Acknowledgements

The Division of Cultural & Heritage would like to express appreciation to the following groups and/or individuals for their contributions and permission to use their images and information.

Alpha Borough Clerks' Office
Brenda Heinrich Higgins
Blairstown Historic Preservation Committee
Canal Society of New Jersey
Charlie Fineran (Allamuchy Open Space)
Christine Beegle
Warren County Commissioner Lori Ciesla
Frelinghuysen Historical Society 
Friends of Ramsaysburg 
Greenwich Historical Society
Harmony Township Clerks' Office
Harmony Township Historic Commission
Hope Historical Society
Hope Historic Preservation Commission 
Knowlton Township Historic Commission
Metrotrails 
North Jersey Rail Commuter Association
Phillipsburg Area Historical Society
Washington Borough Historical Society

Also, the Division of Cultural & Heritage Affairs would like to acknowledge the support of the Bicentennial Cultural & Heritage Advisory Board, WC Department of Land Preservation, WC Department of Public Information, and the Warren County Board of County Commissioners.

As is sometimes the case, our history is only as good as the resources we have access to and therefore, some prior histories and/or historians may have inconsistent information, dates, names, etc. due to limitations with access to proper information.
If there are any significant errors (and you can provide the proper documentation), please contact Gina Rosseland.

SHORT HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY & WARREN COUNTY

European settlers began to explore the Americas in the 15th c., claiming land for their respective nations. Oftentimes, they came into contact with the indigenous peoples of the Americans who had themselves migrated to this continent from Asia and Africa around 16,500 years ago.

The Eastern Algonquin Confederacy in New Jersey referred to themselves the "Lenni Lenape" or "Original People" and there were three subdivisions: Minsi/Munsee ("people of the stony country," wolf clan) to the north, Unami ("people of down the river," turkey clan) in central Jersey, and Unilachtigo ("people who live near the ocean," turtle clan) in south Jersey and Delaware. The Lenape society was "more dispersed and egalitarian, and leadership would often convene together to discuss shared issues and negotiate treaties affecting all Lenape people" ("History of the Delaware Nation").

 The Origins of New Jersey Place Names. Trenton, NJ: NJ Public Library Commission. 1945.

The English name the river and consequently the Lenape after the first Governor of the Virginia Company, Lord De La Warr (12th Baron De La Warr). It was estimated that the native population of New Jersey decreased from about 2,000 warriors in 1658 to about 1,000 within 25 years, and severely affected the population within 50 years due to European-transmitted diseases (smallpox), emigration, and warfare/extermination by white settlers (Snyder, 1).

Map of the Subdivision of the Lenape in New Jersey Region
(Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor)

The Dutch explorers were given permission to visit and navigate lands between New France and the Virginia territory in 1614 and by 1623, the Dutch West India Company (DWIC) was formed in Holland explicitly for trade and commerce (Snyder, 1). In 1623, the DWIC sent a ship with settlers led by Cornelius Jacobse Mey to explore the coast from modern Cape May to the Delaware River (former "South River"). Mey named the southernmost tip of New Jersey for himself and established a fort in Gloucester Co. on the Delaware River (Snyder, 2).

Sweden's colony ("New Sweden"), established in 1655, grew very slowly and received little support from their country.  They settled mostly along Jersey coastline of the Delaware Bay (Snyder, 4).

The Dutch protested Swedish claims to the land along the Delaware River around 1639. Since neither side had many soldiers, both were unable to make a decisive move. The first English colonists to settle along the Delaware River were a part of the English Delaware Co. in New Haven, CT.  Most of the New Netherlands colonial settlements were in East Jersey, nearest the Hudson River.

The Origin of New Jersey Place Names. New Jersey Public Library Commission.  1945.

On March 25, 1584, Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) awarded Sir Walter Raleigh (ca. 1552-1618) a charter that granted his company all the American lands between 33° and 40° north latitude. English settlements were established along the rivers and streams connecting to the Hudson River. By 1676, New Jersey was surveyed into East and West Jersey (Snyder, 8).

Following the 1664 Anglo-Dutch Wars, England obtained all of New Netherlands from the Dutch. Between 1674 and 1702, the colony of New Jersey was divided in half-- West faced the Delaware River and East faced the Hudson River. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) called New Jersey, "a barrel tapped at both ends", and a productive region exploited by both Philadelphia and New York (Soderlund).

The Colony of New Jersey became a proprietary colony under Charles II (1630-1685), king of England. He granted the land to his brother, James the Duke of York (future King James II), who then granted it to Sir John Berkeley (1602-1670) and Sir George Carteret (c. 1610-1680). Ten years later, the proprietorship of New Jersey was divided in half with Berkeley taking West Jersey (who he sold to John Fenwick, c. 1618-1683 in trust for Edward Byllyne*, c. 1623-1687). East Jersey was then taken by Carteret.
* Variations in spelling: Byllynge, Billinge

At times, when Fenwick, an English Quaker, and Byllynge quarreled and the three Quaker trustees (or receivers), who included William Penn (1644-1718), Gawan Lawrie (d.c. 1716), and Nicholas Lucas, to mediate the dispute. The Duke of York, who was not helping matters, refused to transfer West Jersey to the three Quaker trustees (Soderlund). As a result of the conflicts between Byllynge and Fenwick, two Quaker settlements were established in West Jersey: Salem (founded 1675) and Burlington (founded 1677). 

The area of Warren County was originally part of West Jersey and included in Hunterdon County (1713-14 until 1738-39), Morris County (1738-39 to 1753) and lastly Sussex County (1753 to 1824/25). 

Following the division of New Jersey into East and West, the land was surveyed several times, and the province line that separated it was redrawn several times (West Jersey). The lines include:

1. The Quintipartite Deed/Lawrence Line (1676, 1743, 1855-present) was originally signed by Penn, Lawry, Lucas and Byllynge, originally split the Province of New Jersey into East and West from 1674 to 1702.  The NJ Supreme Court determined this to be the legal line for property settlements in 1850.
2. Keith's Line, or Province Line (1687) ran diagonally across the colony from Little Egg Harbor on the Atlantic coastline to the northwest. The northern third of this survey was not finished (and would include a good portion of modern-day Warren County) because of a discrepancy from the Quintipartite Deed. Province Line Road near Princeton is the Keith Line.
3. Keith-Coxe-Barclary Line (1688-1695) was an extension of Keith's line and was a compromise between the governors of East and West Jersey. It was disavowed by East Jersey in 1695 and abolished by colonial legislature in 1719 in favor of the Quintipartite Deed.
4. Thornton Line (1696) was created to fix the errors of the Keith Line and amending the Coxe-Barclay Line. It is seen on the Worlidge map of the Jerseys. This was never formally adopted.
5. Lawrence Line (1743), created by surveyor John Lawrence as a final resolution to land disputes between East and West Jersey. By 1702, the two Jerseys merged into one.

NJ Map (East-West, 1780)(Philadelphia Encyclopedia)

The highest ranking officer of the Continental Army to be buried in Warren County is Brig. General William "Scotch Willie" Maxwell (1733-1796). He served under General Edward Braddock (1695-1755) during the French & Indian War (1754-1763) and under General Washington during the Revolution. He began his service in the Revolution as a Colonel of the 2nd Regiment NJ Line in 1775 and resigned from service in 1780. He was born in Tyrone, Ireland and came to America in 1747. He died in Lansdowne, NJ (south of Clinton, Hunterdon Co.) on 12 November 1796.  

 Some of the publicly accessible cemeteries with Revolutionary War veterans interred within. 

In the late 1700s to the early 1900s, the principal manner of crossing the Delaware was by ferry. Several crossed the Delaware between Warren County and eastern Pennsylvania as a much-needed passageway for the transportation of goods, people and supplies. Ferries were "large flat-bottomed wooden barges called scows" that were hand-operated with the use of heavy chains, cables or ropes that were strung across the river and attached to large pulleys along the shoreline (Leiser).

FERRIES ALONG THE DELAWARE RIVER

This is a list of the known ferries between Knowlton to the north and Pohatcong to the southwest.

New Jersey developed as a pre-industrial and early industrial state with iron furnaces and forges, mining, mills and eventually larger factories, railroads, and canals.

Edison's Portland Cement plant, New Village 
(WCCHA Archives)

Between 1870 and 1914, the Second Industrial Revolution occurred in the United States and was a period of massive technological and industrial growth with the presence of new materials (petroleum, chemicals, and electricity) enabled some manufacturers to expand (Engelman). In 1909, the (Standard Silk Company in Phillipsburg expanded with an additional 200 looms to make it one of the largest silk mills in the nation. By 1910, the Continental Silk Mills at Paterson moved their 80-loom plant to their new site in Phillipsburg ("New Jersey Silk Mills").

"A Short History of New Jersey." State of New Jersey.  [Digital]

Aun, Fred J. "A Fine Old Line Across New Jersey". Survey History. January 1995. Originally from New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors, Spring 1993, Vol 15, No 1.  [Digital]

Covart, Elizabeth. "New Sweden: A Brief History." Unearthing the Past: Student Research on Pennsylvania History. Penn State University Libraries. [Digital]

Dunlap, Arthur Ray. Dutch and Swedish Place-Names in Delaware. Newark, DE: Delaware: University of Delaware Press, 1956.

Engleman, Ryan. "The Second Industrial Revolution, 1870-1914." U.S. History Scene. [Digital]

"Explore the Morris Canal." Canal Society of New Jersey. [Digital]

"French & Indian Wars." National Guard Militia Museum of New Jersey. [Digital]

"French & Indian War/Seven Years' War, 1754-1763." Office of the Historian. US Department of State. [Digital]

"Gettysburg." National Military Park Pennsylvania. National Park Service. [Digital]

Hine, C.G. The Old Mine Road. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 1963. 

"History-- World War II." New Jersey Almanac. [Digital]

Koppenhaver, Robert. "Hampton's Map." Skylands Visitor. Spring 2011/2025. [Digital]

Johnson, Amandus. The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware, 1638-1664. Volume 1. Philadelphia: Swedish Colonial Society. 1911. [Digital]

Leiser, Amy. "When Ferries Crossed the Delaware River." Monroe County Historical Association. 8 Aug 2015.  [Digital]

"Lindbergh Kidnapping." History. FBI. [Digital]

"McMurtries/McMurtrys In the American Revolution." September 1993. [Digital]

Nack, William. "This Old House." Sports Illustrated Vault. 7 June 1999.  [Digital]

Neville, Gabriel. "The 'B Team' of 1777: Maxwell's Light Infantry." Journal of the American Revolution. 10 April 2018. [Digital]

"New Jersey and the Great War." The United States World War One Centennial Commission. [Digital]

"New Jersey Silk Mills, Phillipsburg." Textiles History. NC State University. [Digital]

"Organization of Warren County." NJGenWeb Project.  [Digital]

Rand McNally and Co. "Eastern Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, South East Michigan, Southern Ontario, Western New York: District No. 4". Rand McNally Official Auto Trails Map, 3rd ed., 1924, pp. 168-169. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, David Rumsey (curator), Cartography Associates, Accessed Nov 4, 2019. [Digital]

Richards, Jay C. Officers & Men of Warren County in the Civil War, 1861-1865. Phillipsburg, NJ: 1998/2005.

Rossi, John A. A Brief History of Glassmaking. Precision Electronic Glass Incorporated. 1998. [Digital]

Snyder, John P. The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries, 1606-1968. Trenton, NJ: Bureau of Geology and Topography. 1969.

Soderlund, Jean R. "West New Jersey." The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. [Digital]

"State Highways of New Jersey- 31." State Highways of New Jersey. [Digital]

"State Highways of New Jersey- 46." State Highways of New Jersey.  [Digital]

"State Highways of New Jersey- 57." State Highways of New Jersey. [Digital] 

"The Great War & New Jersey." Rutgers University Libraries' Special Collections & University Archives. [Digital]

"The History of Delaware Nation." Delaware Nation. [Digital]

"The Origin of New Jersey Place Names." Trenton, NJ: NJ Public Library Commission. 1945. [Digital]

"View of the Water Gap and Columbia Glass Works - River Delaware." Warren County Cultural & Heritage Affairs. Image.

Warren Co. History & Directory, or Farmer’s Manual & Business Men’s Guide, Press of the Review, 1886. pp 104-106. [Digital]

"When ferries crossed the Delaware River." Monroe Co. Historical Association. 8 Aug 2015. [Digital]

"Where was the West Jersey/East Jersey Line?" West Jersey and South Jersey Heritage.  [Digital]

"White Township History from the Days of the Indian to the Present." White Township Tercentenary Committee. 1964.  [Digital]

Allamuchy Township

Incorporated by an act of the NJ Legislature on April 4, 1873.

Rutherfurd Hall, c. 1911 (WCCHA Collection)

Allamuchy Township, located in the northeast portion of Warren County, was originally named for a Lenape village located within its modern-day boundaries that was named for the local Lenape Chief Allamuchahokkingen, which translates to "Allamucha" or "a place within the hills" (Allamuchy).  According to George Wyckoff Cummins in his book, The History of Warren County, New Jersey (1911), this Lenape name was recorded in 1715 in early surveys of the region (108). The township has comprised of several smaller hamlets and villages including Quaker Grove, Meadville and Warrenville (currently Panther Valley). Allamuchy was created from a part of Independence Township.

