The Arnwines of Hunterdon County begin with the immigrant, Jacob Arnwine and his son John Arnwine, who emigrated from Holland. The name Arnwine is Dutch for winemaker, but Jacob was a miller and a merchant. Other spellings were Erwine and Irvine.

For more on this family, see “Bridge To The Past,” a four-volume family history, written about 1989, by Aimee Berniece Wilson, which includes “The Arnwine History” by Rev. K.E. Irvin.

The first of the Poulson family to appear in Hunterdon County was Rev. Israel Poulson, born in Somerset County. He must have arrived in Hunterdon by the mid 1790s, for he married a Hunterdon woman, Esther Moore, about 1794.

Rev. Israel Poulson was one of those people with enormous influence on those who lived anywhere near him. He must have been fairly charismatic, considering how many people who were named after him. There are ten that I am aware of, not including his son Israel P. Poulson, Jr.