Howell House, part three

A continuation of the history of a very old house on Shoppons Run, once owned by Benjamin Howell and Agnes Woolever. Please check out part one and part two; otherwise, part three won’t make much sense.

Eliza Ann Case Scarborough Rounsavell

Eliza Case is supposed to have been born in Amwell Township on January 6, 1806 to Mathias and Mary Howell Case. But this was 11 months before her parents married on February 5, 1806. There is a record of that marriage, but I have not seen one for Eliza’s birth, which makes me suspect she was born in 1807.

In any case, in about 1818, when Joseph Howell and some of his family moved west to Ohio, his daughter Mary and her husband Mathias Case left their daughter Eliza behind. She was only eleven or twelve years old, but that was old enough to do housework, and her great uncle Jacob Howell, who was then 61 years old, was apparently in need of some domestic assistance.

Mathias Case died in Ohio 1825, when he was only 42 years old. When his brother-in-law Benjamin Howell returned to New Jersey in 1826, the widow Mary Case probably came with him. She is included in the deeds of 1826 and 1827, which identify her as a resident of Hunterdon County at that time.¹

When Eliza Ann was about 26 years old, she married Isaac Scarborough, who came from Solebury Township across the river. He was born in 1799 to Enos Dean Scarborough and Maribah Jackson of Solebury.

In 1827, Isaac Scarborough and his brother Joseph purchased a 96-acre farm in Stockton from John Cavanagh. They sold that farm to Daniel Butterfoss in 1834.²

In 1832, Isaac Scarborough bought two lots in the “Village of Sergeants Ville,” one from Elijah Wilson and the other from Neal Hart. These had once been part of the John Lewis tract, and later the property of Joseph Sergeant.³ One of the two lots was the 1.5-acre lot known as the Blacksmith lot. The other lot covered the northwest corner of the village.⁴ Regrettably, we do not have tax records or census records to tell us what occupation Scarborough was pursuing when he purchased those lots. We do know that he was living in Sergeantsville when he bought them.

The next year, Isaac Scarborough married Eliza Ann Case, on January 23, 1833. They had possibly eight children, some of whom died young. Here are the children who reached adulthood:⁵

1. Mathias Howell Scarborough (1834-1887), married Margaret Pegg.
2. Hiram Manning Scarborough (1835-1917), moved to Illinois
3. Mary (1837-1931), moved to Pennsylvania, did not marry.
4. Hannah Ann Scarborough (1839-1909), married William Henry Fell
5. Sarah Elizabeth Scarborough (1842-1914), married Francis Aaron Carver/Hendricks [Not sure about that name]

Benjamin Howell Departs Again

After resolving matters related to his father’s estate, Benjamin Howell moved west once again. The census of 1840 shows a Benjamin Howell in his 40s living in Berwick, Adams County, Pennsylvania (located on today’s Route 80, west of Easton and north of Harrisburg).

By 1845, Howell had definitely decided to rid himself of his New Jersey real estate. There are three deeds in 1845 and one in 1846, in which Benjamin Howell sold lots in Amwell Township. In the first two, dated April 30th and May 5th, 1845, Howell was the grantor, listed without a spouse and no residence given. He sold a 13.25-acre woodlot, part of Jacob Howell’s farm, to Richard Rounsavel and Thomas B. Carr, and an 8-acre woodlot to Jacob Warman. On May 8th, he was represented by his attorney, John Barber, who sold a tract of 46+ acres to William L. Hoppock bordering Shoppons Run.⁶ The last of Howell’s deeds was dated June 13, 1846, when again his attorney John Barber conveyed a half-acre piece of land to Jacob Warman, probably as a kind of border adjustment.⁷

I could not find Benjamin and Elizabeth Howell in the 1850 census, but in 1860 the couple was living about as far west as they could go—in Willamette, Multnomah County, Oregon, with their sons Joseph age 32, John age 30, and Thomas age 18, and daughter-in-law Rebecca age 30. Benjamin and Elizabeth Howell both died in Portland, Oregon—Benjamin in 1886 and Elizabeth in 1887.

