GOODSPEED HISTORIES – Page 4 – New Jersey History and Genealogy

Pittstown Inn, part two

October 13, 2022 By Marfy Goodspeed in Alexandria Twp, Hunterdon, Pittstown Tags: architecture, taverns

I ended part one of the Pittstown Inn when the Revolution came to an end. The Treaty of Paris was finally signed on September 3, 1783, thanks to the efforts of America’s representative at the negotiations, Benjamin Franklin.

The next stage in the history of the Pittstown tavern should cover the years from 1783 to 1800, when the tavern’s owner, Moore Furman, began thinking about replacing the old tavern house with a new one.

The question becomes—what was going on with the tavern between those years? Much to my dismay, I can say next to nothing about what was going on with the tavern. Clearly, there were tavernkeepers at work there while the owner, Furman, had returned to his home in Trenton.

Pittstown Inn, part one

September 10, 2022 By Marfy Goodspeed in Alexandria Twp, Hunterdon, Kingwood Twp Tags: early settlers, Indians, taverns, The Revolution

In her excellent book All Roads Lead to Pittstown (2015),¹ Stephanie Stevens called attention to the early roads that converged on the village of Pittstown. Roads were certainly important, but just as important were creeks in creating the locations of Hunterdon villages.

In the 18^th century, there were very few power sources. It was basically wood (a lot of it) and water. The water powered sawmills for shaping lumber into wood for building, grain mills to turn wheat into flour, and fulling mills to clean and prepare wool for spinning into yarn.²

It was the fulling mill of Edward Rockhill that gave Pittstown its start.

Quakertown’s Taverns

July 17, 2022 By Marfy Goodspeed in E. T. Bush, Franklin Twp, Historians Tags: alcohol, maps, taverns

There was a time when the sleepy little village of Quakertown was a lively place, back when it had two taverns. I learned this from Egbert T. Bush, who wrote a couple articles about the village.

Since I am focusing on taverns these days, I will publish parts of Mr. Bush’s first article on the village, the parts concerning its taverns.

Interesting Facts About Quakertown

by Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, N.J.
Hunterdon Co. Democrat, February 27, 1930

There are so many interesting points about Quakertown that one does not know where to begin.

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