part six of Route Not Taken
Properties owned by Abbott, Parks & Cole
Continuing with the saga of the railroad that was never built. You can view the previous (and future) articles by going to the home page and clicking on the tag for railroads.
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.
Disturbing news of late, somehow reminiscent of the lead-up to America’s first Civil War. Whilst scrolling through the Hunterdon Gazette recently, I came across an item that caught my attention, published on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1859:
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.
(1) Martin Johnson (1754 – 1828) & Anna Trout (1758 – 1812)
I have very little information on Martin Johnson before his first appearance in Amwell township in 1798 when he purchased a large farm along the Delaware River from John Vancamp. His father was probably Daniel Johnson of Cumberland County, who named son Martin in his will of 1757. Martin Johnson served in some capacity during the Revolution, and may have become acquainted with Amwell Township during that time. This possibility is reinforced by the fact that in 1779 Johnson married Anna Trout, daughter of Amwell landowners George Trout and Hannah Lequear. The Trouts were present in Amwell in the 1750s. Their daughter Anna was the oldest of 11 children.
part three in the series, The Route Not Taken
This is part three of my series on the Delaware Flemington Railroad Company. Part One was an article by Egbert T. Bush describing the birth and death of the company. Part Two described the reasons for the company’s failure and how its directors fared afterwards. This article will focus on the route that was planned for the new rail line.1
Last April, I received an email from a reader, Pamela Milam, describing a tragic incident in her family’s history. I was struck by how unusual and dramatic it was and encouraged her to write it up. But she knew it needed more research, so she set to work. Each version she sent me was better than the previous one, and in time she finished the story, as it is presented here. I hope Pamela’s experience will encourage others to consider writing up a chapter of their own family history. It can be very rewarding.
Recently, my son, Ben Zimmer, sent me a clipping that a friend of his had found in the Trenton True American for March 7, 1803. This friend, Barry Popik, was researching the expression “Uncle Sam,” (see “New Light on “Uncle Sam”), and had found an instance of its use in this letter to the editor:
