Like the Hunt and Vandolah families, the Butterfoss family was one of the earliest to settle in Hunterdon County. But where they came from or exactly when I cannot say. Butterfoss suggests a German name, but I have found nothing to confirm that. I hope there are some Butterfoss descendants out there who can help out.
The Hunt Family was well-known in Hunterdon County from its earliest years, both in the county as it is known today, and in the part of it that was divided off to become Mercer County. For proof of that, just check out the index for Dr. Eli F. Cooley’s Genealogy of Early Settlers in Trenton and Ewing “Old Hunterdon County” New Jersey. You will find Hunt names filling two pages there.
After November’s big snowstorm, when so many people trying to drive home found themselves in crashes or stuck in a ditch, I began to wonder what sort of trouble people got into back in the last half of the 19th century. Luckily for me, I had Bill Hartman’s abstract of the Hunterdon Republican, 1856-1900, to turn to. With his abstracts collected into one pdf file, it was easy to search on a word like “accidents.” I found quite a few of them.
