Politics, a Storm & a Sign

Part Ten of the County House Series. — The early 1800s in Flemington were dynamic and surprisingly busy for a town that had about 16 houses in it. What made the difference was the courthouse and the energy of tavern owner Alexander Bonnell.

Flemington, 1797-1803

When Alexander Bonnell purchased the tavern lot on July 19, 1797, it contained 6.25 acres minus the half-acre lot that George Alexander sold to the freeholders for a courthouse, which bordered the Howell’s Ferry Road shortcut. [See Howell’ Ferry Road for a map.]

Soon afterwards, on December 12, 1797, “Alexander Bonnell of Flemington, innkeeper, and wife Catharine” sold a 0.45-acre lot to Lucius W. Stockton, located just south of the courthouse lot and taking up the remaining space between the courthouse lot and the tavern lot’s southeast corner.¹

This sale did not provide Bonnell with much income—he only charged Stockton £25. The tavern lot had cost him £800.

But that was no concern of Bonnell’s. He had profited well from his father Abraham Bonnell’s estate and had money to spend.

Bonnell may have had his eye on the property to the west and south of his tavern lot. His was a busy tavern in the county seat, which required a large stable to accommodate travelers and visitors to the courthouse. A stable needs hay and feed for the animals sheltered there, products that cannot be produced in a sufficient amount on just a 5-acre lot.

As it happens, the current owner of the old 165-acre Skelton tract was ready to sell off part of it. This was the property that Skelton abandoned during the Revolution, that his father-in-law Thomas Lowrey bought at a sheriff’s sale and sold to Roger Bowman, who conditionally sold it to Lucius W. Stockton. But Stockton could not pay the full price, so it was sold to John N. Cumming who sold ten acres to Stockton and the remainder to John Phillips of Maidenhead Township in 1801.²

A couple months later, the Phillips, John & Mary, decided to realize some of the value of their property, and offered a 40-acre tract for sale. Alexander Bonnell purchased it on July 20^th for $800.³

Following that land purchase, Bonnell was taxed in Amwell Township in 1802 on 45 acres of improved land. This consisted of the 40 acres from the Philips plus the 5-acre tavern lot. The property was valued at $128, considerably less than he paid for it. He was also taxed on two horses, two cattle, one “man & horse, one serving man and one slave.

Bonnell was taxed again in 1803 on the same property and the same men. He had the same livestock with the addition of another cow.

Republican Politics in 1802-1803

During the 1780s and 1790s, the Federalist party dominated national and New Jersey politics. This was the party of Washington, Adams and especially Alexander Hamilton, a one-time resident of New Jersey and friend of Elias Boudinot.

All this changed with the election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800, which gave his party, the Democratic Republicans, the chance to run the country as well as the State of New Jersey.

In 1801, as part of Republicans’ efforts to promote their message, Gov. Joseph Bloomfield recruited Republican printer Matthias Day to publish a new newspaper in Trenton called The True American. In addition to Day’s partner Jacob Mann, Day took on 21-year-old novice, James J. Wilson from Scotch Plains. Not long afterwards, Wilson bought out Day & Mann and took on as a partner Lewis Blackwell.

As Carl Prince wrote, thanks to Wilson’s efforts at party organization along with the power of his newspaper, Hunterdon County became “the most reliable Republican stronghold in Central Jersey.”⁴

The Campaign & Election of 1802

On September 6, 1802, The True American published an item describing

“a meeting of Republicans from the several Townships in the County of Hunterdon, held this day at Price’s Tavern, to agree upon a ticket to be supported at the ensuing Election. Gen. Joseph Brearley was chosen president, and Maj. Ralph Hunt, Secretary [of the meeting]. It was on motion unanimously Resolved, That the following ticket be recommended to the suffrage and support of the Republican Citizens of Hunterdon County, at the ensuing election, viz.
Council, John Lambert. Assembly, Nathan Stout, John Haas, Peter Gordon, Joseph Hankinson.”⁵

Price’s Tavern was the tavern of Nathan Price located in Ringoes. This was the last time the Republicans would meet there. All future meetings took place at Bonnell’s tavern in Flemington.

Despite the strength of the Republican party in 1802, one of the Hunterdon candidates lost, which meant that when the Joint Meeting took place between the Council and Assembly, when the Legislators were to elect a Governor, the vote was a tie, 26 to 26.

