery.org/ Presbytery of Newton] (oversees Stillwater and other surrounding Presbyterian churches)
* [http://members.aol.com/njdata/baptism.html Baptisms at the Stillwater Presbyterian Church (roughly 1780-1825)]
* [http://njchurchscape.com/Stillwater-Pres.html Stillwater Presbyterian Church at New Jersey Churchscape]