In 1715, Allamuchy was a part of a tract of land surveyed by John Reading for William Penn, which became a Quaker settlement. As a result, these settlers were the first white settlers to the region. They established a meeting house and burying ground at the northern end of Great Meadows on Johnsonburg Road (CR 612). On July 8, 1745, "Samuel Willson, Jr. was appointed by the Kingwood meeting of Hunterdon County to serve as an overseer at the Hardwick particular meeting" (Cummins, 109). 

Deputy surveyor, John Reading II (1686-1767), issued a warrant on March 10, 1715 to lay out a tract of William Penn's land and described it as, "On both side of the Paquaessing [Pequest] River upon an Indian path which leads from Allamuchahokin [Allamuchy] to Pakackqualong [Pahaquarry]... on both sides of the Pequest River upon an Indian path which leads from Allamuchy to Pahaquarry" (Cummins, 109). Richard Penn, the grandson of William Penn the proprietor of Pennsylvania, gave a deed for the land "for a Friends' meeting house forever" in 1752. Located near the corner of Quaker Church Road and Johnsonburg Road (CR 612), the original Quaker Meeting House was built of log, this meeting house was succeeded by a stone structure in 1762 (Dale, 1). This sturdy stone structure remained for about a century before it was torn down and in its place a Quaker public school house was built (Cummins, 110), which is currently a private residence. During the 19th century when Quakers became ardent supporters of the abolition movement, the settlement became a station on the "Underground Railroad" and was located between Quakertown (Hunterdon Co.) and the "Drowned Lands" of Sussex County.

In the late 18th c., John Rutherfurd (1760-1840), "a grandson of James Alexander, surveyor-general, and one of the proprietors of New Jersey, settled on the estate at Tranquility and Allamuchy, still occupied [in 1911] by his descendants" (Cummins, 108). Mr. Rutherfurd became a member of the State Legislature (1788) and was a US Senator (1790, 1796) (US Congress).

Born in New York City on September 20, 1760 and the son of Major Walter Rutherfurd (1723-1804), a veteran of the British Army and Catherine Alexander (d. 1801). Upon retiring from the military, Walter Rutherfurd received a patent for 5,000 acres of land in the Province of New Jersey in 1760 and 1775 for his military service (Morrison). Major Rutherfurd, the brother-in-law of Lord Sterling (William Alexander was one of Gen. Washington's most loyal subordinates ), was held captive by American forces during the Revolution.

Freight House, 1955
(WCCHA Archives)

By 1834, the town of Allamuchy had a grist and saw mill, a grain distillery, store, tavern and about a dozen residential houses. Just outside of the town center was the railroad station for the Lehigh & Hudson River Railroad. Currently, only the freight house (built 1906), a single-story frame structure remains (National Register of Historic Places).

The Rutherfurd family, descendants of John Rutherfurd, had established a grand estate in what is now Allamuchy (Warren Co.) and Green (Sussex Co.) Townships. In 1906, Winthrop Chanler Rutherfurd (1862-1944) requested that Whitney Warren (1864-1943), a famous architect from New York City, to build a summer cottage in Allamuchy called the "Rutherfurd House."  In addition, elaborate gardens were designed by the Olmsted Brothers, whose father, Frederick Law Olmsted designed New York City's Central Park in the 1850s (Rutherfurdhall.org). Winthrop was the 2x great-grandson of John Rutherfurd. The family lived at Rutherfurd Hall, and its neighboring properties until 1950. Rutherfurd Hall was then sold to the Congregation of the Daughters of Divine Charity, who maintained the property until 2005. It is currently owned by the Allamuchy Township Board of Education. This structure is listed on the National and State Registers of Historic Places.

Map of Allamuchy Town (1874) 
(WCCHA Archives)

Along CR 612 (Johnsonburg Road), north west of Rutherfurd Hall, is the Hardwick Friends Meeting Burying Ground. The original Quaker meeting house was built by descendants of William Penn. This area was selected by the early Quaker settlers in the region. In 1735, the settlers chose this piece of land just east of the meeting house and west of the Pequest River as their burial site. Some of the founding families are buried in this cemetery and include the Lundys, Schooleys, Willsons, Stephensons, Buckleys, Adams, Laings, and Schmucks. Born in the area in what was then Sussex County, Benjamin Lundy (1789-1839) became active in the antislavery movement of the 1820s and organized abolitionist societies, held many lectures, and contributed to abolitionist publications.

Devout Quaker and founding settler of Oxford, John C. Axford (1692-1771) left 40 shillings to the Managers of the Friends Burying Ground, with the intent of being buried there along with his wife, Joanna Biles Beakes (1696-1767). They were supposed to be buried in this cemetery, but upon further inquiry with the Randolph Meeting, their names are no included in those records (it is possible they are buried there, but not recorded). According to The Axfords of Oxford, New Jersey, A Genealogy Beginning in 1725, John and [Jo]Anna Axford were members of the Religious Society of Friends, and belonged to the Hardwick Meeting. They are buried in the Quaker graveyard on the bank of the Pequest River in Allamuchy Township. John, in his will dates 1772, left forty shillings to build a wall around the [burial] ground. The will mentions four sons, Abraham, Samuel, Jonathan, and John" (Clinton, 6).
     * Martha Axford (1740-1801) was the common-law wife of Joseph W. Shippen (1737-1795), and they lived at Shippen Manor in Oxford, NJ with their seven children. There is no legal proof found regarding the marriage of Joseph and Martha.
     * It is possible that John and Joanna were buried here, but there are no current stones attributed to either.
     * Quakers were also referred to as Society of Religious Friends" or "Friends". This movement emerged in England in the mid-17th c. and Quakers are followers of George Fox (d. 1691). They rose up to become a significant with the abolitionist movement.
     * Axford's will is referred in Armstrong, William Clinton. The Axfords of Oxford, on page 10. Also note that there are errors with the genealogy of this generation, at minimum.

By 1905, the burying ground was in a state of disrepair as graves were sinking and the site was overgrown. Occasionally, someone would mow with a scythe. David Wilson (also Willson), the last person buried in the cemetery in 1918, left money in his will to restore the wall. There is a large granite tablet near the entrance gate that reads, "The Burying Ground of the Hardwick Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends, 1735-1920. This wall erected by David Willson a descendant of the first settlers." The executor of Wilson's will made the burying ground smaller, leaving some of the graves outside of the wall. In 1948, middle school students of the Allamuchy School, learning about local history, worked with the assistance of civic-minded students to restore the burying grounds. That October, the dedication included members of the community and the Friends (Quaker) meeting associated with the region. As a result of this joint-effort, the Allamuchy Historical Society, Inc. was formed with the intent of preserving and maintaining this site (Fineran).

Resources

"Allamuchy Freight House (Lehigh & Hudson River Railway Company)." National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. 12 Oct 2001.  [Digital]

"Allamuchy's Rich History." Allamuchy Township. 2023. [Digital]

Clinton, William Armstrong. The Axfords of Oxford, New Jersey, a genealogy beginning in 1725. Morrison, IL: Shawyer Publishing Co., 1931. [Digital]

Cummins, George Wyckoff. History of Warren County, New Jersey. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1911.

Dale, Frank. The History of Allamuchy-- Village and Township. January 2006. Book 25. 

Ervy, Cassie, Nicole Lindow & Melissa Maltese. "Allamuchy: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow." May 2002.  Allamuchy Historical Society. 

Fineran, Charlie. "Charlie Presents: Local Quaker History." Inside Warren. 31 Aug 2020.  [Digital]

Johnson, Helen R. "The History of Allamuchy Township." 1973. [Digital]

Morrison, George Austin. History of Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York with Biographical Data, Part 1.  1911. New York: Saint Andrew's Society of the State of NY. Google Books.

"Rutherfurd Hall History." Rutherfurdhall.org. [Digital]

"Rutherfurd, John." Biographical Directory of the United States. 23 Oct 2024. Congress.  [Digital]

Sibley, Marilyn M. "Benjamin Lundy: Antislavery Advocate and Colonization Pioneer." Texas State Historical Association. [Digital]

Alpha, Borough of

Incorporated by an Act of the NJ Legislature on June 26, 1911.

The Borough of Alpha was formed from Pohatcong Township by referendum on May 31, 1911. At the time, there were about seven houses within the boundaries of the town. One of the original homes was a two-room log cabin built by the Pursel family. This house was adjacent to an old Indian Trail that is on the former property of the Vulcanite Portland Cement Company on New Brunswick Ave. (formerly an old Lenape trail and by 1769, the New Brunswick Turnpike ("Borough of Alpha", 111).

Alpha was originally laid out in 1898 and had a series of names-- Bonneville (after A.B. Bonneville who built a small cement plant here), 1891-1893, Whitaker (for Whitaker Cement Co.), 1893-1895, Vulcanite (for the Vulcanite Cement Co.), 1894-1932, and lastly, Alpha (for the Alpha Portland Cement Co.), 1895-1915 (Ramsbotham).

In 1891, the Whitaker Cement Company was established by Thomas D. Whitaker. He started with a small rotary kiln next to his quarry in Bonneville Station (now Alpha) and produced Portland cement ("Jacksonburg Limestone", 3).  The "Bonneville's plant was the first in the United States to produce Portland cement. Fire destroyed a section of the plant and after a company reorganization a new corporation was formed with Thomas Whitaker as its president" and the new company was named "Whitaker Cement Company" (Historical Sites, 11).

By 1898, NJ produced about "16 percent of the Portland cement manufactured in the United States, second only to Pennsylvania, which produced 56 percent...At the turn of the twentieth century, New Jersey had three producers of Portland cement, the Alpha Portland Cement Company, the Vulcanite Portland Cement Company, and the Edison Portland Cement Company" ("The Jacksonburg Limestone").

Whitaker Cement Co., Hexamer General Surveys, Volume 29
Philadelphia Architects and Buildings

The Vulcanite Cement Company "began operations in August [1895]. The material is a black slaty rock containing carbonate of lime and clay in nearly the proportius (sp) for a correct cement mixture. The rotary process of burning is employed, as at the Alpha works" (Newberry, 885). By 1901, Vulcanite covered 300 acres in Alpha ("Historical Sites", 12).

Around 1853, the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CCNJ) became the first railroad to connect the anthracite coal mines in Pennsylvania with the port of New York, traveling through Alpha in the process.  During the same time, the Lehigh Valley Railroad, which also hauled anthracite coal from the northeastern coal regions of Pennsylvania to markets in Philadelphia, New York City and other major trading cities, Alpha. 

As fast as the community grew prior to its incorporation, by 1912 the growth was in decline. The original Alpha Portland Cement Co. mill closed and two years later, the second Alpha Co. mill closed. During World War I, the 2nd mill opened for a short time. By the end of the war, both plants were razed along with the closure of the Vulcanite Cement Company. The site of Vulcanite is located in the Alpha Industrial Park where several industrial firms have constructed plants (Historical Sites, 12-13).
     * On August 20, 1970, the Alpha Portland Cement Co. officials announced the plant would permanently close ("unprofitable facility") in Ironton, which affected 175 employees ("On this Date").

The Alpha Portland Cement Company.
[Ironton Tribune]

Most of the farmland that surrounded the Alpha Quarry and cement mills were owned by Morris Frace, who surveyed the land and laid out building lots in 1898 (Historical Sites, 13). With its incorporation, more houses were constructed and the street car line was extended from Phillipsburg to Alpha. 

The Portland cement industry had product that resembled the color of a famous building stone found on the Isle of Portland in England and the product is obtained by finely pulverizing clinker, which results from "the burning to incipient fusion of an intimate artificial mixture of finely ground calcareous and argillaceous materials" It is also about "20 per cent silica, 10 per cent alumina, plus ferric oxide, 65 per cent of lime and 5 per cent of other compounds." (History of the Portland Cement Industry, 3).

"Safety Follows Wisdom" Monument was an award for perfect safety record
(HMbd.org, 1930)

Resources:

Alpha Historical Society. Borough of Alpha: The First 100 Years (1911-2011). Alpha, NJ: Sheridan Printing, 2011.

Historical Sites of Warren County. Warren County Board of Chosen Freeholders. 1965. 

"History of the Portland Cement Industry in the United States. Chapter 1: Cements and their Definition."  [Digital]

"Live! Live! Live! Live!" Alpha Borough Life. Borough of Alpha, NJ. 24 Oct 2024. [Digital]

Newberry, Spencer B. "Cement: Portland Cement." USGS. 1895. 

"On this Date: Alpha Portland Cement Closed After Seven Decades." The Ironton Tribune. 17 Aug 2019. [Digital]

Ramsbotham, Marion L. Warren County Past and Present. 1963.

