I have written about Locktown’s tavern before—in my article on the life of Daniel Rittenhouse. At the time that I wrote it, I thought he had established the original tavern. That turns out to be not true.
Locktown
LOCKTOWN was once a very busy place, with two churches, a school, a tavern, a creamery and grange, store and post office, as well as a blacksmith shop. Three Locktown roads intersect here: the Locktown-Sergeantsville Road, the Locktown-Kingwood Road, and the Locktown-Flemington Road. The earliest family to settle here was the Heath family.
Hunterdon Divided
(Hunterdon’s Militias, part 2)
My previous article (Hunterdon’s Militia) included mention of the Locktown Volunteers and their Captain, John Bellis, who happened to be “an ardent Republican” in a neighborhood of equally ardent Democrats or Copperheads.1 How Bellis managed to get along with his neighbors is an interesting question.
Hunterdon’s Militia
Hunterdon County, like all the other counties in New Jersey, had a state militia system in place since before the Revolution. Gen. Washington relied on these volunteers as he fought the British in New Jersey, and they did their part during the War of 1812. But after that, there was little need for them—not until the mid 1850s, when they began to reorganize.