In a previous article (Stockton & Anderson, continued), I described the race for the New Jersey State Senate in 1802, in which Jacob Anderson ran as a Federalist, against incumbent Senator, John Lambert, the Democratic Republican. Lambert won the race by a margin of two to one, despite a strong showing by the Federalists in other races that year.

As a result of the tied vote, the Vice President of Council, John Lambert, was chosen to serve as acting Governor until the next election in 1803, when the previous Governor, Joseph Bloomfield, was returned to office.

Republicans Reorganize

Losing control of the legislature by only one vote must have inspired Republicans to better prepare for the next election. But it took the organizing abilities of James J. Wilson to make it happen. And the best way to do this was by means of his newspaper The True American.⁶

On December 25, 1802, Joshua Wright and James J. Wilson, as chairman and secretary of “a Meeting of Republican Citizens of the Township of Trenton,” requested “our Republican Fellow-Citizens of the several Townships of the County of Hunterdon” to meet at “the House of Alexander Bonnell in Flemington” on January 12^th to discuss business “of the first importance to the honor and interest of the County and of the State at large.”

The notice was published again on January 10, 1803, two days before the meeting was to take place, but the meeting was postponed to January 17^th, probably due to very bad weather. Minutes were taken by the meeting secretary, none other than James J. Wilson, who had replaced Ralph Hunt, the clerk for the 1802 meeting.⁷

The 1803 Meeting

During the early years of the 19^th century, the political parties, such as they were, organized themselves in local taverns, which tells you what a small number of people were involved if they could all fit into a tavern house. This is all the more amazing when one considers that Hunterdon County consisted not only of the county as we know it today but also most of Mercer County, and all of Morris, Sussex and Warren Counties.

When it came to turnout for party meetings, however, there was a notable exception in 1803. As Wilson reported in The True American:

“Notwithstanding the inclemency of the season, the unfavorable aspect of the weather, and the extreme badness of the roads, the Meeting consisted of about three hundred persons. For accommodation of room and seats, about 1 o’clock the Meeting adjourned from Mr Bonnell’s to the Court-House to transact their business, which was concluded about three o’clock. The doors were open during the whole time, for the admission of any person whose inclination or curiosity led him to be present.”

Fortunately, the courthouse was just down the street from the tavern. But leaving doors open on a stormy January day is inconceivable today. However, the courthouse was poorly heated anyway, so it may not have made much difference.

I have wondered why the meeting was not moved to the Union Hotel across the street. Either that tavern was also too small, or its owner, Samuel Taylor, was not sympathetic with the Democratic Republicans.

The minutes of the meeting began with

THIS DAY, a Meeting of Republican Citizens from the several townships of the County of Hunterdon took place at the House of Alexander Bonnell, in Flemington, agreeably to advertisment [sic] previously published. —After adjourning to the Court-House, General Joseph Brearley was appointed President, and James J. Wilson secretary, . . .

The only other person named in the lengthy description of the meeting was Sen. John Lambert, the Vice President of the Council (the State Senate) in 1802 and temporary Governor in 1803.

The minutes began with a list of grievances, many of them previously made in a letter from “A Citizen of Trenton” to The True American on Oct 25, 1802 (which I published in the article Anderson v. Stockton).

WHEREAS, in some parts of this county illegal and unjust practices were made use of at the late election [November 1802] by the officers appointed to conduct the same, such as collecting votes in the street, receiving votes by proxy, and taking the votes of Aliens, of persons under age, of non-residents, of married women, of paupers supported by the town, of blacks not possessing the property required by law, and of actual slaves; . . .

In 1803, the provisions of the NJ Constitution of 1776 were still in effect. Article 4, declared:

That all Inhabitants of this Colony of full Age, who are worth Fifty Pounds proclamation Money clear Estate in the same, & have resided within the County in which they claim a Vote for twelve Months immediately preceding the Election, shall be entitled to vote for Representatives in Council & Assembly; and also for all other publick Officers that shall be elected by the People of the County at Large.

There was nothing else about the right to vote. “All Inhabitants of this Colony” could include women, married or otherwise, and Blacks or other people of color owning property. So, it seems as if the Republicans were wrong to take offense at their participation.

The Flemington meeting also objected to the way its complaints about the election were ignored by “the Legislature.” Concern was expressed about the response to Sen. John Lambert as temporary Governor, accusing “many influential men amongst us” of obstructing and arresting Lambert’s government.