"The Jacksonburg Limestone and the Portland Cement Industry of New Jersey." NJDEP. NJGWS. 2015.  [Digital]

"Whitaker Cement Co." 1894. Hexamer General Surveys, Volume 29. Greater Philadelphia GeoHistory Network. Philadelphia Architects and Buildings. Image. 24 Oct 2024. [Digital]

Belvidere, Town of
County Seat 
Incorporated by Act of the NJ Legislature on April 7, 1845

Prior to 1754, the area where Belvidere is currently located was a part of the Township of Greenwich. Until 1845, the County Seat of Belvidere was a part of Oxford Township. The location of this town along the Delaware and Pequest Rivers is an important geographic feature of Belvidere. Mills and factories grew and developed around these two bodies of water.

John Reading (1686-1767) surveyed two tracks of land separated by the Pequest River on October 8-9, 1716. The tract north of the line consisted of 1,250 or more acres and was surveyed for William Penn. The tract to the south was approximately the same size and surveyed by Colonel John Alford ( 1685-1761) from Charleston, Massachusetts (Cummins, 112).

In 1750, Captain Joseph McMurtrie (1733-1790), Robert McMurtrie (b. 1731) and Thomas McMurtrie (1725-1788), James Hanna and Robert Houey (possibly brothers-in-law of the McMurtries) came into possession of the Alford tract of 1,250 acres.  Nine years later, the first settler (and tinsmsith) Robert Patterson, a tinsmith, bought the Penn tract of about the same size (Cummins, 112; "McMurtrie Family") and built a double log house on the site of the Warren House, which lasted until 1838.
     * McMurtrie's Flour and Grist Mills ("Twin Mills") is located on the south side of the Pequest in "Lower Belvidere" just upriver from Hoops old mill (Dale, 17). The mill produced over 1000 bushels of wheat daily in the later 19th c. in addition to grains and flour, which shipped out on railroad carloads by three major rail lines (Dale, 18). The McMurtrie Feed Mill experienced a memorable fire in the 1960s and it was said that firefighters shoveled 40 tons of grain out of the grain bin that was on fire (Lindsay).

George K. McMurtrie & Co. Twin Mills (c. 1840)
(WCCHA Archives)

Major Robert Hoops (1734-1806) arrived in Mercer, renaming it Belvidere, and obtained the property to the north of the Pequest until 1800 (Cummins, 113). Hoops sold the property to the south of the Pequest to Robert Morris (1734-1806), a signer of the Declaration, Continental Congressman, US Senator and Signer of the US Constitution from Philadelphia, PA. In 1780, Morris built a house on Greenwich Street for his daughter, Mrs. Mary ("Polly") Morris Croxall (1763-1824), wife of Captain Charles Moale Croxall (1756-1831) whom he conveyed by deed along with 614 acres of land in 1793, which would prevent development of that land until legislation in 1818 gave ownership of the land to four heirs in "fee simple" (Cummins, 112-113).
     * Major Robert Hoops was an "active business man" in Belvidere and owned a sawmill and a grist mill, dealing in grain, flour and produce, which were shipped to Philadelphia on the Delaware River by using Durham boats. In a letter to Richard Backhouse, Esq. of Durham, Hoops wrote, "The day you left me in the afternoon with seven hands I made a beginning and compleated [sic] Passage through the little foul Rift fit for a Boat to pass with 100 or 150 Bushels without touching..." (Cummins, 113-114). 
     * John Insley Blair, the railroad magnate, entrepreneur and philanthropist was born at Foul Rift in 1802 (Cummins, 126) and it was reported that his father, James (1769-1816), ran the dock near Foul Rift for the Oxford Furnace.
     * Major Adam Hoops (1760-1846), brother of Major Robert Hoops, served as an Aide-de-Camp to General John Sullivan during the Sullivan Expedition against the Iroquois Nation in NY (1779). 
     * Mary "Polly" Morris Croxall (1763-1824) is believed to be the illegitimate daughter of Robert Morris. Her mother's name is lost to history at this time. She married Captain Charles Moale Croxall (1756-1831) on June 12, 1781 in Baltimore, MD. He served in the Battle of Brandywine, was wounded and taken prisoners from 1775 to 1780. He was an ensign of the 11th PA troops and was originally commissioned as a first lieutenant.

Warren County Courthouse, Belvidere, date unknown.
(WCCHA Archives)

The Robert Morris tract, located south of the Pequest, consisted of 614 acres of land. It was purchased by Garret Dorset Wall (1783-1850) in 1825. Born in Middletown (Burlington Co.), Wall was an attorney in Burlington, NJ. He also served as NJ Supreme Court Clerk (1812-1817), Quartermaster General of NJ (1815-1837), member of the NJ Assembly (1827), and US Attorney for the District of New Jersey (1829). He was elected governor in 1829, but chose to not serve. Wall set aside the land for a four-acre park, County Courthouse , as well as the Methodist and Presbyterian churches situated around the park in. The deed of Garret D. Wall with the County Freeholders discusses the conditions and boundaries of the land such as, "All those two certain lots or parcels of land, situate in the village of Belvidere, in the township of Oxford and the County of Warren aforesaid, Bounded and Described as follows, - to wit: First, the Court-House Lot, Beginning at a stone on the North Side of Second Street, two chains East of the Corner of Second and Mansfield Streets, and Corner of Lot No. 28..., as designated in the town plan of Belvidere..." (Snell, 475).
     * Prior to Wall's donation of the land for the Courthouse, park and churches, there was a vote for the County Seat. Of the 2,561 votes cast, residents in several townships voted accordingly (Snell, 475):

• Belvidere (total: 1,320)
• Hope (total: 635)
• Washington (total: 511)
• Oxford Furnace (total 55)
• The Centre (total: 38)
• Hackettstown (total: 1)
• Bridgeville (total: 1)

Two years later, Wall sold the Croxall mansion to John Maxwell Sherrerd, Esq. (1794-1871)the County's first clerk. Sherrerd laid out out building lots on the rest of the tract and shortly thereafter, the town boomed. 
     * Sherrerd married Ann Clifford Maxwell (1771-1815), daughter of Captain John Maxwell (1739-1828), and niece of Gen. William "Scotch Willie" Maxwell (1733-1796) of Revolutionary War notoriety. 

The oldest building site in Belvidere is located on the northeast corner of Front and Greenwich Streets. On this site, Robert Patterson built his double log house, which lasted until 1838 when it was torn down by Major Benjamin Depue (1796-1884). In its place, the current structure stands. 
     * Depue's mother was Susannah Depue Vancampen (c. 1734-1804), daughter of Abraham VanCampen (1698-1767) and Susanna Dupuy (1698-1752) and niece of Isaac Vancampen (1708-1801) who owned a homestead along Old Mine Road in the 18th c.

 
Warren House, 301 Front Street (no date)
(WCCHA Archives)

In the Belvidere Cemetery, there are veterans from all wars, including the Revolution and Civil War. In addition, there are the Henry-Scranton family members who were associated with Oxford Furnace and Shippen Manor buried there as well. 

American Revolution.

Civil War.

 Veterans identified as verified are done so through Stryker Vol 1 & 2, NPS Soldiers & Sailors, and other resources.

On the northside of the Pequest is the Old Market Street Cemetery (also known as the Wesley Chapel Cemetery). It is currently on private property, but once was adjacent to the former Presbyterian Church (later merging with another church to create the United Presbyterian Church of Belvidere).

Civil War.

• Pvt. Moore G. Coen (1803-1895), Co. H, 15th NJ, discharged for disability at Frederick, MD on March 3, 1863.

The railroads that traversed Belvidere, including the Belvidere Delaware Railroad (Bel-Del), chartered on March 2, 1836 and constructed between 1850 and 1855 along the eastern shore of the Delaware River from Trenton to Phillipsburg and connected to the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DL&W) at Manunka Chunk in Knowlton Twp. It was an important feeder line for the Lehigh Valley Railroad and joined the Central Railroad of NJ, which was built in Phillipsburg around the same time. On 7 June 1854, the Bel-Del agreed to run the Flemington Railroad and Transportation Co., which connected the Central Railroad of NJ. In 1882, the Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad joined with the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to operate the Bel-Del from Phillipsburg to Belvidere, where the L&HR's tracks led to Maybrook, NY. 
     * CRRNJ Terminal and Ferry Terminal at Jersey City is on the State & National Registers of Historic Places.

Central Railroad of NJ Terminal at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ
[Hudson Co., NJ]

In 1955, floodwaters on the Delaware caused by Hurricane Diane washed out whole parts of the northern Bel-Del line near Route 46. In 1957, the Bel-Del merged with the United NJ Railroad & Canal Company-- with passenger service that ended on Oct 26, 1960.

Resources

"Belvidere History." Belvidere Heritage. 2018.  [Digital]

Cummins, George Wyckoff. History of Warren County, New Jersey. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1911. [Digital]

Dale, Frank. More Grist Mills. Warren County Chronicles. Book 12. September 2000. 

Historical Sites of Warren County. Warren County Board of Chosen Freeholders. 1965. 

Lindsay, Jacqueline. "Good Will Fire Co. celebrates 125 years." NJN Publishing. 16 Aug 2007. [Digital]

Mackenzie, George Norbury. Colonial Families of the United States. NY, The Grafton Press. 1907. [Digital]

"McMurtrie Family of Sussex/Warren Co., NJ." 

Soderlund, Jean R. "West New Jersey." Philadelphia Encyclopedia. [Digital]

Snell, James P., Clayton, W.W. 

"The Alfords of the United States of America." The Alford Association. [Digital]

"Wall, Garret Dorset, 1783-1850." Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. [Digital]

Blairstown Township

Incorporated by an Act of NJ Legislature on April 14, 1845

Located in the Paulinskill Valley, Blairstown had a few earlier names, but would eventually be named in honor of its local resident, John Insley Blair (1802-1899) and comprised of land from Knowlton Township.

John Insley Blair
[American Aristocracy]

As a village of just a few structures in 1755 it was referred to as “Smith's Mills" after grist and sawmill owner Benjamin Smith. In 1795, the village was called "Butts’ Bridge" after local landowner Michael Butts and later, his son Jacob Butts. Around 1825, it was now a small town and renamed to "Gravel Hill" until January 23, 1839, when the name was changed for the final time to "Blairstown.”  The hamlets of Blairstown Township include: Jacksonburg, Kalarama, Paulina, Vail, Mt. Vernon, and Walnut Valley. 

One early land purchase in what is now Blairstown Township was made by John Hyndshaw, who in 1729 purchased 1,000 (900 + 100) acres west and north of Walnut Valley creek.  The property was lying within “the last Indian purchase” made between the Lenni Lenape Indians and the Council of Proprietors of West Jersey.  Early known settlers of the area include Lodewick Ditman/Titman (Ludwig Titman, 1706-1772) who settled in 1737, Titman bought 400 acres of land at the foot of Blue Mountain. Other early settlers include John Peter Lanterman (1714 – 1794) and Charles Crisman (1756-1817) who located in the southeast section and Alexander Adams whose large parcel included 1700 acres in the southwest section. Hankinson, Diltz (Dills), Henry, Raub, Reed, Motte, and Kishpaugh are amongst the known names who settled in the mid to late 1700s.  “It is quite probable that there were white settlers in this vicinity as early as 1700” (Snell, Clayton, 637).

 John Insley Blair was born in a log cabin near the "big spring" (or "Shippen's Spring") along the Foul Rift Road just outside of Belvidere, New Jersey on August 22, 1802. His father, James* (1769-1816) worked as a foreman at Oxford Furnace’s loading dock along the Delaware River.  About 1806 James Blair changed occupations to farming, and the family moved to an ancestral farm (Beaver Brook) near Hope, NJ.  In his early teens, John I. Blair worked in Hope as a store clerk and helped his mother/siblings to run the farm after his father passed away. At age 17 he moved to Buttz Bridge (now Blairstown) to start a mercantile business with a relative. He soon became Blairstown’s postmaster amongst other leadership roles.  Blair’s life ventures took place on a national level and included banking, land development, milling, mining, manufacturing, and plantation ownership, but it was his involvement with iron mines and railroads (Lackawanna Coal & Iron Co., Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western Railroad, Warren Railroad, Western railroads and the Transcontinental Railroad) that propelled his wealth. He earned an estimated $70 million by the time of his death on December 2, 1899, and was the wealthiest man in New Jersey as a result.  With inflation taken in consideration, Blair remains the wealthiest New Jersian of all time.
     * James Blair is buried alongside his wife, Rachel Insley (1777-1857) and son,  William 1800-1866) at the First Presbyterian Church of Oxford Churchyard in Hazen. The black obelisk marking his grave was installed by John I. Blair and is a smaller version of the obelisk at the Blair family plot at the Blairstown Cemetery.

Blair Homestead with porches
[Blairstown Historical Preservation Commission]

Blairstown was served by two rail lines, and five separate stations were built to service the lines. The first rail line was the Blairstown Railway, a shortline installed by John I. Blair in 1876 (inaugural run on July 4th, 1877) from Blairstown to Delaware, New Jersey where it connected to the Old Main Line of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western.  There were four stations in Blairstown Township located at: Paulina, Blairstown, Kalarama and Vail.  The Blairstown station complex once stood where the parking area of Footbridge Park is now and contained a lumber/coal yard and creamery. 

