There was a time when the sleepy little village of Quakertown was a lively place, back when it had two taverns. I learned this from Egbert T. Bush, who wrote a couple articles about the village.
Since I am focusing on taverns these days, I will publish parts of Mr. Bush’s first article on the village, the parts concerning its taverns.
Interesting Facts About Quakertown
by Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, N.J.
Hunterdon Co. Democrat, February 27, 1930
There are so many interesting points about Quakertown that one does not know where to begin.
This is an article by Egbert T. Bush about the village of Cherryville in Franklin Township, Hunterdon County. It serves as a follow-up to my article on the earliest owners of the Cherryville Tavern, back when the village was known as Anderson Town, after the early tavern owner, James Anderson.
Cherryville, Once Called Dogtown,
Has Long History
Nobody Knows When the Old “Dogtown Tavern” Was Built
Some Neighborhood History1
by Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, N.J.
Hunterdon Co. Democrat, December 19, 1929
or “Peter Cherry’s Inn”
on the Klinesville-Cherryville Road,
in Raritan Township
“Point Tavern” is surely one of the oddest names for a tavern. When Egbert T. Bush wrote his article, Klinesville Once Had A Tavern, he pointed out (sorry) that
. . it was a place of note in its day, and reference was made to the old “Pint Tavern” and to some of the doings there, long after it had fallen into disuse. The name is said to have been given because of its location on the point. But everybody called it the “Pint Tavern,” and as such it is remembered.
This article by Egbert T. Bush describes a particular neighborhood, not far northwest of Flemington, at the intersection of today’s Thatcher’s Hill Road and Sand Hill Road.
Today I am returning to the buildings on the east side of Flemington’s Main Street that feature an arch along the front of their roofs, in particular, the two buildings constructed by John C. Hopewell, one on either side of the bank building that he put up in 1866 (See Flemington’s First Bank).
By the time of the Civil War, Flemington had grown considerably, but the war had dampened commercial spirits and citizens were eager for a comeback. This was demonstrated by an item from the editor of the Hunterdon Republican, on Nov. 1, 1865:
I have written about Locktown’s tavern before—in my article on the life of Daniel Rittenhouse. At the time that I wrote it, I thought he had established the original tavern. That turns out to be not true.
My last article concerned an old restaurant on Main Street (today’s Higgins News Agency) that long ago sported a lovely arch along its front roofline. Previous to that, was the George Rea building, that had a similar arch on all four sides. Looking for the next building on Flemington’s Main Street with that unusual feature, we come to none other than the Union Hotel.
In part one of Summit School, Mr. Bush talked about “the meanest hill that old-timers had to travel on their way to Flemington.” Actually, going TO Flemington wasn’t so bad since it was all downhill. But returning UP the hill was no picnic. In fact, it was a “hard scrabble.”
Raritan Township was in the news not long ago for its effort to acquire and preserve a 48-acre farm to the west of Flemington. It is located near an area that has long been known as “Hardscrabble.”