Back to the Scarboroughs

Jacob Howell’s will of 1835 raises questions about Isaac Scarborough. Why did Jacob find it necessary to prohibit Scarborough from having any control over Eliza’s property?

Most likely it was his intention to shield Eliza’s property from any of Isaac’s creditors. However, I was not able to find any examples of debt in Isaac’s record. (He had sold the Cavanagh farm in 1834, so he had money in his pocket when Jaocb wrote his will the next year.) And much to my disappointment, he managed to avoid appearing in the local newspapers. The only mention of him was a “left letter” at Lambertville Post Office in 1839.

According to a Howell family history, Jacob Howell built a lovely stone house for Eliza. This may have been a wedding gift. The house is still standing, accessed by a long lane from Route 523. No doubt Eliza and her new husband lived in that house. Isaac probably rented out his property in Sergeantsville.⁸ Ten years later, Isaac Scarborough died, on April 1, 1846. He was only 47 years old.⁹ He was buried in the Mount Hope Cemetery in Lambertville.

Richard F. Rounsavell

Eliza did not remain a widow for long. In July 1850, she married her neighbor, Richard F. Rounsavell.¹⁰ Here we come upon another one of those bewildering conflicts between historical records. The Census of 1850 for Delaware Township was taken on September 9th, well after Rounsavell and Scarborough married. And yet, Eliza Scarborough, age 44, was listed as a widow, living with her five children, ages 5 through 16, in the household of Richard Rounsaville, farmer and widower, age 61. Were they married by then or not? Apparently the census taker (none other than John Barber) wasn’t sure.

Richard F. Rounsavel (1789-1865) was the son of Freegift Rounsavell and Allemina Godown. (See The Rounsavell Family Tree.) By 1830, he was acquiring land in the Stockton neighborhood, bordering the D&R Canal. His wife Rebecca died in 1837 after having had three children.

On January 27, 1844, Rounsavell joined with Thomas B. Carr to purchase 65.34 acres, the northern part of the Jacob Howell farm, bordering the Wickecheoke Creek. The seller was Mary Case deceased. This was her share of the Jacob Howell farm. This property was separated from Eliza’s farm by the lot on which the old Howell house was standing. It is interesting that Eliza’s second husband was another elderly man, considering that she grew up caring for Jacob Howell. However, Eliza had to agree to an “ante-nuptial” document stating that she would not claim any dower right to Richard’s property, and would make a quit-claim deed in favor of Richard’s children.¹¹

Be that as it may, it seems pretty clear that Richard moved into Eliza’s farmhouse. The Philadelphia Map of 1860 indicates “R. Rounsavell” at that location.

Richard Rounsavel died in 1865, age 76. Eliza was left without any support from his estate, but his administrators allowed her half the profits from the sale of crops from her husband’s farm.¹² I am not sure what they meant by her husband’s farm; I suppose it was the 65+ acres bordering the Wickecheoke.¹³

Eliza was not left alone after Rounsavell’s death. Her daughter Hannah had married William Fell of Pennsylvania in 1864. Fell worked on Eliza and Richard Rounsavel’s farm until 1868 when Eliza Case Scarborough Rounsavel conveyed her farm to Fell for $7300.¹⁴ But tragedy struck in 1873 when Fell died at the age of 33. Two years later, Eliza Scarborough died, on April 4, 1875, when she was 69, and was buried in the Mount Hope Cemetery in Lambertville, next to first husband Isaac Scarborough.

Side note: Austin Davison, whose collection of papers sheds much light on the history of this family, was the son-in-law of William H. Fell and Hannah Scarborough. His wife was Margaret M. Fell.

A Private Road

Allright, I confess—I have saved the best for last.

