Photo by Hall's Studio, Freehold
OLD TENNENT CHURCH, FREEHOLD, N. J.
XXVI
OLD TENNENT CHURCH, FREEHOLD,
NEW JERSEY
ON THE BATTLE FIELD OF MONMOUTH
One of the bas-reliefs on the monument commemorating the decisive Battle of Monmouth, which has been called the turning-point of the War for Independence, represents the famous Molly Pitcher as she took the place at the gun of her disabled husband. In the background of the relief is the roof and steeple of Old Tennent, the church near which the battle raged all day long.
Tennent Presbyterian Church was organized about 1692. The first building was probably built of logs. The second structure, more ambitious, was planned in 1730. Twenty years later a third structure was demanded by the growing congregation. This building, which was twenty-seven years old at the time of the battle of Monmouth, is still standing.
The plan called for a building sixty feet long and forty feet wide. The present pastor of the church, Rev. Frank R. Symmes, in his story of the church, says of the building:
"The sides were sheathed with long cedar shingles, and fastened with nails patiently wrought out on an anvil, and the interior was finished with beaded and panelled Jersey pine.... The pulpit ... is placed on the north side of the room, against the wall, with narrow stairs leading up to it, closed in with a door. The Bible desk is nine feet above the audience floor, with a great sounding board overhanging the whole.... Below the main pulpit a second desk or sub-pulpit is built, where the precentor used to stand.... The galleries extend along three sides of the room."