An American Family History

Extracts from New Jersey Archives Relating to the Dunham Family. Volume I., page 134.

About 1700 or 1701 a number of the members of the Piscataqua [Piscataway] Baptist Church in Piscataqua township, Middlesex County, withdrew from that church and formed a separate congregation, observing the seventh day as the Sabbath. They chose a minister and deacon October 11th, 1705, and in the fourth month, 1707, organized a Seventh Day Baptist Church with eighteen members.

Edmund Dunham, one of the originators of the church, having been ordained at Westerly, R. I., in 1705, was the first pastor; he had been a lay preacher in the Piscataqua [Piscataway] Church since 1689. He continued pastor of the new church until his death, March 7, 1734, in his 72nd year. He was succeeded in 1745 by his son, the Rev. Jonathan Dunham, who had preached to the congregation as a licentiate for many years." The record of the ordination of Edmund Dunham. "The Church of God keeping 'the Commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ, living in Piscataway and Hopewell in the Province of New Jersey, being assembled with one accord at the house of Benjamin Martin [father-in-law of Zedekiah Bonham Nehemiah Bonham] Piscataway, the 19th day of August, 1705, we did then and there and with one mind choose our dearly beloved Edmund Dunham, who is faithful in the Lord, to be our elder and assistant according to the will of God, whom we did send to New England to be ordained, who was ordained at the church-meeting in Westerly, R. I., by prayer and laying of hands by their elder, William Gibson, the 8th day of September, 1705.

The beginning of the Seventh-day Baptist church in Piscataway, New Jersey, does not apear to be connected with any Seventh-day Baptist church. Hezekiah Bonham was the cause of the investigation which led several to embrace the Sabbath. We do not know that he was a Sabbath-keeper or a church member even. If he was a Sabbath-keeper, we do not know how he came to embrace the Sabbath, whether by his own study of the Bible and the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, or by the labors of Eld. Abel Noble or some one else.

From the Journal of Samuel Hubbard we learn that the Sabbathkeepers in Newport and western Rhode Island were in communication with the colonists in these parts and it is more than possible that Mr. Bonham, as well as Eld. Abel Noble and Eld. John Davis of Trenton, N. J., came to a knowledge of the Sabbath through the Sabbath-keepers in Rhode Island.

This we know: Hezekiah Bonham was found working on Sunday by Edmund Dunham, who was a deacon with license to preach in the Baptist church of Piscataway, located at what is now Stelton. Dea. Dunham was on his way to fill a preaching appointment, and finding Bonham at work on the Firstday of the week, rebuked him for desecrating the Sabbath. The latter challenged Dunham to find a single passage of Scripture proving that Sunday was to be sancitified as holy time. Dea. Dunham thought this a presumption, but not recalling any such passage, commenced to investigate for himself, with the result that he was convinced of his error and turned to keep the Sabbath. Before deciding thus to do, he laid his trouble before some of his brethren, but got no help. On account of this agitation other members of the church soon embraced the Sabbath and Dea. Dunham commenced to hold meetings on the Sabbath in his own house.

As in Newport, R. I., thirty-five years before, the attempt to remain in the Baptist church made matters worse and they soon became very serious.

Minister was arrayed against minister, deacon against deacon, and brother against brother, until those who kept the Sabbath thought that, for peace sake, and for conscience sake, they better withdraw and raise a standard of their own.

This they did to the number of seventeen, in 1705. Dea. Dunham was chosen pastor and sent to Rhode Island for ordination. He went to what is now the First Hopkinton church and in the meeting-house where the Ministers' Monument now stands was ordained by Eld. William Gibson, October 22, 1705, (New Style and according to the records of the church in Rhode Island). This was three years before the Sabbath-keepers who became what is now the First Hopkinton church separated from those of like precious faith in Newport, but they had then worshiped twenty-five years in the house in which Eld. Dunham was ordained and had been keeping the Sabbath thirty-nine years.

The members of this church were widely separated as to location. There are records of church meetings in Trenton, thirty miles from Piscataway, and Hopewell a few miles north of Trenton. Under the leadership of Eld. Dunham the church grew rapidly and in 1722 there were seventy-five members. During the first century of its history there were many additions evidently, but a number moved away to join other churches and to scatter, and the church was in the midst of the seat of conflict in the Revolutionary War. Eld. Walter B. Gillette, who was their sixth pastor, speaks of this time as follows:

The Revolutionary War, about this time, came upon this people, with all its terrors. This section of the State was very much exposed. The British army took possession of Piscataway, and for a long time this was their place of encampment. The inhabitants were exposed, both in person and property; and in addition to this evil, they differed among themselves in relation to the justness of the war; some were patriots, and some were bitter enemies to their country.

All the patriots were either in the regular army, or enrolled in the militia, or were liable to be called on at any moment. The most of the patriots removed their families to the back settlements, while the tories (so called) fled to the British possessions. Those families among the mountain wilds were thus deprived of religious privileges, and of the society of friends, while husbands and sons were in the field of battle.

A few of the members of this church left their friends and joined the British; but most of them were patriots, and some of them were officers in the army. For a number of years their house of worship was nearly forsaken, their meetings were broken up, and the means of grace neglected. During the ravages of the war, their beloved pastor, Jonathan Dunham, died March 10, 1777, aged 83 years."

Under these circumstances, the church in 1803 reports only eighty members. During the century just past the church has witnessed a number of most precious revivals and there have been many additions, the number of members at times reaching to about one hundred seventy-five. In 1853 the one hundred forty-eighth year of the church, the "Seventh-day Baptist Memorial" states that about seven hundred had been baptized into the communion of the church.

Several churches have been formed from this church. The first was what is now Shiloh, New Jersey, organized in 1737

In 1789 the Woodbridgetown church, in Fayette County, Pa., was organized largely from the members of this church, among whom was Samuel Fitz Randolph who was the founder of Salem, W. Va.

In the latter part of the eighteenth century, members of this church moved to near Meadville, in Crawford County, Pa., and were organized into a church which they named Shiloh. James Dunn was their elder. This was the first church organized in the bounds of what is now the Western Association and about all that is known of this church is given in the history of that Association. Upon its ruins have successively grown the Hayfield, Cussewago, and Hickernell churches.

The Seventh-day Baptist church of Plainfield, six miles distant from Piscataway, was organized from members of this church in 1838.

Besides the members dismissed to form these churches, many members have been dismissed to join churches already organized.

As already indicated the first pastor was Edmund Dunham. He was about forty years of age when he embraced the Sabbath and had been a deacon twelve years, with license to preach. This well prepared him for his work. He served till his death, in 1734. Jonathan Dunham, son of the first pastor,