The minutes then listed all the measures that were taken by Gov. Lambert that they approved of:

. . . dismissing useless officers, by reducing the Standing Army, by repealing obnoxious taxes, by practicing economy, by diminishing the public debt, by cherishing and protecting agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and securing to us all the blessings of peace, property and liberty, which our Republican Government, when rightly administered, is so eminently calculated to afford, . . .

This was followed with praise for the administration of Thomas Jefferson.

James J. Wilson went on to list the measures to be taken in the future to prevent unauthorized persons from voting and to prevent other abuses, actions that sound a lot like the organization of a political party: “Associators” in each township to meet twice a year to “transact business,” a Standing Committee for each township, an annual general meeting of the Associators, a committee of correspondence “to promote the objects of this Institution,” the objects being to support the Jefferson administration and prevent the abuses of the previous campaign. It was never clearly stated how they were going to prevent those abuses.

As far as the response of the Flemington audience to all of the proposals, “the voice of the Meeting was unanimous; and on every important point, the utmost unanimity prevailed.”

The Flemington Tornado

The weather was bad in January 1803, but the following year, it got much worse.

Severe storms are becoming more common lately, but Flemington never experienced anything so dramatic and damaging as the tornado that ripped through the village on May 26, 1804. Perhaps no one suffered more damage than innkeeper, Alexander Bonnell.

This item appeared in The Trenton Federalist on May 28^th:

“We understand that a very heavy wind was experienced on Tuesday afternoon last, in the upper part of the county of Hunterdon. At the village of Flemington (being the only place from which we have learned the particulars), the tavern house of Mr. A. Bonnel was entirely unroofed, and otherwise very much damaged. Some of the furniture of the upper part of the house was carried to [the] distance of a mile, and distributed in almost every direction; his barn likewise moved from the spot and very much injured. . .”

Rick Epstein, Frenchtown’s favorite historian, has observed “Journalists are history’s first responders.” That is certainly true of the journalist who wrote the following report in the Trenton Federalist, published on June 4, 1804.⁸

On the 22d inst., this village was visited by a Tornado or Whirlwind, exceeding in violence anything of the like nature within the recollection of the oldest inhabitants. The day had been warm and sultry . . . [A long description of the weather and the tornado follows.]

The Tornado passed through the centre of the village, taking in its course the Dwelling-house and other buildings of Mr. Alexander Bonnell, innkeeper, the barn of Dr. Geary, that of Judge Reading, the carriage-house and barn of Mr. George Maxwell, and the back piazza and shed of Mr. Samuel Taylor, Inn-keeper.

The greatest loss, by this disaster, was experienced by Mr. Bonnell, his stable upwards of 60 feet in length was completely torn to pieces –the weather boarding severed from the frame, broken and strewn in every direction –the frame entirely separated, the timbers broken and carried to a considerable distance, and the building, in short, reduced to a perfect wreck. The Dwelling-house next came in its course, the wind apparently seizing it in a diagonal course, taking off one-half the roof and the ceiling of the upper story on the west side and about three-quarters of the roof on the front, or eastern side. The southern chimney was leveled with the ceiling of the upper story, and the northern cut off even with the roof and carried onto the roof of the kitchen, through which part of the bricks passed. Part of the roof of the Dwelling-house was carried off to the distance of three quarters of a mile, and the ceiling and joists of the back rooms of the upper story carried off and dispersed in like manner.  Curtains, bedclothes, etc. were hurled out and carried to a great distance, some of which have not yet been recovered. The shed standing between the Dwelling-house and stable shared the same fate with the stable and was entirely demolished. A new barn, belonging to Mr. Bonnell, standing south of the stable, was twisted half-way round, while a small building standing between it and the stable was unaffected by the wind. A wagon before the shed was torn to pieces, the axletree broken, and the hub of one of the wheels driven into the earth so that it was buried up to the spokes. Through one of the windows of a back chamber of the Dwelling-house, an unknown substance was forced, breaking the intersection of the sash, and passing in an oblique direction through the upper ceiling of the room and out through the roof, with a force apparently equal to that of cannon ball.”

