Part Two, Chapter 12 of the County House Series

Ever since the county seat of Hunterdon was established at Flemington in 1791, the County Tavern owned by Alexander Bonnell was a magnet for Hunterdon lawyers, as well as Hunterdon politicians, Samuel L. Southard being the best example.

Flemington Attorneys, 1790-1815

In this series of articles, I have been writing about some of the attorneys who practiced law in Flemington, appearing before the Court of Common Pleas, the Orphans Court, and the Surrogate’s Court. They also appeared on behalf of clients before the Court of Chancery the state Supreme Court in Trenton.

They have represented clients, acted as notaries and witnessed wills, deeds, mortgages and a raft of other legal documents. In some cases, they bought properties in the town of Flemington.

The first attorney I wrote about was Samuel R. Stewart, Esq. (The Freeholders’ Surprise), who represented Susanna Smith in her claim to a right of dower in the courthouse lot in 1791.

Then came Lucius W. Stockton, Esq. (Anderson v. Stockton), who owned property just south of the courthouse lot and served as County Clerk from 1795 to 1805.

Studying law with Stockton in 1795 was Nathaniel Saxton (Bonnell, Saxton & The 1807 Vote), who did the work of County Clerk for Stockton’s successor, Ralph Hunt. Saxton had purchased a 5-acre lot adjacent to the courthouse in 1808 from Alexander & Catharine Bonnell.

There were several other attorneys practicing law in Flemington at this time, but they were not directly connected with Bonnell’s tavern lot, which is the focus of this series. Some of those attorneys were David Stout, Charles Ewing, Joseph S. Warren, Andrew Banghart, John Barber, Joseph Bonnell, Joseph G. Brown, Dr. Zachur Prall, Peter D. Vroom, Jasper Smith and George C. Maxwell.

George C. Maxwell

According to James P. Snell, George C. Maxwell (1771-1816) “was considered in his day as one of the ablest lawyers of the county.”¹

Maxwell was admitted to the Bar in 1797, the year that George Alexander sold the tavern lot to Alexander Bonnell. He was the son of Col. John A. Maxwell and Mary Ann Clifford of Sussex County, and married Rachel Bryan about 1802. They had two children: John P. Maxwell and Anna Maria Roberson.

Maxwell was named a Counsellor at law in 1800 and was a Master of Chancery Court in 1804. In 1813, Maxwell, along with Alexander Bonnell, served as sureties for Martha Stewart Wilson, guardian of the children of her brother, Samuel R. Stewart, Esq., deceased. (See The Stewarts of Flemington.)

The year before his marriage to Rachel Bryan, George C. Maxwell purchased two lots in Flemington from another Flemington attorney, Jasper Smith, Esq.

Jasper Smith, Esq.

One of the oldest Flemington lawyers was Jasper Smith (1737-1813), son of Jasper & Kezia Smith of Maidenhead Township. Jasper Smith was admitted to the bar in 1763. In the 1790s he was practicing law in Flemington and owned property there. He was described as an “ardent patriot of the Revolution and leading lawyer of Hunterdon Co.”²

Like so many other prominent Flemington lawyers, he was a member of the Flemington Presbyterian Church. In his later years he sold his Flemington property and returned to Maidenhead. One of those properties was sold to George C. Maxwell. It was part of the old Eveland tract on the east side of Main Street, sold to Smith by David Eveland in 1764. ³

William Maxwell, Esq.

George C. Maxwell had two younger brothers, William and John.

William Maxwell (1785-1828), son of Col. John Maxwell Sr. & Mary Ann Clifford, married about 1811 Sarah Dusenbury (c.1780-after 1825), daughter of Henry & Lydia Dusenbury of New Hampton, NJ. They had nine children, beginning with Henry D. Maxwell born 1812. Like so many others, Maxwell was also a member of the Flemington Presbyterian congregation.

Maxwell graduated from Princeton in 1804 and was practicing law in Flemington by 1808, the year that the Bonnells sold part of their property to Nathaniel Saxton.

