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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
PLUCKEMIN, 50.2 miles (180 alt., 179 pop.), is another little village
that ends just as its houses seem to be getting into the swing of being a
community. A long-standing dispute revolves about the origin of its name.
One school of stove-talk has it that the name is rooted in the custom of a
local innkeeper who, anxious for trade, would stand in the road and simply "pluck 'em in." But other authority leans to the belief that Pluckemin
is an Indian word meaning "persimmon." At any rate, local residents today pronounce the name Pluckemin, with accent on the second syllable and
the "kem" flattened out almost to "kam."
The village's most impressive building is the massive white plaster ST.
PAUL'S PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (R), standing on historic ground
formerly occupied by St. Paul's Lutheran Church. The earlier building was
erected about 1757 and its sandstone cornerstone, with a weather-dim
Latin inscription, has been inserted in the portico of the present edifice.
Predecessor of the old Lutheran church was a log building atop First Mt.,
about a mile east of the village. It was known as the Church on the Raritan, or the Church in the Hills; and it housed a meeting in August, 1735,
that was the first Lutheran synod held in America. The meeting – "consistorium," the founders called it – was called to protest the conduct of the
Rev. Johann Wolf who, it was said, had been charging exorbitant rates for
sermons, baptisms, and funerals. His fee of 20 to 30 shillings for an
adult's funeral was double the scale prevailing in Hackensack. Even after
the synod, Mr. Wolf failed to mend his ways; he was subsequently replaced. The present Presbyterian Church, with its thick columns and attic
porch, is a good example of the Grecian Revival style of the middle nineteenth century.
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