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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 6114One of the most notable people in the neighborhood of Locktown in Hunterdon County was Daniel Rittenhouse. His life makes an interesting story, which we know something of thanks to the collection known as The Rittenhouse Papers, on file at the Hunterdon County Historical Society.<\/p>\n
Rittenhouse was born on March 2, 1767, eight years before the Revolution began, and was the last of twelve children born to William Rittenhouse and Rebecca Harned. This made him the grandson of the first William Rittenhouse, who around 1720 settled in Amwell Township next to John Reading\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s plantation. John W. Lequear wrote that William Rittenhouse Jr. and wife Rebecca moved to a farm just west of Locktown on the Kingwood-Locktown Road.1<\/a><\/sup> This was property that William Sr. had acquired from an early proprietary owner.<\/p>\n On January 3, 1799, William Rittenhouse Jr. wrote his will, naming his second wife, Elizabeth and eleven of his children.2<\/a><\/sup> To son Daniel, he left the remainder of his homestead plantation not disposed of by deeds, along with 24 acres bought from Andrew Heath, formerly of Amwell dec’d.3<\/a><\/sup> This was the farm that extended along the Kingwood-Locktown Road and included the whole northwest corner of the village of Locktown. At the time, it was not much of a village. There was a Baptist Church there, and a cemetery, but nothing else. The nearest neighbors were Andrew Heath to the south and John Rockafellar to the southeast.<\/p>\n Previous to writing his will, William Rittenhouse had conveyed part of this large farm to his second oldest son Benjamin. This tract was located about a mile north of Locktown. Benjamin Rittenhouse was taxed on 127 acres in 1797, plus 3 horses and 6 head of cattle, while Daniel Rittenhouse was taxed on 50 acres, 3 horses and 4 head of cattle. In addition, their father William was taxed on 96 acres.4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n This same year, 1797, Daniel Rittenhouse gave a bond to William Rittenhouse for \u00ac\u00a397, with the first payment of \u00ac\u00a348.10 due on May 1, 1798. Interestingly, there was also a provision that if the first payment was made on time, the rest of the obligation would be void. Apparently, that did not happen, for on the back of the paper is a note that on February 13, 1800, Benjamin Rittenhouse, executor of William Rittenhouse deceased, had received a full three years\u201a\u00c4\u00f4 interest on the debt.5<\/a><\/sup> The loan may have been made to allow Daniel Rittenhouse to acquire the 50 acres he was taxed on in 1797.<\/p>\n By 1789, Daniel Rittenhouse was 22 years old, and beginning to think about marriage. There is a letter among the Rittenhouse Papers dated March 21, 1789 which appears to be addressed to Daniel Rittenhouse from Moses Rittenhouse (a cousin). It reads in part: \u201a\u00c4\u00faI have heard that you are going to be married to geny Cartwrite [Jane Cartwright]. But take my advise and go and fetch the gurl from far.\u201a\u00c4\u00f96<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n This marriage did take place, probably around 1790, but there is no record of it. Jenny or Jane Cartwright might have been the daughter of Thomas Cartwright of Kingwood Township, who was baptized in the Kingwood Baptist Church in 1787. This was an adult baptism, following the Baptist practice of baptism by full immersion, which meant being dunked in a nearby creek. Although Thomas Cartwright lived in Kingwood Township, he was probably closer to Locktown than to Baptistown, so he was most likely baptized at the old log church there, and dunked in the Wickecheoke. Today the Wickecheoke Creek is a fast-moving but shallow stream. In the 19th\u00ac\u2020and early 20th\u00ac\u2020centuries, it was deep enough to swim in. It ran east-west through the farm of Daniel Rittenhouse along the Kingwood-Locktown Road before turning to run south.<\/p>\n Although baptism by immersion was an accepted practice, it was asking an awful lot to have someone baptized in December, which is what happened to Jane Cartwright on December 7, 1788, when she was probably 18 years old. We can only hope it was a warm December that year.7<\/a><\/sup> But it probably wasn\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t since this was still the \u201a\u00c4\u00faLittle Ice Age<\/a>.