Maxwell bought and sold many properties during his life, but the first one recorded was a lot sold jointly to William and his brother John Maxwell in 1809 by Jeremiah and Sarah King. One of the witnesses of the deed was their brother George C. Maxwell. In addition, the Kings acknowledged their deed before George C. Maxwell, Master, Ct. of Chancery on August 24, 1809.⁴

This property, located just south of the courthouse lot, consisted of Lucius W. Stockton’s 10-acre lot and the 0.55-acre lot sold to Stockton by Alexander & Catharine Bonnell. The two lots bordered the lot purchased from Alexander & Catharine Bonnell by Nathaniel Saxton. (See Bonnell, Saxton and the Vote in 1807.)⁵

There was one other lawyer who purchased a piece of the old tavern lot from Alexander & Catharine Bonnell about this time, someone who began his significant legal and political career while living in Flemington.

Samuel L. Southard, Esq.

Samuel Lewis Southard was one of the most prominent men to take up residence in Flemington, and more importantly for this series, to purchase a lot on which to build a house from the owners of the County Tavern, Alexander & Catharine Bonnell.⁶

Southard was a very ambitious man. It did not take him long to get involved in politics. But Michael Birkner, who was able to examine Southard’s correspondence, concluded that Southard was also anxious to acquire “financial security” in order to support an ailing wife and a large family.

While in Flemington, Southard followed that pattern of Flemington lawyers and joined the Presbyterian Church. He became president of its Board of Trustees, and also helped organize the Hunterdon County Bible Society in 1816 and became its first president.⁷

While in the U.S. Senate, Southard was involved in settling the Missouri Compromise. In 1823 he served as secretary of the Navy, and briefly Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of War. When Andrew Jackson became president, Southard, a Whig, was let go. Instead, he served as New Jersey Attorney General. In 1832 he was elected in Joint Meeting to be Governor of New Jersey, defeating Peter D. Vroom, 40 votes to 24. This was only a one-year term. In 1833, he was elected by the Joint Meeting of the State Legislature as U.S. Senator again and served two terms, along with New Jersey’s other senator, Garret D. Wall.⁸

In 1837, Southard became President of the Morris Canal & Banking Company. The same year, the Delaware & Raritan Canal Co. leased its canal and feeder to Samuel L. Southard for 15 years.

As leader of the Whig party in the Senate, Southard served as president pro-tem in 1841 after the death of President Harrison and accession of John Tyler. Failing health forced Southard to resign in 1842, shortly before his death at age 55.

This list of achievements makes Southard one of New Jersey’s most important politicians, but I am only interested here in the five years that he spent in Flemington.

Southard Moves to Flemington

Samuel Lewis Southard was born on January 16, 1797, the year that Alexander Bonnell purchased the Flemington tavern lot that he called the County Tavern. Southard was born in Basking Ridge, Somerset Co., NJ, the second child of Henry Southard and Sarah Lewis and brother of Isaac Southard, who also became an attorney and, later on, New Jersey State Treasurer.

By 1810, Southard was ready to begin practicing law. At the time, Southard was 23 years old and had been working as a tutor to the children of a Virginia family who were friends of his father’s. He studied law while living there.

The question was—where was he going to practice law? Given his New Jersey roots, Flemington, the county seat of Hunterdon, seemed like a promising location. To get more information about the town, Southard wrote to a prominent attorney in Flemington and an old friend from his student days at Princeton, the above-described William Maxwell, Esq. The letter was dated December 20, 1810, in which Southard asked for advice about where to live and work.

You are no doubt acquainted with my absence from New Jersey for some time past. I am now on my return, with a wish to settle in some part of the state & I must rely on my friends to inform me, where my prospects would be most flattering. . .

I have often thought of Flemington but am not well enough acquainted with it to decide on choosing it as my residence. Will you be good enough to aid me in forming a decision? Is your bar crowded? Is the practice of the law in Hunterdon & the adjoining counties lucrative? What are the average profits of attorneys in that part of the state? Are there any present advantages which would enable me to procure a comfortable subsistence? Any temporary benefits which I could receive & which would support me, until the little practice I should eventually get, would render such aids unnecessary? Any information you can give me on these, or other points connected with my object will be thankfully received. . .

I am aware that I make this application to a man differing from myself in politics & whose prospects might be considered as interfered with, by settlement in Flemington. [Apparently, Maxwell supported the Federalists.] I do not fear that you will consider the first as furnishing any difficulty in the way of your giving advice to a friend & old companion– And I do not believe that I should at all impede your advances to wealth or eminence. But if you do, I cannot ask you to give advice which you think will injure yourself. Will you be good enough to direct a letter to me as Basking Ridge N. Jersey & say to me on the subject whatever you see fit? I shall be there in five or six days. Accept, Dear Sir, Assurances of my esteem & a sincere declaration that I should be happy in a renewal of our old friendship & intimacy.

