313 Liberty Street, Camden, NJ
The following is derived from George Reeser Prowell’s History of Camden County, New Jersey published in 1886.
Memorial Methodist Protestant Church is situated on Liberty Street, above Third. Religious services of this denomination were first held weekly in Camden, in 1865, at the house of Mrs. Robinson and Mrs. Salinda Smith, on Kaighn Avenue, which resulted in effecting an organization, and during the fall of 1865 the newly-formed society obtained the use of the second story of a frame building at Second Street and Pine, owned by the City Fire Department. Rev. Frank Fletcher, the first pastor, by the end of the first year, had secured a church membership of ninety communicants and established a Sunday school in connection with the congregation. In 1866 a church building, thirty-two by forty-eight feet, was erected on Broadway, below Kaighn Avenue, and the Rev. Boston Corbett was chosen the second pastor.
In 1867 Rev. William Staulcup became pastor, continued until 1874 and was succeeded by Rev. J. K. Freed, during whose ministry a new brick church, forty by sixty feet, was built upon the site of the old one. In 1877 Rev. O. Applegate succeeded, and in 1879 the Rev. William Staulcup was returned to this congregation.
At this period an exchange of the original church building was made for a desirable church and grounds on Liberty Street, above Third. The building thus obtained had previously been used by a mission under the auspices of the Fifth Street Church. The exchange enabled the congregation to cancel all indebtedness. In 1883 Rev. John dark became pastor, but on account of his sickness the charge of the congregation was transferred to his grandson, Rev. Robert Sinkinson, who served until his grandfather’s death, in 1885. Under his ministrations over one hundred members were added to the church, and the Sunday school, under the care of Frank Fennimore as superintendent, had increased in number to three hundred members. In January, 1886, Rev. Charles D. Sinkinson, brother of the previous pastor, was assigned to this pastoral charge. During the past year (1886) the church building was extended forty feet to the rear, with a deep recess and an additional story added; when thus completed, it will have a seating capacity for six hundred persons. The present membership is two hundred and forty, and the Sunday school has three hundred and fifty members, with Theodore Darnell as superintendent.
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