In my previous article, I published an amazing map from the Davison Collection showing a survey of the Howell tract in 1744. (See The Howell House part one.) The collection was donated to the Hunterdon County Historical Society by Carl Cathers and includes the research that Austin Davison did on the village of Prallsville and the old families that lived there. It is currently being processed by the Society’s archivist and will be available to the public before long.

The reason I have copies of some of the documents contained in this collection is that several years ago Mr. Cathers loaned his papers to me and allowed me to scan the items I was interested in.¹⁵ Included in the collection is a map drawn by Austin Davison of the survey of a private road that ran from Route 523 northwest to a point above Shoppon’s Run.

It is a wonderful map for many reasons. First, it shows Eliza’s property bordering Route 523 and Shoppons Run on the northern end of her farm. This makes it easy to identify the farm as Block 53 Lot 4 on the Delaware Township tax map. Lot 4 is bordered on the north by Block 33 Lot 8.01. That is the location of the old Howell House, the subject of these articles. And the private road is shared by Eliza Scarborough, Jacob Warman and Richard Rounsavell.

The map shows Jacob Warman in possession of the old Howell house. It is interesting how much more modest Warman’s house was compared to Eliza’s. Remember that it was the home of Benjamin Howell and his family in the 18th century. They were probably comfortable enough, having only two children. And their son Jacob, who inherited it, lived alone with Eliza Ann Case. Apparently Jacob Case was anticipating that Eliza would be having a large family.

So how did Warman get the old Howell house? From one of the heirs of Jacob Howell.

Jacob Warman & the Ent/Bodine Family

Jacob Warman’s origins are unknown to me. His first appearance in Hunterdon County is on December 13, 1823 when he married Sarah E. Bodine, daughter of Peter Bodine and Isabella (Sabilla) Ent.

The Bodine family was present in Hunterdon County from an early date, having immigrated from the Netherlands, but originally from France. Much research has been done on the immigrant Bodines, and yet, the parents of Peter Bodine of Amwell Township have yet to be identified. He was born on June 25, 1756, according to Ancestry family trees. About 1777, he married the daughter of Valentine Ent, then deceased, and Susannah Moore. Ent had died, in 1770, at the age of about 55.¹⁶

Valentine Ent was a Dutch immigrant who settled on part of the Howell tract in 1750, when he purchased his farm of 410 acres on both sides of Route 523 from John Lambert.¹⁷ By the time of his death, he and wife Susannah had twelve children, the eldest born about 1745. Ent wrote his will on March 14, 1770. His widow Susannah Moore Ent and her brothers were named Executors, rather than the Ent sons. Apparently the oldest ones were not alive in 1770.

Ent left £100 to each of his surviving sons once they reached the age of 21. To his daughters, including Sabillah Ent, he left £50 when they reached the age of 18. Ent died on July 25, 1770, a fact we know because the date was noted on his Inventory.

In 1778, the executors advertised the Ent farm for sale:

“TO be Sold by publick vendue, on Wednesday, the 25th Day of November next, A Plantation containing 410 acres, late the property of Valentine Ent, late of Amwell deceased, lying within one mile of Howell’s ferry; whereon is a good stone dwelling-house, a good Dutch barn, a large bearing orchard, a convenient tan-yard, with a good stone currying shop. One half of said plantation is cleared and in good fence, fifteen acres of good meadow, and more may be made. The whole is well watered. The conditions will be made known at the time and place of sale, and an indisputable title given by Susannah Ent and Peter Moore, executors. Amwell, Hunterdon county, Sept. 23, 1778.”¹⁸

It doesn’t appear that the farm was sold in its entirety. On August 13, 1781, the executors of Valentine Ent sold part of the Ent farm (16.5 acres) to the Ents’ daughter “Beulah” and son-in-law Peter Bodine, it being her share of the inheritance.¹⁹ This lot bordered land of Benjamin Howell.

