The Stelton Baptist Church is in the Stelton section of

Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...

Middlesex County, New Jersey Middlesex County is located in central New Jersey, United States, extending inland from the Raritan Valley region to the northern portion of the Jersey Shore. As of the 2020 United States Census, the county's population was enumerated at 863,1 ...

. It is the second oldest Baptist Church in New Jersey and the tenth oldest in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

History

The congregation was formed in the spring of 1689, and among its original members was the Stelle family, after whom the Stelton section of Edison, New Jersey is named. Up until 1875 the church was known as the First Baptist Church of Piscataway. The land occupied by the church and cemetery at Stelton was purchased in April 1731. The first church was erected in 1748, and that building was taken down and rebuilt in 1825. This building was destroyed by a fire on

New Year's Day New Year's Day is a festival observed in most of the world on 1 January, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. 1 January is also New Year's Day on the Julian calendar, but this is not the same day as the Gregorian one. Wh ...

, January 1, 1851. In 1870 portions of

Piscataway, New Jersey Piscataway () is a township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. It is a suburb of the New York metropolitan area, in the Raritan Valley. At the 2010 United States Census, the population was 56,044, an increase of 5,562 (+11.0%) fr ...

and

Woodbridge, New Jersey Woodbridge Township is a township in Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township is both a regional hub for Central New Jersey and a major bedroom suburb of New York City in the New York metropolitan area located within the ...

were used to form Raritan, New Jersey. The site of the church later became Edison, New Jersey. The building which took its place was destroyed in a fire in 1924. The present building was erected in 1925. The cemetery contains hundreds of early burials, including Andrew Drake. The first female pastor of the congregation, the Rev. Kathleen Tice, was installed in 1999. After 10 years of service at the congregation, Pastor Tice retired during the summer of 2010.

References

External links

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Stelton Baptist Church
at Blogspot {{Coord, 40.517047, -74.406964, region:US_type:landmark, display=title Baptist churches in New Jersey Cemeteries in Middlesex County, New Jersey Edison, New Jersey Churches in Middlesex County, New Jersey 1689 establishments in New Jersey Colonial architecture in New Jersey