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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 6114In my previous post (A Shrinking Township, part one<\/a>), I wrote about a petition in 1896 to take a large chunk out of Delaware Township and give it to East Amwell Township. That petition was signed by two East Amwell residents, William H. Manners and Simpson Sked Stout. This post will describe these two, as well as the journey the bill took through the legislature, and the property owners who were affected by it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Notice of the proposal by Manners and Stout was published in the Hunterdon<\/em> Republican<\/em> on November 18, 1896, but the newspaper failed to announce that the legislation was passed the next year, on or about April 17, 1897.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Who were these men who wanted to expand East Amwell into Delaware, Raritan and West Amwell? A look at their backgrounds sheds some light on the subject.<\/p>\n William Henry Manners (1840-1906), son of Jacob S. Manners and Ann Maria Blackwell, married Jennie Schenck Drake (1849-1886), daughter of Reuben A. Drake and Mary Voorhees. After the death of Jennie Manners, he married second, in 1888, Cornelia T. Nevius (1853-1934), daughter of Jacob Nevius and Catherine Schomp. He had two children by his first marriage and three by his second. About the time of his first marriage (about 1875), Manners purchased a tract of 116.56 acres northeast of Ringoes, on the road from Ringoes to Wertsville, from his brother Peter Van Dyke Manners.<\/p>\n Following the Civil War, Manners got involved in the Republican Party of Hunterdon County. In 1878 at the party convention, he was chosen to serve on the party\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s executive committee, which consisted of members from every township.2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n It was probably through party activities that Manners became acquainted with Simpson S. Stout. On August 12, 1880, \u201a\u00c4\u00faThe Republican Voters of East Amwell\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 organized a \u201a\u00c4\u00faCampaign Club\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 and Wm H. Manners, Simpson S. Stout and Dr. Amos M. Hart were chosen for the executive committee. Also Simpson S. Stout was chosen as Treasurer.<\/p>\n Simpson Sked Stout (1840-1899), son of Capt. Nathan Stout and Mary Ann Fisher, married in 1884, Julia Hinkle Smith (1856-1943), daughter of Robert Reading Smith and Rebecca Young. They had no children.3<\/a><\/sup> The Stout homestead farm of 160 acres was also located on the road from Ringoes to Wertsville, about two miles from the village. Stout owned several other properties, but none of them were located in that section of Delaware township that got transferred to East Amwell.<\/p>\n In October 1880 the Hunterdon County Republican Convention was held to chose a candidate for the upcoming Assembly election, which<\/p>\n resulted in the unanimous choice of Simpson S. Stout, of East Amwell. A committee consisting of William W. Fisher, John S. Williamson, William Case and James S. Fisher, the delegates from East Amwell, were appointed to inform Mr. Stout of his nomination.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Unfortunately for Mr. Stout, it was a typical year for Republicans; Democrats swept the County. No doubt Stout was fully aware of the likely outcome when he accepted the nomination. I imagine that promoting the Hunterdon County Agricultural Society was more to his liking. He also joined \u201a\u00c4\u00faThe Grand Army of the Potomac\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 and annually decorated the graves of veterans.<\/p>\n I rather doubt that Manners and Stout were the originators of the idea to expand East Amwell into Delaware Township. It is more than likely that party operatives planned it out and got the two Republicans to sign the petition. The petition was submitted at the end of 1896 when the Legislature was no longer in session. It was not introduced in the Assembly until February 1897.<\/p>\n In the Assembly:\u00ac\u2020 Given the pattern with the earlier West Amwell bill (described in the previous post), it seemed likely that the East Amwell bill, which was labeled Assembly Bill No. 147, would be introduced not by a Hunterdon Democrat, but by one of the Assemblymen from Mercer County. Sure enough, the bill was introduced by a \u201a\u00c4\u00faMr. Hutchinson.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 Elijah C. Hutchinson, Republican of Mercer County, was later elected to Congress. On February 9, 1897, Hutchinson<\/p>\n \u201a\u00c4\u00faintroduced Assembly Bill No. 147, entitled, \u201a\u00c4\u00faAn act to change the boundary line between the townships of Raritan, Delaware, West Amwell and East Amwell, in the county of Hunterdon.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 Which was read for the first time by its title, ordered to have a second reading, and referred to the Committee on Municipal Corporations.\u201a\u00c4\u00f94<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The bill got its second reading on February 23rd, and on March 8, Mr. Hogan, Chairman of the Committee on Engrossed Bills, reported the bill as correctly engrossed (a term used in the Legislature for printing up the final version). The bill got its third reading on March 10th, and passed 32 to 10, which means a lot of members did not vote. In 1897, there were 74 Republicans in the Assembly and only 7 Democrats,5<\/a><\/sup> for a total of 81. But even with only half of the House voting on it, the bill was ordered to be signed and passed on to the Senate for its concurrence.<\/p>\n In the Senate:\u00ac\u2020\u00ac\u2020On the same day that the bill was passed, March 10, 1897, the Clerk of the Assembly went to the Senate to present several bills that needed Senate concurrence, among them Bill No. 147.\u201a\u00c4\u00f96<\/a><\/sup> The bill was given a first reading and sent to the Committee on Boroughs and Borough Commissions, and duly reported out without amendment six days later, upon which it was \u201a\u00c4\u00fataken up, read a second time\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 and ordered to have a third reading.<\/p>\n That was supposed to take place on March 18th, but instead the bill was \u201a\u00c4\u00falaid over.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 The bill was again taken up on March 22nd, at which it was again postponed, but later that day given its third reading, after which the bill was voted on. There were 12 votes in favor and 3 against, the three being the lonely Democrats, Senators Barber (Warren), Daly (Hudson) and Kuhl (Hunterdon).<\/p>\n As in the Assembly, not all the Senators voted on the bill. There were only 15 votes altogether, even though there were 21 Senators, one from each county. The six abstentions or absences came from Atlantic, Essex, Morris, Ocean, Sussex and Union Counties. The bill probably had no interest for them as a local matter, but it did have a potential political impact, so I am surprised so many did not vote.<\/p>\n On March 30th, Bill No. 147 was on a list of bills approved by the Senate that were being sent back to the Assembly without amendment. I cannot report on what happened there, as I did not find mention of its passing. It seems that John Snyder, author of The Story of New Jersey\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Civil Boundaries<\/em>, didn\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t either. Snyder wrote that the bill was passed \u201a\u00c4\u00faapproximately\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 on April 26, 1897. Governor Griggs signed the bill on May 4, 1897 and the bill became law.7<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n The route described in the new bill was identical to the one used by Manners & Stout in their petition. Here is an aerial photo with the section given to East Amwell shaded in yellow-green and the section acquired by West Amwell in blue.8<\/a><\/sup> (Many thanks to Marilyn Cummings for preparing this map.)<\/p>\nManners & Stout<\/h4>\n
The Legislation<\/h4>\n
The Route<\/h4>\n