CHAPTER TWELVE
Daughter Churches
F
our churches were founded by First Baptist Church, Second Cape May Baptist, Cape Island, Dennisville Baptist and the Rio Grande Chapel. Several other churches in the county were aided but not directly founded by First Baptist Church of Cape May. SECOND CAPE MAY BAPTIST CHURCH This congregation had its beginnings in 1770. An acre of ground in the upper part of the county was donated to the Baptists by Jeremiah Edwards. They built a Meeting House on this land. Since the English destroyed the public records during the Revolutionary War they could not prove their title to the land and lost it in 1785. They were able to purchase it again that same year. Originally, it was called the Upper House and was renamed the Second Cape May Baptist Church in 1883. The church is located on Route 9 in Palermo.
DENNISVILLE BAPTIST CHURCH Soon after the settlement of the village of Dennisville in 1726, ministers from this church were preaching in that Town and receiving members as early as 1729. For one hundred and twenty years, a mission was maintained there before it was organized into an independent Baptist church. Baptist preachers also ministered there from Tuckahoe and West Creek on different occasions. One of the interesting aspects of the Dennisville congregation is that at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Methodist and Baptist groups in that village desired to build a Meeting House. Since neither was able to build independently, they decided to erect a House jointly. The understanding was that the Building would be used by each on alternate Sundays, The commodious Meeting House was completed in 1803, and named the Union Meeting House.� In 1853, the Methodists built a new House of their own. The Baptist also built a new edifice in 1870. In June, 1838, the members of the First Baptist Church of Cape May living in the vicinity of Dennisville