[signed] Sam’l L. Southard / Washington 20th Dec’r 1810.⁹

I would have loved to have seen Maxwell’s reply, but if he did reply, the letter was not part of the Maxwell papers. The reply must have been encouraging because Southard quickly decided to make Flemington his home. On February 23, 1811 when he was at Alexander Bonnell’s tavern, he joined others in signing a list to incorporate and elect trustees for the Flemington Academy. Only a Flemington resident would have done that.¹⁰

Lawyer & Politician

1811 was a busy year for Samuel L. Southard. Lucius Q. C. Elmer wrote that not long after sending the letter to Maxwell, Southard was “licensed as an attorney by the supreme court” of New Jersey.¹¹

In May 1811, Southard began witnessing deeds for residents of Flemington, among them, from George Rea & wife Elizabeth to Rev. Jacob T. Field; from Rev. Field & wife Rachel to Matthias Lare; and from Rev. Field to George Rea.¹²

He also took acknowledgments from the grantors of properties, as shown in the final paragraphs of recorded deeds. He began doing this on May 1, 1811, and that year took acknowledgments twelve times. He was even busier in 1812, when he took acknowledgements from 25 grantors. Things tapered off after that with fewer than ten in any year.

During the years leading up to the War of 1812, the Federalist party strongly opposed going to war with Great Britain and managed to win a majority of seats in the NJ Assembly in 1810. But the next year, the Republicans returned to power. Michael Birkner wrote:

The year 1811, in fact, was a propitious time for an aspiring New Jersey politician. Competition between Federalists and Jeffersonians, largely quiet during the middle years of Thomas Jefferson’s two terms as president, revived with the foreign-policy tribulations of Jefferson’s last years in office and the growing rift between America and Great Britain during the presidency of James Madison. . .

During the war, Southard worked to overturn Federalist authority in his state by attending and organizing Republican meetings, writing for the press, and seeking political office himself.¹³

On the 4^th of July, 1811, Southard was chosen to give an oration at the Flemington celebration, showing that he was already recognized as a formidable speaker. Birkner wrote that it caught the attention of the editor of The True American, James J. Wilson.¹⁴

As Birkner wrote, it often happens that attorneys who are also politicians blend their actions into the same category. In the New Jersey election of 1811, the Republicans carried the State, and Andrew S. Hunter succeeded Federalist Aaron Woodruff as NJ Attorney General. Hunter then appointed Samuel Southard as “deputy attorney general (i.e., prosecutor) for Sussex and Morris Counties,” probably to reward Southard for his efforts on behalf of the Republican party leading up to the election.¹⁵

This was only a few months after Southard had moved to Flemington. Considering that he had just been admitted to the Bar, that appointment was surprising, but then, Samuel’s father, Henry Southard, who had just won reelection to the Assembly, might have had something to do with it, being himself active in politics as a member of Congress from 1801 to 1811.

This position required a lot of travel to various county courts, which Southard found to be arduous.¹⁶

The Livingston-Ogden Case

Perhaps the most important case that Southard handled during his years in Flemington was the one in which he represented Federalist Aaron Ogden who needed to appear before the New Jersey State Legislature to argue against the legislature’s intention to repeal a monopoly it had given Ogden in 1813 to operate vessels, in particular steamboats designed by Robert Fulton, on the waters dividing New York and New Jersey. It was intended to counter the monopoly granted by New York to Robert R. Livingston.¹⁷

Even though Ogden was a strong Federalist, he sought out Samuel L. Southard, a known and fervent Republican, to defend his case, which is surprising given Southard’s youth and relative lack of legal and political experience. However, the Legislature was by then in the hands of the Republicans, so Ogden needed a Republican advocate, and Southard needed the money. This matter eventually led to the famous Gibbons v. Ogden case.

Despite Southard’s best efforts, Ogden lost the vote. “Every Republican save two voted for repeal.” Even though Southard lost the case, he made a strong impression on his listeners. Lucius H. Stockton “wrote effusively” about the abilities of Southard as a speaker and reasoner.

In 1816, Southard became “third Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey,” up through 1820. In 1821 he was again Master of the Court of Chancery. (I have not examined deeds after 1820. Southard was elected to the U.S. Senate late that year.)

