REUNE RUNYON, FOURTH
PASTOR, 1783 - 1811
This gentleman was a son of Reune Runyon, Esq., who,
like the Stelles, was of French extraction 1.
The Runyons came into the township in 1767, but how many and
from whence they immediately came, cannot be definitely ascertained.
It is, however, known that the great grandfather of Rev.
Reune Runyon, 2 viz: Vincent
Runyon, was of the province of Poitou, or Portiers, France, and
tradition states that he and others of the same name were Hugenots
who to escape persecution went first to the Isle of Jersey and
thence came to East Jersey in 1676. Reune Runyon
married Miss Rachel Drake. Their son,
Reune Runyon, was born in Piscataway, Nov. 29, 1741.
In 1765 he married Miss Anne Bray. He was
licensed to preach in 1771, and in June, 1782, he was ordained as
pastor of the church at Morristown, and continued in that relation
about eleven years, embracing the period of the Revolutionary war,
during the great part of which the house of worship there was used
as a military hospital and storehouse. The meetings of the
Church were necessarily suspended and its members scattered.
Yet was the pastor accounted faithful, and through his labors about
twenty souls were added to the Church. He was the fourth
pastor of that Church, the first one having been the eminent John
Gano. 3 In the month of November, 1783, he
entered upon pastoral duties here. The Church promised him
£50 per annum, which, it was said, was
not always promptly paid; but, as he owned a good farm he obtained
from it a comfortable support for a large family. His ministry
proved a rich blessing to the Church, which, at the time of his
settlement, numbered only forty persons. Two only were added
the following year; none the next year. The whole number
reported to the Association in 1785 was thirty-nine. The year
1786 was a year of special grace and large prosperity to this and
other churches in the State, 4 twenty-eight being
reported to the Association as having been baptised in that year,
making the whole membership one hundred and twenty-one. This
revival continued many months, twenty-two baptisms being reported
the next year, the total membership reaching, in 1790, one hundred
and forty-eight, or nearly four-fold that of 1785.
In the early part of Mr. Runyon's
pastorate he was not ex-officio, Moderator of meetings for
business. He may, possibly have declined to preside for
prudential reasons, there being then some delicate matters before
the Church which should, in his opinion, be determined by the
independent judgment of the brethren. Be this as it may, at
the meeting of May 26, 1784, it was "Resolved, That for the future
on days of business it, it shall be the practice of this Church at
the opening of the business of the day to choose a Moderator."
5 Most generally Deacon Edward Griffith
6 was chosen to preside. The custom of choosing a
Moderator at each meeting for business was observed for many years.
It was discontinued at the settlement of the seventh pastor when it
was "Resolved, That Brother Lewis he chosen as our
Standing Moderator."
In the year 1789 the question that had long been
agitated among Baptists, and concerning which the churches differed
in sentiment and practice, namely: whether deacons should e ordained
by imposition of hands, came under discussion in this Church, and by
a formal vote was decided in the negative. It was destined,
however, to come up again, as will presently appear.
In the month of August, 1791, a communication was
received from the Scotch Plains Church requesting this Church "to
consider the propriety of holding meetings two-thirds of the Lord's
days at Samptown, steadily for one year, to be conducted by Rev.
Reune Runyon and Rev. William Van
Horne. 7 After the appointment of a joint
committee by the two churches which met at Samptown the same year
and brought their combined wisdom to bear on the whole matter, the
result was the recognition of the members living in the neighborhood
of Samptown as an independent Church in the year 1792. As a
majority of the constituent members were dismissed by the Scotch
Plains Church, the Samptown Church must be regarded as a daughter of
that Church.
As a matter of interest connected with this event, it
may be stated that the removal of the meeting-house to that
neighborhood had been mooted by some members of the Church, and so
intent were they in having it done that they offered a motion in a
business meeting held in February, 1791, "that our meeting-house be
moved to Samptown." Strange as it may seem, the minutes do not
inform us how this motion was decided. But we know it was
decided, and only as a people "having understanding of the times, to
know what Israel out to do" could have decided it.
