Our History View as PDF
The Cohansey Baptist Church had its beginnings during the colonization of our land. About 1683, Baptists from Tipperary County, Ireland, made their homes along the Cohansey Creek. They banded together for worship, meeting in their homes. The Reverend Thomas Killingworth, who assisted in the organization of the Middletown Church in 1688 and the Piscataway Church in 1689, came to Cohansey precinct and helped organize Cohansey in 1690. Thus Cohansey became the third oldest Baptist Church in what is now New Jersey. The first meeting house was built of logs on the south side of the Cohansey Creek.
In 1707, Cohansey united with Middletown, Piscatway, Pennepek (Pennsylvania), and Welsh Tract (Delaware) to form the old Philadelphia Baptist Association, believed to be the first Baptist association in the Colonies.
In 1687, Welsh Baptists with their pastor, Reverend Timothy Brooks, come from Massachusetts to Bowentown where they built a log meeting house. In 1710, the two churches united with the Reverend Mr. Brooks in charge. Ground was purchased at Mount's Run (Sheppard's Mill) and a church was erected there. Mr. Brooks passed away in 1716. In 1737, some members broke away and organized the Shiloh Seventh Day Baptist Church.
In 1741, a third meeting house was erected on the site of the second one at Sheppard's Mill. The communion table used in this frame building has been preserved and is a prized possession in the present church. The old graveyard at Sheppard's Mill has been transferred to the Cumberland County Historical Society. Buried there are Deborah Swinney, the first white female child born in the Cohansey Precinct; Lieutenant David Mulford of the Greenwich Militia who fell in the skirmish with the Hessians at Haddenfield during the Revolutionary War; and the Reverend Robert Kelsey, a pastor for thirty-three years.
Being mission-minded, Cohansey started preaching missions in Pittsgrove, Alloways Creek, Dividing Creek, and Great Egg Harbor. The Reverend Mr. Jenkins preached at those missions until his death at seventy-seven in 1754. While he was pastor, three young men were licensed to preach: Abraham Garrison, Job Sheppard, and Robert Kelsey. Job Sheppard went to Mill Hollow where a church now known as the First Baptist Church of Salem was constituted in 1755. Robert Kelsey went to Pittsgrove (Daretown) where he stayed until 1756 when he returned to Cohansey as pastor. A few years later in 1771, he was privileged to see the Pittsgrove mission become a distinct church. In 1761, the Dividing Creek mission, drawing members from both Cohansey and Cape May, became a constituted church.
The Reverend Henry Smalley, who had been licensed to preach by Cohansey in 1786, took charge of the church in 1790. Soon after that, the present church ground was purchased and plans for erecting the fourth (and present) meeting house were started. Bricks were formed and fired in the southeast of the meeting house. The building was completed in 1802.
In 1811, Cohansey joined others to form the New Jersey Baptist association, which after 1855 was known as the West New Jersey Baptist Association. In 1812, a mission was begun in Bridgeton. When the First Baptist Church of Bridgeton was organized in 1828, the Pearl Street property was turned over to them. Years later the First Baptist Church resettled on Commerce Street and still later the Pearl Street site became the home of the Pearl Street Baptist Church. Another daughter church, the Canton Church, was organized in 1818.
The Reverend Smalley passed away in 1839 at the age of seventy-four in his forty-ninth year as pastor.
In 1844, a brick edifice was erected in Greenwich for a preaching mission and when that group constituted itself an independent church, the Greenwich Baptist Church, the building was turned over to them.
Raymond West was licensed to preach in 1883. Nine years later he was ordained at Lehigh Baptist Church, Philadelphia. Cohansey aided him financially while he prepared for ministry. In 1915, he became the first Executive Secretary of the New Jersey Baptist Convention.
The Reverend Dr. David Laubach pastored the church from 1977 to 1986 and authored an extensive history of the church, before joining the Evangelism Team of the American Baptist Churches. The Reverend R. Bruce Johnson served the church from 1987 to 2002.Currently the Reverend Peter Ely is serving as pastor. The Cohansey church continues to carry on a vital ministry for our Lord and is known for its welcoming, hospitable spirit.