Another landowner who bordered the farm of Benjamin Howell was George Wilson (or Willson). In 1788, his executors sold his 179-acre farm to Gershom Lambert, and in 1815, Lambert and wife Rebekah sold it to Isaac Skillman. The description noted that the farm bordered the Wickecheoke, Jacob Howell, Peter Bodine, Charles Ent, the road to Howell’s Ferry, John Ent, Shoppons Run, and land formerly Albertus Ringo.²⁰

By 1815, Peter Bodine was dead, so this was probably an old description. He died in 1810 without a will. His widow Bilah Ent died in 1825. She was buried in the Sandy Ridge Cemetery. Peter was not, as he died before the cemetery was established (in 1818). His burial place is not known.

On April 2, 1827, the Commissioners who were authorized to divide the real estate of Peter and Bilah Bodine dec’d, finding themselves unable to divide the property without harming it, sold a lot of about ten acres at a public sale to Jacob Warman, son-in-law of the Bodines, for $328.²¹ That amount of money for ten acres does not suggest there was a house on the property. The lot was bordered by land of Andrew Larison, “a small stream, land of Jacob Howell, Benjamin Bodine and Elisha Holcombe.

This was the first deed recorded for Jacob Warman. Warman purchased other lots in the general area of the Bodine farm and Shoppons Run, including two small lots bordering the run and “other land of Benjamin Howell,” on March 3, 1840.²² He bought those lots from Agnes Hunt of Delaware Township. Reminder—Agnes was the daughter of Joseph Howell dec’d, and sister of Benjamin Howell and Mary Case.

Here I must return to the will of Jacob Howell.

One of the provisions of his will was to divide the remainder of his property, after subtracting the farm given to Eliza Scarborough, among the children of his “beloved brother” Joseph Howell. I mentioned earlier that Mary Case had sold her share, a lot of 60+ acres bordering the Wickecheoke, to Richard Rounavell and Thoma B. Carr in 1844. Her sister Agnes’ share was a lot of 26.5 acres described as Lot No. 1 of Share No. 1, bordering Shoppons Run, the two other shares, Eliza Scarborough’s land and other land of Jacob Warman. Also part of Agnes’ share was a lot of 22+ acres of woodland. Agnes sold both of these lots on March 13, 1843 to Joseph Wood of Trenton for $1,960.²³ On April 1, 1844, Joseph Wood of Trenton sold just the house lot of 26.5 acres to Jacob Warman for $1,000.²⁴

Back to the Map

The survey map for the private road shows the Howell house at “Jacob Warman’s land.” It also shows the barn that used to stand across the drive from the Scarborough house (now a ruin), as well as a barn further to the rear on “Richard Rounsaville’s land.”

Austin Davison must have copied this survey from an original document, but that document was undated. To narrow down when the map was made, we can start with the date that Jacob Warman bought the house, April 1, 1844. The map indicates Eliza Scarborough as widow, so it was after the death of Isaac Scarborough in 1846, and before she married Richard Rounsavell in 1850.

It is my suspicion that the lane was surveyed in order to clarify Jacob Warman’s right to pass over the lane to get to his new property. It may just as well have been Richard Rounsavell who wanted this clarification. Both Rounsavell and Warman bought their lots in 1844.

There is another map showing the path of this lane as a dotted line, taking it much further north—in fact all the way north to Lower Creek Road, which runs along the Wickecheoke. This map is known as the 1860 Philadelphia Map.²⁵

The map is a little confusing. It shows the lane going past the land of “R Rounsavell” (i.e., Eliza’s farm), then across Shoppons Run and “Worman Est.,” i.e., the Warman estate. This is correct, as Jacob Warman died on August 11, 1854, age 65, leaving his widow Sarah and five of his six children. Warman’s obituary in the Hunterdon Democrat states that he died after a short illness at the age of 57.

The 1860 map then shows the lane running north to land of “W. S_LF” and “Wormen,” on what appears to me to be Block 33 Lot 17, the property sold to Richard Rounsavell by Mary Case in 1844. That house does not appear in the 1851 Cornell Map, but in 1873, the Beers Atlas indicates a house close to the south side of Lower Creek Road owned by “W. Worman.” This was probably William Worman, son of Jacob and Sarah.