The advent of the railroad brought a boom to the town expanding the trade and shipping business as well as the passenger service which accommodated residents, Blair Academy students, and visitors to the resorts/camps that started to dot the landscape.   By 1882 the New York, Susquehanna and Western (NYS&W) acquired the Blairstown Railway and it wasn't until 1940 that passenger and freight service by the NYS&W to Blairstown ended.  The exceptions being coal, cement and other freights that were carried by the Lehigh and New England line. In 1958 the Blairstown station was abandoned and in 1963 the NYS&W station burned down.   The tracks were removed in 1962, and in 1992 the track right-of-way was preserved by the State as the 26-mile long Paulinskill Valley Trail.  It is used today for walking, bicycling and horseback riding.  Footbridge Park was established in 1976 to commemorate the railroad during our Nation’s Bicentennial.

Susquehanna Depot, Blairstown, c. 1910
[Blairstown Historic Preservation Commission]

From 1908-1911 a second line was constructed and crossed through Blairstown. The Lackawanna Cut-Off, a high-speed, double-track rail line that traveled over 28 miles from Port Morris, NJ to Slateford, PA. It was constructed by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W) to shorten the travel time. The famous Phoebe Snow train carried passengers from Blairstown to their destinations.  The Blairstown station still exists on Route 521 about one mile south of the Route 94 intersection. On October 17, 1960, the DL&W merged with the Erie Railroad to form the Erie Lackawanna Railroad (ELRR). A decade later, due to declining revenues, passenger service over the Cut-Off was discontinued. By 1979, freight service ended and three years after that, the ELRR was absorbed by Conrail (Consolidated Railroad Corporation). 

There are several cemeteries in Blairstown, some of which have Civil War and other veterans interred.  Interred at the Blairstown Cemetery are John Insley Blair (1802-1899), several members of the Blair and Vail families as well as John Bunnell (1817-1900), founder of Blair Academy. In the Cedar Ridge Cemetery, Isaac Fonger Read (1834-1922), owner and operator of the Jacksonburg mill that produced Read's Apple Jack hard cider. Interred in the Union Brick Cemetery, the family of Susan Shippen Crisman (1784-1856), daughter of Joseph W. Shippen & Martha Axford (Shippen Manor, Oxford Furnace) is interred. In the Union Cemetery, Garrett Albertson (1735-1813) served in the French & Indian War, and also as a Major in the Revolution.
Known veterans in the Blairstown area cemeteries (French & Indian War= FIW; Revolution = AR; Civil War= CW).

Notation is made if verified if Revolutionary War veteran (Strykers or NS DAR), or Civil War (NPS Soldiers & Sailors and/or the Stryker volumes 1 or 2).

Resources

"Blairstown Historic District." The Historical Marker Database. [Digital]

"Blairstown History." Blairstown Historic Preservation Committee. Blairstown, NJ. 2025. 

Blairstown Press. (1877-2005).

Cummins, George W. "Chapter XV, Blairstown." The History of Warren County, New Jersey. 1911. [Digital]

Heilich, Frederick W. The History of the Blairstown Railway, Blairstown, NJ.  Railroadians of America. 1981.

"John Insley Blair." Blair Historic Preservation Alliance. [Digital] 

"John Insley Blair (1802-1899)." American Artistocracy. [Digital]

Koppenhaver, Robert. "The Blair Trail." Skylands Visitor. [Digital]

"Lodewick Titman." Family Search. [Digital]

Snell, James P.; Clayton, W.W., "Blairstown." The History of Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey. Philadelphia: Everts & Peck. 1881. [Digital]

Franklin Township

Incorporated by an Act of the NJ Legislature on February 15, 1839.

Franklin Township was settled prior to the Revolutionary War and was named in honor of Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).

In 1753, one of the twenty-four proprietors of East Jersey, Benjamin Warne (1753-1810), came to the area from Monmouth County with his cousins, Cornelius, Jacob and Richard Carhart and settled near Broadway on a farm named Warne Farm (currently privately owned on the corner of Mill Road and Route 57 in Broadway). He constructed a wooden gristmill along the Mill Brook after the Revolution. Later, it was replaced by a three-story stone grist. Benjamin was the cousin-in-law of Margaret "Peggy" Vliet Warne (1746-1840), whose father and brothers served in local militias during the Revolution.

The original Warne Mill (Route 57, Broadway) was constructed in the village of Broadway in c. 1753, but burned down in 1800. The next year, the current mill was constructed and continues to stand. It is a part of the official Seal of the township. Franklin Township was created from parts of Greenwich, Mansfield and Oxford Townships through an Act of the General Assembly of New Jersey (February 15, 1839). Within the township are three villages of Asbury (Hall's Mills), Broadway and New Village. 

Warne Mill, c. 1801 
(Brenda Heinrich Higgins)

The village of Asbury was settled prior to the Revolution and was formerly known as Hall's Mills, named for the Hall family that operated the grist mills along the Musconetcong River. In 1796, the village's name changed to Asbury in honor of Bishop Francis Asbury (1745-1816). In 1784, Colonel William McCullough (1759-1840), a veteran of the American Revolution, settled in Asbury and built his house on the banks of the Musconetcong (today, it is a private residence). He enlisted in 1776 in the Sussex Militia and served until 1801. When he resigned, McCullough held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. The Musconetcong River served a significant role in the establishment of this village.

Asbury was a mill town that predated the Revolution and originally called "Hall's Mills" (Dale, 22). There were originally two grist mills operating as early as 1784. One was operated by Adam Hall in 1784 and the second crushed flaxseed and produced linseed oil. In 1792, Hall sold his grist mill to  (1759-1840) in July 1776. McCullough served in the Sussex Militia and settled in Asbury upon retirement as a Lieutenant Colonel. When Bishop Asbury (1745-1816) visited Hall's Mills in 1796, the new Methodist Church was dedicated in his honor (Dale, 22).
     * Bishop Francis Asbury was a British-American Methodist minister who became one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the U.S. He spread Methodism as a part of the Second Great Awakening. 

Asbury Mill
(WCCHA)

The Asbury Methodist Episcopal Cemetery, on Main Street in Asbury has seventeen Civil War veterans buried there including, but not limited to:

Veterans that are verified through Strykers, Vol 1 & 2 or NPS Soldiers and Sailors.
Full list can be found at NJ Civil War Gravestones (Asbury Methodist Episcopal)

First Presbyterian Cemetery is associated to a now defunct First Presbyterian Church, which was built in 1868-1869 and is currently used for a multiple dwelling. 

Civil War veterans who are verified are identified. US Civil War Graves (USCWG) for more information.

In 1899, Thomas Alva Edison created the Edison Portland Cement Company venture to improve the Portland cement industry. It was located on Edison Road in New Village and supplied cement for "The Concrete Mile", the first of its kind created in the State of New Jersey, for the concrete houses (Ingersoll) and the original Yankee Stadium. The property is currently owned by Victaulic Corp, which is a galvanized plating operation. Cement used to build the original Yankee Stadium (1923-2008) was produced here.

Edison Cement Works, New Village, c. 1915
(Brenda Heinrich Higgins)

The Somerville-Easton Railroad, incorporated in 1847, extended its line by 1852 from Whitehouse Station to Easton, passing through Asbury.  Later the line was changed to Central Railroad of New Jersey.  The S&E was a key component in the expansion of the Central Railroad of NJ (CNJ). A station was built at Asbury with passenger and freight service maintained until the station was closed in October 1970.
     * The SE Railroad is currently a part of the Central Railroad of New Jersey.

The Morris Canal traversed Franklin Township and was a vital part of the state's industrial development. One of the County's canal parks includes Bread Lock Park, located along Route 57 in New Village. Visitors can see a full-size canal model and participate in the Storybook walk.

Resources

"About Franklin Township." Franklin Township. [Digital] 

"Bread Lock Park." Warren Parks. [Digital]

Cummins, George Wyckoff. The History of Warren County, NJ. 1911. [Digital]

Dale, Frank. More Grist Mills. Warren County Chronicles. Book 12, September 2000. 

"Edison Portland Cement Company, 1901-1941." The Historical Marker Database.  [Digital]

"Franklin Township Bicentennial History, 1776-1976." Franklin Township. 

Higgins, Brenda Heinrich. "Franklin Township." Franklin Township Historic Commission. 2024.

Frelinghuysen Township

Incorporated by an Act of the NJ Legislature on March 7, 1848

Created in 1848, the township was named in honor of the Honorable Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1787-1862), served as a captain of a Volunteer Militia during the War of 1812 in addition to  the attorney-general of New Jersey, a US Senator (1829-1835), and the president of Rutgers College (now University). The township was created from a part of Hardwick Township. 

The Frelinghuysen family first emigrated to New Jersey from the Netherlands in 1720 and members of the family played key and pivotal roles in both New Jersey and United States histories for over 300 years.

Beers Atlas, "Johnsonburg, Frelinghuysen", 1874
(Frelinghuysen Township Historical Society)

In 1715, Samuel "The Surveyor" Green (bc. 1676-1760) owned 1,250 acres of land on the Pequest (Lenape word for "open land") as a part of a 30,000 acre lot of Colonel Daniel Coxe IV (1673-1739), a member of the New Jersey Provincial Council in West Jersey. Green was a Freeholder and Assessor in Amwell (Hunterdon Co.) in 1723, 1726-1728, 1734-1735 before moving to Johnsonburg in Frelinghuysen.

Royal Governor Jonathan Belcher ordered that the County's courthouse and government be moved from Logg Gaol to Thomas Wolverton's tavern (Sussex Co.). Later, a courthouse and new jail were ordered built on Hairlocker's Plantation, now Newton, Sussex Co. in time for the May term of 1756.  After the jail was moved to Newton, the town was renamed as "Johnsonburg" (Cummins, 248).

 
Logg Gaol Historic Marker

In 1760, Jonathan Hampton (1711-1777), an American colonial surveyor, merchant and military officer, advertised 6,000 acres of land for sale in Hardwick about two miles from the old jail (Logg Gaol) on both sides of the "Pawling's Kill" (Paulins Kill, a 41.6 mile tributary of the Delaware River) and about a half mile from Samuel Green's grist mill (Cummins, 248).

"Two Miles to Logg Gaol" Marker, c. 1754
Allamuchy-Johnsonburg Road
(Frelinghuysen Township Historical Society)

Samuel Green (1670-1760) and his family were the first settlers in the region that became known as Hope Township. He was one of the first settlers to arrive in Frelinghuysen Township on May 17, 1715 to survey a line from Allamuchy to the cliff near the Minisink path (possibly Millbrook). He was one of the more prominent men in West Jersey and held several positions. He was appointed Deputy Surveyor General for the Province of New Jersey, and this position provided a significant amount of authority and wealth (New Jersey Project).

The communities that comprise Frelinghuysen Township, aside from Johnsonburg, include Marksboro (named for Colonel Mark Thomson*), Glovers Pond, Kerrs Corners, Shiloh Southtown, and Yellow Frame.
       * Colonel Mark Thomson (1739-1803) was the NJ representative to the US House, Sussex Co. Justice of the Peace (1773), member of the Provincial Convention (1774) and the Provincial Congress (1775), in addition to other political positions in the later part of the Revolution and afterwards. During the Revolution, he served in the 1st Regiment, Sussex County Militia (1776) and served as the colonel of the Battalion of Detached New Jersey Militia (1776). He built and owned the grist mill along the Paulins Kill (Paulinskill) before 1760. Later, he moved to Changewater in Washington Township (Lee, 345). It has not been determined if he died in Marksboro or Changewater, but was buried in the Hughes family plot in Pohatcong Twp.

One of the original three railroad stations along the Lackawanna Cut-Off was located in Johnsonburg and built by Hyde, McFarlan & Burke of Orange, NJ (Steam Shovel and Dredge, 404). It opened in 1911 and was located on the western portion of the Ramsey Fill. By 1940, the station was closed due to light passenger service and freight business. It was temporarily reopened in 1941 as a command post for the Armstrong Cut, and continued to be a flag stop on the Cut-Off until the 1960s.

Johnsonburg Lackawanna Railroad Station & Creamery, 1911.
(Frelinghuysen Township Historical Society)

There are a few cemeteries located within the boundary of Frelinghuysen and one on the boarder with Sussex County. Veterans of the American Revolution are designed with "AR" while Civil War are "CW".

Verification is from Strykers (Rev War, Civil War 1 and 2), NPS Soldiers & Sailors, or other. 

Resources

Barnickel, Don and Williams, Paula. "Touring the Lackawanna Cutoff." Skylands Visitor. [Digital] 

Cummins, George Wyckoff. The History of Warren County, NJ. 1911. [Digital]

"Frelinghuysen, Theodore, 1787-1862." Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. [Digital]

Goodspeed, Marfy. "Samuel Green of West New Jersey." Goodspeed Histories, New Jersey History and Genealogy. 20 Aug 2009.  [Digital]

"History - Hope Township." Hope Township. [Digital]

"Jonathan Hampton." Family Search. [Digital]

Lee, Francis Bazley. Genealogical and Memorial History of the State of New Jersey. Volume 1. Princeton University: Lewis Historical Publishing Co. 1910.