Southard did not neglect his legal duties during his five-year term on the bench and was, as Birkner wrote, “an able and literate jurist.” Southard continued to accept acknowledgments from grantors of deeds during his years on the court. However, the work was not very challenging. And in addition, a judge’s pay was not nearly enough, being only $1,000 a year, plus $400-500 in fees.

Southard’s Law Office

During 1811, Southard did not own a house in Flemington. He rented a room to live in, but he needed a space for his professional work. We know that by February 1811, he was acquainted with Alexander Bonnell, the tavernkeeper. He must have persuaded Bonnell to rent him a small lot near the courthouse on which to build himself an office.

The historic marker outside the small building next to the County Administration Building states that Samuel L. Southard built it in 1811.

In an email, Dennis Bertland wrote that Southard “could well have rented the lot and built the office before officially buying the lot, a sort of lease/purchase arrangement.” An example of that is the ‘hotel’ built by Joseph Atkinson in 1792 on property owned by Thomas Lowrey (The Freeholder’s Surprise).

We do not have the name of the man who built the law office for Samuel L. Southard. It is a charming space, just large enough for a one-man attorney’s office. It is generally assumed that the porch and detailing were added in the 1840s when architect Mahlon Fisher was at work in Flemington.

For many years it was thought that Fisher was the original architect. This is shown in a 1969 article in the Hunterdon Historical Newsletter about “The Wurts Law Office.”¹⁸

The article referred to a paper on Mahlon Fisher by Mrs. Frances Blomquist titled “Provincial Genius.” She wrote that Hiram Deats claimed that “the Wurts Law Office was built for Alexander Wurts.” Deats was mistaken.¹⁹

Mrs. Blomquist referred to “recorded building agreements from the County Clerk’s Office” which contained five references to Mahlon Fisher as a contractor of buildings. But the Law Office was not included in the ‘building agreements.’ The article lists “other buildings attributed to Mahlon Fisher” including: “THE ALEXANDER WURTS LAW OFFICE, 59 Main St.” She did not give the date of construction for the law office but referred to Stuart and Revett as inspiration for the design. She was probably referring to Mahlon Fisher’s design of additions to the original (Southard) office building.

The 1969 Newsletter also included Elias Vosseller’s article published in the Hunterdon Democrat on July 26, 1923 titled: “The Women’s Rest Room-An Historic Building,” giving a brief list of the occupants of the office, including “three eminent New Jersey lawyers, two of whom reached national recognition.” The Vosseller article described how the law office was converted in 1923 to become “The Flemington Rest Room for Women and Children.” Today, the building is used by the county prosecutor for interviews.

Vosseller claimed that Peter D. Vroom occupied the law office for two years after Southard moved to Trenton. Vosseller failed to mention how he knew that Vroom was renting the office. He had to have been renting it from Samuel Southard who had moved to Trenton in 1817, but continued to own it until 1819, when he sold his Flemington property back to Alexander Bonnell. The historic marker in front of the office states that after Vroom left in 1819, it was occupied by Alexander Wurts until 1881.

Where did Southard Live?

Committing himself to purchasing a residential property in Flemington had to wait while Southard established his legal practice, which meant renting a room in the village. Elias Vosseller wrote that Southard rented a room in ‘Fleming Castle.’ George S. Mott thought that Southard actually owned Fleming Castle. Dennis Bertland has disproved both theories in his report on Fleming Castle (which I constantly refer to).

A more interesting possibility was raised in an item Bertland found, suggesting that Southard rented a room from the mother of Jno. Atkinson. Hunting for Jno Atkinson and his mother turned into a fascinating rabbit hole, involving the Atkinson, Suydam and Rodenbough families. But it is too long to include in this post, especially since it did not give me any more information on where Southard was living in 1811. So, I am publishing the research separately, possibly in the next article.

It seems more likely to me that Southard’s rented room was at Alexander Bonnell’s tavern house, just up the street from his new law office.

In any case, it was not until Spring of 1812 that Samuel L. Southard committed himself to owning a property in Flemington. During this interval, he had been corresponding with his fiancé, Rebecca Harrow, whom he met while living in Virginia. Now that Southard felt established in his chosen occupation, he was ready to marry. But first he needed to acquire a home for his bride.

Assuming that Southard’s law office was built in 1811 on Bonnell property near the courthouse, it made sense that Southard would convince the Bonnells to sell him a larger lot for a residence there, preferably one that included his office building. That arrangement might have been made at the time the law office was constructed.

One explanation for why Southard delayed his purchase of the lot was the problem of paying for it. Birkner wrote (p. 29) that Southard received financial help from his father in order to purchase this property. (Presumably this information was found in the Southard Papers.)

On April 1, 1812, Alexander and Catharine Bonnell conveyed to Samuel L. Southard of Flemington for $950 a lot of two acres, bordering the courthouse lot, Main Street, other land of Alexander Bonnell’s, Isaac Passand and Neal Hart.²⁰

On June 1, 1812, President James Madison sent a message to Congress, asking it to declare war against Great Britain. Three days later, Samuel Southard and Rebecca Harrow were married in Virginia. What a time to start a family!

Note: Madison’s party, the Republicans, were solidly behind him when it came to declaring war, with one exception: John Lambert of Hunterdon County. For the story of his vote, see “Bucking the Party Line.”

 

Michael Birkner wrote:

His correspondence with Rebecca following his return to New Jersey to seek lodgings for them suggests that the rhythms of life for Southard at this time remained relatively gentle. A diary he sent to his wife recording his activities during a July week in 1812 shows that physical labor (stockpiling hay, for example), picking fruit, intermittent legal work, and occasional duties as a Hunterdon County Freeholder (he reported his examination of a bridge in the county and his order for it to be repaired), casual conversation, and reading were his prime occupations.²¹

Southard spent the interval between April 1, 1812 when he purchased the property and June 14, 1812, when he and Rebecca married, constructing, or having constructed, a house suitable for his bride, whose family in Virginia owned a large plantation and several slaves. Rebecca would have been accustomed to living with servants and slaves in a luxurious environment. A brand new, but fairly small house on Main Street would have been a challenge for her.

The Southard House

A photograph of the Southard house has been found in the collections of the Hunterdon County Historical Society.²²

Look closely and you can see the old county administration building to the left of the house, and a corner of the law office on the right. The Southard house is no longer standing, replaced by the current Administration Building in 1960. Obviously, the Southard family was not residing in this house when the photograph was taken, probably in the late 19^th/early 20^th century.

I shared this photograph with architect Chris Pickel and architectural historian Dennis Bertland to get their reactions. Dennis responded with this assessment:

From its fenestration pattern, the house has a 3-bay facade with end-bay entry, and presumably a side-hall plan. Center-hall and side-hall plan houses have their roots in the Georgian style and first appeared in Hunterdon County in the middle of the 18th century (as per the 1754 Headquarters House) and were favored by local elites.

The incorporation of entry and stair halls into these houses speaks to the separation of public and private space, a concept increasingly valued by ‘polite’ society. Center-hall and side-hall houses proclaimed their owners’ wealth and social position or aspirations.

The entry porch is Greek Revival and must have been added decades after Southard’s 1817 departure, likely contemporary with the Greek Revival remodeling of his 1811 law office by Mahlon Fisher c. 1840.

Chris Pickel wrote:

I would add that the fence has been installed to present a unified appearance to the house and the adjacent law office, identifying both as clearly belonging to Southard. And yes, the Greek porches were likely added to both the house and the law office at the same time.

Dennis thought the house probably had ‘a rear service/kitchen wing’ that might be shown in the Sanborn insurance maps, and so it was. Here is a detail of the Sanborn map of Flemington in 1885. The map identifies the Southard house as a frame house (yellow), as opposed to a stone (blue) or brick (pink) building.

Bertland wrote “As I suspected, the house has a rear service/kitchen ell, as is normally the case in urban, small-lot settings. In rural settings, side-hall houses have lateral ells, which oftentimes are a smaller earlier dwelling.”²³

Unfortunately, the photograph of the house was not dated. It was certainly after 1840, when Mahlon Fisher added the columned porch to the office and most likely added the small porch to the house itself at the same time. Chris Pickel observed that “The Hall of Records to the left was built in 1870 . . . so the photo was taken some time after then. The roof seems to be slate, that and the slate? sidewalk and iron fence pickets must post-date the arrival of the trains in the 1860’s.” Chris also noted that it had to be before Main Street was paved, sometime in the early 1900s.

There is a woman standing to the left of the porch, who appears to be dressed in the style of a late 19^th century servant. Chris also noticed that there is someone sitting on the porch of the law office. Also, that the hitching post in the foreground was located in front of the Flemington Bank Building across the street. The bank was established in 1897, which also helps with dating the photograph. (The Sanborn maps show restaurants directly across from the house; the hitching post may have predated the bank.)

I should note that even though various writers have stated that Southard built his house in Flemington, he most certainly did not. Generally speaking, lawyers were not builders. Southard would have hired a carpenter to do it, but who that carpenter was, remains unknown.

Chris Pickel observed that “neither the Southard house nor law office has any associated stable. None on the Sanborn map, and the photo shows no driveway between the two.”

The Sanborn map shows that the nearby Hotel/Tavern owned by Alexander Bonnell had very large stables behind it, not that far from the Southard house. It occurred to me that Southard may have rented space there for his horse and carriage. He most certainly had a horse because his legal duties took him as far north as Sussex County and as far south as Trenton.

Southard’s Slave(s)

In 1813, Southard sold a slave named Mira to John Scofield of Bucks County.²⁴

Birkner wrote that along with building a house for his new wife, Southard needed to “find Negro servants” for her. (Presumably he got that from the Southard Papers.) Given that the sale of Mira was made the year after Southard’s marriage, it seems likely that Mira was one of the slaves Southard acquired and that Rebecca did not find her suitable.

Southard Properties

Unlike many prominent men in Flemington at this time, Southard did not invest in real estate. The only properties listed for him between 1812 and 1819 were sales made when he was one of the executors of the estate of Col. David Bishop of Ringoes. Bishop had written a lengthy will on Dec 27, 1814, naming as executors his sons David and Joseph, son-in-law Jeremiah Kershow and “friend Samuel L. Southard.” (The will was proved in 1816; there were at least nine deeds recorded for Southard as one of the Bishop executors.)

After moving to Trenton in 1817, Southard also did not purchase a lot there. One reason might be that he could not afford to. Another reason is that in 1821 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, which required a residence in Washington, D.C. I assume Rebecca and the children joined him there. It was not until 1830, after becoming NJ attorney general, that Southard bought a property in Trenton.

The last land purchase Southard made was in 1839, when he bought land in Raritan Twp. next to the Capner property from Wm F. & Susan Clemson of Oxford, Warren County. But in 1842, both Southard & Clemson were sued by Jacob Rockafellow for failing to pay the mortgage on this property, which was sold back to Rockafellow by Sheriff Bodine.²⁵

Southard’s Politics

Michael Birkner wrote of Southard:

From this base [the house in Flemington], he practiced law, pursued politics, and raised his family, which grew with the birth of a daughter Virginia, in 1815. The growing family necessitated increased income, and Southard’s almost obsessive quest for public offices over the next decade surely reflects his anxiety over support of this family as much as his genuine interest in public affairs.²⁶

As mentioned above, the ‘daughter’ of Rev. Atkinson wrote that Southard was “regarded as very sensible. All against him in that day was [that he was] a democrat.”

A “democrat” during the years 1812-1817 was a supporter of President James Madison, whose second term ended in 1816. Samuel L. Southard was one of Madison’s strongest supporters, deeply committed to the Republican party (whose members were also called Democrats during these years) and to the success of the War of 1812. During the War, Southard “served in the state militia as  judge advocate of the Hunterdon Brigade.²⁷

Southard was making connections and acquiring influence in political circles. In 1813, he wrote to President Madison, whom he had met while living in Virginia, on behalf of Nathaniel Price, the tavernkeeper of Ringoes, for an “appointment as director of internal duties for the third district of NJ. Price got the position.²⁸

Republican Politics, 1815—1817

As Herbert Ershkowitz, explains in his article “Samuel L. Southard: A Case Study of Whig Leadership in the Age of Jackson,”

Southard entered politics as a direct result of the breakdown in the first party system. The Republican party, founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison as a broad-based popular movement in the1790’s, had become by 1815 primarily a means by which its leaders perpetuated their own political power. Their control of party nominating machinery also permitted them to advance the careers of younger relatives. . .

From 1815, at age 28, until his death in 1842, the New Jerseyan occupied a succession of public offices, . . . For Southard, political office was not a civic obligation, as it was for Washington and Jefferson, but rather a means of earning a living, and thus he continually sought higher and more lucrative positions.²⁹

As a result of Southard’s highly-praised performance at the July 4^th celebration in Flemington, he succeeded in winning election to the state assembly in the fall of 1815. In that election, Mahlon Dickerson was elected governor. When Dickerson resigned from the state supreme court to accept the governorship, Southard, age 28, was named to replace him. Southard then resigned his seat in the Assembly, having had it for only a month.

Following the conclusion of the War of 1812, the Federalist party was no longer “an effective opposition to the Republicans,” who then focused more on “lucrative and prestigious offices” than on political representation.

Across the board on the major public concerns of the day—transportation improvements, imprisonment for debt, economic downturn in 1818 and thereafter, and even such explosive issues as the admission of Missouri to the Union as a slave state, there was little evidence of partisan posturing or party differences. . .³⁰

There were two principle Republican factions fighting for control of the state organization. One was linked to James J. Wilson of Trenton

whose power base was his newspaper, The True American. An abrasive and ambitious man, Wilson was also an effective editor and a successful office seeker, but he was never very popular with the politicians with whom he dealt on a day-to-day basis. In 1814 Wilson gained election to the United States Senate, but only after a long and bruising contest with [Mahlon] Dickerson.³¹

It was Mahlon Dickerson of Newark who led the other faction and served as Governor of NJ in 1815. There doesn’t seem to have been any significant policy differences between the two factions—it was more a question of who had the most influence. And also, perhaps, alignment based on geography, Dickerson on the east side of the state, Wilson on the west.

1817, Southard Departs

Despite James Wilson’s long influence in Hunterdon County, Southard sided with Dickerson and saw him as a political ally, at least until 1817, when he attempted to gain the Republican nomination for governor to replace Dickerson who was running for U.S. Senate. He failed, and partly blamed Dickerson.

Then in October, Southard lost the race for Attorney General to his friend Theodore Frelinghysen. This led to a long period of despondency, lasting until 1820. It may have contributed to his decision to leave Flemington.³²

By 1817, the Southard family consisted of Samuel, Rebecca and two children—John, born 1813, and Virginia, born 1815. (Youngest child Henry was born about 1818, after the move to Trenton.) In 1817, Samuel Southard and his family moved to Trenton, where they rented a house. A deed of May 1, 1818, identified Southard as a resident of Trenton.³³

1819 Sale of the Flemington property

Despite his recent political losses, Southard knew that his future required his presence in Trenton and perhaps even Washington D.C. rather than Flemington. So, on February 12, 1819, Samuel L. & Rebecca P. Southard, residents of Trenton, sold their Flemington property back to Alexander Bonnell.

Between 1812 and 1819, the property’s value had increased significantly—Bonnell paid $3,000 for it in 1819, compared to the $950 Southard paid only seven years previously. The lot was described as bordering “the old line running through Flemington [i.e. Main Street],” near the corner of the Court House lot, then running along the wall of the courthouse yard, the lot belonging to Neal Hart, and other land of sd Abraham Bonnell;

“excepting so much thereof of the clerk’s and surrogate’s offices [as] was erected and stands upon; being the same lot which the said Alexander & Catharine Bonnell conveyed to sd Southard on April 1, 1812.”³⁴

The Beers Atlas shows the lot lines of properties in Flemington in 1873. By then the Southard lot was owned by Alexander Wurts. The lot shown by Beers differed significantly from the lot sold to Southard in 1812, but there are no deeds recorded to show how or why the lot lines were changed. Each of the subsequent deeds only described a two-acre lot, and named the bordering owners, but never described the exact lot lines.

The following year, 1820, Southard succeeded in gaining high office when he defeated none other than James J. Wilson for his U.S. Senate seat.³⁵

Southard Postscript

Samuel L. Southard was only 55 years old when he died on June 26, 1842. As Michael Birkner wrote, Southard’s body “briefly lay in state at the capitol” before he was buried next to two of his children in the Congressional cemetery. Wife Rebecca, despite her hypochondria, outlived him, dying at the age of 76 in New York City on January 2, 1863.³⁶

Southard was not forgotten in New Jersey. On August 1, 1849, this item was published in the Hunterdon Gazette. (The Gazette did not identify the author. It was most likely the editor, Henry C. Buffington.)

For the Hunterdon Gazette. —— Sketches – – – No. 2. OUR LAWYERS. . . “The Bar of New Jersey has ever ranked superior to those of her sister States, and some of the number have occupied prominent stations.─We might notice such men as a Burr, a Williamson, a Frelinghuysen, the Hon. Messrs. Wall and Vroom, the Hon. W. L. Dayton, &c., &c., and last, though not least, New Jersey’s favorite son, the gifted and honored late Samuel L. Southard [my emphasis]─one who was universally beloved, and will be long lamented.”

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Chapter 13 will continue the saga of properties and their owners located on the County Tavern lot.

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