Near the center of the village of Locktown stands a 19th-century church and its parsonage, waiting for a new owner. The congregation that has been worshipping in this church for the past 30 years or so is joining with the Calvary Orthodox Presbyterian Church on Route 202 in Flemington, so the Locktown property must be sold.
by Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, N.J.
published in the Hunterdon County Democrat, January 1, 1931
This month is a big allergy month for me, so I looked up what Mr. Bush had to say about trees. Turns out—quite a lot. Bush had a great affection for the grand old trees that had survived the previous century, and frequently mentioned them in his articles. Now that our trees are leafing out, it seems appropriate to publish this essay. The willow described here once stood in front of Roger Byrom’s house in Headquarters.
Governors of New Jersey (revised and updated), Roadside Geology of New Jersey, Lambertville’s Legacy and Land Records of Bucks County.
This article is the last in the series on the Pauch Farm of Delaware Township. For the previous articles please click on “Pauch Farm” in the Topics list to the right.
Plus Some Thoughts on Road Names
Recently my friend Paul Kurzenberger brought me a photograph of a postcard showing the location of the old stone signpost that once stood at the intersection of Ferry Road and Locktown-Flemington Road.
The Pauch farm, continued. The previous article was Joseph Sergeant and Jane Quick.
One item in Charles Sergeant’s will of 1833 is of particular interest to us. It concerned a farm of 130 acres which he had bought from Joseph Sergeant, and which was occupied at that time by Jonathan Rittenhouse. Sergeant ordered that it be sold and the profits divided among his heirs. This was the old Richard Green farm which Charles Sergeant had kept after buying it back from his brother Joseph in 1818. After Joseph Sergeant left the premises, Charles Sergeant rented the farm to a tenant—Jonathan Rittenhouse.
This is the next article in my series on the history of the Pauch farm in Delaware Township. In the previous post,1 Charles Sergeant had sold the old Richard Green farm to John R. Opdycke in 1805, and moved to the farm owned by Opdycke’s father, Samuel Opdycke. John Opdycke had no need for the Green farm. He had married in 1803 and was living in Kingwood on land that came from his wife’s family. Why did Opdycke make this swap? I suspect he wanted to close out his father’s estate, and this was one way to do it. Or, perhaps Sergeant knew how eager Opdycke was to settle matters and proposed a swap instead of an outright purchase.
Turns out even the family could not agree.
I’ve been baffled by the genealogy of this family, finding it impossible to be certain about their origins. In the process of researching the next chapter in the history of the Pauch farm, I came upon two conflicting sources for this question.