Natyzak, Debra. "Frelinghuysen Township." Frelinghuysen Historical Society. 2025.

"Samuel Green is part of New Jersey History." New Jersey Project. [Digital]

Steam Shovel and Dredge. International Brotherhood of Steam Shovel and Dredge Men. Volumes 21-22. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois. 1917.

Greenwich Township

Incorporated by an Act of the NJ Legislature on February 21, 1798

As one of the earliest townships in the County, Greenwich was formed prior to 1738 from Bethlehem Township (Hunterdon Co.) and is named for Greenwich, England. Originally the land of the Lenni Lenape, this township was originally a part of several counties including Hunterdon (October 9, 1738) and Morris (March 15, 1739) as county borders shifted.  Also, portions of the original township were taken to create other townships: Hardwick (1750), Mansfield (1754), Oxford (1754), Franklin (1839), Harmony (1839), and Phillipsburg (1851). Finally, Pohatcong separated into an individual township in 1882. Greenwich is comprised of Upper Stewartsville, Stewartsville (named for Thomas Stewart (1752-1836)), Coopersville, Kennedy Mills, Port Warren, and Still Valley.
     * Lt. Stewart served in the Revolution and enlisted in 1775 in Bucks Co., PA. On May 10, 1780, he was promoted to Lieutenant of Captain Jacob Shoup's Co., 4th Co. of the 2nd Battalion under the command of Lt. Col. John Keller. On May 12, 1783, he served as the lieutenant of the 3rd Battalion under the command of Lt. Col. Robert Robinson. Following the war, Stewart served as the Justice of the Peace at Greenwich for many years. He is buried in the Greenwich Presbyterian Cemetery. (Also listed as the 2nd Company of the 3rd Battalion, 1777).

In 1677, one of the earliest settlers to the area, John Cook, purchased 1,111 acres of land from the Lenni Lenape. He built a home and a mill on his property and was one of several mills in Warren County that provided feed and flour to the Continental Army during their encampment in Morristown during the Revolution ("Greenwich History"). 

Greenwich was named for "Mr. Green", a settler there before 1738. It has been locally referred to as "Green's Ridge", "Greenage", and lastly Greenwich (pronounced Green-which, not Gren-itch). There are two Greenwich Townships in New Jersey-- one in Warren and the other in Gloucester.

There are two very old burial grounds located in this township that includes the St. James "Straw" Lutheran Church and the old Greenwich Presbyterian Church.  The current structure for the Greenwich Presbyterian Church was built in 1835 to replace an earlier stone church constructed in 1775. Prior to that, the structure was a log church built in 1739 that was nearby the current church's location. Gen. Maxwell served under General Edward Braddock (1695-1755) during the French & Indian War as well as leading the 2nd NJ Battalion during the American Revolution. During the Rev War, he served in some of the more significant battles including the Quebec (1775-1776)and Philadelphia (1777) campaigns, Battle of Monmouth (1778), and the Sullivan Expedition & Campaign (1779). He was regarded by General Washington to be one of the best battlefield commanders in the American army.

Greenwich Presbyterian Church Cemetery -Revolutionary War.

Veterans confirmed by Strykers (NJ) or Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR)

Greenwich Presbyterian Church Cemetery - Civil War.

Soldiers who have been verified will have Strykers (Vol 1 or Vol 2), NPS, or US Civil War Graves (USCWG).

Greenwich Presbyterian Church, c. 1740 
(Revolutionary War New Jersey)

The cornerstone of the First Lutheran Church of Stewartsville (the "Straw Church") was laid in 1851. Originally, the church was founded in 1750 by German settlers. It was originally a log building with a thatched straw roof. On early maps, the community surrounding the church was called "Straw." The first church was replaced by a stone structure in 1790, and its cornerstone is a part of the wall surrounding the St. James Cemetery across the street. There are also veterans buried in this cemetery from the Revolutionary War through the 20th c. conflicts.

Revolutionary War veterans interred at the St. James Lutheran Cemetery on Route 22 and Uniontown Road. 

This will be updated as more veterans are identified.

All military verified through Strykers, NPS, and US Civil War Graves (USCWG]

Local mills in Greenwich supplied feed and flour to the Continental Army during the Revolution.  The Kennedy House & Mill are historic properties added to the National Register on 16 May 1996 for its significance in architecture, politics, government and industry. The area is referred to as Stewartsville, but was once called Kennedy Mills.  The two-story miller's house was built around 1815-1825 of coursed rubble stone in a Federalist architectural style. The gristmill is 2-1/2 stories and located along Pohatcong Creek. Both are private properties.

The original owner of the mill property was Robert Kennedy (1733-1812), through an inheritance from his father-in-law William Henry (1716-1756), who left his property in Greenwich to his wife and six children. By 1770, it was divided by court-order to four of his surviving children, including Elizabeth (wife of Robert).  It may have operated as early as 1764.. Kennedy was a wagon master (teamster) from 1778 to 1780, where he was in charge of five teams during the Revolution.  His property was then inherited by his only surviving son, Robert Henry (Henrie) Kennedy (1787-1859), a Judge of the Court of Common Please (1830, 1835) and represented Greenwich Township on the Warren Co. Board of Chosen Freeholders from 1832 to 1839 and i 1851. He served four terms on the Governor's Council from 1837 to 1840. During his tenure as Freeholder (1835), the bridge with stone abutments erected across the creek from the mill still stands. He also donated stone and a "liberal cash contribution" for a new church (Greenwich Presbyterian Church). After his death, the property was passed onto his Robert H.'s son, Henry Robert Kennedy (1815-1884).

Kennedy Mill, c. 1810s/1820s
Private Property
[Google]

RESOURCES

"1881 History of Warren County New Jersey Greenwich Township." New Jersey Genealogical Trails.  [Digital]

Cummins, George Wyckoff. History of Warren County, New Jersey. 1911. 

"History." Greenwich Historical Society. [Digital]

"History of St. James Lutheran Church." Straw Church. [Digital]

"Kennedy House and Mill." National Register of Historic Places. US Department of the Interior. National Park Service. 15 April 1996. [Digital]

"Old Greenwich Presbyterian Church Cemetery." Revolutionary War New Jersey.  [Digital]

Sikra, James. "Greenwich Township." Greenwich Historical Society. 2025.

Stryker, William Scudder. General Maxwell's Brigade of the New Jersey Continental Line In the Expedition Against the Indians, in the Year 1779. Trenton: W.S. Sharp Printing Co., 1885. [Digital]

Hackettstown

Incorporated by an Act of the NJ Legislature on March 9, 1853

Before its incorporation, Hackettstown was a part of Independence Township. It is surrounded by Schooley's Mountain (South), Buck's Hill (North, West), and the Musconetcong River (East, South). During the canal era, the Morris Canal traveled along its northwestern border, crossing modern Route 46 before connecting with Waterloo Road. The town was named for the earliest and largest landowner of the time, Samuel Hackett (Cummins, 148).

Originally settled by Obadiah Ayers (bc. 1720), who arrived to the area from Basking Ridge with his wife, Dorothy Langdon in about 1754 and purchased 1200 acres from the heirs of Thomas Lambert (Frank & Lemasters, 1; "Chronology", 1). From 1754-1766, John Hackett purchased land from Obadiah Ayers and others in modern Hackettstown and surrounding townships. After John Hackett's death, the name "Hacketts-Town" appeared on a deed in 1767. During the Revolutionary War, many men from the town fought in the armed services. Captain William Helms led a company of men into battle. He owned a mill near the Musconetcong River.
     * Helms was breveted a Major General of the NJ Militia (1801-1811). 

In a letter to Gen. Washington, Captain Helms wrote from New Town (Sussex) on 1 July 1780, "Sir. I inform your Excellency I was sent here by Order of General Maxwell in consiquence of your Orders to him, to request the Officers of Milittia to furnish a Guard Sufficient for the security of the Stores at this place & Hackts Town, I have made applycation. Accordingly but have got but a very Insufficient number and those under bad regulations as I find it Impracticable to keep them from running home. The Colonels of Milittia complain of the Multiplysity of buisness they have at present on their hands, men to raise for the Army likewise for the defence of their Frontiers, this they fear will put it out of their power to furnish me with the men required - Should look upon a small number of Continental Troops a greater security than any number of Milittia I can collect, as men so near home will not be under any regulation... (Wm Helms Capt. 2d Regt J)."

On the 1769 map, the town was called "Halketstown", but it was named Helms' Mills or Musconetcong prior to that. The Helms family owned a mill ("Helms Mill") on the Musconetcong. Helms Mill was the first of its kind in the area and was built prior to 1764. Later a more modern mill was built on the Helms site and was called Youngblood and also later, Gruendyke. It also operated as an ice house. The mill itself ran for over 100 years before it was damaged by fire and torn down.
     * Most likely the transcriber misread the name of the town as Halketstown.

Youngblood/Gruendyke Mill, c. 1920s
Site of Helms Mill (18th c.)
(WCCHA Archives)

Formerly located on Main Street, on the side of a modern building, is a plaque that identifies the site of the home of Lt. and Mrs. Robert Wilson. Due to poor health, Lt. Wilson (1751-1779), an Irish immigrant, left the Continental Army in 1775 after a brief period of service as a muster-master general. In 1776, he married Martha Stewart (1757-1852), the daughter of Col. Charles Stewart (1729-1800), the lieutenant colonel of the Hunterdon Co. Militia (1771), colonel of a battalion of Minutemen (1776), commissary general of issues by the Continental Congress (1777), member of the Continental Congress (1784, 1785). The Wilsons purchased the property on Main Street and built their house. Two years later, in 1779, Wilson died at the age of 28, leaving his wife a widow at age twenty.  

In the center of the crossroads, the Warren House (now David's Country Inn), named for General Joseph Warren (1741-1775) who died at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775. It was originally constructed of logs (1787). The current structure was built in 1840 and the building served as an inn for 152 years. In the 1920s, the "Warren House" served as a tavern ("Our History").

Warren House (early 20th c.) & Billy Yank Statue (Civil War)
Currently, David's Country Inn
(WCCHA Archives)

     * Billy Yank, the personification of a US soldier during the Civil War. In Hackettstown, was a monument planned in Hackettstown in honor of Captain Holt's Company and Co. B, 15th NJ Volunteers. Thirty years after the soldiers return home from war, the town erected the monument. The town contracted J.W. Fiske Iron Works (NYC) to design and assemble the 19-foot tribute to the hometown Civil War heroes. Atop of the monument is a life-sized statue of a Civil War soldiers. The base included "a drinking fountain for humans, basins for horses and a smaller area for dogs." Monies were collected from three sources- the Hackettstown Area School Children Monument Penny Collection ($300), local businesses ($200) and the Hackettstown Town Council ($200). In 1896, Hackettstown's school children collected 30,000 pennies. On 29 December 1926, a court order was given to state was topple Billy Yank and the metal sold for scrap in order to widen Route 46. In May 1998, land was donated by Valley National Bank, Warren County and the State to reinstall the statue on the bank's property ("The Story of 'Billy Yank'").
      * J.W. Fiske & Co. of NYC produced decorative cast iron and zinc during the second half of the 19th c. in addition to garden fountains and urns, in addition to many of the cast-zinc Civil War memorials throughout the north. 

The American House, which was located on the corner of Main and High Streets, was the town's first tavern. In 1767, David Reynolds built a two-room log structure. Found guilty of passing counterfeit monies to a peddler, Reynolds was hanged for his crimes in Morristown (Morris County) and left his wife to run the business. In 1823, she sold it to Jacob Sharp, who replaced the log cabin with a five-room stone and wood structure ("The Betsy Sharp Hotel"), named in honor of his daughter. Over the next six decades, ownership of this business changed several times and by 1840, it was called "The Musconetcong Hotel." Eleven years later, James A. Hamilton bought the property and ran it until his death in 1854. It was then sold to Caleb A. Fairclo until 1860 when it was obtained by Peter Churchill, who built a three-story colonial structure ("The American House").  Col. Caleb H. Valentine (1838-1886)  and John Welsh owned the business from 1871 to 1875. Four years later, it was owned by Reuel McCracken (the son of hotelier, William McCracken), who ran it until his death in 1922. Afterwards, his daughter Minnie and her husband Alonzo Herrick acquired ownership. By 1930, the hotel was sold for the final time and eventually torn down.
     * Caleb Fairclo was one of the town's oldest and most respected citizens. He was born in Chester (Morris Co) and lived on Grand Ave. in Hackettstown. He was the proprietor of the American House and a Justice of the Peace. [Fairclo Obituary]

American House, Hackettstown, NJ
(Hackettstown Through the Years, Facebook)

Formerly located at the site of 176 Main Street was the Lt. Robert Wilson's house. Wilson (d. 1779/1780), an Irish immigrant, was a successful Philadelphia merchant who joined the army following the report of the Battles of Lexington and Concord (MA). When Washington was named "Commander-in-Chief" of the Continental Army by the Congress in Philadelphia (June 1775), Wilson was appointed as one of his aides-de-camp on his way to take command of the army in Cambridge, MA. Wilson's poor health eventually led him to resign his commission and by 1779, the 29-year old Lieutenant passed away. His wife, Mrs. Martha Stewart Wilson (1758-1852) was a 20-year old widow. Due to her father's position in the Army, Mrs. Wilson entertained many Revolutionary War figures in Hackettstown and her father's house in Hunterdon Co., including Gen. and Mrs. George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, the Marquis de Lafayette, Nathaniel Green, Horatio Gates, Gen. William Maxwell and Gen. Casimir Pulaski.
     * Mrs. Wilson was the daughter of Col. Charles Stewart (1729-1800), who was an Irish immigrant (Gortlea, County Donegal, Ireland) who came to the American colonies in 1750. He was a farmer who served in the Revolution, first commissioned as a lieutenant colonel of the Hunterdon Co. militia, then commissioned colonel of a battalion of Minutemen, appointed Commissary General of Issues by the Continental Congress, delegate to the Continental Congress, died in Flemington (Hunterdon Co., NJ) and buried in the Old Bethlehem Presbyterian Churchyard in Hunterdon Co., NJ. Mrs. Wilson doesn't appear to have remarried and is buried in the Lakewood Cemetery in Cooperstown, NY.  She had one child with her husband named Margaretta Matilda Wilson Bowers (1778-1872).

