Delaware Township in Hunterdon County, NJ is my hometown, and so, as you might expect, I know more about this town than any other that I write about. Prior to 1838, Delaware Township was a part of Amwell Township, created in 1708–which means that Amwell’s history is also very familiar to me. There is no end to the stories that can be written about this place, so expect many additions to this list in the coming years.
We do not have detailed minutes of that first meeting at Henry Wagner’s “house,” on April 9, 1838. The Hunterdon Gazette merely published the names of those elected to office, and three items of business: roads, keeping the poor, and a dog tax.
In my previous post on Delaware Township’s first meeting. I gave brief biographies of the Township Committee members, but neglected the rest. So, here are some of the other officeholders. (I will save Overseers of Roads for another post.) Many of these biographies are incomplete, either because records are poor, or because I have not spent enough time researching them.
This is a revised version of an article first published April 2, 2008
on the website “The Delaware Township Post”
In light of the politics involved in the division of old Amwell Township and the local distress it caused, Delaware Township did not have a very auspicious beginning. But once the furor died down, local residents got to work and did what was necessary to set up a new township government.
This next chapter in the creation of Delaware and Raritan Townships involves a lot of politicking, a lot of ‘inside baseball.’ But it is the story behind the story, and should not remain hidden. I’ve leavened the article with some passing references to mad dogs, passenger pigeons and Lincoln’s first speech. The previous episodes in this saga can be found here: Part One and Part Two.
In February 1888, the Hunterdon Democrat published this item about the original name of Sergeantsville:
A personal note: I am writing this series on the Lenape of Central New Jersey for the benefit of my fellow residents of Delaware Township, who have lacked a local history for all of their nearly 175 years as a township. I realize I am wandering into an area that has been deeply researched by accomplished scholars, and that it is all too easy to get things wrong about this shadowy yet fascinating subject. I am prepared to stand corrected, but hope it won’t be necessary.
This year residents of Delaware Township in Hunterdon County celebrate the 175 years since the township was created. Five years ago, in celebration of its 170th anniversary, I published a series of articles on the website “The Delaware Township Post.” It seems appropriate to republish those articles this year on my own website, slightly edited. Here is part two:
I see from the Planning Board minutes that a house on Locktown School Road (Block 5 lot 5) is likely to be demolished, as part of a subdivision plan. I’m never happy to learn that an old house is going to disappear. Perhaps it’s in terrible shape now—I don’t know, having never been inside it. I considered waiting to publish a story about the house until I could get a photo, but it looks like it will be awhile before that happens. And in truth, just because a property has a history does not mean that the house that is standing there is the one with the history. The house was not included in the Township’s Historic Sites Survey, so there’s no picture to be found there either. But with a title like Higgins-Horner-Hawk House, how could I wait?
This year residents of Delaware Township in Hunterdon County celebrate the 175 years since the township was created. The story of how this came about is a surprising one, and a little disheartening.
Many years ago while researching the family of Albertus Myers of Amwell Township (now Delaware Township), I came across his pension application on microfilm at the David Library. There, much to my joy, I found a page from the family bible. I assume they tore it out of the bible and included it with the application; they certainly didn’t photocopy it.
