Quietly tucked away in the Sourland Mountains, many tiny churches popped up over the years. Some have been torn down with some being turned into houses but the Mt. Zion United Methodist Church has survived for 174 years and is still preaching the gospel every Sunday. Most of the churches that encircled the Sourland Mountains were either Dutch Reform, Baptist or Presbyterian. Early in the 1830’s Methodist circuit riders from Hunterdon County began riding into the mountains and preaching John Calvin Methodism in private homes. In 1843 a corner stone was laid for the first Methodist Church in the area on Zion Road between Spring Hill and Long Hill Roads. It was a small wooden church built on land given by David Wyckoff and his wife. At that time, people generally walked to church on the many trails that traversed the mountain but hitching posts existed in front of this church for the fortunate who could drive. By the 1880’s the church had over 60 families as members when a disastrous fire broke out and burned the building to the ground. A second church building made of stone was built on the site and is still used today. The Mt. Zion United Methodist Church was the center of the community. As wealth increased on the mountain, more people acquired horses and additional land was purchased by the church to build horse sheds. Every fall the Church celebrated Woods Frolic Day, a time in which all the parishioners would bring firewood for the minister to heat his house during the coming winter. This would be followed by a gigantic community picnic. By 1898, candles in the church were replaced by kerosene lamps.
Because the congregation was small many of the ministers who preached at the church were fresh pastors from the Pennington Seminary with this being their first church assignment. In 1889 the town of Hopewell and the town of Neshanic in the early 1900s both organized Methodist congregations and built churches which drew heavily from the Mt. Zion United Methodist Church. This along with a devastating peach blight wiped out all the extremely large orchards on the mountain which forced many people to move off the mountain and into towns looking for work. Church attendance dwindled to the point the church actually closed its doors between 1907 and 1916. After 1916 it was periodically opened for special services with ministers from Centerville or Hopewell conducting services. But in October of 1935 it reopened with a homecoming service that filled the church for the first time in 50 years. It has remained open ever since even after a tragic fire in 1975. Nestled at the edge of the woods along Zion Road, it gives one a deep sense of peace. It has a simple, spiritual service every Sunday at 9:00 AM. Check out the website at www.MtZionNJ.org.
Jim Davidson, East Amwell Historian