Located "on the hill", Centenary University, is a private university that was originally founded as a preparatory school by the Newark Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1867 (Centenary Collegiate Institute). By 1940, the school had emerged into a junior college (Centenary Junior College) and sixteen years later, became the Centenary College for Women. In 1976, Centenary College become a coeducational university and acquired university status in 2016. In 1886, a 19-year old kitchen maid employed by CCI named Matilda "Tillie" Smith (1866-1886) was attacked and murdered in a field just off of the campus. A janitor at Centenary Collegiate Institute by the name of James J. Titus  (1857-1952) was convicted of her murder (although the case was based primarily on circumstantial evidence and thereby still considered controversial). The townspeople raised money to pay for Tillie's burial in a "pauper's grave" on the hilltop in the Union Cemetery. Later, the people of Hackettstown erected the current monument over her grave. On the stone is the inscription, "She died in defence of her honor, Apr. 8, 1886, aged 19 years. Erected by an appreciative public."  Titus was supposed to be executed by hanging, but he signed a confession and served 19 years in prison instead. He was paroled in December 1904.      * Centenary commemorated 100 years of Methodism in the United States. The college was built for $200,000 and its first president was George H. Whitney, D.D. (1830-1913), who served in this capacity from 1869 to 1895 ("A Noble History Continues").

The Fire, October 31, 1899
(Taylor Memorial Library, Centenary University)

Shortly before midnight on October 31, 1899, the 25th anniversary of the Centenary Collegiate Institute, a fire started in the main building. The origin of the fire is unknown, but possibly contributed to spontaneous combustion of painters' supplies that were stored too closely to the boiler room in the building's basement. By 2 am, the bell in the clock tower tolled for its final time before falling to the ground. Two hours later, the entire building was destroyed. Across the campus, two gymnasiums (women, men), the chemical laboratory, barn and ice house survived the fire. Students were sent home for the time being. Not willing to relent, the Board of Trustees and College President announced that the fall term would continue. On November 20th, classes resumed in local hotels, resorts, and even private homes, which served as classrooms and dormitories. Each new "hall" was named for a professor to help people differentiate the buildings from one another. The chapels on Main Street provided meals and recitation. On December 1, 1900, the cornerstone for the new building (later named "Seay" after Edward Wythe Seay (1911-1984)) was laid and the following September, the college reopened even though the chapel and recitation rooms were still under construction ("All Hallow's Even Morning"). The Seay Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its significant and notable architecture.

In the 1830s, the Morris Canal traversed through part of Hackettstown and a store and other structures were located at Harvey Street in the northern part of town that served as a stop on the canal. It traveled along Buck Hill area until it crossed modern Route 46 and headed towards Bilby Road and later, Saxton Falls and Waterloo Village. 

West under Main Street (Rt. 46) bridge.
Mitchell/Harvey canal store in distance with canal warehouse to left of bridge.
(Canal Society of NJ)

There are two cemeteries in the Hackettstown area: Old Presbyterian Burial Ground and Union Cemetery. In the Old Presbyterian Burial Ground there are 29 Revolutionary War and ten (10) War of 1812 Veterans on land donated by Obadiah Ayres. The Union Cemetery, which was established in 1857 and has 74 Civil War burials. 

Olde Presbyterian Burial Ground - Revolutionary War (AM) and War of 1812 (W1812) 

 Veterans confirmed with Stryker book and NSDAR.
Revolutionary War Sites in Hackettstown "Old Presbyterian Burial Ground."

Union Cemetery - Civil War

 Veterans that are identified were verified in Stryker Vol 1 & 2, NPS Soldiers & Sailors, and other sources.

 The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W) had a large station in town for the Old Main alignment. This 1868 station was a large wooden structure that stood until passenger service for most of the Erie-Lackawanna branch was terminated in 1966. A three-stall brick engine house and a 54-foot turntable.

Some of the early industries in Hackettstown included an old brewery (Silas S. Harvey, 1835), the Old Crane Mill (W. T. Hardy, 1795-1816, Ross Crane and sons, 1816-1896, Johnny P. Hoffman, 1896-1902, Warren Beaty, 1902-1937 when destroyed by fire). This mill is often called the other Beaty mill (the site was located between the Union Cemetery and East Avenue along the Musconetcong River) (Hackettstown Centennial, 28). In addition, there was the carriage manufacturing, run by Jacob Day (1815-1840). The American Sawmill Machinery Co. (1885-1904), also "American Wood Working Machinery Co.", which was an important producer of circular sawmills and general-purpose woodworking machinery (1903-1960s). In addition, there was the Carteret Iron Works (or Carteret Steel Co.), which was in operation from the 1880s to the early 1900s (Hackettstown Centennial, 30). The factory had separate sections for the processing of iron and zinc. The works, located off Grand Ave., was near the one lane railroad bridge. In 1888, the Hackettstown Manufacturing Co. was formed with a number of local business men for the purpose of operating a silk mill. This plant was located on modern-Franklin St. and extended to Maple Avenue. Years later, majority interest was obtained by William H. Ashley and it continued to run as the W.H. Ashley Silk Throwing Co. (Hackettstown Centennial, 30). Lastly, the Hackettstown Hat Works was built in 1895 and manufactured "men's soft felt hats" and was located on the east side of the Lackawanna Railroad, near the High Street crossing. The factory was "completed destroyed by fire on 5 June 1913 and was never rebuilt" (Hackettstown Centennial, 31).

American Saw Mill Machinery Co.
(Hackettstown, NJ)

The railroad came to Hackettstown in the 1830s and many men in town found employment on the tracks and trains. The Lackawanna Railroad bought up small and weak lines to connect Hoboken, NJ with Buffalo, NY. The Morris and Essex line was incorporated on 29 January 1835 to connect Hoboken to Phillipsburg. In 1854, the road (modern-day Route 46) opened from Dover to Hackettstown, and continued to Phillipsburg by 1866. The Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad consolidated in 1873 and followed the East Branch of the Susquehanna River from Northumberland to Scranton, PA. The first freight train was purchased in 1848 and transported anthracite coal (Hackettstown Centennial, 43-45).

On 17 June 1925, the worst train accident in this area occurred at Rockport (Mansfield Twp.), resulting in 52 deaths and many injuries (Hackettstown Centennial, 45). See "Mansfield Township."  A violent storm washed out debris onto a grade crossing, resulting in the Extra 1104 to derail, which killed fifty people. 

Resources.

"All Hallow's Eve Morning." Taylor Memorial Library Archives. Centenary University.  [Digital]

"A Noble History Continues." Taylor Memorial Library Archives. Centenary University. [Digital]

Brock, Donna. "The American House." Historic Hackettstown. [Digital]

Brock, Donna. "The Story of 'Billy Yank.'" Historic Hackettstown. [Digital]

"Captain William Helps to George Washington, 1 July 1780." Founders Online. National Archives. [Digital]

"Chronological History of Hackettstown." Town of Hackettstown. [Digital]

Cummins, George Wyckoff. The History of Warren County, New Jersey. 1911.

Frank, Leonard and Lemasters, Raymond. Historic Main Street, Hackettstown, NJ. Easton, PA: Harmony Press, Inc. 2006.

"Hackettstown, N.J. Centennial, 1853-1953." Town of Hackettstown. 1953. [Digital]

Nunn, J. Harold. The Story of Hackettstown, New Jersey 1754-1955. Easton, PA: Correll Printing Co., 1955. [Digital]

"Our History." David's Country Inn. [Digital]

"Revolutionary War Sites in Hackettstown, New Jersey." Revolutionary War New Jersey. [Digital]

"Telegraph Call: Q." DL&W Old Main. [Digital]

Hardwick Township

Established by Royal Charter on January 22, 1750 and incorporated by an Act of the NJ Legislature in February 21, 1798.
Pahaquarry Township was merged into Hardwick in 1997.

Hardwick was a part of a tract of land purchased from the Lenape people in 1713, which included "thirteen guns, 24 glass bottles, 21 gallons of rum" in addition to other items ("Hardwick Township", 5). The township was established by Royal Charter in 1749 when George II "decreed that the lands be given to inhabitants" (Vass Farmstead). Originally, Hardwick was one of the oldest townships in Warren County and at some point included all of Frelinghuysen, Allamuchy, Hackettstown, Independence, and Stillwater and Green in Sussex Counties. In 1782, Independence (including Allamuchy, Hackettstown and Green) were formed from it (Cummins, 155).

Hardwick Township (1854)

In 1737, William Penn's agents obtained lands of the Minsi (Lenape) of the Minisink Valley in what became the "Walking Purchase". The Minsi were duped into surrendering more land than they planned to and this resulted in animosity that led to the 1755 war party that attacked settlers in what is now Hardwick. The settlers in "the southeastern and northwestern slopes of the Blue Mountains fortified their houses by building stockades around them" and a few Minsi still living in the area lived peacefully most of the time ("Hardwick Township", 6). 

Treaty of Easton, 1758
[Bucks County]

Of the few settlers that arrived to Hardwick in 1735, a few were Quakers who came from Maiden Creek, PA and Crosswicks, NJ.  Frederick Isaac Snover, Sr. (1743-1830) and Jacob Snover moved to this area in 1735 and settled on a large tract of land in the western part of Hardwick. Frederick served in the Continental Army during the Revolution and received pay during August 1779 to 1787. 
      * Frederick is listed in the D.A.R. (Chinkchewunska Chapter, NSDAR, Wantage, NJ) and is buried in the Old Stillwater Cemetery, Stillwater, NJ. He was also a constable for Hardwick Township (1776) and a member of Hardwick Lutheran Church (Stillwater).  

The original settlers to this area in 1742 was John Peter Bernhardt (1688-1748), his daughters, and son-in-law Rev. Dr. Caspar Shafer (1711-1784). They traveled north on the Delaware and Paullins Kill (Paulinskill) from Philadelphia and settled in "old Hardwick" or modern Stillwater (Cummins, 155). After settling, Shafer erected a grist mill along the Paulins Kill in 1764, this mill ground 3 to 5 bushels of flour per day. Later, he built a saw mill, oil mill, and tannery on the site. Shafer served on the Committee of Safety (Sussex County) in 1775 and was given the authority to raise £10,000 for arms and ammunition (Shafer & Johnson, 10). He was also a delegate for Sussex County (which also included the area of Warren) to the Provincial Congress (1776) and the Continental Congress (1776). In addition, Shafer sat in the State Assembly in 1777, 1778, and 1779 (Shafer & Johnson, 13-14).
     * John Peter Bernhard (alternative spelling) and Caspar Shaver/Schaeffer (alternative spelling)
     * Schaeffer, Casper. Memoirs and Reminiscences together with Sketches of the Early History of Sussex County, NJ. Hackensack, NJ: 1907. [Digital]

The Vass House, located on Stillwater Road across from White Lake, was built around 1812 by Jon Vass, a German immigrant that arrived in Philadelphia before arriving in the Hardwick area. He was initially "bound out" or indentured when he came of age. Very little information detailed his early life. In 1802, John Vass (who was 38 years of age, purchased 548.5 acres of land in Hardwick Township from the executors of the Estate of Martin Swartwelder [Schwartswalder] (1725-1795), "paid $1,355 in 'gold and specie' for the land which included the Vass Farmstead property and access to White Lake. Eight years later he purchased another 7.5 acres located on the southwest side of his property giving another point of access to White Lake." ("The Vass Farmstead"). Vass' son, Isaac S. Vass (1817-1893) inherited his father's farm after his death in 1852. Isaac was a constable (1848), tax collector, and Justice of the Peace. He was also involved in the Township Committee (Dale). 

