A Rockafellar Homestead Divided

Some time ago, I began to write about a road in Raritan Township that originated as a private lane used by the Carman and Hoagland families to get from their farms to the main road from Flemington to Ringoes. That private road eventually became Johanna Farms Road. In my previous article, I had gotten to the point where the farm on the south side of Johanna Farms Road was owned by Cornelius Voorhees in 1852 (see Hoagland’s Road, part one). Voorhees bought the farm in 1840 from the assignees of John S. Rockafellow.

This was John Snyder Rockafellar (1804-1895), son of Jacob Bellis Rockafellar and wife Charity. He was the 13^th of sixteen children! (See The Rockafellar Tree)

John S. Rockafellar & Harriet Bartolette

On March 18, 1830 John S. Rockafellar married Harriet Bartolette (1809-1891), daughter of Martha Rush and Rev. Charles Bartolette, pastor of the Locktown and Flemington Baptist Churches. The ceremony was conducted by Rev. David Bateman, the senior pastor of the Locktown Baptist Church, who died in 1832, and whose place was taken by Rev. Bartolette.

At the time, Rockafellar was a “Merchant Tailor” with a shop in Flemington. He advertised his wares in the Hunterdon Gazette on April 21, 1830:¹

“John S. Rockafellar, MERCHANT TAILOR, RESPECTFULLY tenders his compliments to the inhabitants of Flemington, its vicinity, and the public generally, together with his grateful acknowledgments for the custom received from them, in his line of business, in days that are gone, and humbly desires a share of their patronage for the future; He has taken the shop formerly occupied by Mr. Abraham Gray, (2d story of the Printing Office,) – where he keeps constantly on hand Genuine CLOTHS, Casimers, and Vestings, of the various fashionable colors; also, the most fashionable stuffs for Summer Coats, Vest, and Pantaloons, with a general assortment of Trimmings – all of which he will sell for CASH, or short credits, at as little profit as they can be afforded or obtained in any store this side the cities. He also keeps on hand for sale, Sewing Silk of the best quality. He will make Dress Coats, Great Coats, Bangups, Pantaloons and Vests, after the most recent and approved fashions, from time to time, and in the best manner; and, what is of paramount importance in these times, for moderate and reasonable prices. (“Live and let live,” is his motto.) This is all he can PROMISE – now for a chance to PERFORM. He hopes, by a careful attention to business, to acquire the approbation of the people, and sustain the well-deserved reputation which the stand had obtained for doing good work, in the hands of his predecessor, Mr. Gray. Flemington, April 21, 1830.

Imagine someone advertising like that today! In 1831, he ran a similar ad with this addition:

Having purchased the right to measure for and cut garments by the Patent Square and Standard Rule of heights, breadths and distances, of the proprietor, A. F. Saguezs, of the city of New York, and receiving from him every season reports of fashions, with their delineations, he hopes by pursuing this justly celebrated system, with industry and fidelity, to recommend himself to a portion of the public favor.

This was the 1830s, when gentlemen’s fashions were evolving toward the more flamboyant style of the Victorian era, and, of course, there were no stores selling pre-made clothing. Everything was made to order, so tailors had plenty to do.

Unlike most of his family, Rockafellar was no farmer. He was able to pursue this line of work because he had brothers willing to maintain their parents’ farm. Their father, John Bellis Rockafellar (whose name was frequently spelled Rockafellow), had died intestate in 1813, leaving his widow Charity to raise the family. In 1814, the County Surrogate named James S. Manners as administrator of the estate.

Five of the Rockafellar children were adults by then, though not yet married; the youngest was five years old. Only daughter Anna married before Jacob’s death (to Joseph West in 1808). Son Peter S. Rockafellar (1793-1835) married Ann Cowens in 1814. That same year, daughter Margaret married Joseph Huff Leigh (1790-1870, name often spelled Lee).

The Division

The Rockafellar estate was not probated until January 27, 1820. The delay may have been caused by the age of the youngest child, Elizabeth, born in 1808 and thus still a minor. More likely it was the challenge in distributing the estate to all of the heirs.

