By Marfy Goodspeed in Delaware Township, Deremer, Featured, Sandy Ridge, Wilson No Comments Tags: architecture, Daniel Coxe, early settlers, houses, land titles, maps, portraits, proprietors
Part one focused on the family of Judson Rittenhouse and Martha Bodine, who lived on the farm now known as the Sarah Dilts Farm Park in Delaware Township for most of their lives. The farm was purchased by Judson’s father, Wilson Bray Rittenhouse, in 1844. This article will first describe Wilson and his family, and then will trace the history of this property back to the first European owner.
By Marfy Goodspeed in Delaware Township, E. T. Bush, East Amwell, Haines, Historians Revisited, Moore No Comments Tags: early settlers, land titles
This post returns to an article by Egbert T. Bush titled “Old Farms in Old Hunterdon,” published in 1931. I published large parts of this article before, in “The Moore Family,” in 2016. As the introduction to that article mentioned, two families were discussed in Bush’s article, the Moores and the Haines. Having discussed the Moore family at length, it is time to focus on the Haines family and their farm on the east side of Haines Road in East Amwell. This will conclude my study of some (but not all) of the farms located in the original proprietary tract of John Dennis.
By Marfy Goodspeed in Delaware Township, Fisher, Headquarters, Moore 2 Comments Tags: early settlers, land titles, proprietors
There are two ways of writing about a cemetery. One is to portray the people buried there, which I attempted to do in my previous article. The other is to relate how the cemetery came to be—in other words, the history of the property where the cemetery is located. It usually makes sense to focus on the place since many of its early owners were buried in the cemetery. At first I thought that in this case, none of them were. But, research has changed my mind.
By Marfy Goodspeed in Delaware Township, Hunt, Lawshe, Williamson 1 Comment Tags: early settlers, Going, houses, land titles
Quite some time ago, I wrote an article called “Going-Going- Gone” about houses that are disappearing or have disappeared. One of them was a mystery to me. But finally I have figured out who it belonged to.
By Marfy Goodspeed in Bodine Family, Butterfoss, Delaware Township, E. T. Bush, Ent Family, Historians Revisited, Sandy Ridge, Sharp 2 Comments Tags: early settlers, houses, land titles, proprietors
This article continues my exploration of the neighborhood of Sandy Ridge by presenting the first half of Egbert T. Bush’s article “Sandy Ridge Long a Farm Community.” There could be no better expert on the subject than Mr. Bush, who lived in Sandy Ridge for many years and taught at the old Vandolah School.
By Marfy Goodspeed in Delaware Township, Dilts, E. T. Bush, Historians Revisited, Hunt, Larison, Sandy Ridge, Vandolah, Wolverton 3 Comments Tags: cemeteries, churches, early settlers
This is my second article on the neighborhood of Sandy Ridge in Delaware Township. The previous article was written by Jonathan M. Hoppock in 1905 (and heavily annotated by me.) Today’s article was written by Egbert T. Bush, over 25 years later.
By Marfy Goodspeed in Delaware Township, Howell, Prallsville, Reading, Rittenhouse, Rosemont, Stockton 7 Comments Tags: architecture, early settlers, ferries, houses, land titles, maps, proprietors
Not long ago, Dennis Bertland inquired about an old house that might have been located on the William Rittenhouse tract that I recently wrote about (“The Rittenhouse Tavern.” Dennis’ inquiry can be found in the comments section.) It is located in a blank space on the Hammond Map between the Wickecheoke Creek and Shoppons Run. Who did that space belong to?
By Marfy Goodspeed in Delaware Township, Families, Howell, Lair, Rittenhouse, Rosemont 8 Comments Tags: architecture, early settlers, land titles, maps, taverns
This is a sequel to the article by Egbert T. Bush titled “Crosskeys Tavern,” about the history of the village of Rosemont, which was published in its entiretylai last week. Here I will break it down to provide more information.
By Marfy Goodspeed in Delaware Township, Moore, Rounsavell, Sandbrook, Sutton, Taylor 11 Comments Tags: early settlers, proprietors
The Hammond Maps of Hunterdon County proprietary tracts are a wonderful resource for county historians. Many of the property owners shown on these maps drawn by D. Stanton Hammond in 1963 were the first Europeans to claim title to this part of the state of New Jersey. What happened to those properties in succeeding years has always fascinated me and provided wonderful material for my articles.
By Marfy Goodspeed in Dalrymple, Delaware Township, Holcombe, Kitchen, Moore, Rounsavell, Sandbrook, Sine, Sutton No Comments Tags: early settlers, Haddon Tract, land titles
For the final installment of my study of the Haddon Tract,1 I am turning to the remainder of the property that was left to Nicholas Sine. As a reminder, Nicholas Signe/Sayn/Sine was a partner with another German immigrant, Jacob Sniter, in the 1748 purchase of 1300 acres of the Haddon Tract, a 2,000-acre plot that was surveyed for John Haddon in 1711. Daniel Robins had purchased the other 700 acres.
