part five in the series, The Route Not Taken
Imagine what this peaceful area today was like in the 19th century with a tannery just south of a blacksmith shop—certainly noisy, and probably very smelly. Add a rail line passing through and you would have had a very different environment from today.
part four in the series, The Route Not Taken
This is part four of the history of the landowners living along the proposed railroad route that was surveyed for the Delaware Flemington Railroad Company in 1873 and was intended to run from Prallsville to Flemington.
This is a return to an article I wrote in 2012 about the family that used to own what is known today as the Sarah Dilts Farm Park. Some wonderful photographs have come my way that have inspired me to take a second look.
Once again, I return to Egbert T. Bush’s article, “Sandy Ridge Long a Farm Community.” He wrote:
This is my second article on the neighborhood of Sandy Ridge in Delaware Township. The previous article was written by Jonathan M. Hoppock in 1905 (and heavily annotated by me.) Today’s article was written by Egbert T. Bush, over 25 years later.
The Dilts family in Hunterdon County is abundant and always has been. However, I have not been able to attach William Dilts of Sandy Ridge to the larger Dilts family. His list of descendants will stand on its own until I can link him with the other Hunterdon County Dilts family.
One of the earliest Dilts in New Jersey was Wilhelm Dils, who died in Knowlton, Sussex County in 1794, age 83. His wife Rachel died in 1793, age 72. Other early settlers were Johann Wilhelm Dils and Henrich Dils who were present in Lebanon Township in the 1730s.
This article (here somewhat updated) was originally written in 1995 for the Township Committee, back when it was trying to decide what to do with the old farmhouse. Sarah Dilts had left the farm she inherited to the township and it had been turned into a true community park. But the house was a dilemma. How to use it and maintain it? At one point the township committee considered moving the police department there. But that was not feasible, and eventually the house and other structures were taken down. Here is how it looked before that happened.
