In part one of Summit School, Mr. Bush talked about “the meanest hill that old-timers had to travel on their way to Flemington.” Actually, going TO Flemington wasn’t so bad since it was all downhill. But returning UP the hill was no picnic. In fact, it was a “hard scrabble.”
While going through my files I came upon an article about the Inn by Hunterdon historian Egbert T. Bush. It tells us much about how popular and important the Inn was, not just to Stockton but also to the surrounding towns.
(1) Tunis Hontis Case (1691 – 1772) & Eva Catharine Dubraucke (1695 – after 1774)
My apologies. On May 25, 2021, I found too many mistakes on this tree to let it stand any longer. Making corrections is going to take a lot of work, but I hope to be able to restore the tree before too long.
Raritan Township was in the news not long ago for its effort to acquire and preserve a 48-acre farm to the west of Flemington. It is located near an area that has long been known as “Hardscrabble.”
My last article described the political turmoil in Hunterdon County in the 1850s. There was another kind of turmoil going on at the same time, an economic one. For Hunterdon that meant a local bank was needed.
I first came upon the Housel family while researching early families and their properties in old Amwell Township. Later on, I found Ann Housel, wife of Flemington banker John C. Hopewell (see “One Man Makes a Difference.”) The family is a very old one in Hunterdon County.
My previous article discussed the evolution of political parties in the early 1850s, both nationally and in Hunterdon County. The Democratic party was still going strong, while the Whig party was fading away and two new parties had come on the scene: the Republican party and the American party, better known as the Know Nothings.
I am going to step away briefly from the life of John C. Hopewell to shed some light on a political movement that Hopewell and many other Flemington notables got caught up in.
The second generation of this Lair Family tree came to New Jersey came from Germany in the mid-18th century, after the death of the patriarch in Lyons, France. The widow and her sons came to Hunterdon County in 1757, but settled in different places, one in the northern county and the other in the southern. The name is usually spelled Lair, but sometimes as Lare.