FLEMINGTON has been the county seat of Hunterdon County since 1780. With the county court house there, it has been home to some fascinating characters like Samuel G. Opdycke and Nathaniel Saxton, and other attorneys like Samuel Southard. The town has a rich history which I hope to mine.
The story of Little Jim is not quite over.1 There was the execution itself in Flemington, and then the aftermath, the way people processed these disturbing events. The court’s decision was so controversial it turned up in a modern U. S. Supreme Court case.
The brutal murder of Mrs. Catharine Beakes in September 1827 became a sensation in Hunterdon County, not only because murders were rare at the time, but because this murder was quite brutal and her alleged killer was a 12-year-old black boy. Following a coroner’s inquest, he was arrested and brought to the Flemington jail (‘gaol’ in those days).
This is a continuation of the saga of the Hunterdon Gazette and its first owner and editor, Charles George. Please refer to Charles George & the Hunterdon Gazette, part one and part two, and 1837 in Hunterdon County.
For three years John P. Rittenhouse owned my small farm in Delaware Township, although he never lived there. As I started to research his life I discovered that, among other things, he was a Hunterdon Co. Sheriff, managed a restaurant at the Union Hotel, and then ran the hotel in Ringoes. He had an interesting life.
In 1859 he sold my farm to Edmund Perry, a successful politician, but a failure as an investor. I published the beginning of Rittenhouse’s story in the previous post, ending with a situation in which Rittenhouse, acting as deputy sheriff, had to take possession of the very farm he had previously sold to his political ally, Edmund Perry, and sell it to the highest bidder. Awkward.
Recently I gave a talk at the Hunterdon Co. Historical Society on how to research the history of one’s house. While preparing for the talk, I decided to look over the history I did for my own house back in 1981. It was the first one I had ever done, and I hadn’t a clue about how to go about it. I found most of the owners of my home, but some of them were absentee owners, so I didn’t pay much attention to them. On reviewing my chain of title, I got curious about one of those absentee owners, and began to do some more serious research. It paid off with a pretty interesting story.
Following the election of 1836, things got really interesting—so much so that I have devoted this post to only one year—1837.
Note: As in the previous article on this subject (George & The Gazette, part one), I have depended heavily on the pamphlet written by Hubert G. Schmidt titled The Press in Hunterdon County, 1825-1925 as well as the abstract of the Hunterdon Gazette compiled by William Hartman.
Thanks to the controversial election of 2016 and recent developments in Washington, people are paying a lot more attention to the news, and coming to appreciate the importance of a free press. This got me thinking about newspapers in Hunterdon County.
Many years ago, Bob Dilts wrote an article entitled “Sergeantsville’s a Nicer Name.”1 While describing George Fisher’s harness shop (pictured below), on the southeast corner of the main intersection, Dilts wrote a paragraph that really caught my attention:
Beautiful, isn’t it? One of the most extraordinary buildings to be found in Flemington, a town with more than its share of great old buildings. It is an outstanding example of Greek Revival architecture.1
