In my last post I wrote about the durable story that George Washington visited with John Opdycke and that, as a result, the village where Opdycke lived took on the name of Headquarters. Some people will read that sentence and conclude that it happened and is not a myth. They will ignore that phrase “durable story.”
Delaware Twp
Delaware Township in Hunterdon County, NJ was created out of Amwell Township in 1838.
Washington Didn’t Sleep in Delaware Twp.
And he probably didn’t visit either. But the notion that he spent a leisurely afternoon drinking fresh water under a shady tree in the company of John Opdycke just won’t go away. It probably never will.
Passing of Old Canal Feeder Matter For Regret
Bool’s Island Formed Natural Opening for Waterway;
Early Engineers Found;
Cholera Took Heavy Toll Among Workers
Entirely Abandoned, A Sorry Spectacle
by Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, NJ,
published in the Hunterdon County Democrat, June 8, 1933
The project of connecting the Delaware River with the Raritan by means of a canal caught the imagination of engineers and business men quite early.