The article then described damage done to the property of Mr. [Samuel] Taylor, Dr. [William] Geary and Judge Reading. Also Mr. Maxwell’s barn. Then continues:

It is a remarkable instance of the interposing mercy of a kind Providence, that no human being experienced injury where so many lives were in such eminent danger. The whole family of Mr. Bonnell were collected in one room, and that room was the only one in the house which was left uninjured by the falling timbers, bricks, etc. His Negro Man was in the barn which was removed from its foundation. Finding it going, he precipitately left it and was hurried by the wind into a neighboring field with such violence as to destroy his recollection of the means by which he was carried there. It is remarkable that two horses which were in the stable escaped uninjured—part of the frame falling as to cover them from ruin.

The damage done in this village cannot be less than fifteen hundred and two thousand dollars. The principal loss was sustained by Mr. Bonnell. His Dwelling-house, besides being devested of three parts of its roof and one half the upper ceiling of the second story, is very much shattered—the window broken and several holes beaten through the sides of the building both in the upper and lower rooms. Such was the uproar occasioned by the tornado, that the family of Mr. Bonnell were unconscious of the damage done to their house till attacked out of doors by the ruins of the stable, after the wind had passed off. . .  Many of the inhabitants sought refuge in the Court-house, apprehensive of the violence of the wind; but no material damage was sustained from this storm in the vicinity, except the levelling of fences and the blowing down of trees. . .

Newspapers in the late 18^th and early 19^th century were not heavily staffed. Publishers were also printers and editors, and even reporters. So, I suspect that the author of this very extensive and detailed narrative was one of the owners. But it is unclear to me who that was in 1804.

1804-05, Recovering

The tornado would have caused a great deal more damage to Flemington buildings were it not for the fact that there weren’t a lot of buildings to damage.

In 1808 the town consisted only of the properties on Main Street, extending from the Presbyterian Church south to the Baptist Church, that is, from the Civil War monument to Church Street, in addition to the Fleming Castle house on Howell’s Ferry Road. In that space, Snell wrote “there were but sixteen houses, of which three were occupied as taverns.”⁹

One might think that after a disaster like the 1804 tornado, Alexander Bonnell would throw up his hands and resign from the tavern business. But he still had to make a living and a family to support.

In 1804, Bonnell was 36 years old. He had been married to Catharine Mattison for ten years. They had three children, the eldest, Joseph, age 11, the second child, Charles age 9, and the youngest, Elizabeth, age 5. A fourth child, John R. Bonnell, died in 1802, age 2. (Joseph and Charles both died in their 30s, and their sister Elizabeth at age 51. Alexander Bonnell was also 51 when he died. Could the shock and trauma of that terrible storm have shortened their lives? I would not be surprised.)

Taxes & Licenses

To my regret, the tax ratables for Amwell Township in 1804 and 1805 have not been saved. It would be interesting to see how Bonnell’s property was valued before and after such devastation.

Bonnell renewed his tavern license in May 1804, probably only a few days before the tornado ripped the roof off his tavern. The Common Pleas Minutes include a long list of licensees, with Alexander Bonnell at the top of the list. His fee was $16. The only other person whose fee was that high was Samuel Taylor, who kept the tavern on the east side of Main Street, later to become the Union Hotel. All the others in Amwell Township paid $10.¹⁰

That high license fee suggests that Bonnell owned a larger tavern than the others, which would help explain why his tavern was favored by the Republican party for their meetings.

Despite the damage to his property, Bonnell petitioned again for a license in 1805. Once again, his name was on the top of the list, and his fee was $16. The only other Amwell tavern keepers paying the same fee were John Snyder, Joseph Atkinson and Nathan Price. Peter Vankirk and Edmund Burk both were charged $12 and everyone else paid $10.¹¹

In 1806 and 1807, Bonnell’s annual fee was raised to $18.

Bonnell managed to restore his house, stable and sheds remarkably quickly. By August 13, 1804, he was ready for customers. On that day, The True American was advertising that a GENERAL MEETING of the Republicans of Hunterdon County would take place “at the House of Alexander Bonnell, in Flemington” on September 1^st “to select their Candidates for State Legislature, &c. and to adopt such measures relative to Representatives to Congress, and Electors of President and Vice President, as to them may seem proper.”¹²

The True American reported that the meeting was attended by “nearly or quite two hundred Citizens, and the proceedings were attended with the utmost harmony, cordiality and unanimity—such as Republicans ought always to display.” The paper did not say anything about the meeting being moved to the courthouse to accommodate all those ‘citizens.’¹³

Bonnell’s tavern must have been very large if it could accommodate so many people. From 1803 on, the favored meeting place for Hunterdon County’s Republicans was Bonnell’s tavern in Flemington. It was James J. Wilson who decided that meetings would be held there, suggesting to me that Bonnell not only supported the party but was probably a friend of Wilson’s.

