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.
by Jonathan M. Hoppock
published in The Democrat Advertiser, January 25, 1906
This article was written by J. M. Hoppock. I have added corrections and additions in footnotes. Mr. Hoppock’s very specific description of this building, which was demolished long ago, is invaluable to students of the township’s history and early architecture.
This is another long post; it is the rest of a talk I gave in 1997 on Delaware Township villages (part one can be read here). Part two focuses on the villages in the 19th and early 20th centuries. There is far more to say about them, which I will attempt to do in future posts. Currently I have been researching the history of Raven Rock, which you can read about here and here.
I must begin by congratulating all those who worked so hard to save the Christopher Vought house in Clinton Township. The building is a living reminder of the passions that so profoundly moved Americans of all persuasions during the Revolutionary War. To lose that building would have been a tragic loss through demolition by neglect.
by Jonathan M. Hoppock
published August 31, 1905
in the Democrat Advertiser, Flemington, NJ
The article was written by Mr. Hoppock. The footnotes are mine.
In a recent post I mentioned that I found two items at the Hunterdon County Historical Society that explained what Nathaniel Saxton was doing during the years 1808-1815. Besides investing in Raven Rock and a couple properties in other locations, and becoming an active supporter of the Federalists, Saxton was thinking of infrastructure, in particular, construction of a bridge between Bull’s Island and Lumberville.
The following is an update of a speech I delivered at the Locktown Stone Church in May 1997. I thought it would be a good idea to archive the speech here on my website, especially since it makes a nice short history of Delaware Township. When I gave the speech, I had two large maps showing locations of mills, taverns, ferries, the oldest roads. One map showed the 18th century version of Delaware Township, and one showed the 19th century version. Whatever happened to those maps? If I find them, I’ll turn them over to Marilyn Cummings who has been working hard on just such a map project, one that can be seen on Google Earth.
As a researcher, there’s one thing I keep learning over and over–if you go looking for an answer to a question, you might not find it, but chances are you will find answers to questions you never thought of.
That was definitely my experience today when I went to the Hunterdon Co. Historical Society, hoping to find some mention of Nathaniel Saxton in Saxtonville between 1808 and 1815, and most of all, some record of who might have been running the Saxtonville Tavern for him while he carried on his legal career in Flemington. No luck.
One way to kill time is to browse the census records for oddities. While looking at occupations in the 1880 census, I found something definitely out of the ordinary. It was on the page that covers the Village of Stockton, which was still a part of Delaware Township at the time. There, among the farmers, farm laborers, and craftspeople of all sorts, were brothers John and Uriah Larue, whose occupation was listed as “never knew how to do anything.” Really–that’s what it says. It was also noted that they had not been employed for the past 12 months, and were boarding with Isaac and Sarah Larue. Isaac, who worked as a laborer, and Sarah were both 29, and had three daughters. Uriah and John were 37 and 40 years old, respectively.
The brothers could have been paupers, but paupers were poor people who had no family to take care of them. I believe that John, Uriah and Isaac were the sons of Asa Larue and wife Rachel, who appeared in the 1870 census, Asa being a 51-year-old wheelwright with only $300 of property. He must have died before 1880. His sons John, Uriah, Isaac and Wilson were all working on his farm. But apparently John and Uriah (who were 25 and 24 in the 1870 census) did not learn anything from it.
Some time ago, I made reference to the map of the Delaware River prepared by Reading Howell. Some people pointed out to me that Howell had made such a map in 1792, but were surprised by the date 1785. I had seen a copy of that map but had been unable to find it in my papers—that is, until today, when I found a very nice copy among the news clippings and other items saved by Edna Laszlo of Raven Rock. I am sorry to say, there was no notation explaining where the original map is kept.
