The Arnwines of Hunterdon County begin with the immigrant, Jacob Arnwine and his son John Arnwine, who emigrated from Holland. The name Arnwine is Dutch for winemaker, but Jacob was a miller and a merchant. Other spellings were Erwine and Irvine.
For more on this family, see “Bridge To The Past,” a four-volume family history, written about 1989, by Aimee Berniece Wilson, which includes “The Arnwine History” by Rev. K.E. Irvin.
The first of the Poulson family to appear in Hunterdon County was Rev. Israel Poulson, born in Somerset County. He must have arrived in Hunterdon by the mid 1790s, for he married a Hunterdon woman, Esther Moore, about 1794.
Rev. Israel Poulson was one of those people with enormous influence on those who lived anywhere near him. He must have been fairly charismatic, considering how many people who were named after him. There are ten that I am aware of, not including his son Israel P. Poulson, Jr.
Some time ago, I published a family tree for the Fishers of Amwell, because they figured in my article on the Hart-Taylor Cemetery. Then I began researching the area that was taken from Delaware Township and given to East Amwell Township in 1896 (A Shrinking Township, parts 1 and 2), and learned that a large part of that area was owned by the Fisher family.
The Lambert family was very prominent in old Amwell Township in the 18th and 19th centuries, beginning with John Lambert and Abigail Bumstead who came to Hunterdon County from Stonington, Connecticut about 1745, and settled in Kingwood Township. John Lambert’s ancestor, Francis Lambert, came to Salem, Massachusetts in 1638, but this tree will deal only with John and Abigail’s children and descendants.
The Lawshe family came to America from Rheinland-Pfalz in Germany. Abraham von Laaschet was born in Creyfeldt, Prussia. (The name was Anglicized to Lawshe.) He married Margaret Bechelsheimer, daughter of Elder John Bechelsheimer, minister to the fledging German Baptist congregation in Amwell Township. The Lawshes appear in connection with the church several times in the book A History of East Amwell, 1700-1800.
Robert Sharp immigrated from Deal, Kent County England to Philadelphia prior to the Revolution. He moved to Princeton and apprenticed as a shoemaker before settling in Hunterdon County. He married Rachel Ent, one of the twelve children of Valentine Ent and Susannah Moore about 1778, while the Revolution was in progress. The family is discussed in Egbert T. Bush’s article “Sandy Ridge Long a Farm Community,” published as Sandy Ridge, part four.
The Dilts family in Hunterdon County is abundant and always has been. However, I have not been able to attach William Dilts of Sandy Ridge to the larger Dilts family. His list of descendants will stand on its own until I can link him with the other Hunterdon County Dilts family.
One of the earliest Dilts in New Jersey was Wilhelm Dils, who died in Knowlton, Sussex County in 1794, age 83. His wife Rachel died in 1793, age 72. Other early settlers were Johann Wilhelm Dils and Henrich Dils who were present in Lebanon Township in the 1730s.
Larison or Larason. It all depends. There doesn’t seem to be too much of a hard and fast rule. And as often happens with other names having alternate spellings, the same person would sometimes use both spellings, or else a clerk would make his own choice of spelling. I tend to use the spelling most commonly used by each individual.
The Vandolah’s were Dutch. Their name was often spelled Van Dolah, but Vandolah seems to have been used the most. The family showed up early in Hunterdon County, but their exact origins are not known. Hubert G. Schmidt, in his book Rural Hunterdon (pp. 31-32), wrote of the many Dutch families who came to Hunterdon in the early 18th century:
