April 1863 was another very difficult month for the country. The biggest news was “affairs at or around Vicksburg.”
Benjamin H. Ellicott’s diary, continued.1 See Ellicott’s Diary, January 1863 and Ellicott’s Diary, February 1863. The diary ends in August 1863. For the next five weeks, I will publish a month from the diary.
Pine Hill Cemetery is one of the most interesting of the old family burial grounds in Hunterdon County. I have written about it before, in an article that listed the known graves with some biographical information. But I had just scratched the surface; there is so much more to be said.
A difficult month in a difficult year. Benjamin H. Ellicott’s diary, continued, brings us close to the trials and tribulations of Americans in the middle of their Civil War.1 Previously, I omitted Ellicott’s comments on the weather, but this time I’ve decided to keep them; they seem to enhance the immediacy of time. It’s February, after all, not August.
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
There is an odd sort of road in Delaware Township, running south from Sergeantsville, that I have often wondered about. It is called Rittenhouse Road, and for much of its length, it runs straight as an arrow, then suddenly does a zigzag before ending at Sandy Ridge Road.
Quite often the very straight roads in Hunterdon County were created as a result of the early, large proprietary tracts that forced roads to run along their borders. But that is not the case here. This road ran through the middle of Daniel Robins’ 700+ acres, surveyed in 1722.
Feeding Fifty Men Was Not Uncommon on Such an Occasion
Eatables in Great Abundance
by Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, N.J.
originally published by the Hunterdon Co. Democrat, July 24, 1930
Note: I have included the punctuation as it appeared in the original article, even though I disagree with the editor’s use of commas, and wonder if that was how Mr. Bush wrote it. Also, when Mr. Bush refers to “the young generation,” he means people born in the late-19th and early 20th-century. Mr. Bush was born in 1848.
Processes of Lining, Scoring, Boring and Hewing Described
‘The Big Thrashing Floor’
by Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, N. J.
published in the Hunterdon County Democrat, July 17, 1930
There is no genealogy in this article; it is simply about how to build a barn.
I have previously published excerpts from the diary of Benjamin H. Ellicott, describing how he and wife Mary Ann Warford traveled from their home in Baltimore to Flemington, and then Locktown, to escape the difficulties of the Civil War, and how they decided to return to Baltimore after a few months.
The Ellicott Diary continues through the year 1863, describing the events of the War as seen through the eyes of a southerner who supported the Union cause, but disagreed heartily with the Lincoln administration. He was very much in sympathy with the Locktown Copperheads and members of the Delaware Township Democratic Club.
