Here is Egbert T. Bush’s description of the Saxtonville Tavern:
“This community was well supplied with taverns in the old days and somewhat later. Far up in old Saxtonville stands an interesting tavern house, with its four stone chimneys and low stone walls. It seems to be at least 150 years old, but has no date stone to prove its age. The builder is unknown, as are also the early keepers. It was no doubt built expressly for that purpose, everything about it seeming to spell tavern. This was evidently included among the Nathaniel Saxton properties. Bryan Rogan is known to have kept the old tavern 75 years ago. After him came one—Kiley, and then Austin Bray. Thomas McAlone bought the property later. It is now owned and occupied by his son Wallace W., teacher of the Sergeant’s School. No tavern has been kept here for about 60 years past.”1
Myndert Wilson, who purchased the mill lot from George Holcombe for an outrageous $13,000, was smart enough to hand it off a year later to someone else. On March 22, 1815, two months after the Battle of New Orleans, he sold it to James Major of Kingwood.1
I have just gotten some information that I must add to previously published posts on Nathaniel Saxton of Raven Rock.
The first will be added to Saxton in Raven Rock, as it concerns a business endeavor of his that I was previously unaware of: wool-carding.
The second addendum will be made to Saxton’s Saxtonville, in which an earlier date is found for the use of the village name of Saxtonville–1811, and we learn that Saxton also ran the ferry just south of Saxtonville.
Both of these interesting items were provided by Betty Davis, daughter of Anton and Bertha Schuck, formerly of Raven Rock. Betty, like her mother, is a life-long student of the history of this area.
The mill once owned by Mahlon Cooper and Robert Curry in Saxtonville became a hot potato during the War of 1812 and thereafter. It changed hands several times before Nicholas Baird acquired it in 1823.
In March and May, 1808, Nathaniel Saxton and George Holcombe bought the two moieties or half shares in the 10-acre mill lot and the 30-acre lot that consisted of the southern half of Bull’s Island. Previous articles about the mill property can be read here and here.
In a recent post I mentioned that I found two items at the Hunterdon County Historical Society that explained what Nathaniel Saxton was doing during the years 1808-1815. Besides investing in Raven Rock and a couple properties in other locations, and becoming an active supporter of the Federalists, Saxton was thinking of infrastructure, in particular, construction of a bridge between Bull’s Island and Lumberville.
As a researcher, there’s one thing I keep learning over and over–if you go looking for an answer to a question, you might not find it, but chances are you will find answers to questions you never thought of.
That was definitely my experience today when I went to the Hunterdon Co. Historical Society, hoping to find some mention of Nathaniel Saxton in Saxtonville between 1808 and 1815, and most of all, some record of who might have been running the Saxtonville Tavern for him while he carried on his legal career in Flemington. No luck.
“Village Might Appropriately Have been Called Riven Rock Quarry Once Busy Place”
By Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, N.J.
published in the Hunterdon Co. Democrat, February 12, 1931
Note: This article was written by Egbert T. Bush, not by me. I have only added some footnotes for clarification and the photograph of Raven Rock Station, which was not part of the original article.
In 1802, Nathaniel Saxton witnessed the will and codicil of Guilbert Van Camp, who lived just east of Raven Rock. In 1807, he witnessed a deed from the estate of William Reading deceased, whose property was in the same vicinity.1 These two events, and probably others I have not found yet, may have served to acquaint him with the neighborhood of Raven Rock.
Nathaniel Saxton Esq. is one of the more intriguing characters to appear in Hunterdon County history. I have been looking forward to writing about him for a long time.
