Rev. Stephen Grover

In 1758, Stephen Grover was born in Tolland, Connecticut to Ebenezer and Zerviah Larabbe Grover. He was the youngest of their six children. In 1776, Stephen, a student at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, left school to serve as a private in the 21^st Regiment of the Continental Army in Connecticut, under the command for Colonel J. Douglass, Captain David Cady’s company.

After the Revolution, Stephen graduated from Dartmouth in 1786 and joined his brother, Rev Joseph Grover in New Jersey, where he served as a minister in Parsippany. Stephen earned a license to preach and Rev Stephen Grover became the first pastor of the First Presbyterian Church at Caldwell, serving from 1787 to 1833. He saw the congregation through the early days after the incorporation and he laid the cornerstone for the new meeting house in 1794.

In 1788, Rev. Grover married Mary Byrum of Caldwell. They had at least six children; Stephen R., Rosalinda, James Wheelock, John, Maria, and Harriet Pierson.

The Revolutionary War did not see the end of Rev Stephen Grover’s military career. He also served in the Pennsylvania Insurrection on 1794 as an army Chaplain and again in the War of 1812, under the Command of his neighbor and congregant, General William Gould.

Rev. Grover died at home on the 22^nd of June 1836 and was buried in the Old Burying Ground behind his church. He was 78 years old. His widow, Mary, passed away on the 3^rd of July in 1847 at the age of 87. Her final resting place is with her husband back of the church in Caldwell.