House Washing in Mount Tabor, NJ

Camp Meetings, which are outdoor religious revival services, began for the purpose of revitalizing faith, particularly in the aftermath of the American Civil War. In 1866 the “Newark Conference Camp Meeting Association of Methodists”, under the authority of the officers of the Newark Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, operated several annual Camp Meetings at Lake Speedwell near Morristown, NJ. When the owner of the land eventually told the Camp Meeting Association that he was going to sell the property, a group of the men began searching the countryside for a new campsite; they chose a wooded spread of land thick with underbrush and set upon a hill, which they named “Mount Tabor”, after the location mentioned in the Bible as the place of Christ’s Transfiguration.

The hill they found for the relocation of the Newark Conference camp meeting was part of a piece of farmland owned by Stephan Dickerson. Dickerson’s farmhouse was located on the first hole of what is now the Mount Tabor Country Club. The house was torn down years ago, but its cornerstone is now located in the chimney of a house formerly owned by a member of the Dickerson family at the corner of Route 53 and Durbin Avenue. As part of the agreement of sale, the Dickersons were given the right to operate a store within the campground. The Dickerson family had owned the Foodtown store at the bottom of the hill on Route 53, however it was closed in 2018 due to dwindling business.

On March 17, 1869, the incorporation of the “Camp Meeting Association of the Newark Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church” came about by virtue of the passage of New Jersey Chapter Law 185 of the Legislative Session of 1869, enacted into law by both the New Jersey Senate and the New Jersey General Assembly.