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