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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 6114The following is an update of a speech I delivered at the Locktown Stone Church in May 1997. I thought it would be a good idea to archive the speech here on my website, especially since it makes a nice short history of Delaware Township. When I gave the speech, I had two large maps showing locations of mills, taverns, ferries, the oldest roads. One map showed the 18th\u00ac\u2020century version of Delaware Township, and one showed the 19th\u00ac\u2020century version. Whatever happened to those maps?\u00ac\u2020 If I find them, I\u201a\u00c4\u00f4ll turn them over to Marilyn Cummings who has been working hard on just such a map project, one that can be seen on Google Earth.<\/em><\/p>\n The speech describes villages in general, and then focuses on each separate village. Because it was a speech, each description is brief and somewhat vague. But it produces a longer post than usual. So much longer that I’ve divided it into two parts.<\/em><\/p>\n I began the speech with a disclaimer, knowing that there were many in the audience who knew much more about the township\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s history than I do. I did not grow up here, nor did my parents, which puts me at a disadvantage. Even now, after living here for over 35 years, there are some who still think of me as a newcomer. It\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s that kind of town.<\/p>\n There are many different ways to talk about our township\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s history. Looking at its villages tells us a lot about how things got started and how they changed.<\/p>\n Villages don\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t just happen. There\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s a reason why each one comes into existence\u201a\u00c4\u00eesometimes not much of a reason, but people don\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t need much reason for what they do. Villages are a little like roads; the ones that are now highly traveled highways sometimes began as paths taken by wayward animals, paths that were adopted by the Indians and then enlarged by early settlers, slightly modified by new landowners who wanted to protect their property lines, and then paved and made permanent.<\/p>\n Villages might start with a location where two trails intersected, or at a good fishing spot. A ferry attracted a tavern, a mill attracted a store, and soon there would be a village.<\/p>\n We should look at the very first villages. Lenape settlements were of two types, the semi-permanent village and the seasonal camp. The only village in this area that I am aware of was located at northern Lambertville, at the mouth of the Alexauken Creek. Evidence of the Lenape in other areas in Delaware Township\u201a\u00c4\u00eeand there is lots of evidence\u201a\u00c4\u00eeindicates seasonal fishing and hunting locations, especially at the mouths of the Wickecheoke and the Lockatong Creeks, but also inland at good deer-hunting locations.<\/p>\n Some of these Lenape camps were adopted by the later European settlers. There was often a cleared area where the Lenape gardened, and cleared areas were always attractive to Europeans.<\/p>\n 18th<\/sup> century villages didn\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t amount to much. But following the Revolution, village life became the best part of living in the country. Villages were the center of the neighborhood, the place where people gathered to take care of business, share their experiences and just have a good time. They were lively places, especially on Saturday nights.<\/p>\n And then the automobile took over the land. Especially following World War II, America became a different place, a place that no longer had much need for villages. Local post offices were closed, small stores yielded to larger ones further away,\u00ac\u2020 so there were fewer reasons to spend time in a village.<\/p>\n Today Delaware is one of the few townships left in New Jersey that still has recognizable villages. We should know more about how they came into existence, what they were like during their heyday, and what we have left now.<\/p>\n Delaware Township is a very large municipality, almost 37 square miles. It used to be part of an even larger Amwell Township, which covered Delaware, Stockton, Lambertville, West & East Amwell, Flemington, Raritan, and a little of Readington and Lebanon. It was created in 1708 at the instigation of John Reading, back when he and his family were practically the only Europeans living here, besides possibly John Ringo and John Holcombe and their families.<\/p>\n The northern border of Amwell was the line between Delaware and Kingwood, which extended northeast past the South Branch all the way to the Black River, and the Somerset County line. It was huge. For many people that is a difficult space to identify with. It is much easier to relate to one\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s own neighborhood. People have always needed to have a smaller, more local place to identify with. That is the case even today. Twenty years ago [sic, make that 35], when I first moved here, I met a woman at a party held near Sergeantsville. I asked her if she was from here, and she answered no, I\u201a\u00c4\u00f4m from Stockton. Having just come to Delaware Township from the other side of the state, I was amazed by her answer, but it makes sense to me now.