By Lea Kahn, Central Jersey.com
Make no mistake — Presbyterians made up the largest Protestant denomination in New Jersey during the American Revolutionary War, yet their contributions to the conflict have been overlooked.
Professor John Fea, who is the chairman of the History Department and an associate professor of American history at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., sought to counter that by highlighting Presbyterians’ role in the Revolutionary War at the Lawrence Historical Society’s 10th annual Mary Tanner Lecture.
The lecture series is named for Ms. Tanner, a Republican who was the first woman elected to Township Council and who served from 1976 to 1981. Ms. Tanner, who died in March, was a founding member of the Lawrence Historical Society. She held a doctorate in American history from Radcliffe College.
Sunday afternoon, Mr. Fea told the audience that he became interested in the church’s role in the Revolutionary War while he was writing a biography of Philip Vickers Fithian, who lived from 1747 to 1776. Mr. Fithian, who studied to become a Presbyterian minister, lived in Cumberland County in southern New Jersey. He served as a chaplain in a New Jersey militia unit during the Revolutionary War.
”I was struck by just how important Presbyterians were to the cause of the Revolutionary War — and specifically in New Jersey. Everywhere you turned, Presbyterians took a leadership role,” Mr. Fea said.