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Woodward & Hageman, History of Burlington and Mercer Counties. 1883 The Indian missionary, Rev. John Brainard, was not only the pioneer preacher in this section, but he was the pioneer church-builder in the vicinity of Vincentown. In has labors of love for the souls of aborigines, he was often lost in the wilderness, wandering sometimes all night over rocks and mountains, down hideous steeps, through swamps and morasses, with danger and horror all around; often pinched with cold, racked with pain of body, needing all the care and tenderness found in the best of homes, yet forced to accept some pine-tree of the forest as a couch and its branches for covering. Yet amidst all this sacrifice and suffering he rejoiced if he was only able to lead the poor Indian to the Saviour of men. Sometimes, after doing all he could to recommend Christianity he would be unspeakably saddened in seeing them go away and engage in idolatrous feasts and devil worship. Yet he continued his labors, and not only offered them the bread of Life, but built houses for them to worship in. His was the pioneer church here. It was built of hard-wood hewn timber, and well calculated to last for many generations. The Brainard Missionary Church was located at the Indian village or town on the bank of the Coaxen or Quakeson Creek, on the farm now owned by the heirs of Joseph Deacon, deceased, and near the present residence of John P. Lippincott, but once owned by an Indian chief by the name of Charles Moolis , and his wife, Bashaba, a remnant of the Indians under the care of Father Brainard, as he was called. There are yet persons in Vincentown who recollect these Indians before they wholly passed away either by death or removal. The old graveyard was on W.J. Irick’s farm but entirely obliterated. This ancient church at an early period (beyond the memory of the present generation) was, by the consent of John Bishop, the last living trustee, moved to Vincentown and placed on a lot of land donated by William Stockton, by the side of the old school-house, that stood about where the railroad depot now stands. While the old pioneer church stood on this location it was free for all denominations except Roman Catholics, and occupied by each in turn, and is pleasantly associated with early history of the older inhabitants of Vincentown. The old pioneer church was subsequently taken down and moved to Freedom, near the school-house at that place, and converted into a school-house, and in 1871 or 1872 was destroyed by fire. Previous, however, to its being moved it had been abandoned by each denomination as they in turn had built for themselves houses of worship.
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