farming

Lime and Trees and Other Things

By in Croton, E. T. Bush, Historians Revisited Tags: ,

First Trip to Delaware River Kilns an Experience for a Boy

Spoke Making a Lost Trade

by Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, N. J.
published in the Hunterdon Co. Democrat, April 21, 1932

Bewick OakIn recognition of the belated arrival of spring, I offer Mr. Bush’s tale of how farmers got lime for their fields in the mid 19th-century. And among those “Other Things,” Mr. Bush describes the business of spoke making.

As our forests were cut off and the stumps rotted away, the land was found to be or soon to become more or less sour. The sorrels began to grow plentifully, especially the tall, reddish brown one that we called “horse sorrel.” That was later known as a sure indication that the land needed lime, tho in the earlier stages little was known about sour land or the indications, or even about lime as a sweetener. Such knowledge, like almost every other kind, grew gradually with experience and observation, until science took hold of such matters and showed us to be sometimes on the right track without knowing exactly why.

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Old Things and Old Time Ways

By in E. T. Bush, Historians Revisited Tags: , ,

Taxes Were “Outrageous” When Rate Was 40¢ per $1 00.
Cutting Sausage with an Axe

by Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, N. J.
published in the Hunterdon County Democrat, February 23, 1933

Comment:  Unlike my usual practice, I have nothing to add to this very contemplative article. A passing knowledge of scripture and of the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson would be helpful. It is interesting that Bush combines the subjects of sausage making and paying taxes. There’s an echo here of the common association of sausage making with passing laws, from whence we get the burden of taxation. Bush’s thoughts on this subject are well worth contemplating, in particular his opinion that those who complain the most about their taxes should think about what they demand of government.

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1838 Township Business: The Dog Tax

By in Delaware Township Tags: , , ,

TAKE NOTICE ! THAT the Township Committee of the townships of Amwell, Delaware and Raritan, will meet at John W. Larason’s on Monday the 2d day of April next, to settle with the several township officers. – All persons in said townships having damage done to their Sheep by dogs, are requested to present their bills to said committee on the day above named before 1 o’clock P. M. If there is not a sufficiency of Dog Tax to discharge said bills, there will be a dividend struck at that time, and those not presented will be disbarred from a benefit of the same. – By order of Town Committee. {signed} J. Gary, Clk. March 14, 1838, the Hunterdon Gazette.

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Letters of John Lambert, 12/28/1807

By in Delaware Township, Families, Hunterdon County, Lambert Tags: ,

beginning in 1807 when Lambert was a member of Congress
ending in 1815 when Lambert was in his last year as a U. S. Senator

The original letters can be found in the Emma Finney Welch Collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. I have transcribed the letters as Lambert wrote them, which is why there is an absence of commas and periods. My only change is the addition of paragraph breaks to make the letters easier to follow.

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Letters of John Lambert, 12/11/1807

By in Barber, Delaware Township, Families, Hunterdon County, Lambert Tags: , ,

beginning in 1807 when Lambert was a member of Congress 
ending in 1815 when Lambert was in his last year as a U. S. Senator

It has been nine months since Lambert’s last letter to his granddaughter. The last one was shortly before the Ninth Congress adjourned on March 4, 1807. A very unsatisfactory treaty with Great Britain had arrived the day before, but President Jefferson declined to order the Congress to remain in Washington to consider it, for he was too dissatisfied with it to present it to them. So Congress adjourned, and Lambert spent his time back at home tending to his farm and his library, as well as his extensive family, which was increased on July 28, 1807 when his grandson, James Larison, was born.

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Anderson Bray Farm and The Pyatt Family

By in Amwell Township, Bray, E. T. Bush, Families, Historians Revisited, Hunterdon County, Rittenhouse Tags: , , ,

Mr. Bush Traces Ownership of Place Long Owned
by Bray Descendants
The Bray Family Portraits

by Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, N.J.
published by the Hunterdon Co. Democrat, April 19, 1934

The following article was written by Mr. Bush about a farm many people think of as the Chet Huntley farm or the Douglas Knight farm. I have added footnotes to flesh out the story. 

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Old-Time Sawmills Were a Joy to Watch

By in Croton, E. T. Bush, Hockenbury Tags: ,

Mention of Newly-cut Whiteoak Lumber Gives One an Appetite
Some Local Sawmill History
by Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, N.J.
Hunterdon County Democrat, October 17, 1929

If the boy has ever lovingly watched the operation of one of the original sawmills, the old man’s memory will often go fondly back to those boyhood days. Whether they were or were not “the good old days” of which we hear so much, makes no difference at all. They were the days in which sawmills along country roads were almost as common as filling stations are today. And how much more interesting they were, and how much sweeter smelling!

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