<\/p>\n So, aside from the Lenape camps, where was the first village in Delaware Township? I\u201a\u00c4\u00f4m afraid the earliest village that the township can claim no longer belongs to it. I am referring to Prallsville and Stockton. Stockton separated from Delaware Township in 1898. Until then, it was Delaware\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s most important community. We don\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t think of it as part of Delaware now, but for much of its history it was the commercial center of Delaware Township. Delaware farmers brought their harvests to Stockton to be sent to market first by way of boat down the river, then by the canal or railroad. But Township meetings never took place there and Stockton had always been focused away from the rest of the town, towards the river and Pennsylvania. It took on the name of Stockton in 1853 when the post office was moved there from the Prallsville Store. It separated from Delaware when legislation made it easier for small boroughs to be created.<\/p>\n But back to Stockton\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s beginnings: \u00ac\u2020One of Delaware\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s earliest settlers was John Reading, who came here in 1708 or earlier and built a home on 1,440 acres of land that extended from the Lockatong on the west to today\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Route 519, and included the northern part of Stockton. That area (northern Stockton) and the area around today\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Prallsville Mill complex he gave to his daughter Mary and her new husband Daniel Howell as a wedding gift in 1710. Before moving to this area, John Reading had kept a ferry in Gloucester County that ran over to Philadelphia. So it was natural that he and his son-in-law would start one here in their new home. It became known first as Reading\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Ferry and later as Howell\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Ferry. It connected up with an old Indian path in Pennsylvania that led down to Philadelphia. But the destination on the New Jersey end was not Flemington (which didn\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t exist in 1710), but the South Branch of the Raritan, which could lead a traveler to the eastern settlements of New Jersey and on to New York.<\/p>\n Traveling in the 18th<\/sup> century was a very challenging and time-consuming endeavor. Often the river was impassable, which meant that travelers had to wait until storms blew over or ice melted. Enterprising ferry keepers were quick to help the poor travelers out by establishing taverns close to the ferries, and that is what Daniel Howell did. I can picture Mary Reading Howell, daughter of the important and prosperous John Reading, putting her foot down when travelers started camping out in her kitchen. But whether Howell simply enlarged his house or built a separate one for the tavern, I cannot say.\u00ac\u2020Daniel Howell’s tavern was located at the corner of today\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Route 523 and Highway 29, where the defunct Baptist Church now stands.<\/p>\n But Daniel Howell was more enterprising than that. At an early date he also established a grist mill and an oil mill on the Wickecheoke near today\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Prallsville Mill. So\u201a\u00c4\u00eehe had a ferry, a tavern and 2 mills, all businesses that attract people. There weren\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t many people around from 1710 to 1733, the year when Daniel Howell died, but the ones that were here most certainly spent time at Howell\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Ferry, and some of them built houses there, log houses that are no longer standing. This meant that a store of some kind was also needed. I don\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t have a record of a store at such an early period, but there certainly was one there by the time of the Revolution.<\/p>\n So these are the ingredients for an 18th<\/sup> century village in Delaware Township: a ferry, a tavern, a mill, and a store. A blacksmith shop would also be an attraction. And it helps to have an intersection of roads. Such intersections were important for the simple reason that there were so few of them. The roads that did exist were not much more than dirt paths.<\/p>\n When settlement was sparse, people didn\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t travel much. For one thing, there weren\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t many places to go, and for another, it was just so difficult. They stayed on their farms where they were quite self-sufficient. But there were reasons to travel. Milling was an unavoidable necessity, as most farmers could not set up the equipment needed to grind their grain into flour. Stores provided goods that farmers could not provide for themselves, like coffee, tea, sugar, spices, tobacco, and later on, cotton and other manufactured fabrics. Taverns weren\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t absolutely essential to local folk, since many people could and did make their own hard cider and beer. But you could get imported liquor, like rum and sweet wines there, and hear and share news from the travelers who passed through. The taverns began by serving the traveling public but became important institutions for local people, providing a neutral, public place to hold town meetings and conduct business.