What Comes from Owning the Land

By in In My Library 1 Comment Tags: , , ,

OwningNJ
In My Library: Owning New Jersey, Mapping New Jersey, Owning the Earth and New Jersey Linseed Oil Mills

OwningNJOwning New Jersey; Historic Tales of War, Property Disputes & the Pursuit of Happiness

by Joseph A. Grabas, published by The History Press, 2014
What a great name for a book. I’ve wanted to own this book for decades, even though it did not exist until now. Joseph Grabas is a well-known figure among New Jersey historians, for his ability to take what he has learned from his many years as a title searcher and turn it into fascinating New Jersey history. He’s done a beautiful job of showing how interrelated land ownership and politics can be, and how those systems have influenced New Jersey history right from its very beginning. It’s also a very readable book. It is easy to overlook how much we can learn from old records—records that seem to be dry and uninteresting, unless an inquiring mind like Mr. Grabas takes a close look at them. Then they reveal great human dramas, both comedic and tragic. This book has much to teach us.

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A House Divided

By in Howell, Pettit, Prallsville, Reading, Stockton Borough 2 Comments Tags: , , ,

1774 House

Howell’s Tavern House and Ferry House

Detail of survey by Reading Howell, 1774 click to enlarge
Detail of survey by Reading Howell, 1774
click to enlarge

The dotted line in this picture is a survey line, drawn by Reading Howell in 1774, and as you can see, one of the lines goes right through the middle of the house, which is labeled “Ferry House.” Strangely enough, this house has long been known as the tavern house at Howell’s Ferry (Stockton) which I wrote about in “Jacob’s Path, an 1813 Shortcut.” So why was the tavern house called the Ferry House in 1774? And why did the surveyor run a line right through the middle? Therein lies a story.

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Milling Industry at Prallsville Back of Year 1792

By in E. T. Bush, Families, Historians, Hoppock, Prallsville, Wolverton 6 Comments Tags: , ,

Prallsville2

Little Known of Mill That Existed Prior to John Prall’s
When the Canal Was Dug

by Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, N.J.
published in the Hunterdon County Democrat, February 13, 1930

It is common to speak of John Prall Jr. as the builder of the first mill in this hamlet. But his titles date back to early 1792; and to some of us it seemed strange that a site so attractive with the Wickecheoke Creek rushing into the Delaware, with an established ferry close at hand, and with a solid community back of it should have been so long without a mill. While investigation has so far failed to reveal all that was hoped for, it has demonstrated that Prall was far from being first to carry on milling business here.

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