Last June, I was reading the minutes of the Delaware Township Planning Board when I noticed an interesting item. Harry Brelsford, owner of a house at 80 Locktown-Sergeantsville Road (Block 20 lot 6) had presented his plan to tear down and rebuild the older section of the existing house. Apparently, that older section was in such bad repair it wasn’t worth saving. Normally, I notice when there is talk of demolition of old houses, but I forgot about this until a friend called it to my attention.
The Creation of Hunterdon County, part three
This is the third and final part of a speech delivered on Nov. 16, 2014 for the Hunterdon County Tercentennial. You can find the first two installments here and here.
Petitioning for a New County
With so many surveys being made in the new Indian purchases, it was clear that people would be settling in this area very rapidly. And it was also clear that this new area was going to be hard to manage from far-away Burlington City. The residents of the northern townships in Burlington County were becoming frustrated by the need to travel 20 to 35 miles by horseback to the county seat to record their deeds, probate wills and attend court.1
John Reading and the Creation of Hunterdon Co., part two
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.