The Beers Atlas was compiled shortly after the death of William Fell, but the person responsible for identifying landowners slipped up and identified the farm as belonging to “J. Fell,” as you can see in the detail above.

In both the 1860 and 1873 maps, Shoppon’s Run is not labeled. It is the creek running to the east from the Wickecheoke Creek and crossing Route 523, just north of its intersection with Covered Bridge Road and Cemetery Road.

As you can also see, there is no road running along Shoppon’s Run, which means Worman Road did not yet exist.

What Happened to Eliza’s Farm?

Since Eliza’s house was built for her by her great-uncle Jacob Howell, it was probably constructed in the early 1830s. According to the Hunterdon County Historic Sites Survey, which identifies the house as “Housel Dwelling,” it is:

A four-bay, two and a half-story stone house built in two sections. The left is two bays long, two rooms deep and two stories with a wooden Pennsylvania-style hood over the door. The right-hand section is two bays along the front, one room deep and two and a half stories.²⁶

I should note that it is not uncommon to see the name Howell confused with Housel. But they are completely different families. This house was definitely NOT a Housel house.

In 1881, Hannah Scarborough Fell, administrator of the estate of her husband, William Fell, sold the Scarborough farm to Jacob W. Bowlby of Centre Bridge, PA for $5,525.²⁷ The recital included mention of Jacob Howell’s will and the bequest to Eliza Case Scarborough. Also, that Jacob got the farm from his father Benjamin Howell. On April 1, 1888, Jacob W. Bowlby and wife Mary of Solebury, PA sold the farm of 64 acres to Richard Everitt of Delaware Township for $6500.²⁸

I previously mentioned a conflict between a marriage date and a census date for Eliza Scarborough and Richard Rounsavell. Well, here’s another one. The recorded deeds state that Bowlby sold the property to Richard Everitt on April 1, 1888. But another deed states that on February 18, 1888, Everitt sold the same property to Charles L. Fell.²⁹ Go figure.

Charles Lloyd Fell

Charles L. Fell, a life-long bachelor, was the oldest child of Hannah Scarborough and William Fell, born about 1866. He was only about 20 years old when he bought the Scarborough property. In the deed from Richard & Lydia Everitt, several mortgages on the property were mentioned. Shortly afterwards, Charles Fell bought some property in the village of Stockton, from Jacob W. & Mary Bowlby of Solebury. At that time he was living in Flemington, which is where he remained for most of his life. He bought and sold several properties, and I was unable at this time to identify which deed was related to the sale of the Scarborough farm to the next owner in the chain of title. I do know that Charles Fell died on November 14, 1939, probably in Solebury Township, as he was buried in the Friends Burying Ground there,³⁰ next to his parents, William and Hannah Fell.

The Fate of the Howell House

Just like the Howells before him, it took a long time to settle Jacob Warman’s estate. Although he died in 1854, it was not until April 1, 1879 that his heirs (Elizabeth Warman & husband John H. Wilson of West Amwell; William S. Warman & wife Catharine; Sybilla Warman and Sarah Catharine Warman, all of Delaware Township) conveyed to Lambert T. Warman of Delaware Township their shares in the land that Jacob Warman owned at the time of his death, i.e., 67.97 acres bordering Shoppons Run, Wm L. Hoppock, dec’d, Benjamin Larason, William Bodine and others.³¹ All the Warman names in this deed were spelled with an “a,” even though the Beers Atlas consistently spelled the name “Worman.”

Lambert T. Warman/Worman was born in April 1836, the youngest child of Jacob and Sarah Warman. About 1868 he married Mary E. Craven of Pennsylvania, and with her had three children, Anna, Emma and William.