<\/p>\n But, back to the roads:\u00ac\u2020 There were only a few main roads, so wherever they intersected, there was almost certain to be a tavern. Take the intersection of Routes 523 and 579, both very old roads. There was a tavern in operation there since about 1725, which makes it one of the oldest in Hunterdon County. It was probably run by Daniel Robins, and later taken over by John Buchanan. The location made sense, as anyone can tell you who tries to walk up the hill from Ringoes. But no village grew up around this tavern. About three 18th<\/sup> century houses were built there, but no other attractions developed in this spot.<\/p>\n Another example of this was the Boarshead Tavern, located on Route 579 where the Boarshead Road intersects. Boarshead Road is a very ancient road that was once called the road to Baptistown. The tavern is also very old and was a well-known stopping place, even though it is only a little over two miles from Buchanan\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Tavern. Although the tavern was very popular, there was never a village or even the hint of one at this location. By the way, Buchanan\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Tavern is now a residence, but the Boarshead (which was actually on the Raritan side of the road) burned down, and a modern home was built on or near the foundation.<\/p>\n So, it takes more than an intersection and a tavern to make a village. In the 18th<\/sup> century, a mill was needed, and an important one was built around 1735 in Headquarters. It was probably built by John Opdycke, who also built a handsome stone house next to the mill, and two other stone houses across the road. The man could not restrain himself, for he also built a mill and a stone house on the Wickecheoke. He seemed to prefer this second mill because in the 1760\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s he sold the Headquarters mill to the son of Daniel Howell of Howell\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Ferry, But he kept the Wickecheoke mill for another ten years before giving it to his son Samuel Opdycke. Joseph Howell soon went bankrupt and sold his mill to Benjamin Tyson. Tyson did better, and the area was known all through the Revolution as Tyson\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Mill. Tyson\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Mill also had a store and a distillery, to turn all that grain that farmers used to pay for their milling into a marketable product.\u00ac\u2020The tavern at Headquarters was known as the White Hall, and is said to have been the gathering and recruiting place for the Amwell Militia during the Revolution, from whence comes the name Headquarters. There was a lot of activity there, and people built houses near the mill and tavern. It is probably safe to say that during the Revolution, Tyson\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Mill was the most important village in what we today know as Delaware Township.<\/p>\n Opdycke\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Mill on the Wickecheoke was also a popular place to go for milling, but it had no store or tavern, so it never developed as a village. In the 1770\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s the road we now call Route 604 or the Rosemont-Ringoes Road was known as the road from Tyson\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Mill to Opdycke\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Mill. Nothing was said about the village of Sergeantsville then because it didn\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t really exist until after the Revolution.<\/p>\n Another example of a mill location that did not<\/span> develop into a village is the Rittenhouse Mill on the Wickecheoke, on today\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Old Mill Road. That was a well-known mill (actually two mills, a grist mill and a saw mill) and it stayed in operation well into the late 19th<\/sup> century. People traveled there from some distance, and yet no village developed. They came for their flour or their lumber, and they left.<\/p>\n As for other possibly pre-Revolutionary villages, there are only a couple that might qualify. One is Sand Brook. What did Sand Brook have? A mill, of course. This one was run by the Kitchen family, first Henry Kitchen, by 1739 or earlier, and then his son Samuel Kitchen. There may have been a store in Sand Brook at a fairly early date, but there was no tavern. People in Sand Brook went up the road (523) to use Buchanan\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Tavern.<\/p>\n Other than the Kitchen Mill, which was located on a very small body of water (i.e., the Sand Brook), there wasn\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t much reason for people to go to there. Strangely enough, the road from Sand Brook to Headquarters was a very old road, definitely an 18th<\/sup> century road, although not based on an Indian trail. You can see that by how straight it is. Here I\u201a\u00c4\u00f4m speculating, but it seems as if many of the early roads connected the mills. I\u201a\u00c4\u00f4m not at all sure why people would want to travel from one mill to another, but it must have been fairly compelling, since making roads and maintaining them took a lot of effort. On the other hand, most of the earliest roads did follow Indian paths, and the Indians traveled from their more permanent settlements to good hunting and fishing locations. Perhaps the mills got located where the fishing was good and people using the mills took advantage of the Indian paths. Just a theory.<\/p>\n But we should remember that by the 1750\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s, there were virtually no Lenape present in Delaware Township. Disease, migration and war had taken their toll, and no real attempt was made by the Europeans to make room for them here.<\/p>\nIntroduction<\/h3>\n
Before It Became Delaware Township<\/h3>\n