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John Reading and the Creation of Hunterdon Co., part two

December 5, 2014 By Marfy Goodspeed in Amwell Township, Hunterdon, Reading Tags: early legislation, early settlers, surveying

This is part two of a speech delivered on Nov. 16, 2014 for the Hunterdon County Tercentennial. You can find the first installment here.

Moving to Hunterdon

I ended the last post with the statement that in 1704, John Reading had a tract of 1440 acres surveyed in the far northwestern corner of the Adlord Bowde purchase. It was an excellent location—superior agricultural soil and access to the river. At this point, the river runs east-west, so Reading’s house could face south as well as face the river, and he had an excellent view of traffic going both ways. He named it Mount Amwell, after his family’s ancestral home in England.

Gathering Nuts Was Once An Industry

November 28, 2014 By Marfy Goodspeed in Croton, E. T. Bush, Historians Revisited, Hockenbury, Raritan Township Tags: flora and fauna, maps, old ways

A Boy Could Make From 30 to 40 cents a Day by Hard Work
Pegg Family Conserved Acres

by Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, N.J.
published by the Hunterdon Co. Democrat, November 21, 1929

This is another in a series of articles by Egbert T. Bush Paying attention to the wonderful trees of old Hunterdon County. A complete list of Bush’s tree articles can be found at the end.

John Reading & the Creation of Hunterdon County (part 1)

November 21, 2014 By Marfy Goodspeed in Amwell Township, Burlington County, Hopewell Township, Hunterdon, Reading, West New Jersey Tags: Daniel Coxe, early legislation, early settlers, Indians, land titles, maps, politics, proprietors, roads, surveying

On November 16, I gave a speech about John Reading and the Creation of Hunterdon County. There was quite a lot of information in that speech, covering the years 1664 to 1718. In fact, it was probably a bit too much.

For example, the beginning of the speech covered the conquest of New Netherland by the English in 1664, the Third Anglo-Dutch War of 1672-74, the Quintipartite Deed of 1676, and John Reading’s settlement in Gloucester County in 1684; also Edward Byllinge and the early settlement of West New Jersey. Rather than rehash material that I have already written about, you can see a list of pertinent articles at the end of this one. They cover the settlement of West New Jersey, its political history, its infamous governor Daniel Coxe, and the early career of John Reading.

For the history of Hunterdon County, it is best to start with 1694. What follows is the first part of a somewhat amended version of the speech.

The Conklings, Father and Son

November 8, 2014 By Marfy Goodspeed in E. T. Bush, Hunterdon, Stockton Tags: debt, land titles, mills

This is a continuation of the story by Egbert T. Bush of the “Biggest Log Ever Brought to Stockton,” in which he wrote about the owners of the Stockton Sawmill and the Stockton Spoke Works. These Hunterdon industrialists took risks to build their businesses, and sometimes failed badly. Here are two more examples of failure and success.

Death and Dying in 1850 Hunterdon County

October 31, 2014 By Marfy Goodspeed in Hunterdon Tags: cemeteries, census records

Be forewarned—this article is not for the squeamish.

Biggest Log Ever Brought to Stockton

October 25, 2014 By Marfy Goodspeed in Case, E. T. Bush, Stockton Tags: D&R Canal, debt, early occupations, flora and fauna, mills

Giant Oak Caused Trouble Before It Arrived at the Mill.
A Big Event in the Town

by Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, N.J.
published in the Hunterdon Co. Democrat, September 5, 1929

This is another in a series of articles by Egbert T. Bush on the subject of Hunterdon County trees. Whenever Mr. Bush writes about an event, there is always an interesting back story—often more than one. This article about Stockton takes us north to Kingwood and Alexandria, and south to Lambertville. There are a few people of particular importance: John Finney, William V. Case, Edward P. Conkling and his father Rev. Cornelius S. Conkling. The biographies of Finney and Case can be found at the end of Mr. Bush’s article. The Conklings will appear in a subsequent post.

The Trout Cemetery

October 11, 2014 By Marfy Goodspeed in Hunterdon, Raritan Township, Trout Tags: cemeteries

A Mystery Village

October 4, 2014 By Marfy Goodspeed in Uncategorized Tags: maps

As I have mentioned in previous posts,¹ many wonderful documents can be found in the Cathers-Davison collection that has recently been donated to the Hunterdon County Historical Society. I was very fortunate to get a look at some of them beforehand, and among the earliest documents was a gem.

Unidentified Village from the Cathers-Davison Collection

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Moving to Hunterdon

A Boy Could Make From 30 to 40 cents a Day by Hard Work Pegg Family Conserved Acres

Giant Oak Caused Trouble Before It Arrived at the Mill. A Big Event in the Town

A Boy Could Make From 30 to 40 cents a Day by Hard Work
Pegg Family Conserved Acres

Giant Oak Caused Trouble Before It Arrived at the Mill.
A Big Event in the Town