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action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/goodspeedhist/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114This article is a continuation of the article by Egbert T. Bush titled \u201a\u00c4\u00faWhen Stockton Was Not So Dry.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 (Part One<\/a> and Part Two<\/a>.) Today I will enlarge on Mr. Bush\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s short history of the Stockton Inn, which is now for sale.\u00ac\u2020It is my hope that by fleshing out this history, a purchaser might be found who will value it as well as the lovely architecture of the place.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When I left off, Charles Bartles and Aaron Vansyckel, the big real estate investors of Hunterdon County in the mid-19th<\/span>\u00ac\u2020century, had purchased the Johnson tavern lot from Mahlon Fisher in 1849 for $4500.1<\/a><\/sup> The property was described as being \u201a\u00c4\u00faA certain farm, tract or parcel of land and Tavern\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 of 53.87 acres, which extended along Main Street from the old Howell\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Tavern lot to a point near the school, north along Route 523 and south to the river. It excluded land already conveyed to The Centre Bridge Company and the D&R Canal Company, plus a small lot cut out for Mahlon Fisher\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s sawmill.<\/p>\n Note, 5\/5\/2021: While doing research for the article \u201a\u00c4\u00faA Stockton Hotel Register,\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 I discovered some missing owners of the hotel during the 1850s. I am adding them here now, and deleting a couple paragraphs that were based on a lack of information.<\/p>\n Bartles and Vansyckel were shrewd real estate investors. They saw the benefits of the Inn\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s location where Asher Johnson built it, opposite the entrance to the new bridge across the Delaware River. On July 9, 1850, Bartles & Vansyckle sold to the Centre Bridge Company the property for a public road that would run from the feeder canal at the Bridge in \u201a\u00c4\u00faa straight line to the centre of the present Hall door of the tavern house now owned by the sd Bartles & Vansyckle.\u201a\u00c4\u00f92<\/a><\/sup> Hence, today\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Bridge Street.<\/p>\n Like their other properties, Bartles & Vansyckle were not involved in day-to-day maintenance of the Stockton site. They turned their attention to other investments and left Jeremiah Smith to run the tavern. He was in charge in 1851 when the Cornell Map showed \u201a\u00c4\u00faSmith\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Hotel\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 where the Stockton Inn is now. (For a view of that map go to the previous post, part two<\/u> <\/a>of Mr. Bush\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s article.) It is interesting to me that the deed of 1849 referred to \u201a\u00c4\u00fathe tavern lot,\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 but by 1851 the Cornell Map called it a hotel. The 1850 census described Jeremiah Smith as an Innkeeper, so if Asher Johnson had not been letting out rooms at his tavern, then Jeremiah Smith certainly was. Mr. Bush had written that after purchasing the lot, Bartles & Vansyckle enlarged the hotel in 1850, but he gave no source for that information. It may have been Smith who was in charge of the expansion.<\/p>\n On April 1, 1857, Bartles & Vansyckle created a new lot out of the original 53.87 acres amounting to 3.97 acres, and sold it to William W. Mettler of Delaware Township for $4500.3<\/a><\/sup> Later that month, on April 222nd, Mettler was granted a tavern license. I suspect that Mettler was already in charge of the tavern when he bought it. On October 26, 1856, he was appointed Postmaster of Stockton.<\/p>\n William W. Mettler was born in 1820. I am not sure who his parents were, but my guess is that his father was Reuben Mettler of Amwell (1780-1850) who was buried in the same cemetery, Amwell Ridge, as William was. I can say for certain that on May 23, 1840, William W. Mettler married Elizabeth Ann Bellis (1815-1849), daughter of David Bellis and Eleanor Schenck of Raritan Township. (The Bellis\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s were also buried in the Amwell Ridge Cemetery.)<\/p>\n On April 4, 1859, Mettler was found dead in his cellar. The Hunterdon Republican<\/em> reported that the cause of death was \u201a\u00c4\u00faa supposed apoplectic fit.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 Because he had not written a will, administration of his estate was granted to Abraham Cray and Garret S. Bellis. On Nov. 16, 1859, they advertised the hotel property for sale; those interested were invited to visit the place, where Bellis was in residence and Joseph Titus was operating it. A year later, on Nov. 10, 1860, Cray & Bellis sold the 3.97 acres to Joseph H. Titus of Stockton for $4830, at a public sale.4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Titus, born Feb. 16, 1824, was probably the son of Theophilus Titus and Elizabeth LeGare. His wife\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s name was Delilah Ann, but her maiden name is not known. The couple had 9 children, but most of them died as infants. They were counted in the Delaware Township census for 1860, with Titus as a hotel keeper owning property worth $6,000. The only hotel guest was on John Convoy 35, a Pennsylvania stone cutter.<\/p>\n Titus did not stick with it very long. On March 28, 1861, he sold the hotel and the lot of 3.97 acres to Thomas P. & Charles Holcombe for $6,000.5<\/a><\/sup> The Holcombe brothers were sons of Richard Holcombe and Elizabeth Closson of Lambertville. Charles had moved to Solebury, but Thomas settled in Stockton as early as 1821, purchasing the old Anderson farm south of town. In 1841, he bought the John Prall farm of 250 acres.<\/p>\n On Nov. 4, 1861, Charles and Thomas Holcombe sold the tavern lot of 3.97 acres to Robert Sharp of Delaware Township.6<\/a><\/sup> In the previous version of this article, I had written that Charles Bartles had conveyed his share of the lot of 53.87 acres in Stockton to Aaron Vansyckle, who then sold it to Robert Sharp. I was mistaken in thinking the tavern lot was located there. These were simply additional properties acquired by Sharp.<\/p>\n Robert Sharp was the eldest son of Col. John Sharp, one-time owner of the store lot described in Part One<\/u><\/a>. He married Sarah Prall about 1843 and had four children with her. She died in 1851. About 1855, Sharp married his second wife Elizabeth Menaugh. They had one child (as far as I know) who died age four.<\/p>\n Egbert T. Bush had mentioned Robert Sharp in another of his articles titled \u201a\u00c4\u00faBrookville and Up the Hollow\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 (Dec. 26, 1929), in which he wrote that \u201a\u00c4\u00faRobert Sharp, 2nd, lived in the upper tenant house on the Colonel Sharp lowlands, and did the farming from 1844 to 1850.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 This farm was at Sandy Ridge. In the 1850 and 1860 censuses, Robert Sharp was listed as a farmer. But in the 1870 census, Robert Sharp, age 47, was \u201a\u00c4\u00fakeeping B. house.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9<\/p>\nBartles & Vansyckel<\/h4>\n
William W. Mettler<\/h4>\n
Joseph H. Titus<\/h4>\n
Robert Sharp<\/h4>\n