In late February 1805, the Republicans met there to choose a candidate for Council, to replace John Lambert who had won election to Congress in November 1804.¹⁴

A few weeks after this meeting, Bonnell purchased 28.92 acres from George C. Maxwell for $1,160. This was taken out of a tract of 77.8 acres that Maxwell had purchased from John & Mary Phillips a short time previously. It was property that bordered the tavern lot on the west.¹⁵

A Proposed Turnpike

On Nov. 1, 1805, Abraham Bonnell subscribed $3 for a survey of a road to run from the courthouse to Trenton, to be made by Nathaniel Saxton.¹⁶

“We the subscribers agree to pay to Nathaniel Saxton or any other surveyor who may perform the same the sums annexed to our respective names toward defraying the expence [sic] of making an accurate survey and plan of the road from the Court house in Flemington to the State house in the City of Trenton. November 1, AD 1805. [signed] George Maxwell 3 dollars, John Snyder 2 dollars, Alex. Bonnell 3 dollars, Joseph Capner 1 dollar, James Gregg 1 dollar, C. D. Coxe 1 dollar, William Bennett 2 dollars, John Rutherford 5 dollars.”

In the early 19^th century, the state of New Jersey’s main roads was pretty bad. The government did not have the funds to survey and construct those roads, so it was left to private companies and individuals. As Mrs. Stothoff explained,

Private companies were given monopolies by the state, in return for which they were to surface and maintain the roads. Profits were to come from tolls levied for use of the roads, and improvements were to be made from these tolls.¹⁷

It does not seem as if Nathaniel Saxton was acting for any private company. He was simply raising subscriptions to pay for a survey. I assume he would have enlisted a private company to get a monopoly from the Legislature, but there was nothing in the Saxton Papers at the Hunterdon County Historical Society (HCHS) to show that that had happened. There was only the subscription list, and as you can see, there were very few subscribers.

At least we get Bonnell’s original signature from it.

The Tavern Sign

With the Republicans holding their meetings at his tavern, Bonnell was undoubtedly keen to add a sign to his building to let visitors know where he was located. Much to my delight, that sign is hanging on a wall in the library of the Hunterdon County Historical Society.

While visiting the Society recently, I met with Pete Goodell (current president of the Society) and mentioned what I was working on. He had the insight to show me an old tavern sign that had been in the Society’s possession for many years, the one pictured here.¹⁸

It is a wonderful sign. But there is nothing on the sign to indicate when it was made or which of the several tavernkeepers arranged for it to be installed. According to the accession sheet for the HCHS, it was given to the Society in 1899 by John J. Park, a resident of Whitehouse. Bob Sands, who processed the acquisition, wrote that it represented the County Tavern in Whitehouse.

The original accession record was made by Hiram E. Deats, who wrote:

Sep 1899 [No.] 182 Signboard for “County Tavern” White House from John J. Park.

But nowhere on the sign does it say White House.

The Whitehouse Tavern & John J. Park

I am uncomfortable challenging Hiram Deats on anything, but I doubted that there was a tavern in Whitehouse named County Tavern. So, I consulted Pamelyn Bush, who has done extensive research on her ancestor William Lare, one-time owner of “Lare’s Hotel & Tavern” in Whitehouse. She assures me that it never had or used the name “County Tavern,” and that there never was a tavern in Whitehouse by that name.

James P. Snell wrote that Abraham Van Horn built the Whitehouse tavern sometime before the Revolution and it was owned by Wm J. Van Horn when Snell’s book was published in 1881. Pamelyn Bush wrote that Van Horn’s tavern was “the more notable tavern in Whitehouse (the Mechanicsville area),” that it was “the only true White House Tavern and the one for which the area is named.”

But it was never known as the County Tavern. And why would it be? A name like that would only be used in a town that served as the county seat.

So, how did Park come into possession of a sign for a Flemington tavern?

John J. Park (1873-1951) was the son of Henry Eugene Park and Anna Leora Bell of Tewksbury Twp., not far from the Readington School District #68. Although he spent most of his life in Readington Township, he was familiar with Flemington. He was probably there in 1897 when the Sheriff sold property in Readington to his father H. Eugene Park, and again on January 6, 1899, when that property was sold to John himself and the deed was recorded at the County Clerk’s Office in Flemington.¹⁹

It was September 1899, when he was almost 26 years old, that John J. Park donated the sign to the HCHS. This was about the time that Park moved from his family’s home in Tewksbury to Readington where he was counted in the 1900 census.

