Lora Olsen, clerk of West Amwell Township, got in touch with me recently to see if I knew where this farm was located. She had some reason to think it might have been the farm once owned by George Trout. The Trout family lived on the farm just south of the tract of land owned first by the Robins, and later by the Buchanan family. I wrote about the location of that farm here.
While looking for the Trout cemetery, I came across an old house on a dirt road, surrounded by the Robins Hill development, and thought perhaps the house in the picture was the same. But it is not. The farmstead seems to be lying south of the ridge on which Daniel Robins built his house, near the intersection of Route 523 and 579. You can even see the hint of a structure on the horizon.
I am hoping one of my readers can identify this farmstead for us.
Elaine Oakes
March 11, 2015 @ 5:37 pm
This is a wild guess after 50 years but the location is possible.
My mother was Clerk of the Locktown Christian Church and Mrs. Hockenbury was Treasurer for at least several years in the 1960s. Sometimes my sister and I rode along when my mother took the offerings to Mrs. Hockenbury. She lived on a farm that had buildings somewhat similar to the photo. I think she owned the property but her son or son-in-law farmed it at the time. Of course I don’t remember the address, just that we drove several miles east from Locktown. If it was West Amwell there should be tax or deed records.
Marfy Goodspeed
March 11, 2015 @ 6:39 pm
Elaine–Very interesting. If you drove east from Locktown you could have ended up at the Trout farm along Route 579. Do you have any recollection of the road you were on? Or the first name of Mrs. Hockenbury?
Elaine Oakes
March 11, 2015 @ 9:52 pm
Major correction, I believe she was Mrs. Wagner. She might have been a Hockenbury, I remember three elderly Hockenbury sisters (all single I think and living together in Flemington) who were former members of the Locktown church and she could have been another member of that family.
After all this time I don’t remember how we got there. I’m pretty sure it was close to 579 and on one of the larger side roads (paved, and most of the roads around Locktown still weren’t when we first moved there). It might even have been on 523 because I think it had two lanes. There must have been another turn somewhere between her house and Locktown but I can’t picture it. We never went that way for any other reason.
Lora Olsen
March 22, 2015 @ 4:35 pm
It appears that I’ve solved my own mystery concerning the Old Trout Farm picture…with some help from cousin Elaine Walters, my husband and a few other folks. This farm is definitely not in Raritan Township. I knew that my grandfather grew up on a farm on Bowne Station Road and the approximate location but the landscape has sure changed, which led me to believe the picture was of a farm somewhere else. The property is now in East Amwell but was once located in Delaware Township. Apparently in 1854, parts of Delaware Township were ceded to East Amwell (Raritan & West Amwell as well), so I assume that as the property was purchased in 1893 by my ggg mother Mary Lee Trout, that this is the correct time period. She, her husband Archibald, and their son Francis Lee and wife Winifred Bellis Trout, all lived on the farm. Three of the four sons of the latter couple have East Amwell births. According the 1881 Beers map, the farm in question was once owned by John Bowne. An Edgar T. Bush column has Dr. Bowne purchasing the 203 acre farm from the estate of Peter Moore on June 10, 1795 , living there until his death in 1857. The son, Joseph G. , owned and operated the farm until his death after which his executors sold the farm to Joseph H. Bowne in 1889. The farm was subsequently sold to Mary Trout. Assessor records show two houses are on the property…one dating to 1720; the other 1850. When the Trout family actually left/sold the farm, and subsequent purchasers, is still under investigation However, the Margolin family purchased the place in the late 60’s (?) early 70’s (?). The development on Garboski Road and the houses along Bowne Stations Road pretty much block the view of the farmstead today. The most recent property conveyance was to FMN Corporation in 1987, obviously with less acreage than the original.
The farm has seen its share of death through the years…the good doctor, his son, etc….but also my ggg father Trout hanged himself there after his wife’s death and the young Margolin girl was murdered on the property in 1973. So sad on many fronts.
Marfy Goodspeed
March 23, 2015 @ 6:55 am
Thank you Lora for sharing this information on the old Bowne-Trout Farm. Just a minor correction–the Beers Atlas was published in 1873. When you wrote 1881, you may have been thinking of the publication date of Snell’s History of Hunterdon.
I found a little item published in the Democrat-Advertiser in 1901 about this farm–
“Tradition has it that the first wheat ever planted in this part of our county was on the well known farm of the Hon. Joseph G. Brown [sic-should be Bowne], deceased, now owned by Archibald Trout, near Bowne’s Station. It was sown by Jacob Moore, who came from Germany to this part of our State in September, 1700.”
I made an attempt to identify Archibald Trout and connect him with the rest of the Hunterdon Trout family, but so far have had no luck.
Lora Olsen
March 23, 2015 @ 8:04 am
Marfy, thanks for that correction to the Beers date. You are right! Here’s another one. Mary Lee Trout was my grandfather’s grandmother, which would make her my great-great grandmother, not great-great-great as the three ‘g’s would indicate. That also changes Archibald to my great-great grandfather as well.
Archibald Buchanan Trout was the son of Asher Trout, who was the son of John. I think that Asher’s brother was Jeremiah.
Marfy Goodspeed
March 23, 2015 @ 9:02 am
So he was that Archibald? Great, and thanks.
Marfy Goodspeed
March 25, 2015 @ 8:51 am
Elaine (Trout) Walters sent me this comment:
As far as I can tell the photo that Lora sent into you is where Francis Lee (Frank) and Winifred Bellis Trout lived. It is located on Bowne Station Road and was purchased by Frank and Winifred, who are my grandparents, also. Lora is my cousin, the grand daughter of my Dad’s (Russell Trout) brother, Earl. To my understanding the Trout boys, Leroy, Arthur, Earl and Russell were born on that farm. They raised cows, horses, poultry, grains (wheat, barley etc). My grandfather, Frank, used to help shovel snow in the winter, to make roads clear so they could take their milk to the railroad station, not far from the farm. He was also a member of the school board. Both grand parents, Frank and Winifred, were active members of the Baptistown church and Sandy Ridge church, too.
Now the grand parents are buried in the Frenchtown cemetery, where he suffered a stroke while digging a grave there. My parents are also buried there, next to them. There are many family members laid to rest in that cemetery and elsewhere in Hunterdon County, especially my Grandmother’s family, Bellis, who are in the Larison’s Corner cemetery.
Marfy Goodspeed
March 25, 2015 @ 8:52 am
I must add that Archibald Trout was the son of Asher Trout and Harriet Buchanan, which ties this family in with the history of Buchanan’s Tavern (see link in right-hand column) and the Trout family that lived nearby.