In the 1870 census for Delaware Township, Warman was the head of household, a farmer, age 34, living with wife Mary 25 and daughter Anna, age 2. Also in the household were his mother Sarah age 79, and his sisters Elizabeth 46, Sybilla 40, and Sarah 37. Ten years later, when Lambert was supposedly age 48 (he was really 44), his wife Mary and three children were listed, along with George Larison 21, a farm laborer.

Worman Road

The “Warman house” shown on the survey map for the private lane is the house built by Benjamin Howell on Worman Road. But the map also shows that there was no Worman Road even as late as the 1840s. Benjamin Howell, Jacob Howel and Jacob Warman all had to access the farm from Route 523.

One question I have been asked more than once is why Worman Road is spelled with an ‘o,’ but Jacob Warman spelled his name with an ‘a’? We can blame Jacob’s son Lambert T. Worman, who could not decide how to spell his name. We should keep in mind that spelling in the 19th century was not carefully policed, and clerks often just wrote things down as they heard them without worrying too much about correct spelling.

In an attempt to discover if Mr. Warman decided at a certain point to switch to the Worman spelling, I searched through the Hunterdon Republican, and found that from 1884 through 1890, the name alternated between the two spellings.

In 1881, Lambert T. “Warman” was elected to the Delaware Township Committee, and served again in 1882. In 1884, Lambert T. “Worman” was serving on the Grand Jury. Generally, the Warman spelling was used more often than Worman.

Lambert T. Worman was 46 years old in 1882 with an established family and good-sized farm. And as a member of the township committee, he was in a position to know what government could do for him. He was probably getting tired of sharing an access lane with an absentee owner, i.e., Jacob Bowlby of Solebury.

Whatever the reasoning, in December 1882, Lambert T. Worman petitioned the Court of Common Pleas for a new road, claiming that “a public road was necessary.” It was to begin in the road from Stockton to Rosemont (Route 519) and end in the road from Stockton to Sergeantsville (Route 523).³²

Here is a detail from the USGS topographical map of 1906, showing the route of Worman Road. On the line marked “300,” you can see a black square indicating the location of Eliza Scarborough’s house. If you were to draw another line north toward Worman Road, you will see two buildings abutting the road. One is the old Howell house, and the other is a great old stone barn.

Considering that Howell’s Ferry (the village of Stockton) was so important, with its mills, ferries and bridges, not to mention its tavern, it is a wonder that Worman Road was not built sooner. It is quite possible that it was a private lane before it was made a public road in 1882, although I have no evidence of that. The delay may have been due to the fact that so few people lived along Shoppons Run.

Even once the road was built, and even today, it is a very quiet (and slightly spooky) road. An incident involving Lambert’s son William occurred in 1899 that demonstrates what I mean. This was published in the Hunterdon Republican on April 12, 1899:

“Drugged and Robbed. On 7 Apr. 1899, William Warman, a retired coal merchant of Lambertville, started with a horse and carriage on Friday morning to go to his father, Lambert T. Warman, who lives on a farm near Stockton, taking with him $300 to pay to his father. He took a lonely road, known as Warman’s road. [my emphasis] About 11 o’clock in the morning, farmers passing over the road noticed a horse and carriage standing near a tree, the carriage without an occupant. Late in the evening the horse and carriage were still in the same locality, which fact was reported to Mr. Warman, who hurried to the spot and recognized the horse and carriage as the property of his son. A search was made and he was not found at his home. The next morning he was found near his father’s home in a dazed condition. After a time he recovered enough to say that while driving along the road, he was suddenly confronted by a rough looking man, who stopped the horse and pulled him from the carriage. Another man appeared and they forced some liquid into his mouth and he soon became insensible. The money he was to deliver to his father was missing.”

Note that the spelling of the name was switched to Warman. The final decision on the spelling must have been made by the Township Road Department when they had to order road signs.

That is the end of my history of the old Howell house on Worman Road. I find it intriguing that the history of one property hinged on the history of the surrounding properties and on families that did not own the house themselves. It shows that it is a mistake to think of the history of a place in isolation. Context is everything.

Footnotes: