Morgan Memories – George Washington Doane Memorial Chapel
Like so many other things about Morgan, it wasn’t until many years after I moved out of Morgan that I learned that there was once a chapel in Morgan. The best account of it I have thus far encountered is in the 1882 book, “History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey” edited by W. Woodford Clayton:
The article mentions Mrs. R. S. Conover as the benefactor. Her name was Sarah Jones Conover, née Potter.
Richard Stevens Conover, Sr. (25 April 1832 to 3 April 1912) and his wife Sarah Jones Conover (24 July 1835 to 24 February 1879) once owned a large part of present-day Morgan – roughly the area enclosed by South Pine Avenue on the west, Luke Street on the south, Raritan Bay on the east and Portia Street to the north. At one time, that property extended all the way to just south of Bordentown Avenue. A sizeable portion of that property became the now long-gone southern part of the Raritan River Railroad including the round house, locomotive turntable, and shops located at the bottom of hill south of Bordentown Avenue and Stevens Avenue.
Ten acres of the Conover’s property was donated in 1856 to the community for use as a cemetery. Sometime after 1866 when the chapel was built, it was moved to the north west corner of what was then named Doane Memorial Cemetery (now named Christ Church Cemetery).
The Conover and Stevens families were themselves families. Richard Conover’s mother’s family (Stevens family) were the founders and principal executives of the Camden and Amboy Railroad. Through the wealth the family accumulated, many causes, then and still, beneficial and not, were financed including the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, the America’s Cup Yacht Race, the long gone Stevensdale Institute in South Amboy, Christ Church in South Amboy, and Christ Church Cemetery in Morgan. A number of Conovers became priests in the Episcopal Church.
The man for which the chapel was named had himself been named the Bishop of New Jersey for the Episcopal Church in 1832. Born in Trenton, NJ on 27 May 1799, George Washington Doane was ordained deacon in 1821, priest in 1823, and bishop in 1832.
In 1837, the Right Reverend Doane established St. Mary’s Hall, the first all-girls academic boarding school in the United States, via the purchase of an existing girls school located on the banks of the Delaware River in Burlington, New Jersey. It was the first institution of its type in the United States, i.e., a boarding school providing a classical education for girls. Today, that institution is a pre-kindergarten to grade 12 coeducational, independent day school and in April 2008 was renamed to Doane Academy in honor of its founder.
George Washington Doane served as the second Bishop of New Jersey until his death at age 59 on 27 April 1859. The chapel was dedicated to him some seven years later.
For many years, Doane Memorial Chapel was part of the fabric of the South Amboy area – especially for the local Danish community.
This from 1888:
This from 1891:
A candidate for Holy Orders assisted the Rev. H. M. P. Pearse in maintaining services at Doane Memorial Chapel, South Amboy, and at Ernston, 3 miles away. There have been 170 services in Doane Memorial Chapel, of which 45 were in the Danish tongue. Of 18 Baptisms, 7 were infants with Danish parents; 7 have been Confirmed, and the offerings have amounted to $362.82. Connected with the work at this Chapel is a Day School with 2 teachers and 60 scholars.
Page 7 of the July 25, 1957 South Amboy Citizen newspaper recalled some additional history:
Footnotes to Raritan Bay History
There have been other schools under church and private sponsorship. At one time classes were held in the basement of Doane Memorial Chapel with Miss Annie Mohlson (later Mrs. George Nellus) as teacher. This structure was dear to the Danish people of our town. They worshipped there and called Christ Church “The Big Church.”
It also discussed the cause of the end of the chapel which explains why nearly no one – if indeed anyone – in the area knows anything about the chapel:
The chapel was destroyed during the [October 1918] Morgan explosion. A stained glass window in Christ Church given by a family to whom the chapel was their church home, can be seen there. It depicts the little brown chapel against the background of Raritan Bay with several sailboats in the distance – both realistic and lovely.
In simple terms regarding the demise of the chapel and its value, here is a portion of page 109 from the June 9, 1919 “Damages to Private Property at Gillespie Plant” report for the 66th Congress, 1st Session, US Senate Showing the Original Amount of the Claim for Structural and Personal Damages for Christ Church’s George Washington Doane Memorial Chapel.
Originally posted on December 30, 2019.