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Teabo Methodist Episcopal Church
Rockaway Township, Morris County
Teabo Methodist church was one of the “miner’s churches,” in this case built by the Teabo Mining Company, for the benefit of their Welsh and Cornish employees. There was a theory among industrial interests in the post-Civil War era that religion drained off some of the enthusiasm that might otherwise go into union organizing. Whether that was true or not, the fact is that mining operators from Allaire in Monmouth county to Andover in Warren county gave land and often money to erect a church and often a Sunday School. Some of the miner’s churches had a marked ethnic flavor—one in Boonton was Irish, and others in the region were predominately English, German or Swedish.
Architecturally the miner's churches are rarely of much interest (St. Mary’s in Wharton and Mt. Carmel in Boonton are exceptions), but socially they raise some interesting questions. The original building was considerably smaller and lacked the entry vestibule and porch we see today; the belfry was different as well. The original church was erected in 1870, the year the congregation was organized; it burned and was rebuilt by 1874.
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