South Presbyterian Church

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The South Presbyterian Church was founded as a Dutch Reformed Church. Although there was no village at Schraalenburgh in 1723, there were many farms in the area. The closest church was in Hackensack and the time came when it could no longer service the whole county. The decision was made to establish a Dutch Reformed Church at Schraalenburgh. Dominie Guiliam Bertholf was the founder and first preacher. The site of the new church was apparently chosen because of the presence of a large spring across the road near Long Swamp Brook.

The farmers who came to church in those days listened to a long sermon in the morning. had lunch under the trees near the spring, got fresh water for themselves and their horses, then went back to the church for an afternoon service before returning home. The square church, completed in 1728, was not heated in the winter and had only fixed benches along the walls for the men and chairs for women and hard-of-hearing men in the center, plus a second floor gallery. Today, here and there, a Dutch family still has a charcoal foot warmer once used in the sanctuary to protect against the cold winter drafts.

The philosophy of the Dutch Reformed Church shaped the growth and development in the early years of the church's existence. In the more than two and a half centuries of its history, the members of the congregation had to choose many times between the strictly puritanical concepts and the more convenient religious beliefs, and invariably chose the puritanical. Some members were the patriots of the Revolution while others were Tories

Because of differences within the congregation in the late 1700s, two groups were formed and when a decision was made to build a new church, the opposing group withdrew, purchased land and built the North Schraalenburgh (now Dumont) Reformed Church in 1801.

By 1822 the tension had become so great in the Reformed Church that one group or the other was certain to leave the Dutch Reformed Church. As a consequence, the South Church left and was reconstituted under the name of the True Reformed Dutch Church at Schraalenburgh, an organization that flourished for almost three quarters of a century.  In 1913, it was decided to join the Presbyterian Church, a body whose doctrines and organizations were closely identified with those favored by the great early preachers of the church.

Since the word presbyterian literally means guided by the elders, the present South Presbyterian has adopted this form of church government.

The old headstones tell us that many Revolutionary War soldiers are buried in the South Church cemetery, as well as soldiers from other wars. In 1855, additional property for the cemetery was added on the west side of the church and several years ago property was acquired to the north.