At the southeast corner of Washington Street and Hooper Avenue in downtown Toms River sits a small fenced burying ground that most drivers pass without a second look. It is the Old Methodist Cemetery, and the congregation that owns it is working to have it restored before its 200th anniversary in 2028.

First United Methodist Church of Toms River, now at 129 Chestnut Street, calls the cemetery the oldest surviving landmark of Methodist life in the town. Its Cemetery Preservation Project aims to raise $25,000 for professional headstone cleaning, resetting and other preservation work, timed to the bicentennial of the congregation's first meeting house, which stood inside the cemetery's fence line.

Why 1828

According to the church's own history, Methodism in Toms River dates to 1778, when the circuit rider Rev. Benjamin Abbott rode twelve miles from Good Luck Point through a nor'easter to preach in the home of Abiel Aikens on the south side of the river. Circuit riders carried the movement on horseback through the pine woods and coastal settlements from Mount Holly down to Barnegat and Manahawkin, and Toms River became part of the Trenton Circuit.

By 1828 Toms River was a port of about 300 people, and local Methodists built their first meeting house that year on what is now the Old Methodist Burying Ground. The church records it as a 24 by 30 foot wooden building on a brick foundation, with cedar shingles. The building is long gone and later sanctuaries went up elsewhere, but the ground around it stayed in use.

Who is buried there

The church says the cemetery holds the remains of the congregation's founders, its early pastors and veterans, the people who built both the church and the town around it. That makes the headstones a record of early Toms River as much as of one congregation, which is part of why the church is treating the bicentennial as the deadline.

What the restoration covers

  • Cleaning: professional cleaning of the headstones, many of which have weathered for close to two centuries.
  • Resetting: straightening and resetting stones that have tipped or settled.
  • Preservation: other work to stabilize the site for the long term.

The goal is $25,000, and the work is pegged to 2028, two hundred years after the first meeting house went up.

How to help, or hear the history

The church takes donations for the project online through its giving portal at fumctr.com, or in person at the church office. It also offers a presentation on the history of the Old Methodist Cemetery to any outside group that would like one, which makes it an option for a historical society, a scout troop or a school class looking for a local history program.

The details

  • The cemetery: Old Methodist Cemetery, southeast corner of Washington Street and Hooper Avenue, Toms River, Ocean County.
  • The church: First United Methodist Church of Toms River, 129 Chestnut Street, Toms River, 732-349-8155.
  • The goal: $25,000 for headstone cleaning, resetting and preservation, ahead of the 2028 bicentennial.
  • Donate: the church's online giving portal at fumctr.com, or at the church office.

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