 Vass House, no date.
(Hardwick Township Historical Society)

Across Stillwater Road is White Lake and the ruins of the Marl Works was involved in mining and processing marl (shells of a mollusk), which was then used in agriculture as fertilizer and in cesspools in larger cities. This site also had an ice cutting factory and warehouse where the Knickerbocker Ice Company of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) purchased a small piece of lakefront property along the southern shore of White Lake (former White Pond). During the season, the ice warehouse, which was "26 feet long, 100 feet wide, and 32 feet high" was the largest structure in the area and would hold up to 20,000 tons of ice (Dale).
      *Johann Wass (1764-1852), who later changed to John Vass, was the former husband of Swartwelder's deceased daughter, Mary Magdalena Swartzwelder(1766-1802) (National Register, 13; Family Search).

Marl Works, White Lake
[Metrotrails]

The Spring Valley Christian Church Cemetery, located along Spring Valley Road, once served the people of this area and was comprised of an 1840 church and corresponding cemetery with about two dozen known graves. It was a part of the "Christian Connection", which was a part of a Christian movement in the US that developed during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was composed of members that left other denominations and the church itself relied strictly upon the Bible instead of a creed. 
     * There are no known veterans buried in this cemetery.

Spring Valley Christian Church Site 
Greek Revival-style building, built in 1840
(Jerrey & Roy Klotz, MD)

Hardwick is a rural township in Warren County that lacks a town center and is comprised of smaller unincorporated communities (Bass Lake, Franklin Grove, Hardwick, Hardwick Center, Millbrook, Newbakers Corner, Sand Pond, Squares Corner, and White Pond/Lake), historical sites, and natural areas that are a part of Worthington State Forest and the Delaware Water Gap National Recreational Area (DWGNRA). There are still families in the area with ties to the earlier settlers: Crismans, Motts, Shusters, Hooseys, Shipps, and Wildricks ("Historical Sites", 71).

On July 2, 1997, Pahaquarry Township was dissolved and merged into Hardwick as a combined result of the Tocks Island Dam project and the decrease in residents. Pahaquarry was one of the earlier townships in Sussex and later, Warren County. The name comes from Pahaqualong, a Lenape word that means "the place between the mountains beside the waters" ("Languages of the Park"). Prior to its formation, Pahaquarry was a part of Walpack until November 20, 1824 when Warren separated from Sussex County. Mount Tammany, named for the Lenape chief Tamenund (c. 1625-c.1770), is six miles long and 1,500 feet tall. It is located at the southern entrance of the Delaware Water Gap, opposite Mount Minsi in Pennsylvania.  

It was believed by some that the copper mines here were originally founded by the Dutch settlers of New Netherland in the 1650s, who then built Old Mine Road* that traveled 104-miles to Esopus, New York for the transportation of the ore. This has not been proven emphatically. Mining did occur in Pahaquarry from about 1750 to 1910. The earliest reports are in the 1750s when John Reading, III (1686-1767)and his partners purchased the land along Mine Brook in Walpack Township (Sussex County), along the Delaware. There were periods of inactivity, until 1901 when the Montgomery Gold Leaf Mining Company (Henry and Oliver Deshler of Belvidere) purchased the assets of the Alleghany Mining Company. The company struggled and reorganized in 1904, but during the next few years, they were only able to produce three ingots of refined copper. In 1928, the last of the mining equipment was removed and thus ending mining in Pahaquarry. According to US Census records, in 1930, there were 80 residents in Pahaquarry. By the time the township is dissolved, it consisted of 20 residents in five households ("Table 6. New Jersey Resident Population by Municipality").
      ^*John Reading, Jr. (1657-1717), was the first white landowner in Hunterdon County. His son, Governor John Reading (1686-1767) served in 1747 and again from September 1757 to June 1758. His youngest son, Thomas, was originally Captain of the 6th Company (3rd Battallion or Jersey Brigade) from February 1774 and served until the end of the war where he was promoted to Major of the 1st Regiment.
       *In George Wyckoff Cummin's book, The History of Warren County, New Jersey (1911), he states that the Dutch mined this area and send the ore to Esopus (NY) and then onto Holland (221). Some of the smaller communities in Pahaquarry included: Brotzmansville, Dimmick's Ferry and Dunfield (Cummins, 225).
     * The "Old Mine Road" is one of the oldest interstate highways in America. The Old Mine Road, by Professor C.G.  Hine (1963) states that the Old Mine Road is seen as the first road in American and was built three hundred years ago by the Dutch settlers so they could access the mines and transport the product to Holland via Eposus, NY.

Old Mine Road
[Legends of America]

Pahaquarry has two cemeteries: Calno-VanCampen Cemetery and DePue Burying Ground that have veterans from the War of 1812 (W1812) and the Civil War (CW) interred in them.

 Veterans will be verified with one or more of the following: Strykers Vol 1, Vol 2; NPS Soldiers & Sailors, Record of Officers & Men of NJ in the War with Great Britain, 1812-1815, and others.

Resources:

"1802 Deed, Martin Swartzwaller." Sussex County. Family Search. [Digital]

"Casper Shafer's Family in America- About Casper." Historic Stillwater.  [Digital] 

Cummins, George Wyckoff. The History of Warren County, New Jersey. 1911.

Dale, Frank. "On White Pond." Skylands. [Digital]

Historical Sites of Warren County, NJ. Board of Chosen Freeholders. 1965.

"Languages of the Park." Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area NJ, PA. National Park Service. [Digital]

"Martin Schwartswaelder." Family Search.  [Digital]

"Mary Magdalene Swartzwelder." Family Search. [Digital]

"Pahaquarry: What became of it and its inhabitants?"  [Digital]

Schaeffer, Caspar Rev. and Johnson, William M. Memoirs and Reminiscences: Together with Sketches of the Early History of Sussex County, New Jersey. 1907. Hackensack, NJ.  [Digital]

"Table 6. New Jersey Resident Population by Municipality." Pahaquarry, Warren Co. [Digital]

"The History of the Delaware Nation." Delaware Nation. [Digital]

"The Vass Farmstead." [Digital]

"The Vass House." National Register of Historic Places. 1999. [Digital]

Harmony Township

Incorporated on 8 April 1839 through an Act of the New Jersey Legislature

Harmony Township was originally a part of Greenwich and Oxford Townships and later lost a portion of its territory when Phillipsburg was formed (Cummins, 159). The incorporation of this township was a result of a referendum held that day. The township was named in honor of Harmanus "Harmon" Shipman (1717-1805), an early settler who was born in Franklin Township, Somerset County.
Harmon Shipman's four sons^** (Nicolas (1758-1827), William V., Sr. (1756-1841), John (c. 1760-1834) and Christian (c. 1760-after 1843)) served in the Revolution. 

     * Reading was the Justice of the Peace for Hunterdon County (1755), the Representative of Hunterdon County in the Colonial Assembly (1761-1765), Surrogate of Hunterdon County (1774), and the son of Governor John Reading (1686-1767).
     ⁺ The family's name is also spelled Vannattas, Van Etten, Vanatto, and Vanetta.
     ^{^} Joseph Kirkbride from Bucks County, PA, obtained a land grant before 1723 for 1,250 acres (Dalrymple, 13).
     ** Harmon may have served in the Revolution. His sons were veterans: Nicolas/Nicholas was 16 when he enlisted as a private in the New Jersey Rifles and remained with them until the end of the war. William V. may have been a substitute for his brother, John.  John enlisted under Colonel Bond and joined the Sullivan Expedition in Wyoming, PA. Christian served as a private under Captain Clifford, Sussex Co. Militia. 

William Penn had 1,735 acres surveyed that extended to the foot of Foul Rift to Hutchinson's and was sold by Penn's heirs on December 30, 1740 to Jacobus Vanetta*, who divided the land amongst his five brothers. The fertile valley was subdivided a few more times until the 1770s. The Vannattas are descended from a Dutch family that emigrated to Raritan (Hunterdon County) before purchasing 1,735 acres of land from William Penn's heirs. The earliest deed of record^ was to  Col. George W. Reading, Sr. (1725-1792) in 1750. Twenty years later, the Vannatta brothers (Jacobus (1733-1780), Johannes (b. 1736/37), Benjamin (b. 1730),  Thomas and Peter) settled near Rocksburg (Roxburg) (Cummins, 161-162).

Johannes (1782-1862) owned a farm near the foot of Foul Rift, near a large spring, and gave a deed for one-acre to Jonathan Robeson (1695-1766) in 1744 to be used as a wharf. He was a soldier in the Revolution and later moved from Harmony to Ohio (Cummins, 162).
     * Jonathan Robeson was in a partnership with the Shippens and is responsible for building the original Oxford Furnace before selling his shares to Dr. William Shippen, Sr. and going to Changewater to run the furnace/forge there. The wharf was owned by the Oxford Furnace owners and was located just below Foul Rift. The boats were used to transport materials from the Oxford Furnace to Philadelphia and all points between.

Hutchinson Road, 1944
(Harmony Twp. Historical Society)

The Belvidere-Delaware Railroad (Bel-Del) traveled along the Delaware River from Trenton to Phillipsburg to Manunka Chunk. This was an important feeder line for both the Lehigh Valley Railroad and Central Railroad of NJ.  It was formed on March 2, 1836 by state charter and endorsed by the Camden and Amboy Railroad (C&A) and provided access to coal and iron traffic from PA to the C&A.  In 1850, the construction of the Bel-Del line began in Trenton. By 1855, it had reached Phillipsburg and Belvidere and connected with the DL&W. It served as a general purpose railroad and freight traffic included produce, lumber and merchandise in addition to coal and iron products. By 1871, it had two dozen engines, a small passenger fleet and hundreds of pieces of rolling stock. The Pennsylvania railroad (PARR) leased the Bel-Del and incorporated it into its rail lines ("The Belvidere Delaware Railroad").
     * The Bel-Del line and the Lehigh & Hudson River Railroad (LHRR) formed a major route from the South to New England. It was an important route for passenger and excursion trains as well as for freight. In 1995, the Black River & Western Railroad purchased the Bel-Del line from Conrail and it became the "Belvidere & Delaware River Railway." 

American Revolution (AR) & Civil War (CW) veterans.

 Stryker Vol 1 & 2, NPS Soldiers & Sailors, NJ Civil War Gravestones and other resources used to verify these veterans.

There are distinct communities within Harmony Township that includes Upper and Lower Harmony, Brainards, Montana (Scott's or Montana Mountain), Harmony Station, Hutchinson Station,  and Rocksburg (Roxburg, Rocksburgh) ("Harmony"; Dalrymple, 12). 
     * The crossroads by Tiptons Tavern (Roxburg) is just south of the homestead of Alexander White (White Twp.) and was settled in the early 19th c. by John Young ("Youngsville").

Lanark Inn, late 19th c.
Formerly the Roxburg Hotel (early 19th c.)
Present-day Tiptons Tavern 
(Harmony Twp. Historical Society)

RESOURCES

Brainerd, David. The Life and Diary of David Brainerd. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1989.  [Digital] 

Cummins, George Wyckoff. The History of Warren County, NJ. 1911.

Dalrymple, Jr., Richard H. Harmony Township New Jersey: Its historic communities and some of its oldest families. Ragged Ridge Press: 2021.

"Harmony." Harmony Township Historic Commission. 2 Nov 2024.

"Johannes M. Vanatta." Our Family Genealogy. [Digital]

Markey, Jessica R. "The Life and Legacy of Moses Tunda Tatamy, c. 1695- c.1761: An Indigenous Response to Colonialism in Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania." Esther G. Maynor Honors College. University of North Carolina. Dec 2017. [Digital]

Osborne, Kate Hamilton and Robeson, Susan Stroud. An historical and genealogical account of Andrew Robeson, of Scotland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and of his descendants from 1653 to 1916. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1916. [Digital] 

Scott, Eva Alice. Jacobus Jansen Van Etten. Youngstown, OH: 1950. [Digital]

Shipman, L. "Shipman Roots." Ancestry. 27 July 2009. [Digital]

Snyder, John P. The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606-1968. Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. 

"The Belvidere Delaware Railroad." NJ Railroad. [Digital]

Hope Township

Incorporated by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 8, 1839.

Hope Township was created from portions of Knowlton and Oxford. On March 25, 1926, portions of the township were used to create Liberty Township. 

As one of the earliest planned communities in the United States, Hope (originally called "Greenland") was established by Moravians in 1769 and were instrumental in the design of the town from the layout of the streets, houses, businesses, wells, farm, schoolhouse, tavern and church. Prior to the Moravians, this area was farmed by several families, but no established community was created. Two of the earliest families were Samuel Green, Jr. (c. 1670-1760) in the 1750s, and Samuel Howell (possibly 1723-1807) in 1767.
     * Samuel Green, "The Surveyor", was the son of Richard Peter Greene, Esq. (1652-1711) and Ann Quincy (1653-1739). He and his family were the first settlers of Hope. He and two companions arrived in Frelinghuysen Township on May 17, 1715 and surveyed a line to Allamuchy.

 During the 1760s, Moravians from Bethlehem, PA traveled through Hope on their way to New England to establish new communities. They would stay overnight with the Green family as they were impressed with their way of life.

The Worbass family were guests of the Greens until a log house for them could be constructed. He was the first manager of the Moravian settlement until he moved back to Pennsylvania a year later and Frederick Rouchemberger, his assistant, replaced Worbass as manager ("Moravian Contribution", 3). Once the settlers began to arrive, they built their first building, the Gristmill, which sent grain to George Washington's troops in Morristown. By 1774, the settlement was comprised of several farms, a brick and lime kiln, a tannery, brewery and distillery, an Inn (which was a meeting place and house of worship). The community grew and during the Revolution, it added a pottery, wheelwright shop, blacksmith shop, two sawmills, a linen weaving enterprise and an oil mill ("Village of Hope"). 

Joseph Swayze, Jr. (1766-1858), a relative of an early settler to the area, erected a grist and saw mill ("Swayze Grist Mill") a mile and a half away from the town center, along Muddy Brook in Hope. The ruins can be seen from the road and are on private property.

Swayze Grist & Saw Mill ruins, 1787-1874
Swayze Mill Road (private property)
(millpictures.com)

By 1781, the cornerstone was laid for a new Gemeinhaus (Moravian Church) that was used for religious services and other meetings. The plan for a self-sustaining community did not come to fruition as they were continually looking for financial support from the church. Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760), of Saxony, who was the Moravian's patron and leader, was very much in debt himself. When he died, the funds to support Hope were no longer available. The last act of the Moravians was the Service Worship in the Gemeinhaus on Easter Sunday, April 17, 1808.  Following the sale of the Moravian settlement of Hope, the settlers moved back to Bethlehem or Nazareth, Pennsylvania. ("Village of Hope"). 

Hope Township experienced two major periods of growth during the 19th c. There were also two major fires (1835, 1918) that destroyed much of the historic Village. With the loss of buildings, roads were revamped to create the modern intersection of Routes 519 and 521. Little had changed in terms to the structure or population of the town since.

 Veterans of the Revolutionary War (AR) and Civil War (CW) who are buried in the two Hope cemeteries include, but are not limited to:

Those verified with digital records will be from the Revolution (Strykers), Civil War from NPS Soldiers & Sailors (NPS), Stryker's NJ Civil War Records (Strykers 1 or Strykers 2), or other.

In addition to the town center, Hope Township consists of Feebletown, Locust Lake, Mount Herman, and Swayzes Mill.

RESOURCES:

Antonoff, Paul S. "The Moravian Village of Hope is Marked as a Historic Site." New York Times. 7 Oct 1973. [Digital] 

"Hope District- National Register of Historic Places Inventory." National Parks Service.  [Digital]

Langley, Barbara K., ed. "Hope: A Moravian Experience, 1769-1994, 225th Anniversary." Draft Copy. 21 Oct 1994.

"Moravian Contribution to the town of Hope, New Jersey." Hope Historical Society. 1955. 

"Village of Hope." Hope Historic Preservation Commission. 2025.

Independence Township

Incorporated by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 21, 1798.

Independence was named in 1782 that was originally known as "Lower Hardwick" for several years until it was divided from Hardwick in 1782. Land from Independence was used to create Green in Sussex Co. (1824), Hackettstown (1853), and Allamuchy (1872). The township was named in honor of American independence from Great Britain in 1782.

View of Vienna & Great Meadows (no date)
(Hackettstown Over the Years) 

In the New Jersey Geological and Water Survey (Report 43), there is an article about the Garden State Mastodons, some of which are located in the County. In only pond in the township ("Mastodon Pond") was located in this township . The most sites that yielded remains of Mastodons were found in Vienna (1844), Near Hackettstown (1965), and Petersburg Road (1973). According to Report No 43, there were four adults and one calf found in Vienna when a boggy depression on the Ayers farm was drained. Three of skeletons were standing and one was on its back. Once exposed to air, the bones began to deteriorate. Four of the five skeletons have been lost and the survivor was sent to the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University (Pallis, 15), currently at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, MA.  

Mastodon

The first settlers in Vienna were Philip (1750-1828), Christeon (Christian) (1751-1833), and their father, Johann (John) Cummins (1716-1781), and they arrived around 1770. The Cummins family arrived from Germany to Asbury, and some of the children relocated to Vienna (Independence Twp.). Johann was born in Germany and arrived in Philadelphia aboard the  Molly from Rotterdam on October 16, 1741. He was the first Cummins to immigrate and settle in New Jersey in 1741 and had eleven children with his wife, Catherine Bayles (1723-1796). He owned three farms (650 acres) in NJ. He and his wife had no money and indentured themselves to pay for their passages (they arrived on separate ships in Philadelphia). He was a tailor and worked nights to pay the debt. He invested in a farm in Asbury (Vienna). All of their children were born in New Jersey (Chambers, 317; Cummins, Annie B.T.). George Wyckoff Cummins (1865-1942), who was born in Vienna, was the great grandson of Philip Cummins.

During the Revolution, men from the Independence area served with Captain William Helms (d. 1813) of Hackettstown, who was the captain of the 9th Company of the 2nd Regiment of the NJ Continental Line.  The 9th Regiment  joined General Sullivan's Expedition against the Iroquois(Cummins, 177). 
      * William Helms began his service in the Revolution as an Ensign in the 2nd NJ (7 Nov 1775) and worked his way up to Brevet Major on 30 Sept 1783. He was born in Sussex County and died in Hamilton, Ohio. He was a member of the NJ State House of Assembly (1791-92), US Congress from NJ (1801-11), and Major General of the NJ Militia. 
     * The Strykers book has Helms listed as a 1st Lieutenant of the 9th Co., and promoted to Captain (page 34). On page 52, he is listed as a Company office with the rank of Captain. His military record with ranks and regiments is listed on page 81.

Other men from the township served in the Revolution (AR) and Civil War (CW) are buried in the Danville Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Great Meadows:

 Strykers' Revolution, Civil War Vol 1 and 2, NPS Soldiers and Sailors, and others.

The notorious Tory (Loyalist) leader,  Lt. James Moody  (c. 1744/46-1809), frequently visited the area of Independence to force patriots to swear allegiance to the Crown. "Moody would call on Philip Cummins at regular intervals to make him take the oath, although it was well known among his relations that his sympathies were with the colonies" (Cummins, 178).  In 1780, Moody led a small group of men to free eight Loyalist prisoners held in the Sussex County jail in Newton. He freed the men and fled with them, alluding capture by the Continental/Patriotic forces ("Sussex County Courthouse"). Although he was a notorious Loyalist/Tory, he initially wanted to remain neutral at the start of the Revolution. He fled to the British line and joined Brigadier General Cortlandt Skinner's 1st NJ Volunteers (Loyalist). Quickly, he rose to the rank of Lieutenant. 
     * Moody was a wealthy Sussex Co. farmer who owned about 500 acres of land near the Delaware River. He was also one of New Jersey's most ardent Loyalist. 

Vienna had a hotel, church, and a foundry (Fleming and Carr) before 1860. In 1866, the foundry was sold to Simon Armenius Cummins (1790-1873)who manufactured double corn plows. Other industries in Vienna would include a saw mill, which was rebuilt in 1839 and destroyed by fire in 1865.  A steam mill, owned by Benjamin Hall, was located to the rear of the foundry and furnished materials for wagon wheels. The business moved to Hackettstown in the 1880s after a fire destroyed the steam mill. The Bulgin Brothers chair factory was prosperous but it, too, suffered the same fate-- it burned down in 1870 (Cummins, 179).  There were also tanneries, farms, the Crane Iron Company Store (c. 1875), Woodbridge Manufacturing Co. and other industries in Vienna in the 18th to early 20th c. (Cummins, 181). One of the grist mills in the township was the Barker's or Gibb's Mill, built in 1815 (Cummins, 183; Snell, 741) and downstream were an old feed and plaster mill and a saw mill, built by William W. Wilson in the 1820s.
     * Crane Iron Works was owned by Empire Steel & Iron Co. (1899-1938), which control most of the iron works in northern NJ, eastern PA and various locations in the South.

Barker's Mill
(Frank Dale)

Great Meadows was named in 1764 in Quaker meeting records. Several times discussions occurred regarding draining the meadows, located between Vienna and Hackettstown. Dr. J. Marshall Paul (1800-1879) of Belvidere reclaimed 200 acres of bog land in 1850 around the area of Schmuck's saw mill. He burned the bogs and used the ash as fertilizer. He then dug ditches to drain the land. Due to petitions by land owners, the NJ Supreme Court appointed commissioners for the draining of Great Meadows: Amos Hoagland, (1804-1886), James F. Boyd, and William L. Johnson (1817-1891), with Abram (Abraham) Robertson Day (1817-1880) serving as their engineer. As a result, the Pequest was widened and deepened with a channel from Long Bridge down a mile below Vienna. The cost for accessing 6,000 acres was at $28 per acre. The landowners couldn't manage the payments, so the commissioners sold the land for a predetermined amount of time (Cummings, 182).
     * Great Meadows Quaker Meeting is considered a part of the Hardwick Meeting. The "'Friends of Meadows' requested that the Kingwood Meeting (Hunterdon Co.) to appoint a committee to help them choose a place to site their meeting house" (NJ Quaker Meeting, 310).

There are several Civil War veterans buried in the Pequest Union Cemetery in Great Meadows.

Veterans to be verified with Strykers Vol 1 and 2, NPS Soldiers & Sailors, US Civil War Gravestones and other resources.

Vienna United Methodist Church Cemetery - Civil War.

 Veterans verified with Stryker Vol 1 & 2, NPS Soldiers & Sailors, US Civil War Gravestones, and other resources.

The communities that comprise Independence Township includes Cumminstown (Cummins family), Wiggins (Wiggins family), Fleming (Andrew Fleming), most of Great Meadows (formerly Danville) and Townsbury, Vliet, and all of Vienna and Petersburgh (formerly Catswamp or Caddington).

RESOURCES:

Chambers, Theodore Frelinghuysen. The Early Germans of New jersey, their History, Churches and Genealogies. Dover, NJ: Dover Printing Co. 1895. [Digital]

Clyde, John Cunningham. Rosbrugh, a tale of the Revolution, or Life, Labors and Death of Rev. John Rosbrugh. Easton, PA: 1880. [Digital]

Cummins, Annie Blair Titman. Cummins-Titman and Allied Families. Hartford, CT: States Historical Co. 1946. [Digital]

Cummins, George Wyckoff. History of Warren County, New Jersey. 1911.

"Helms, William." Biographical Directory of the United States. US Congress. [Digital]

"New Jersey Volunteers: The Wartime Adventures of Lt. James Moody." The On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies. 2001, updated 14 April 2025. [Digital]

Pallis, Ted. Garden State Mastodons. New Jersey Geological & Water Survey Report 43. 2018, revised 2024. Trenton, NJ: NJ Department of Environmental Protection. [Digital]

Snell, James P., Clayton, W.W. History of Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey. Philadelphia: Everts & Peck. 1881.

Stryker, William Scudder. Official Register of the officers and men of New Jersey in the revolutionary war. Trenton, NJ: W.T. Nicholson. 1872. [Digital]

"Sussex Court House." Newton, NJ. [Digital]

Tvaryanas, Damon. The New Jersey Quaker Meeting House: A Typology and Inventory. University of Pennsylvania. 1993. [Digital]

Knowlton Township

Created as a precinct by Royal charter from portions of Oxford on February 23, 1763
Incorporated by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 21, 1798

The Minsi (Lenape) lived in the northern region along the Delaware River prior to the arrival of colonial families, which settled in the area and farmed. The township was named "Knoll town" due to its hills and limestone knobs when it was sections off from Oxford Township in 1768 ("KT Historic Commission"; Cummins, 184). It could also be related to Thomas Knowlton, a Colonel in the Revolution who died in the Battle of Harlem Heights (Snell, 623,25).  Knowlton was one of the original townships of Warren County and portions of the township were taken to form Hope (1839) and Blairstown (1845) (Snell, 475).

Knowlton, 1852
(Old Town Maps)

The area of Ramsaysburg was named for James and Adam Ramsay, who were Irish immigrants that settled in 1795. The community had "a post office, three saw mills, two blacksmith shops, a Baptist church, an Episcopal church, a hotel, a wheelwright shop, a clover mill, a school house and a physician" (Cummins, 184).
     * Ramsaysburg Homestead is a 12-acre park along the Delaware River, just south of the Delaware Water Gap. It is leased by the Township of Knowlton from the State of NJ Green Acres program. The tavern, barn, cottage, smokehouse and shed were built between 1800 and 1870 (Cummins, 184-85; "Ramsaysburg Historic Homestead"). The Ramsays were involved in timber rafting (timber transported down the Delaware to sites like Ramsaysburg to be sent to saw mills and elsewhere).

Ramsaysburg Homestead (tavern)
(Friends of Ramsaysburg)

Veterans buried in Knowlton Twp. will be identified by the war they were involved in: Revolutionary War = AR; Civil War = CW; Loyalists during the Revolution will be identified as LOY.