The year 1792 is also memorable for the withdrawal of
the Church from the Philadelphia Association, after a union with it
of eighty-five years, and for greater convenience, uniting with the
New York Association, for which purpose it has been dismissed by the
mother body of previous year. Mr. Runyon was
Moderator of the New York Association in the years 1797, 1801, 1803
and 1808. At the session of 1810 he preached the introductory
sermon from Hebrews, 12:2, "Looking unto Jesus," etc. He was
honored among his brethren. The condition of the Church from
1793 through several subsequent years, though one of peace and
harmony, was not one of growth. In 1794 it appointed a day of
fasting and prayer, and again in the following year, in accordance
with the recommendation of the Association to all the churches, it
observed four days of public prayer "on account of the coldness and
barrenness in the affairs of religion." There were additions
until 1807 when, in that and several successive years, numbers were
baptized, in all nearly fifty persons. Mr. Runyon's
pastorate ended only with his life. After a tedious illness,
which he bore with patient resignation sustained by "a good hope
through grace," he entered into rest Nov. 21, 1811, aged seventy
years. The length of his pastorate was twenty-eight years, of
his entire ministry nearly forty years. The Church, at the
time of his death, numbered one hundred and forty-nine, a higher
number than it had ever before reached. That he was a faithful
pastor and careful to maintain the discipline of the Church, let the
following resolutions, passed early in his pastorate, doubtless with
his sanction if not at his instigation, testify:
"RESOLVED, That our stated meetings of business shall
be attended by every male member, and, any neglecting, without being
able to show cause, shall be deemed blamable and ought to be
reproved."
We yield to the temptation to quote another resolution
of April 27, 1788:
"RESOLVED, That no one members speak to any matter
without rising up, and not more than thrice to any one particular,
except on leave of the Moderator than acting."
Other items of interest during the ministry of Mr.
Runyon will be hereafte4r referred to under their appropriate
headings. Ass already stated, Mr. Runyon had a
large family. His descendants of those of his ancestors are to
be found all over our land. The name has been on the Church
Register, probably from near the beginning, certainly for the last
hundred years. One of this name is now a deacon, another is
Clerk of the Church. Nearly a score of others are on Register.
Mr. Runyon's remains were interred in the
old graveyard at Piscatawaytown hard by those of his predecessors.
The inscription on his headstone reads:
Sacred to the Memory of
THE REV. REUNE RUNYON,
Who died Nov. 21, 1811,
In the 71st year of his Age.
My flesh shall slumber in the ground
Till the last trumpet's joyful sound;
Then burst the chains with sweet surprise,
And in my Savior's image rise.
The
following great grandchildren of Rev. Reune Runyon are now members
of the Baptist churches:
Piscataway Church - Mr. and
Mrs. George Drake, Mr. William Drake, Mr. And Mrs. Jonathan Dayton,
Mr. William Dayton, Mr. Isaac Dayton, Mrs. Henry Brantingham, Mrs.
Mefford Runyon, Mrs. Samuel S. Dayton.
New Brooklyn - Mr. Jesse Dayton,
Mrs. Ephraim Boice, Mr. Reune B. Manning, Mr. William Manning, Mrs.
Manning Randolph.
First Plainfield - Mr. Samuel R.
Manning, Miss Gussie Runyon.
New Market. - Mr. John Dayton, Mrs. Peter
Benward, Mr. Simeon Dayton, Mrs. Leis Walker, Miss Laura J. Runyon.
---------------
1. The name was originally spelled "Ronguin,"
or "Rongneon."
2. See Genealogical Table at the close of this History.
3. Mr. Gano married a daughter of John
Stites, Esq., Mayor of Elizabethtown, and wife.
Mr. Gano as pastor, after leaving Morristown, of the
Church in New York about twenty-five years, except when acting as
chaplain in the army. He removed to Kentucky in 1787 and there
died at a good old age.
4. Middletown reported 25 baptised; Scotch Plains, 47; New York, 41;
Mt. Bethel, 76; Morristown, 27; Hightstown, 66.
5. This resolution justifies the inference that heretofore the
pastors had been Moderators, ex-officio.
6. This good deacon was the maternal ancestor of the esteemed
and well-known Dr. E. M. Hunt, now of Trenton.
7. The successor to Rev. Benjamin Miller, the first pastor.
He served the Church twenty two years and then started for Ohio,
intending to reside there, but died on the way to Pittsburg in 1807,
aged 61 years.
Source: History of the First Baptist Church of Piscataway (NJ)
with an account of its Bi-Centennial Celebration June 20th, 1889, &
Sketches of Pioneer Progenitors of Piscataway Planters - Publ.
Stelton, N. J. - 1889. - Page 31 |