Hiram E. Deats, who established the HCHS in 1885, was a contemporary of John J. Park. It is conceivable that Deats encouraged him to give the sign to the Society. Clearly, Park did not know where the sign came from and neither did Deats. The question of how the sign came to be in Park’s possession remains a mystery, unless an old letter or diary entry is found that provides an answer.

When was the sign made?

The earliest mention I found for the name “County Tavern” in Flemington was this notice from The True American dated Dec 26, 1803.

The subscriber, Surrogate of the County of Hunterdon, will attend at the County Tavern [my emphasis] in Flemington on Monday the 9^th, Tuesday the 10^th and Wednesday the 11^th of January next, to transact any business that may be offered preparatory to the ensuing term of the Orphans’ court. [signed] James J. Wilson.²⁰

The tavern sign could have been made any time before or after 1803. Bonnell might have had it made right after purchasing the tavern in 1797. On the other hand, there was that tornado that so badly damaged the tavern property in 1804. It would make sense for Bonnell to put the sign up when he was making repairs to the tavern house.

Given the appearance of the font on the sign, it must have been made closer to the time when Alexander Bonnell took possession of the tavern. Bonnell was a far more aggressive businessman than George Alexander was, as demonstrated by his ability to convince the Hunterdon Republican party to hold its meetings in his tavern. Making and displaying a large sign for the tavern seems like the sort of thing someone like Bonnell would do, a way to let travelers from the far reaches of the county find his tavern when they came to Flemington to attend those meetings, especially on a wintery day in January 1803.

Here is an early drawing of the hotel, as someone (not a contemporary) imagined it, someone I cannot name because I found this drawing many years ago when I was not smart enough to carefully document my sources. I hope one of my readers can identify the drawing’s artist and its date. I include it here because it gives us a good image of how the tavern probably looked in the early 1800s.

The name ‘County Tavern’ continued in use for almost 40 years. In 1838, the then tavern owner, Thomas Alexander, son of the first owner, George Alexander, went into debt. The tavern was seized by Sheriff John Runk and sold to Asa Jones. The deed stated that the property being sold was “the County Tavern property.”²¹

The last mention I found for the County Tavern is in The Hunterdon Gazette, dated June 1, 1842:

GENERAL ORDERS ! THE several Regiments composing the Hunterdon Brigade will form line in the main street, Flemington, on Monday, the 6th inst., precisely at 10 o’clock, A. M., fronting East. The 1st Regiment with its right resting in front of Jones’ County Tavern [my emphasis]; the 2d Regiment with its right resting in front of the Court House; and the 3d Regiment with its right resting in front of Price’s Mansion House Hotel. The Lambertville Cadets on the right of the 3d regiment. Commandments of Regiments will report themselves to the the [sic] Brigadier General at Head Quarters, (County Tavern) at 9 o’clock, A. M. By order of the Brig. Gen. JOS. H. READING, June 1, 1841. Aid-de-Camp.

In 1855, when Jacob B. Smith substantially enlarged and rebuilt the tavern, he changed the name to the “County House,” as reported in The Hunterdon Gazette of May 16, 1855.

If Jacob B. Smith took down the old sign in 1855, then it was 44 years before John J. Park donated it to the HCHS. It is easy to see why both Park and Deats did not know where the sign came from.

The tavern’s owner in 1899 was Samuel H. Mount. The hotel photo in Part One of the County House series shows a sign outside the hotel, hanging from a post. But it is much smaller than the sign at the Historical Society. The County Tavern sign was hung from the top the same way the 1899 sign was hung. One can see evidence of a frame along the top border of the sign, from which it was probably hung. Eventually it must have been brought indoors because the back of the sign is covered in two different layers of wallpaper, which one would not use for an outdoor sign.

Here is a photograph of the back of the sign.

The 19^th century in Flemington got off to a very dramatic start. But succeeding years will also prove interesting. There will be the travails of Alexander Bonnell’s neighbor, Nathaniel Saxton, the controversies over the War of 1812, and the arrival of one of Flemington’s most famous residents, the Hon. Samuel L. Southard, Esq.

Footnotes: