This family tree should be considered a work in progress, as the Higgins family of Raritan Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey is large and complex, more than enough to work on without including Higgins family members who migrated west. They are for the most part left out.
part two in the series, The Route Not Taken
This is part two of my series on the Delaware Flemington Railroad Company. Part One was Egbert T. Bush’s history of how this company failed. He provided us with lots of information derived from the company papers that had been saved. But so many questions were raised, and not addressed, starting with the people who thought up the idea and promoted the company.
The next presidential debate for Democratic candidates is coming up on September 12th. In light of that and also with thoughts about the kind of discourse Americans are having these days, it seemed appropriate to publish Mr. Bush’s article on a practice that went out of fashion long ago—local debating societies. Somehow it was possible for 19th-century neighbors to dispute current issues without making enemies of each other.
Part one in the series, The Route Not Taken
This article by Egbert T. Bush caught my attention because it is reminiscent of PennEast’s attempt to dig a pipeline across Delaware Township and other parts of Hunterdon and Mercer Counties. The big difference here is that many landowners along the proposed route of this railroad supported it because they expected real benefits, whereas PennEast’s pipeline is likely to do more harm than good.
Part one focused on the family of Judson Rittenhouse and Martha Bodine, who lived on the farm now known as the Sarah Dilts Farm Park in Delaware Township for most of their lives. The farm was purchased by Judson’s father, Wilson Bray Rittenhouse, in 1844. This article will first describe Wilson and his family, and then will trace the history of this property back to the first European owner.
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.
The Buchanan family begins in Hunterdon County with the Scottish immigrants, Samuel and Jane or Janet Buchanan, whose name was frequently spelled “Bohannon.” It is not known whether they had any more than one child. But one was enough–their son John left a family with a long history.
In my previous post (A Shrinking Township, part one), I wrote about a petition in 1896 to take a large chunk out of Delaware Township and give it to East Amwell Township. That petition was signed by two East Amwell residents, William H. Manners and Simpson Sked Stout. This post will describe these two, as well as the journey the bill took through the legislature, and the property owners who were affected by it.