Of Jacob’s 15 children, eleven survived him, in addition to his widow Charity. The Orphans Court named Commissioners to divide the real estate among the heirs. They were Isaac G. Farlee, John S. Stires & Adams C. Davis. They had a survey made of the 28 lots they created and identified how the property was to be distributed. The Division along with maps was filed with the Court sometime before April 29, 1920.²

This map shows the dower Lot No. 1, which was almost certainly the home of the widow and the home of Jacob Bellis Rockafellar before his death. Today it is part of Block 63.1, lot 5, and part of the property owned by Cornelius Voorhees in 1852.

What surprised me about these maps and the descriptions of the lots is that no mention was made of today’s Johanna Farms Road. Instead, the survey identified Elijah Carman as the bordering owner on the north, along Lots 4 through 7, which was the location of the road. This was property sold to Carman by Andrew Hoagland in 1810,³ It was not until 1852 that Carman’s daughter Mary Hoagland sold that strip of land to her son Aaron C. Hoagland, with the understanding that it would “forever after” be used as a road.⁴

Exchanges of the Rockafellar Lots

The largest of the 28 lots was the aforementioned Lot 1 of 28+ acres, allotted to the widow Charity, along with lots 20 and 24. The children each got two lots, some of them being 1 or 2-acre lots, probably intended as woodlots. Most noticeable to me was the fact that sons got twice as much property as the daughters, 12 to 14 acres each as opposed to the daughters’ 7 acres. (This was the practice in the early 19^th century. I cannot say when this practice was ended, but thankfully it did.)

As one might expect, the heirs were not interested in owning these small lots, and almost immediately began exchanging them, beginning with the widow Charity, who on April 29, 1820 quit claimed her dower rights to her twelve children (named in the deed).⁵

This was followed in 1823, 1825 and 1826 by deeds from William Rockafellar to brother Peter; Charity West and Eleanor R. Mattison to brother Jacob; Jacob to sister or mother Charity; Jacob to brother Henry; etc. etc. Eventually, most of the lots came back to the Widow Charity before her death. She died on May 15, 1836, at the age of 65. She had been occupying the farm owned by her husband since his death in 1813.

On December 19, 1836, the Commissioners to divide Jacob Rockafellar’s real estate held a public sale for a group of lots that totaled 115 acres. The advertisement for the property, published in the Hunterdon Gazette for Oct. 19^th, noted “The improvements are a dwelling house, barn, hovel, wagon-house, &c. together with a good apple orchard.”

The sale was adjourned for lack of bidders, but on April 8, 1837, the property was struck off to John S. Rockafellow,⁶ who bid $3,755 for 18 separate lots, which the Commissioners had created in their Map of Division. The total came to 113.72 acres.⁷ The lots purchased by John S. Rockafellar were the Dower Lot, No. 1, plus all the other lots excepting lots 10, 14, 18, 21-23, and 25-27. He later bought his sister Mary Schenck’s two lots (Lots 10 and 16).⁸

The property bordered other land of John S. Rockafellow (he had been given Lots 3 & 18), the Neshaning brook, Joakim Hill, the road from Flemington to Ringoes, the heirs of Matthias Bellis, Adam M. Bellis, and Elijah Carman (i.e., Hoagland’s lane).

As things turned out, John S. Rockafellar was overly optimistic. Perhaps he thought he could do a better job of finding a buyer for his father’s farm. On the other hand, he may have intended to turn it over immediately. That is what he attempted to do. On November 7, 1838, he advertised the farm for sale in the Gazette, describing it as:

A  FARM, IN the township of Raritan, Hunterdon Co. 1½ miles from Flemington, N. J. adjoining lands of Elijah Carman, Joakim Hill, and others, containing About 130  Acres, 18 of which is excellent WOODLAND, There is on said Farm a good Dwelling House with 3 rooms on the first floor and 2 on the second, with piazza in front, with a well of never failing water near the House, a large frame Barn, and excellent wagon house with cribs and bins; a well and spring near the barn; a never failing stream running through the premises; a good apple orchard bearing, and a variety of other fruit trees; a large quantity of bottom land that can easily be made watered meadow; the whole in a good state of cultivation, and in good fence. This farm is well worth the attention of purchasers, on account of its convenient location on the main road from Flemington to Trenton [Rte 31].

Since Rockafellar had no interest in farming, he was probably happy to get some extra cash by offering for sale:

. . . a variety of farming utensils, consisting of one mare, a pair of first rate oxen, 2 wagons, new plough and harrow, wagon harness, forks, rakes, &c, a handsome riding carriage, on elliptic springs, with standing top, for one or two horses; also, a buggy, on elliptic springs; one set of single-plated harness, and a first rate sleigh; hay by the ton, green grain in the ground &c. &c.

Many of these items were listed in Jacob Rockafellar’s extensive inventory, taken on December 29, 1813 by James Clark and Paul Kuhl, Jr. In addition to many bonds and notes, there was a nursery of apple trees, a weaver’s loom and related “apparatus.”⁹

Rockafellar was unable to find a buyer. His purchase of the farm turned out to be a gamble that failed. Only two years after acquiring the farm, in March 1839, he was obliged to assign all his property to Daniel Marsh and John Higgins for the benefit of his creditors. They advertised the now 127.5-acre farm for sale along with a house and lot in Flemington where Rockafellar was carrying on his tailoring business. (Photo of advertisement taken by William Hartmann.)

It was the farm alone that the assignees succeeded in selling to Cornelius Vorhis of Readington on March 30, 1840. On April 22, 1840, William B. Srope announced in the Gazette that he had taken over the tailor shop in Flemington belonging to John S. Rockafellow.

After the sale, Rockafellar began picking up the pieces of his life and advertised the opening of a new tailor shop in Lambertville, “nearly opposite George Gaddis’ Hotel.”¹⁰ This did not last long. In 1850 he was identified as a ‘laborer,’ but by 1860 he was back in Flemington, working as a tailor, while his wife and three daughters worked as milliners (hat makers for women). Somewhat ironically, that year, Rockafellow was elected one of the Overseers of the Poor in Raritan Township.

In 1867 he advertised his tailor shop “at his old stand, next door to the Tobacconist.” But life was not easy. In the 1880s, Rockafellar turned up regularly on the list of delinquent taxpayers in Raritan Township.

Despite his difficulties, John S. Rockafellow lived a long life. And so did his wife Harriet, who died in 1891 at the age of 82. Of their five children, the youngest, Charles, died an infant. The other four, Albanis, Rose, Martha and Virginia, all remained unmarried. Here is the obituary for John S. Rockafellow, published in the Hunterdon Republican on March 27, 1895:

Death on Mine St., Flemington on 24 Mar. 1895, John S. Rockafellow, aged 90 years. He was a tailor and had a business in Flemington for many years. He was a brother of the late William Rockafellow, who died in 1888 and Jacob Rockafellow, who died in 1893; both of whom lived to extreme old age. His wife, Mrs. Harriet B. Rockafellow, died in 1891.

The Rockafellar Family

also known as Rockefeller, Rockafellow, Rockafelter, etc.

This family is important to the history of Hunterdon County as well as to the many many descendants who have moved from Hunterdon to parts west. And, of course, to descendants of the famous John D. Rockefeller.¹¹

The branch of the family I am focused on today begins with the immigrant family of Johann Pieter Rockafellar, Sr. and second wife Elizabeth Christina Runkel. The couple were accompanied on their voyage to America from Rhineland, Germany by the five surviving children from Johann’s first marriage with Anna Maria Remagen.

The family name had multiple spellings. Henry Z. Jones refers to him and his ancestors as ‘Rockenfeller.’ When Johann Pieter and his sons were naturalized in 1730 the name was spelled ‘Rockefelter.’¹²

Johann Pieter Rockafellar, Sr. and family

Most records identify him as Pieter Rockafeller, Sr. I will also, in part to distinguish him from his son Peter, Jr., who is often referred to as Peter, Sr. It is thought that Pieter and his family emigrated to America about 1724. In 1738, “Peter Rockifeller” of Amwell Township voted for John Emley and Benjamin Smith for the colonial Assembly. A list of Amwell freeholders for 1741 included the names of Peter Roquefellow and Peter Rockefellow, presumably father and son.

In 1729, Pieter Rockefellar purchased a tract of 275 acres near Rocktown, south of Ringoes, from William Alburtus and Samuel Green.¹³ In 1745, he purchased additional property there from “Wm Burlis,” Samuel Green, and “Jostis Gonce.”¹⁴ It was surrounded by “Excal” [Ezekiel] Rose, James “Abits” [Abbott], Peter Fisher and Noah Hixson.

Pieter Rockafellar, Sr. of Amwell, yeoman, wrote his Last Will &Testament on December 6, 1763. By then he was a very old man, probably 81. His wife had predeceased him (she was not named in his will), and his children were all middle-aged. (Right, the monument erected by Rockafellar descendants at the Amwell Ridge Cemetery near Ringoes. There is no proof that Rockafellar, Sr. was buried there, and the death date is almost certainly wrong by three years. He died in 1766.)

In his will, Rockafellar named the following children: William, Peter, Mary, Ann, Elizabeth, Else, and Christine. There was a disturbing entry for this last child:  “daughter Cristane has married a man that uses her ill, that she cannot live with and my Executors are to keep her’s [her share] in their hands and give it to said Cristane and at her death what is left given to her children.” His daughters were to get “moveables,” but no real estate. I do not know who this undesirable husband was, but his last name was Miller; Christian Miller was on the list of legatees.

As was the general practice at the time, he left monetary bequests to his daughters and, with one exception, his real estate to his sons, starting with son William who got “my plantation in said Township which was purchased of William Burlis, Samuel Green, Jostis Gonce.” This William was the youngest child and only son of second wife Elizabeth Runkel.

The exception was son Peter, who was left just £10. However, he was named executor along with Philip Peters, the brother of Peter Rockafellar’s first wife Margaret. This strongly suggests that Peter had already been given property by his father or had purchased it on his own.

Peter Rockafellar, Jr. and family

Peter Jr. is the only one of Pieter, Sr.’s five children whose family is well-known to me. That is why the family tree I previously published only related to him and his descendants.

As mentioned above, it is my belief that Peter Rockafellar first married Margaret Peters, daughter of Godfrey & Anna Peters, who owned land not far south of Peter Rockafellar’s farm in today’s East Amwell. She was also the sister of Philip Peters who was named co-executor of Pieter Rockafellar’s estate. Peter and Margaret had a son, also named Peter, about 1740, who married Catian Larew. However, he does not figure in this story.

All the other children of Peter, Jr. were born to his second wife Mary Bellis (1723-1772), of the well-known Raritan Township family. However, it is difficult to identify how Mary Bellis Rockafellar fits in. She may well have been the daughter of William Bellisfoeldt. If so, it was by a first wife who is not known to me, as Mary was born 20 years before children of his known wife Catharine Kemple.

Peter and Mary Rockafellar had eight children, six of them sons, in addition to the son born to Peter’s first wife Margaret Peters.

Like so many 18^th– and 19^th century residents of Hunterdon County, Peter Rockafellar had a popular name that got repeated often. Here are the early Peter Rockafellars that I am aware of:

1. Pieter Rockafellar, sr., the immigrant, 1681-c.1763, m. Anna Remagen & Elizabeth Runkel
2. Peter Rockafellar (1711-1787), s/o Pieter Sr., m. Margaret Peters & Mary Bellis
3. Peter Rockafellar (c.1740-1806), s/o Peter & Margaret Peters, m. Catian Larew (did not have a son Peter)
4. Peter Rockafellar (1759-1847), s/o Wm Rockafellar & Magdalena Quick, grandson of Pieter Rockafellar & Eliz. Runkle, m. Abigail Large (also did not have a son Peter)
5. Peter Rockafellar (1772 – 1832), s/o John Rockafellar & Margaret Kitchen, grandson of Peter Jr. & Mary Bellis, m. Elizabeth Aller (no son Peter)

There are ten more in my database, born from c.1780 to 1859. The first three Peters overlapped as adults, as did Peters 3, 4 and 5.

Peter Rockafellar, Jr.’s property

Peter Rockafellar, Jr. was wealthy by standards of his place and time. Many others in his family were too. Is there such a thing as a gene for accumulating riches? If there is, that would explain John D. Rockafellar’s success in life. However, science writer Carl Zimmer notes that there is, in fact, no such gene. “Most rich people are rich because they grew up rich, or at least grew up well enough to have a good launch into adulthood.”¹⁵

In 18^th century Hunterdon County, there was no stock exchange and no bank for wealthy people to park their money in. If one was fortunate enough to have money to invest, the best place to put it was in real estate. Instead of trust funds made up of investments on Wall Street, prosperous parents would purchase farms for their children. Instead of ‘trust fund babies’, these fortunate children would all be farmers.

That was certainly the case with Peter Rockafellar, Jr. and wife Mary Bellis, as is so clearly demonstrated in Peter’s will, dated March 22, 1787, in which he bequeathed a large farm to each of his six sons. (And £150 to each of his daughters.) These were the farms:

1. to son Peter 150 acres where he lives (near Sergeantsville) bordering John Arwine, Cornelius Williamson;
2. to son Godfrey 150 acres where he lives in Kingwood by the South Branch, Philip Grandin, Charles Cox; he later sold this and moved to Skunktown (Sergeantsville).
3. to son John 132 acres where he lives (near Locktown) bounded by Frances Bersons, Henry Dils, Christopher Lawbocker;
4. to son Henry 180 acres in Alexandria, “the plantation I lately bought of John Emley, attorney of Thomas and John Marston, being the farm where Abraham Young lives”;
5. to son William, who had left Hunterdon to live in Columbia Co., NY, no land, just £60,
6. to sons Jacob & David “my own farm” bordering John Jewell & Wm Anderson of 105 acres each.

It is this last farm, his own, that is of particular interest here.

Rockafellar’s farm was at Copper Hill, just north of the “Third Neshanic Creek”. Hammond shows Rockafellar’s neighbor Adam Bellis, and the property on the east side of the “Third Neshanic River” as 1200 acres surveyed for the sons of John Stevenson of Long Island in 1739. Adam Bellis purchased a tract of 210 acres on June 5, 1741 from James & John Stevenson, sons & devisees of John Stevenson, late of West Chester, in the Province of New York.¹⁶

Peter Rockafellar bought his farm on September 29, 1743 from William Jewell, soon after he started his family, as described in a later deed from Peter’s son David Rockafellar.¹⁷ The farm bordered the ‘Neshaning’ Brook, land of Adam Bellowsfelt, the road to ‘Trent Town’ and other land of William Jewell. By 1788, the property was bordered by John Jewell, rather than William.

It is a shame that Rockafellar did not record this deed. It would have been a great help to D. Stanton Hammond when he was compiling his map of the earliest property owners in Hunterdon County. This detail from Hammond Map G shows the area of Copper Hill on Route 31 south of Flemington. Land owned by Rockafellar was located just under (south of) the ‘Copper Hill’ label.

Since Peter was bequeathing a farm that was divisible into two 105-acre tracts, he must have purchased an additional 105 acres adjacent to the tract bought from William or John Jewell. But I have not yet found a record of it. William Jewell is one of those elusive 18^th-century characters. I have found nothing about his parents, his spouse or his children. None of his land purchases were recorded and no estate recorded for him.

But judging by its location, the property William Jewell sold to Pieter Rockafellar was part of the William Stevenson tract of 2100 acres. It was surveyed by John Reading in 1712, and bordered the tracts surveyed to Susannah Marriott and Mahlon Stacy on the east.¹⁸

It is Peter, Jr.’s statement in his will of 1787 that he was leaving “my own farm” to his sons that strongly suggests that is where he lived. Which raises the question—is Peter’s house still standing? A large part of the Rockafellar farm is identified today as Block 63.1 lot 5. But the County Cultural & Heritage Commission’s Historic Sites Survey did not review a house on that lot. There was an old frame house on the east side of the railroad tracks that might have been the early house, but it has been demolished.

The Stevenson Tract

Once again, tracking an 18^th-century figure becomes challenging, in this case, William Stevenson and his family. Fortunately, there are a few more records for them than for William Jewell.

William Stevenson the landowner was probably the William Stevenson who married Anna Jennings, daughter of West Jersey proprietor Samuel Jennings and wife Anne Oliver. They married in Burlington Friends Monthly Meeting on Nov. 6, 1699.¹⁹

I am aware of only one child born to William & Anna Jennings Stevenson, their son John, born in the early 1700s. A notation on the Hammond map states that in 1739, the Stevenson tract was resurveyed for John, James & Benjamin, sons of John Stevenson of Long Island for 1200 acres. This was about the same time that William Jewell bought his 210 acres, but from which of the three brothers (John, James or Benjamin) I cannot say.

John Jewell

When Peter Rockafellar, Jr. wrote his will in 1787, the property was bordered by John Jewell. I was a little more successful with him, than with William Jewell. (See “The Old Lequear Farm.”) John Jewell was the son of Thomas Jewell and Penelope Stout, He was identified as the nephew of Benjamin Stout, Penelope’s brother, in Stout’s will of 1767 when Jewell was named executor with Stout’s friend Gershom Lee. It was also in 1767 that John Jewell was named as a bordering owner, along with Peter Rockafellar of a tract of land that was mortgaged to Peter Rockefellar and “Powl Kool” by the trustees of the High Dutch Calvinist or Presbyterian Church of Amwell.²⁰

Was John Jewell’s father Thomas related to William Jewell? It seems likely, but I cannot say how. They could have been brothers, and William could have been childless. All mere speculation.

The property John Jewell died owning bordered the home farm of Peter Rockafellar and was sold in 1804 to Rockafellar’s neighbor on the west and/or south, Benjamin Johnson, by Jewell’s executors.²¹ His other property was sold to John Lequear in 1809.

The other bordering owner mentioned in Rockafellar’s will of 1787 was William Anderson. His property was located north of Johanna Farms Road, closer to Route 523 as it approaches Flemington. Since I will be dealing with land north of the road in a future article, I will say no more about William Anderson here.

Peter Rockafellar died in May 1787 about 76 years old. Less than a year later, his son David and wife Margaret Risler sold their 105-acre share of the homestead plantation to Philip Dilts of Lebanon for £600. The deed, dated March 15, 1788, identified it as the tract that his father bought from William Jewell in 1743.²² The farm was described as bordering Adam Bellowsfelt, John Jewell, the stream [i.e., the Neshannic], and the King’s Road to Trenton [i.e., Route 31]. Nothing was said about sharing the plantation with brother Jacob, perhaps because the 210 acres had already been divided by their father’s will.

A couple months later, Philip and Mary Dilts of Lebanon sold a tract of 18+ acres out of their 105 acres to Jacob Rockafellow of Amwell, for £74, bordering the Parsonage land, the brook, and other land of Jacob Rockafellow.²³

Jacob Bellis Rockafellar & Charity Snyder

About 1785 Jacob Rockafellar married Charity Snyder (1770-1836), daughter of Peter Snyder and Lenah Young. Some sources, including the Rockefeller Genealogy, state that Rockafellar was married to Charity LaRue, but I have no information about that. I wonder if she might be confused with the Catharine LaRue who married Peter Rockafellar about 1760. There is evidence that Charity Snyder’s father Jacob Peter Snyder had a connection with the Rockafellars. In 1766, Jacob Snyder and William Abbit made the inventory of the estate of Pieter Rockafellar dec’d.

I have not found a marriage record for Jacob and Charity, but since their first child, Joseph, was born on Dec. 24, 1785, it seems a reasonable assumption that they married early in 1785 or late in 1784. In the fine Rockafellar tradition, they proceeded to have fourteen more children. For information about all those children, please refer to “The Rockafellar Tree.”

One of their children was Peter Stout Rockafellow (1793-1835). He and wife Ann Cowens (c.1789-1872) had a son James Stout Rockafellow who briefly owned part of the old Aller farm which became the Amwell Poor Farm for a time. (See “The Township Farm.”) He later moved closer to Larison’s Corner.

Peter Stout Rockafellow’s brother was none other than the John S. Rockafellar who sold the old Rockafellar farm to Cornelius Voorhees in 1840, thus taking us back to the beginning of this article.

Footnotes: