by Jonathan M. Hoppock
published in The Democrat Advertiser, January 25, 1906
This article was written by J. M. Hoppock. I have added corrections and additions in footnotes. Mr. Hoppock’s very specific description of this building, which was demolished long ago, is invaluable to students of the township’s history and early architecture.
The following is an update of a speech I delivered at the Locktown Stone Church in May 1997. I thought it would be a good idea to archive the speech here on my website, especially since it makes a nice short history of Delaware Township. When I gave the speech, I had two large maps showing locations of mills, taverns, ferries, the oldest roads. One map showed the 18th century version of Delaware Township, and one showed the 19th century version. Whatever happened to those maps? If I find them, I’ll turn them over to Marilyn Cummings who has been working hard on just such a map project, one that can be seen on Google Earth.
This is a reply to Kevin Shepherd who wrote this comment on my “Basic Resources” page:
Keith Shepherd <kshepherd@yahoo.com> 1/3/2012: Do you happen to have any information on the German or Dutch Shafer/Shepherd families of Amwell Township, Hunterdon County, NJ starting from about the mid 1750’s? I’ve been to the Hunterdon County Historical Society several times and found a few files on them but there are a lot of missing pieces. I’m trying to track down the first Shafer/Shepherd to arrive in 1754. The tradition is that he died on shipboard on his way over from Germany but his wife Margaret and their 4 children named John, Henry, Peter & possibly Richard (he may have been in his Mother’s womb) carried on to Amwell. She later married Andrew Bearder, who was on the ship with them when he traveled to America.