In March, this column celebrated Ewing’s birthday, the official creation of the Township of Ewing on March 1, 1834. But Ewing had been known by a variety of other names prior to 1834, and was settled by European emigrants much earlier than that.
As one who researched the following information in relation to the 300th anniversary of the Ewing Presbyterian Church back in 2009, I wo uld be remiss not to share this additional bit of history of early years in “Ewing.”
At the start of the 18th century, a handful of local early European immigrants of the Anglican (Episcopalian) and Presbyterian persuasions, devout in their beliefs, needed a place set aside for worship in their new homeland, and attempted to share a site for worship and burial purposes. The structure is long gone, but remnants of the graves still exist today on the grounds of the Trenton Psychiatric hospital, behind Palmer Lane.
However, this ecumenical marriage lasted only a few years before theological disagreements evidently prompted the two groups to go their separate ways. The Anglicans became the St. Michael’s congregation, and soon moved their home to what is now Trenton, while the Presbyterians sought another location nearby for their home.
Those Presbyterians needed and selected a spot not far away, on high ground. The high ground was chosen for its suitability for burial ground, a critical consideration in selecting a location for worship, since at that time, cemeteries were usually associated with a church.
A plot of land just over an acre in size was purchased in March of 1709 for 5 shillings from Alexander Lockhart by twenty men, each of them local landowners.
Although the deed did not specify that the land would be used for burial or worship purposes, the purchase of such a small piece of land by so many implies a communal purpose for the land, and anecdotally it was used almost immediately as a burial ground.
That ground is the ground at the bend in Scotch Road, at the top of the Carlton Avenue hill. It is said that for the first few years, people gathered under two large oak trees on the site to worship, until a log cabin was erected in 1712 to protect the worshippers from the elements.
Most of the locals were Scots, Scots-Irish, or English, which provided a reference for the local road name. The congregation was one of three or four locally that shared the scarce services of itinerant pastors, and was known as the “Hopewell Church,” since at that early time, the site was located in (a much larger) Hopewell Township.
In 1725 or so, a wood frame structure replaced the log cabin meeting house. Although there are no existing specifications for either structure, the wood frame structure was likely somewhat larger, and more suited to gatherings of worshipers. By this time, this same location (in what we now know as Ewing) was no longer “Hopewell,” but “Trenton Township.”
Soon, a second meeting house would be built “downtown” in the village of Trent’s Town, to accommodate the worshipers who had previously traveled out from the village along the Scotch Road to worship at the “Hopewell”/Trenton Township location. Those village worshipers comprised the “town” house, and those worshiping at the site in the more rural Township comprised the “country” or “old” house. However, they remained one incorporated congregation with two meeting locations for nearly 75 years.
During that time they continued to share clergy with each other and other local congregations. Eventually they split, the “town” congregation becoming in 1787 the “Presbyterian Church of Trenton,” and the “country” house becoming the “First Presbyterian Church of Trenton Township” congregation.
There was much growth in the region during the 18th century, and by the 1790s, after the end of our Revolution (often referred to in England as the Presbyterian War!), the wood frame structure was no longer sufficient.
A larger, more appropriately outfitted brick worship home was completed in 1797, and remained the physical home of the congregation for 70 years, until the current stone sanctuary was constructed in 1867.
The congregation’s name changed again to reflect its location in Ewing (rather than Trenton Township) in 1844.
Helen Kull is an advisor with the Ewing Township Historic Preservation Society.
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