Cumberland Presbyterian Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it along to you straight. Out here in Morris County, there's a congregation with a long memory, and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church has earned every year of it. The story starts in 1849, when area Presbyterians formally organized and began holding worship services in private homes.

No building, no steeple, just neighbors gathering in living rooms and parlors, doing what they came to do. Now that right there takes some conviction. From 1852 to 1880, they moved into the Chapel Hill College building right at this site, which gave them a proper roof over their heads and a place to put down roots.

Then came something a little different. The congregation built its own church structure here, and for a period folks called it the Union Church, because the Baptists were worshiping there too. Presbyterian and Baptist under one roof.

You can imagine that made for some lively Sundays. But the years rolled on, and the population in the area began to decline, and by 1925 the Presbyterians had to deactivate. The congregation went quiet.

Now, some stories end there, and you'd be forgiven for thinking this was one of them. But in 1950, they reorganized. They came back to their historic locale, the very same ground where all of it had unfolded since 1849, and they resumed worshiping.

A congregation that old, that stubborn, that rooted to one spot. Morris County holds onto things worth keeping.

What the marker says

Congregation traces its history to 1849, when area Presbyterians formally organized and began holding worship services in private homes. From 1852 to 1880, services were held in the Chapel Hill College building at this site. The congregation has since met here in its own church structure, known for a period as the "Union Church" because Baptists also worshiped there. A declining population led the Presbyterians to deactivate in 1925, but in 1950 they reorganized and resumed worshiping at their historic locale.