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9<\/p>\n As for having children, that must have been put on hold for awhile. A letter written to Daniel Rittenhouse on December 5, 1792 by his brother-in-law George Dansdill read:<\/p>\n \u201a\u00c4\u00faam Glad to hear that you have Brook the Enchantment of Getting Children for I think It would Greaved you much if you had not don It.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n During her life, Jane Cartwright Rittenhouse is said to have had an amazing 18 children. But her life must have been tragic, since most of these children died as infants. Only three of her children grew to be adults, all of them daughters.<\/p>\n By 1805, Daniel and Jane Rittenhouse had children who needed an education. Their neighbors did too. A committee of four men was formed to purchase a small lot of land for a schoolhouse. They were Richard Heath and Daniel\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s brother Benjamin Rittenhouse of Kingwood, and John Heath and William Lair of Amwell (now Delaware) Townships. Daniel Rittenhouse gave these men a lease for a lot of land near the Wickecheoke Creek measuring 20 feet by 33 feet. The lease was for 99 years, and cost the traditional one peppercorn. The school house, which was to be 20 by 24 feet, was nearly the size of the lot.8<\/a><\/sup> The schoolhouse was not replaced until 1866 when a new stone building was erected on Locktown School Road. It is still standing, now used as a private residence.<\/p>\n Daniel Rittenhouse prospered as a farmer, but even more so as a distiller. On May 29, 1794, he bought a 36-gallon copper still from Andrew Eisenhut. Even though the government had put a new tax on whiskey, which led to the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, Rittenhouse must have known he could still make a profit. His account book for the years 1804-1805 found among the Rittenhouse papers, shows him selling \u201a\u00c4\u00fawiske\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 by the pint as well as \u201a\u00c4\u00falodes\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 of \u201a\u00c4\u00farie,\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 corn and buckwheat. In 1811, he sent a bill to Prall & Lambert, storekeepers in Stockton, for 607 \u00ac\u03a9 gallons of Apple Whiskey at 55 cents a gallon. Apple whiskey from New Jersey was highly regarded during the years leading up to the Civil War. On September 25, 1815, Daniel Rittenhouse registered a 40-gallon still, stating that he intended to be employed in \u201a\u00c4\u00fadistilling spirits from domestic materials.\u201a\u00c4\u00f99<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n If you are trying to sell a lot of whiskey, your best customers are tavern owners. But there was no tavern at Locktown until Daniel Rittenhouse built one on his property, probably around 1816. This must have saved him a lot of time and trouble delivering whiskey to taverns further away.<\/p>\n The reason I give for the tavern dating to 1816 is a property assessment made that year. On June 1, 1816, the Rittenhouse property jumped in value from $4,400 to $9,840.10<\/a><\/sup> I doubt that wartime inflation could explain such an increase, but construction of a tavern house certainly could. The tavern was located at the corner of Locktown-Sergeantsville Road and Kingwood-Locktown Road, which was the southeast corner of Rittenhouse\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s farm.<\/p>\n Addendum, 2\/10\/15: On May 1, 1816, Daniel Rittenhouse bought a\u00ac\u2020135-acres farm north of Locktown from Jonas Waterhouse. This was probably to increase the\u00ac\u2020acreage devoted to\u00ac\u2020apple orchards. It may also explain the increased value of Daniel Rittenhouse’s property in June of 1816.<\/p>\n The first tavern keeper we know of here was a nephew of Daniel Rittenhouse, named Benjamin Hyde. He was born in 1786 to Daniel\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s sister Hannah and her husband John Hyde. We know he got a tavern license in 1828 when he was 42 years old. There is a tavern license application for Benjamin Hyde for the year 1829, in which he states that he wishes to run a tavern in the same location, \u201a\u00c4\u00faby the new Baptist Meeting house,\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 that he did the year before.<\/p>\nMarriage to Jane Cartwright<\/h3>\n
Cooper Dan<\/h3>\n